Da Tweekaz on Tweekalution Tour

(Or how two crazy Norwegians took over Germany (by bus)).

Norway’s iconic DJ-duo Da Tweekaz went on a three-day bus tour through Germany, and we joined in on the last-minute action to visit the start of the “Tweekalution” tour. The first stop would be at the fabled Bootshaus (Cologne). With their first gig being on a Thursday, some might expect that not many people would attend since most of them have to work on a Friday, but nothing could be further from the truth. All three shows were sold out in advance. A staggering 1,600 people attending on a weekday to see their beloved duo. The event was scheduled from 8pm-1am which turned out to be a good thing, so most people wouldn’t be too late heading back home. The lineup of the night featured Da Tweekaz: Tweekacore (Da Tweekaz’ happy hardcore act), Refuzion, TESFY and MC Villain (not on the flyer but happy to see him).

Arriving

We arrived at the club when Musical Madness resident DJ’s TESFY (Claas and Bo) were tearing up the club. The duo TESFY is already making a name for themselves with several bookings around Germany (notably playing festivals like Parookaville, Open Beatz and New Horizons). They already have a dedicated fanbase just showing up for them these days. These guys are sheer dedication and hard work, always trying to improve themselves and eager to play. Their set was a massive solid hardstyle set. They know what the people wanted to hear, and they certainly delivered. Track by track they really warmed up the crowed. As one might notice they are young and enjoy what they are doing. Their infectious style has a positive effect on the crowd. Claas is more busy finding the right tracks to entertain the crowd, whereas Bo is more the showman of the duo and entertains the crowd with his antics.

Da Tweekaz and MC Villain

Next in line was the duo everyone was waiting for, Da Tweekaz. Or how they actually should have been called, “Da Jägermeisters” – to be honest, we have never seen so many bottles of Jägermeister being emptied in one night. Whether it was on stage or backstage, people were begging to get a shot of Jägermeister. Whether it was the duo themselves or their tour manager that was sharing the Jägermeister, no one fell short this night.

Upon watching, you can tell that Da Tweekaz are an established duo. Their performance overall shows that they are the ultimate showmen. Throw in MC Villain in that bunch and you have one great show. Playing hit after hit, sing-a-long after sing-a-long, throwing their iconic rubber-ducks in the crowd, even the lion-king was shared with the crowd. Feeding people Jäger shots and MC Villain delivering some solid MC work made for one of the best sets one could have wished for that night.

It’s hard to find many more energetic combinations on stage than these three guys. Their natural charm combined with their showmanship made this an unforgettable night overall.

Closing the night

Later that night, Refuzion took over and delivered a solid performance. Meanwhile, Da Tweekaz held a meet and greet with several fans and afterward they transformed themselves into Tweekacore for the final act of the evening. Happy hardcore at its finest. Or so you might think. What was scheduled to last 30 minutes ended up being one and a half hours of the craziest back to back to backs we have seen in a long time. Seemed like everyone was dropping tracks and being the MC at one point or another. Even the event organizer (Benjamin aka Hardstyle Benny, owner of Musical Madness) was having such a good time that he was even seen behind the turntables spinning tracks. You could tell that this was a crowd behind the turntables that loves and respects each other. Everyone was just having a good time. One can only imagine how the next two nights were going to be on this insane bus tour through Germany.

Luckily we had the opportunity to ask Da Tweekaz some serious questions.

The Interview

The Nocturnal Times: How do you explain your success story? It seems like you are playing everywhere this year. Was it a hard struggle from where you came and where you are now?

Da Tweekaz: Well, if you see from where we came from approximately 11 years ago, you maybe could say it looked like a struggle, however that’s far from the truth. We became DJs and producers because it was our hobby, our passion and everything that came forth from that just feels like some form of progression. Sometimes we do stop and think about where we’ve come from and what we’ve already achieved and it just baffles our minds. So, we’re very thankful for everything we’ve achieved.

The Nocturnal Times: How did you come up with this bus tour idea? Most DJs are happy to fly from gig to gig but you somehow love it – being cramped up in a bus with the whole gang. How do you manage a three-day bus tour? Does it often get stressful?

Da Tweekaz: It was kind of an accident actually. So, we had three tours lined up in Germany for the Tweekalution tour. And our German partner for this run was like “So, logistically.. how do you want to do this”. We did some back and forth, and eventually, pure randomly we were talking about a bus and how funny it would be. Well, turned out that we took the bus. We got it wrapped, and customized and travelled around Germany with 16 people. It was a surprisingly comfortable bus. Very luxurious with comfortable lounges, a kitchen, and little “rooms” to sleep in. We had so much fun. As you can probably imagine, we didn’t get a lot of sleep. But, what an experience!

The Nocturnal Times: Your biography when it comes out one day will be called “Da Tweekaz, or the legendary Jägermeister nights”. How come Da Tweekaz is already synonymous with Jäger shots? How important is Jägermeister for you?

Da Tweekaz: It just became one of our favorite liquors. And that’s pretty much mostly thanks to Germany. We love that country, love playing there and now.. we love Jägermeister 🙂

We’ve been making fun “drinking” tracks for a while, and for a Qlimax performance (our first) we decided to stir things up a little and make something a little… special. We didn’t tell anyone, because well… they probably would’ve wanted us not to do it. But, we do what we do and we played that track in front of 30,000 people at Qlimax – with the jodling and everything. It was just so funny to see everyone’s faces. But, it turns out that this is one of our most successful tracks. It’s just blowing up on Spotify. We made little Jäger rubber ducks, and basically just have Jäger wherever we go.

So now, we have a “Jäger” moment during our shows in which we give some people jäger shots and just have fun with it.

The Nocturnal Times: What is the message you want to send out with your music?

Da Tweekaz: Don’t take life too seriously. Smile, have fun and party like there’s no tomorrow.

The Nocturnal Times: How many of your tracks got produced under the influence of Jägermeister?

Da Tweekaz: Way too many, haha. No in all honesty, when we’re in the studio, we actually don’t drink and are pretty serious about our work. We have a very tight schedule when it comes to studio sessions, especially with all the touring in between. So, we need to be on top of our game so we can power through some pretty intense and long studio sessions.

The Nocturnal Times: If there wasn’t any Jägermeister, what else would you be drinking?

Da Tweekaz: We also drink Vodka, champagne, beer. The usual. We haven’t given that too much thought to be honest.

The Nocturnal Times: Can you share more with us about the rubber ducks? Where does that come from, what is the story behind them?

Da Tweekaz: Also an accident. We thought it would be fun to work with a “duckie” sample in one of our tracks many many years ago. From there it kind of escalated. We were getting rubber ducks from fans and all that. So, eventually, we thought – “hey, let’s give OUR fans ducks”. So, we ordered ducks. THOUSANDS of ducks. Got them printed and from there it just escalated (again). We’ve also done some custom ducks. So, rubber ducks we made from scratch and got them produced. That was our 10 Years Da Tweekaz “Jager” duck. Which is a highly sought after item – but we don’t have them anymore. During the specific tour shows, we always brought some to our gigs and threw them in the crowd.

This year’s “Tweekalution” concept has us make a custom duck which is a superhero and themed to match our artwork. So, for all “Tweekalution” events, we bring a box of ducks and throw them in the crowd during the “Duck Tool” track. Fun!

The Nocturnal Times: Why did you feel the need to create your second act Tweekacore?

Da Tweekaz: We’ve always loved Happy Hard – and our biggest idol would have to be Darren Styles.

We’re very creative in the studio, and we just decided to start making some Happy Hardcore, and did some things with Darren. From there, we thought – well, we have enough music, why not start an alias for this genre. We launched it at Defqon.1 Chile, we think… and then the next year presented it in The Netherlands (Defqon.1) after launching our own Happy Hard label ‘Electric Fox’ together with Darren.

And again.. it just grew from there.

Fan question from Sandra Kuretzki: When will you release “We made it”?

Da Tweekaz:Working on it – but very soon. Probably closer to the end of the year. Not entirely sure of the exact details right now, as it’s still going through the whole “release machine”. But, we hope to have it out there really soon for you!