Bas and Arjan were busy producing when other kids were worried about pimples and passing high school. Snapped up in 2007 by Fusion Records, home of DJ Pavo, this musical preoccupation clearly did the talented duo no harm. Their unique, raw, and tough sound has been delivered to the hardstyle masses courtesy of quirkily titled tunes like Crump and Marlboro Man. And they’re part of the new hardstyle DJ paradigm. ITM catch up with Noisecontrollers on the eve of their debut Australian tour to discuss ghost writing, hip hop and scene rivalry…

Your style is unique – what ideas and influences impact on your production work?

We listen to all kinds of music from classical to hip hop and take the best parts out and use it in our own productions. Every kind of music genre has its own kind of feeling and impact on us and when we think it’s useable we use it in our music. For Bas it was Vangelis and Art of Noise and for Arjan it was Dr Dre, Beethoven and some movie composers such as Danny Elfman and Jerry Goldsmith who inspired us to produce the music we make today.

Out of all your production, which song is your favourite and why?

Crump, because it was a breakthrough. The response was massive.

Speaking of your production work, any new tunes in the pipeline?

We always have new tunes coming up but at the moment we are building our new studios which will be finished soon. Once then we will take our music to the next level. Other than building our new studios we are always in the works of creating new tunes and putting ideas together.

What has been the highlight of your DJ career thus far?

This Australian tour has been one of the highlights, it’s amazing to be on the other side of the world where people love our music and that’s what has brought us here. Also, last year we had so many great bookings it makes it hard to choose but if we have to pick one it would be Reverze in Belgium, there were so many people there they had to close the doors, it was amazing.

You play both DJ and live sets…which do you prefer, and how do you pick whether to go live or not?

We like to do both but at big events it’s an honour to play Noisecontrollers tracks exclusively. Because there are so many good hard style records, DJ sets are nice to do also.

There are lots of new faces making it big in the hardstyle DJ scene over the last 12-24 months (eg. Headhunterz, Wildstylerz, Activator etc) – is there a healthy rivalry between you, or do you all get along really well?

We get along really well. There’s a new generation of hardstyle producers which will take care of its future. There is rivalry, but only in a positive way like inspiring each other to take it to the next level and this is how it should be.

What do you do in the 24hrs leading up to a big gig?

If we’re doing a live set we are often still preparing otherwise we are just relaxing and looking forward to the gig.

Do you take much notice of what people write about you on the internet (forums etc)?

Yes we do, we think it is interesting to know what moves the scene and where it’s going, although it doesn’t influence our music. We see the internet as a strong medium to expose our music and we are very grateful for the response we get out of it.

You recently wrote Elektronik for Pavo – how do you feel about your production being released under another DJs name?

First of all Pavo is a legend in the scene so it was an honour to produce the track. On the other hand we won’t produce any more tracks for any other DJs as we want it to stay unique to our own style.

And of course I have to ask, what can the fans expect from your forthcoming Transmission sets?

We will put down a set which represents our style and taste at its best. Obviously we will play a lot of Noisecontrollers tracks and some brand new tracks from others.

Catch Noisecontroller’s finest ripping it up this weekend…

Friday 27th June – Pharmacy @ QBH, Melbourne
Saturday 28th June – Transmission @ State Sport Centre, Sydney