Showtek celebrate 1 billion streams of ‘Bad’ and talk highlights of the year in interview

Dutch duo Showtek were recently interviewed as they celebrated 1 billion streams of their hit collaboration ‘Bad‘, chatting about their year so far and discussing future plans. To celebrate the occasion of reaching the 1 billion streams milestone, the duo gave away a huge free download ‘Moshpit‘, a collaboration with GC. Throughout the interview Showtek reveal ambitions for the future, such as dream collaborations and possible places to tour next year. They even reveal that they intend to create ‘Showtek 3.0 sound‘ for 2018 so keep an eye out for them as this could be very exciting!

You recently hit 1 billion streams on your collaboration with David Guetta, ‘Bad’. What was it like working with Guetta and how does it feel to be able to reach such a huge audience with your music?

“David Guetta is such an amazing person on so many different levels. First of all, we built a very nice personal relationship over the years and it’s actually nice to be surrounded by good people, especially in this industry. Work-wise, we learned a lot from him. His vision of music was so different that it opened our eyes and it made us approach music on a different level. He has so much experience and he really knows what works and what doesn’t. It was a lot of fun to spend time together in the studio. He supported us by booking us with him on shows, so the fact that he supported us in many ways is such a great thing. We really respect him.”

To celebrate reaching 1 billion hits on ‘Bad’, you gave away a free download of your track ‘Moshpit’, how did the collaboration with GC come about?

“GC is a Jamaican singer/songwriter who we met in the studio last year. We were jamming in the studio and this came on so we decided to make it a bit weird. This song has Reggae, Hip Hop, and EDM influences and that’s what makes it really interesting. We didn’t want to achieve anything specific with it; we just wanted to give our fans a little present to show our appreciation for the loyalty.”

How do you connect with the artists you’ve worked with over the last few years? Who would be your dream collaboration?

“We always try to find new talent.  It’s easy to see what’s already hot, but it requires more time to discover talent and to invest in that. From an artist perspective, I think you’re just looking for whatever element in a track that makes a song interesting. The same way David Guetta invested time in us – we were touring in Australia together, he got us on stage because he was such a fan of our music. After the show he said that we should do something together, which resulted in our release ‘Bad’. Of course, we would love to collaborate with some bigger artists. We would love to work with Drake or Kanye. We would love to bring those different worlds together and create something different.”

There is a strong message behind the lyrics and the video of ’Don’t Shoot’. talk to us about the importance of artists using their platform to discuss issues with society, and what it meant to you to release this track in particular?

“GC wrote this song from his perspective after we talked about the issues that have been happening in America and the rest of the world too often. As much as we worked on this song together, the lyrics are very personal to GC, who happens to be Jamaican growing up in America.  We grew up in Holland and we haven’t gone through this injustice or can even relate to how hard it must be. As an artist you have a voice, and you can reach out to thousands of people and spread a message of hope.”

Have you got any exciting releases coming up before the year ends?

“We have a lot of new music in the pipeline so we are excited to drop a few new songs.  One of them is called ‘Natural Blues’. Real dance lovers will know this song as one of Moby’s biggest hits released back in 1999. Moby asked us to make a new version of this song and to re-release it together. This song was so big when we were teenagers so it was such an amazing experience to work on the project. We’re happy with the way it sounds. It has a lot of energy and we kept the emotional vibe in circa 1999. Next year we’ll release a variety of your typical Showtek dance music and also a new Showtek 3.0 sound where we focus more on Hip-Hop, Pop, and Reggae (with the Showtek dance touch!).”

You recently completed a tour in the States. Which three dates were your favourites?

“First of all, we want to thank all the fans for supporting us by coming to our shows.  We did a total of 22 shows in North America and it was absolutely amazing. All shows were great so it’s kind of hard to make a top 3, but some shows stood out. One of them was at Stereo Live in Houston. We played over 2 hours and not one person left the venue before we stopped. This show goes into the books as one of the best shows we’ve ever done hands down. Also another memorable show was at The Exchange in Los Angeles. Our fanbase is very big there and we’ve been playing in California for a long time. The other show that stood out was New City Gas in Montreal where we played on Halloween and it was absolutely amazing. NCG is a venue that we play every year and it never disappoints.”

With a couple of Australian dates coming up, how will your DJ sets differ from the ones you’ve been playing out in America?

“We know that as an entertainer you always have to find a way to keep your crowd happy. Even though we play a lot of Showtek songs, we always look for what’s popular every time we go anywhere. Playing in North America was fun since we were able to play a lot of Hip-Hop and Trap in between our sets. One of our biggest markets is Australia. We have too much love for our Australian fans because we’ve been going there since early 2000 and that country has a special place in our hearts. We’ve sold out multiple stadiums all by ourselves so, to be honest, it’s one of our favourite countries to visit and one of our favourite crowds to play for. Secondly, it’s such a beautiful country… who doesn’t love Australia??”

You toured around Europe during the summer – Do you have any plans to visit again soon?

“Every year we go back to Europe during summer, it’s an amazing place to spend time in general. There are a lot of good festivals and it’s the perfect place to kick back and enjoy life. We love the South of Europe and when we have a few days off we mostly spend time in Italy, Spain, or France. It’s also close to home and traveling in Europe is very easy.”

Lastly, what has been your highlight this year?

“Parookaville, Germany. It’s a festival in West Germany, just over the Dutch boarder. We played “In The End” by Linkin Park as a tribute to Chester Bennington who unfortunately passed away that weekend. We never wanted to take any credit for playing that song, but we just wanted to show respect to him and the band. We didn’t expect it to be such a big moment in our career. The entire crowd was singing along and it was a moment of harmony and love. It was such a big moment that it went viral online and it was picked up by the German news and newspapers. That moment was very beautiful and it meant a lot to us that we were able to show our respect to such an influential artist.”

You can download ‘Mostpit’ from Showtek’s Soundcloud here.