I Can Give You MOTi

Posted on Feb 22, 2014 in Interview

Stepping off the beach with a ukulele, MOTi isn’t just another dj from the Netherlands. He’s already collaborated with Tiësto and gained immense popularity in his home country, and now he’s rising internationally as he continues to grow as a musician. His most recent release, the vocal house track “Don’t Go Lose It”, reached #13 on the Beatport top 100, marking an intriguing change in style from his previous electro house bangers including “Dynamite” and “Krack!”.

We had a chance to speak with MOTi about how he differentiates himself as an artist and what the future holds for him and his ukulele.

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ICGYH: The name MOTi seems to be an anagram of your first name – Timo. How did you settle on this and why is MOTi stylized with the first three letters capitalized?

MOTi: I was going through different anagrams of my first name with a friend. MOTi was the best one! I wanted people to recognize my logo even when it’s written in a common character.

 

There’s a picture of you on Instagram with a ukulele and a surf board. Is there a beach bum side of you, or what’s the story here?

Haha kind of. It’s not like I grew up on the beach but when I was younger I use to go on holiday every year with my family to surf in Hossegor, France and Bali, Indonesia. But I haven’t been surfing for 5 years now.

 

What were you doing before making music? Where did you start?

I started making music when I was 17 or 18. So before that I was just going to school - I worked in a clothing store and partied a lot! My musical career started after one year of making music!

 

With electronic music becoming so popular, and so many artists coming from the Netherlands, how do you – MOTi - differentiate yourself?

I’m not sure. I just love to make music and try to be in the studio as much as possible. I try to make a lot of different genres and styles in the studio and I’m really happy people like it and play it. I just make music I love but I’m not particularly busy with differentiating myself.

 

Why do you think the Netherlands is so notorious for producing electronic music artists?

Well house music and raves have been around for a while here. You grow up with it. Dj’s have been “hot” here for the last 10 years. It’s not that the Netherlands are so much better in it or whatever it’s just that we have a head start. We have been doing this for a while.

At first there were only dj’s. When it got popular everybody was a dj and you had to differentiate yourself by producing. This started around 8 years ago I guess. Plus the Netherlands is small, so you meet a lot of colleagues everywhere and it/s easy to go in the studio together because it’s so small. You learn a lot from collaborating!

Besides that you have several kinds of producers here. The way I see it is, you have the old school dj’s who have been around a lot and used to make music before Apple Logic etc. Then you have the next generation who looked up to these guys and started working in Logic and Cubase. And nowadays you have a lot of producing schools who teach you how to make electronic music. A lot of the young new talents are in these schools. I think all of the above helped a lot with why so many Dutch dj /producers are successful.

 

Speaking of success, you’re on Tiësto’s Musical Freedom label and worked with him on the track “Back to the Acid” – what has that been like?

Well to be on the label is awesome. They really want me to experiment with things and just make music I love. We discuss which tracks to release, which tracks to work on etc. Most important thing is I get all the musical freedom I want and that’s exactly what the label stands for.

The collab with Tiesto was great! We tried all kind of different things but we really wanted to make an acid club track.

 

You seem to use a lot of vocal arrangements on your tracks – would you agree? What’s the appeal with vocals?

I like to give my tracks an extra recognizable feature. I think the vocals do the trick!

 

Your most recent release “Don’t Go Lose It” sounds far more house-y than your previous releases. What was your inspiration for this track? How did it come about?

Well I’ve been working on this track for a while. I love to make musical tracks as much as I love the make club bangers. I was just trying something different than I was usually making at that time. Every time I listened to my own demo it gave me such a happy feeling I decided to finish it and see if there was a label out there who wanted to release it.

 

What are you working on now and how does it differ from what you’ve done previously?

I’m working on several tracks. I’ve got a new acid kind-of track coming out soon and I’m working on an old school house track with big vocals. I’m also working on a compilation cd.

 

What’s the future of music for MOTi, and what do you think the future of music is in general – any ukuleles in the mix?

Haha that would be awesome, using my ukulele. I’m not sure where the scene is going. There’s so much music out there at the moment and everybody’s doing kind of the same thing. In the Netherlands the techno scene is the most popular scene at the moment and worldwide EDM is still the most popular genre in electronic music.

We’ll see. I just keep making music I love to make and at the moment I try to focus on musical vocal tracks and fill it up with club bangers. Most important thing for me is that I keep on making music I love to make and I love to listen to!

 

 

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Catch MOTi live at the Ultra Music Festival next month in Miami, and pick up his music on iTunes and Beatport.

 

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