At 27, Nick van de Wall believes in one thing to “keep on that grind and follow your dreams”. Charging across the battlefields of dance and quickly garnering the status of an icon with his electronic dance music, Afrojack as he is better known, is all set to jack up the party with Gregor Salto and his protégé Apster as part of Sunburn this Saturday in Hyderabad.
Rolling out some club hits with a dash of his popular remixes, Afrojack classifies his music as ‘Electronic Dance Music combined with other genres’. “I’m not a professional musician or anything. I’m a producer for fun,” says the man who towers at 6 foot 9 inches.
Although he might say he isn’t a “professional” musician, his romance with music began in childhood when he started learning instruments. It was when he was 15 that he decided he wanted be a DJ.
Over the years, he has collaborated across genres from artistes like Madonna and Sting to Chris Brown, David Guetta, Beyonce, Snoop Dogg, Nicky Romero and Steve Aoki. But his earliest memory of music goes back to seeing Benny Rodrigues in the front booth. “I remember looking at him and learning. I even sent him an email once to tell him that I was a big fan of his music and that I wanted to join him to a booking one day, just to learn. While I was studying, I listened to all kinds of music and it only felt natural to start making it instead of just listening,” reminisces the Grammy winner.
The artiste’s most recent collab is with David Guetta and Nicki Minaj. “All the artistes I have collaborated or worked with are special to me and that’s why the music too has been loved by all. They are fantastic artistes (speaking specifically of David Guetta and Nicki Minaj). ”
He goes on, “My wish list, if you ask would be to play with U2 and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.”
Afrojack is really appreciative of fan videos and pictures and even makes it a point to share them on his official pages. But ask him how he deals with “this is not my type of music” comments, he shrugs. “You cannot make everybody happy. It has become easier to comment on tracks because of social media; it’s anonymous and people feel untouchable.”
His success has taken him far from his home turf, to not only headline on some of the world’s best stages, including Tomorrowland, Coachella and the Electric Dais Carnival and even to play at the breath-taking Great Wall of China.
Even as he tours India, his schedule is packed till first half of next year. “With every tour I feel more energised. Music is a non-stop activity for me. And music is the best way to unwind,” he says.
To compliment his opulent lifestyle, he even had some much spoken about relationships. Yes, we are talking about his dating stint with Paris Hilton during which he is said to have taught her to DJ. But ask him about the criticism that women DJs, rather supermodel DJs face as just eye candies with no real skill in music, he fights back. “It’s unfair and not true, look around, we have some fantastic DJs.”
A previous relationship with Dutch model Amanda Balk bore him a daughter, Vegas and the musician says that fatherhood has also influenced his work. “Becoming a father made me grow as a person. I think you can hear that in my music. It grows with me.” Sure, he may want to spin some wicked tunes with his best bud Steve Aoki all night but he also takes some time off to spend time with his mom and grandmother or to drive his garage of beast cars. “At the moment it is an Audi RS6 with 730 horsepower and a top speed of 220 mph. I love that car. It’s a monster. I also have a Ferrari 458 because it is the most aggressive Ferrari out there,” he grins.
