How have you been so far this year? What’s new in the world of Deeparture?

I’ve been doing very well! I can say I’ve been in a good place so far this year. Enjoying life in every aspect: musically and privately.

Your latest release “Appreciation” has an amazing feel good, upbeat vibe. Was the style Give us some insight on the process of making these tracks and how they found there home on such highly regarded labels of music you were always producing? Tell us how we got here stylistically.

I think my style changed gradually over the years and has always been relatively diverse: sometimes more on the Techno spectrum, sometimes closer to progressive or even organic house. The only common thing that has always been there is a certain energetic melodic element. I grew up listening to a lot of trance. Music from Above & Beyond have always been a red thread throughout my life and I closely followed the development of the ‘deeper’ sound over the years, which has been a huge inspiration for my own musical development.

By now, the music has become so mature, there are so many different flavors and “islands’ now that it’s hard to pinpoint what got me to my sound now. I ‘creatively borrow’ ideas from many genres haha. I try to hold one rule of thumb for myself: Keep creating what I like myself and what I would like to hear in a club or on a festival on the dance floor.

Over the years, every time I lost track of that and tried to make what was ‘in’ or what I thought people would want to hear, the result was always counter-productive. It’s the biggest cliché for musicians, but really staying true to yourself will lead to your best work that you’re most proud of and that will resonate with the listener/fan the most. Even though It’s a cliché, I think that many of my fellow musicians will relate to the feeling of losing yourself in the rat race occasionally.

Appreciation is in that sense a bit of a cliché as well. I came up with it from place of happiness, so I guess that’s where the upbeat, feel good vibe originates from. My tracks are often a reflection of my state of being at that time which influences what melody lines appear on my screen that day and what sounds I decide to use. The production process is always different, but for this one, I focused on the rhythmic section first.

I think I spent a few nights solely on the groove/drum/bass line section section, before the final chords and main melody came up. I’ve been playing it for almost a year and it has been a set highlight consistently, so really happy that it’s finally out there.

You’ve played at some legendary venues and alongside some amazing talent what sticks out to you as the most memorable? What’s still on your artist bucket list?

By now I’ve released on most of my favorite/bucket list labels and I’ve played many beautiful memorable venues. Really hard to pick a favorite here. So more of all that please haha! All jokes aside, I’m extremely committed to take the journey to the next level and share my music with more people live across the globe. The aim is to try and to focus on enjoying the journey and being as present as possible every step of the way, no matter where it takes me.

Listen Now: Deeparture “The Self (Original Mix)”

You’ve had some major releases last year on labels like Anjunabeats, Odd One Out and This Never Happened and some more exciting music in the pipeline for 2023. Give us some insight on the process of making these tracks and how they found there home on such highly regarded labels

For me, the process of getting my music to these kind of labels has just been spending years in the studio, developing my music/sound, broadening my network slowly, getting picked up more and more by the right fellow musicians. At some point it was nice to get noticed and supported by some bigger artists in the game as well that provided me new opportunities to release on their labels.

Examples are Lane 8, Eelke Kleijn and Olivier Weiter. In the end it’s like every other career. You build your skill, you build your network and if you work hard, doors will open at some point. For me there was never a loophole or shortcut haha. but I can honestly say I’m super proud that I reached a point where I see my name on the release covers of these kind of labels! Really a dream coming true. Also, working with some amazing vocalists have really helped me getting some of the music to the next level. So I can’t take full credit.

Source: Deeparture Pr

With a nice following on Spotify and across your social media platforms, how important has it been to maintain a connection with your intended audience.

As any musician, my biggest love is creating and playing music. Social media has provided a great opportunity to share insights of the process and allow the listeners to get to know me better. It’s also really nice to directly connect and interact with my audience. Of course, there is also a flipside that I think has been written plenty about: the extreme focus on branding of the artist these days can be distracting from the actual art. I’m not a natural born presenter and even though I enjoy to occasionally share, my comfort zone is definitely more behind the decks or in the studio haha.

Having said that, looking at Spotify and seeing so many people listening to my music each month is the biggest compliment I can get. It’s not a ‘like’ button, it’s people anonymously choosing out of their own will to decide and listen to my music. Moreover, it’s so nice to see people responding to the tracks on the dancefloor and seeing them already knowing the music. For me, this is by far the most personal and intimate connection with the fans, stripped from any ‘social media imagery’.

With 3/4s of the year left to go, What’s keeping you motivated and pushing you to keep creating and growing this year?

The biggest motivation is (and will always be) the extreme joy I have when creating. For me, it’s the easiest gateway to being fully present and to be in a state where time gets lost. Somehow this joy is radiating into opening doors with access to great gigs, other talented producers, cool vocalists and so forth. I have a lot of cool gigs coming up and some of my best music yet. I feel like we’re just getting started.

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