W&W
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC BACKGROUND DO YOU HAVE, AND WHAT KIND OF MU- SIC DID YOU GROW UP LISTENING TO?
We both have diverse backgrounds; we grew up listening to a range of genres. Willem's dad listened to blues rock, and his mom listened to Nirvana.
Ward's dad makes Selmer acoustic gui- tars and his grand- parents were both full-time musicians, so growing up, music was all around us. However, neither of us has had any classical music training, we are both self-taught.
The first CD Willem bought for himself was Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Be Dee). After that, he was totally hooked on NO DRINKS
AIRBEAT ONE everything dance mu- sic related. For Ward, that CD was Trance The Ultimate Collec- tion 2001, and before that he enjoyed Mauro Picotto Komodo which was always on the radio.
What are your main inspirations, and what keeps you going?
Our main inspirations would be being able to move people with our music and seeing the joy it brings them, both on social media platforms and at our shows in person.
There's nothing more rewarding than being able to give people a unforgettable experi- ence. What keeps us going is the fact that we truly enjoy what we do, every week we try to get better and evolve our craft.
All the feedback and love from the people that our music reaches is a huge motivation to keep going.
What are the chal- lenges you face as W&W, and how do you overcome them?
One challenge that we think is prominent in entertainment in gen- eral, is staying relevant without losing your identity and what you stand for in a rap- idly changing industry. With the constant rise of new social media apps, marketing techniques, and ways to reach people, you need to evolve quickly.
We try to overcome this by continuously evolving our sound and exploring new technologies in music production. This journey can be difficult because you may lose people along the way, and it can be very scary to shed what's normally expected of you. But sometimes we feel we don't have a choice because we've personally evolved and lost con- nection with certain things of the past.
Could you share how W&W was conceived and explain the sig- nificance behind the name?