As our artist roster is expanding, we thought it was about time to start introducing them to you. First off are Teison aka Thies and Henri Purnell aka, well ehm.. Henri Purnell. Both are now presenting their Selected Sounds release as a Dutch-German collab with Canadian vocals. “We got in touch over Twitter!”
Give us 2 facts about yourself, one that will make us go ‘eww’ and one that will make us go ‘woow’!
T: Mmm, something to make you guys go eww? I would say probably the fact that I when I was really really small I was in a bath with one of my siblings, I took a dump in the bath while we were both still in it. I didn’t even do it on purpose, it just happened. Then I got mad at him for not letting me get out first even though it was my own shit hahah, good times
Something that would probably seem pretty interesting to most people is the fact that at 16 years old I’ve lived in more than five countries. I was born in Holland, moved to Spain, then to Poland, Germany, India and just recently (a couple weeks) back home to The Netherlands.
H: This is a good question, let me think… One thing that may people go eww about me is this episode when I was young. My cousin told me to stick my head out of the window in a driving car and spit in driving direction. As I didn’t understand the mistake I did it. I ended up being really angry when I realized I hit myself spitting…
Something that I would consider as a woww, is that music has always played a big part in my life. In my childhood I loved to sing and dance to Shakira’s famous track: “Hips don’t lie” haha. I also took piano lessons but got bored of playing these classical pieces so I decided to compose my own. Later I also started to play the saxophone as well. In seventh grade me and my closest friends (who are all very talented in music) founded a band called “famous”. I was the lead singer and had fun singing until I got older. My band had some success though. We won a few band contests, played on big stages in front of hundreds of people and this during our teenage years. Last summer I started to produce music and I currently enjoy this. So I would definitely say that music has enriched my life.
So how’d you guys end up collaborating?
H: I first heard about Teison as he released his track: Don’t You Want Me on Selected Sounds. I was amazed by his style and especially about his sound design. This made me ambitious to finalize my track: “Jungle (feat. Pema Sherpa)” and also releasing it under a label. At this point big thanks to Classyton for all the support. Thies and me got in contact over Twitter and arranged a collab. We really wanted to design something special. Thies found some really nice vintage acapellas of a track called: “Baby I need your Loving” from the famous quartet: “The Four Tops”. Instead of creating a remix we decide to use these acapellas differently by building some crazy vocal chops. At the final stages of the instrumental process we decided (with advice of SS) to add some real vocals. I found a rearrangement of “Locked Away” by Raeve & MKJ ft. Anthony Gallivan and showed it to Thies. At this point we both fell in love with his voice. Fortunately we got in contact with him and the outcome is absolutely amazing.
Describe in 4 words what the listener should feel when hearing the track.
Cheerful, uplifting, passionate & unique!
Do you feel like you’ve found our own style already or is it still very much developing?
T: For me I am still very much experimenting. I love music with good uplifting vibes but I also really love more emotional, touching tracks. In general I’m a happy smiling optimistic guy and I think my music naturally correlates to that My next single will be something new for my listeners as it leans to the more chill and relaxed side of house music, super excited to share that track as well. So on one hand everyday I’m learning new things about making music which is causing me to develop and change musically slightly, but in the end of the day, I make music which I truly love and believe in.
H: As you may have noticed tropical house is one of my favorite styles to produce, cause I really like spreading summer vibes. But I don’t want to limit my music only to one style. Think about this: Would you rather go to a gig by a music producer/DJ that just plays his one style all night long or would you rather prefer a gig with a huge variety of styles? I’d definitely go for the second choice and that’s why I want to design a unique arrangement of tracks with various music styles. For example, one of my most popular tracks, “Thinking About You” is more soul/R&B orientated. I’m also planning a collab with a minimalistic heavy bassline in the drop but I can’t really tell any names yet. Stay tuned!
You’re locked up in the studio for 24h with one producer, one singer, one type of drink, one type of food and one animal. Choose.
T: Alright, producer: Shaun Frank. Singer: Delaney Jane. I’ve met them both together, they’re such amazing talented people! Making a track with them would be a dream come true for sure. Drink: A dutch drink called Fristi meant for small kids but I love it hehe Food: A Margarita pizza from a proper italian wooden oven. Animal: A wiener dog, preferably three or four. They’re adorable.
H: I have to admit this question made my day Producer: Martin Garrix. Singer: Ashe. Drink: an ice-cooled mojito. Prepared by a skilled Spanish barlady. Food: SU-SU-SUSHI. But self-made by my bestie: Pema Sherpa (btw, I really encourage you to check out her music – she does good stuff) Animal: Regardless of how big the studio is I would also take a camel with me, you can relax on camels and track ideas will literally pop up in your mind.
What’s your current favourite track from a completely different genre as your own?
T: A big favourite of mine right now is ‘This Love’ by Daïtshi & Francis. It’s a lot more chill and ambient than my music but it’s on repeat for me everyone should check it out. I’ll also sneak in another one, this one is a bit more my style and it’s a great unique tune by one of my favourite up and coming artists right now: Jon Sine.
H: I really like Lil Kleine. He adds some cool Dutch rap to house beats. Especially his track: “Drank en Drugs” gets me.
Are you playing gigs already? The tough choice: a life of only producing, or a life of only DJ’ing?
T: I actually just moved back to The Netherlands from Bangalore, India. I was able to do my first gig and a lot more bookings over there (India) in some of the city’s coolest clubs which was super fun! The rush and energy is amazing on stage and I look forward to doing a lot more shows in the near future. The best feeling is definitely being able to play your own song out live and seeing the crowd enjoy it right in front of you. When working on a track for two to five months that’s a really rewarding feeling. Both producing and DJing is a perfect mix so I wouldn’t want to choose either or.
H: I haven’t had the chance to play many public gigs yet, but I played some parties and for family and friends. Referring to the second question I really agree with Thies’s opinion, that the decision between music producing and DJ’ing is not easy. But if a higher force wants me to decide [yes it does – SS], I would choose music producing. In producing I feel more like releasing my creativity than in DJ’ing.
What is the best response you’ve received on your music so far? And what would be the best possible?
T: My last track ‘Don’t You Want Me’ had a great response with nearly 50k plays and support from some amazing artists like Steve Void, Win & Woo and more. This was really humbling as it was my debut single, shout out to Selected Sounds for the release Fans sending me videos of them playing the track at parties or at home and dancing, things like that make me smile and laugh every time. Also playing DYWM out live a few times was amazing and I got some amazing reactions which was really unbelievable to see.
What I would love is to be able to do my own show and play out my music in a live setting in front of dedicated fans. Seeing great reactions on your music online is already amazing, but to be able to see the people directly in front of you is an indescribable feeling. Instead of just DJing it’s definitely a future goal for me to bring out keyboards, synthesizers and drum pads to live shows to give my shows a more interesting live dynamic that is sometimes missing in DJ shows. If you follow me on snapchat (username: teisonsnap) you can see that I’m super hyper and pumped and I love putting that energy into my music to transfer my positive vibes to other people.
H: I think the best response was on my track “Thinking About You”, which I released without any label on my own SoundCloud account. I got huge support from various PR labels on SoundCloud, which made me proud. The track was also supported by “Marvellous Music”, a Youtube channel with about 140k subscribers. This definitely served as a great proof to me that I’ve done absolutely great work. The track got also remixed by Zane T. and aired in the local BBC radio show: BBC Introducing in Devon.
To play at a festival in front of a huge crowd is a dream come true. When I imagine a crowd interacting to my set and especially to my own music that gives me goosebumps. I think every music producer’s dream is to make a living from your music passion. So let’s work hard and make these dreams come true!
T: Thanks everyone for reading, I personally loved the cool questions and I hope you got to know me and Henri a little better Enjoy ‘Your Loving’ and stay tuned on my and Henri’s social media for new music! Thanks for having us Selected Sounds, have a great day everyone!
