The Him is a music production duo hailing from Amsterdam and creating buzz with their chart-topping singles and remixes. After several years of individually making and playing music for headlining names, the two joined forces in 2013 for a Tiesto Remix Contest on Beatport. They eventually nabbed 2nd place from a competitive 3500+ submissions and decided then and there to make The Him a full-time project. The Him has since dropped official remixes for the likes of Grammy-nominated producer/DJ Adrian Lux, American band The Pass and famed Dutch musician Dotan; the latter entering SLAM!FM’s Top 40 charts at number 4, before claiming a coveted number 2 position. The Him has also released a few singles independently, their latest called Skinny Dipping, which debuted at number 4 on the Netherlands iTunes charts and is already being played on multiple Dutch radio stations.
Your music style has been described as a mixture of deep house, pop & nu-disco. What three songs would you recommend to someone listening to your music for the first time?
– The Him Ft Lissa – I Wonder
– The Him ft Son Mieux – Feels Like Home
– Martin Garrix – In The Name Of Love (The Him Remix)
How did you two come together and decide on the direction you would take with your music?
We met backstage at a festival a few years ago. At that time we were both involved in the Amsterdam techno scene. We started talking about pop music and decided to meet once a week in the studio. We started working on some bootlegs and our first remix competition on Beatport was a big success. One day became two days a week and after a while it evolved to a full time project. We started with mostly deep house because thats what we felt like at the time but now we’re experimenting with lots of different sounds.
What is your favorite experience so far as The Him?
Its really hard to pick just one experience because we’re so happy with how everything is going and proud of the people that make our team. We’ve done so many shows that were dreams come true moments! One thing that was really cool though was that our agent had arranged court side tickets to the Knicks when we were in New York. We’d always wanted to see an NBA game for real and this was a very special first time!
How important do you feel it is create both new material and remixes?
It’s crucial for us. We love doing remixes. It’s what we grew up on and what we love to play out live. But to make something completely from scratch and then seeing people respond is the best thing there is. In both cases, however one helps the other grow.
Your track “Feels Like Home” blew up in 2016 with over 30 million plays to date. Why do you think it was so well received?
Its a song about going away and still feeling at home. That’s something a lot of people go experience, being in traveling, moving or life changing situations. The overall track still feels uplifting, and also works great on the dancefloor. It’s always hard to know for us why something works, but that would be our guess!
Most of your songs have a warm melodic feel. Can fans expect melodic mixes from your live sets as well?
Yeah of course. We always try to make a unique set. We play a lot of different genres in our set and a lot of melodic mashups with sick drops. This will keep it fresh and try to give a set that nobody has heard before.
https://soundcloud.com/thehim/the-him-feat-son-mieux-feels-like-home
Where did you draw inspiration for “I Wonder” track featuring LissA?
The initial idea for the song started with a personal story from LissA which became more about a situation in which you have to part ways with somebody but still wonder if they still sometimes think about you. The track went through a couple of different stages and was pretty experimental for us. The vocal chop on the drop sounded too weird at first to work and the chords were actually accidentally shifted to make the groove as it is now. But we just love the quirkiness that gave.
You have a high level of interaction with your fans across your social channels. What is the one thing that you’ve learnt from your own fans?
Yeah, we love chatting with people that listen to our music. Well, it’s really cool first of all to find out that people are listening to the things we make behind closed doors. Second, we also sometimes learn that tastes can differ so much. From person to person but also to what we might think of a track ourselves. It has happened that we weren’t really sure about doing something in a certain way and then people tell us they love it.
