EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: The Him Discusses Latest Single ‘By Your Side’ with Jordan Jay

Hailing from the dance capital of the world; Amsterdam, the Dutch team of Jeroen Kerstens and Steven Berghuijs formed The Him, in 2015 when they teamed up with melodic house mastermind Sam Feldt for their breakout collaboration ‘Midnight Hearts’ which has amassed over 17 million streams to date. Their careers have rapidly grown ever since, having recently embarked on tour, supporting electronic duo Galantis across the US. The Him duo have played alongside some of the world’s greatest DJs including Tiësto, Martin Garrix, Pete Tong, Kygo, Oliver Heldens, Don Diablo, The Chainsmokers, and more.

Amidst a hectic summer touring schedule, The Him were kind enough to sit down with We Rave You for an exclusive interview about their latest single in collaboration with Jordan Jay; ‘By Your Side‘, available now on Spinnin’ Records.

2018 has been a great year for you guys! With many successful releases, a US tour and most recently, returning to Tomorrowland, what are your thoughts on these achievements? 

We are pinching eachother now and then because we can’t believe all of this is happening. We are so lucky that we work with the best team around to help us with each next step.

This is the first time you’ve collaborated with Jordan Jay. How did that come about?

We met Jordan Jay on Ultra Miami this year. We exchanged email and he was sending us some really dope stuff over the last couple of months. He came up with some really cool vocal idea and a week later we were working in the studio together. 

‘By Your Side’ gives the 1972 track ‘Sweet Woman By Your Side’ by Z. Z. Hill a totally fresh sound. How did that idea come along, from making the vocal to building the track around it? 

Jordan came up with the vocal idea. He already pitched the vocal up and it sounded so fresh that we decided to give it a try. We’ve always wanted to work with a cool old sounding sample like that. It’s such a different vibe from when you go in and write a song. It feels instantly classic in a way.

Your last releases ‘Jigsaw’ with Jay Hardway and ‘Broken Love’ with Parson James have shown how diverse your music can be. What inspires the unique sound of all your productions?

We listen to so many different artists outside of the EDM scene. Maybe this is the reason that we always come up with something new instead of staying in one particular sound. We also don’t want to be put in one corner because we want to be able to keep developing ourselves and our sound.

You premiered this track on your latest Midnight Mixtape podcast. They always feature very different styles and many more songs packed into one hour than traditional radio shows. How do you go about curating the music and constructing the show?

It’s like how we produce music. We don’t focus on one style in particular. For us it’s important that we feel what we are playing and that it stays interesting. We try to translate this to our sets and mixtapes. We don’t want to be bounded to one particular style or tempo. 

How did you two first meet? When did you decide to join forces? Does it help to be in two in the studio and on tour?

We met backstage at a festival in Amsterdam. Started to talk about music and found out that we had a similar interest in combining pop music with electronic sounds We started doing a remix every month and got picked up really fast by artists like Tiësto, Robin Schulz, The Chainsmokers. 

Working together has a big plus side for us. You can work twice as hard and you share the happiness, but also the downside of stuff that happens.

What’s next for The Him in 2018? What are you looking forward to most?

We have so many cool shows planned for the next couple of months. It’s so lovely to meet all the new fans and people in real life! If you ever wanna meet up just send us a msg on Instagram! Next to that we have some banger releases lined up for you starting with ‘By Your Side’ this Friday!

Listen to ‘By Your Side’ on Spotify below.