Miami Music Week gives many artists the chance to showcase their latest tracks, unreleased music and even give them the opportunity for their music to present itself at ULTRA. For German duo Greg and Julius of Jewelz and Sparks this opportunity became a reality.
This high energy duo has brought us “I Can Fly,” a #1 track on Beatport, and now their newest released on Blasterjaxx’s label Maxximize titled “Drip.” This track which features hard hitting bass lines and kicks has gained over 200,000 streams in the short time it has appeared on Soundcloud and was featured in Tiesto’s live ULTRA set.
RaverRafting had the pleasure to sit down with Jewelz and Sparks, to talk about the production behind “Drip”, the importance of their fans, and more.
Do you think that Social media is a powerful tool in marketing new music?
Greg: It plays a huge role, definitely, in all the marketing strategies because a lot of guys who are upcoming still don’t have big budgets. Everyone has access to these platforms and it’s a really beneficial way to spread your music and for even the customer to learn about your own tastes because there’s a wide range of artists and you can follow anybody and every niche of the music is there.
Julius: Advice for every newcomer: Before you start going all in with that [marketing] get your music right, because if your music is good then you can go start marketing it. Don’t start too early, a lot of young guys start going out with their music way too early and their tracks aren’t ready yet.
When did you both first become involved in music?
Greg: We started music at 5 or 6 years old. I was playing guitar and he [Julius] was on piano, we were 15 or 16 when we started on the computer and DJing, there was a hip-hop phase, and he [Julius] was doing turntables and scratching, then I got into dance music when I was 17 and I’m 25 now.
Julius: Be patient you have time, you don’t have to make your big track at age 17. Take your time!
Who are your biggest inspirations when creating music?
Julius: That’s always tough to answer because there are so many great artists and everyone brings their own stuff to the table. For him [Greg] it was Fedde Le Grand, for me it was Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy. Also some scratcher guys but they are not so well known.
Tell me about your newest release on Blasterjaxx label, “Drip:”
Julius: They [Blasterjaxx] put it on the label because they really liked the song and for us the song was again developing naturally. We had a lot of sessions on different computers with different software’s and we came up with the drip sound with Nicky Romero’s kick plug in, it’s a plug in that’s used to design kick drums but we had this drip sound and make that the feature sound in the track.
Greg: We have an approach of putting things together in a more minimalistic way sometimes, that’s what we started with, with Toxicrush and Flashbang because these tracks work well in our DJ sets. “Drip” is a funny one because it has a total breakdown in the beginning so it completely stops for a bunch of seconds. You don’t really know what’s happening and then you’re like “ahhh alright.”
Julius: I think it creeps out DJs too who are playing it for the first time because suddenly everything is gone. For us its always fun and that’s important, in the studio, having fun sounds and its important for our productions that the first time you listen to it you get it and they’re not too hard to understand.
You have shown that you’re successful at creating a crazy amount of energy in festival crowds, TomorrowWorld being an example. How do you create this energy and keep it going?
Julius: One thing is that its very simple to get, so a lot of people who haven’t heard our tunes can relate, also it’s a reward for ourselves as well. We are standing there at TomorrowWorld and we started in our little rooms making music and it’s the biggest reward you can get to give the music to people.
Greg: I think the social aspect is very important too, interacting with people like shaking hands and taking pictures with the people in the crowd, the J&S warriors idea has really taken off, it’s so much fun to meet all these people and put a smile on their face and that’s really what its all about in this industry. It’s not about having the biggest car or being VIP or having the best party. The people who are out there for us are what matter and that’s where we get our energy. It’s like a ping-pong thing, it goes back and forth and we feed off each other’s energy.
What else can fans look forward to coming up in 2016?
Next one coming up is collaboration with D.O.D on DOORN Records in about a month or two. Thats an exciting record for us. Then there is a remix of Fatboy Slim’s “Praise you” that we made. There is no release date for that, but we will play it in our live shows. We put together a lot of new stuff just for Miami Music Week.
Will we be seeing more of you in the States?
We are always happy to come and we love coming to the States. You guys go out there and tell people to book us and we will be happy to visit you!
After speaking with Jewelz & Sparks RaverRafting had the opportunity to get a comment on the recent release of “Drip” from Blasterjaxx themselves!
We received the track what is now known as “Drip” via Spinnin Records and we were like: we really need this track for the label it is very cool and we are very happy that they are part of our label now.
Connect with Jewelz & Sparks:
https://www.facebook.com/jewelzandsparks
https://twitter.com/jewelzandsparks
https://soundcloud.com/jewelzandsparks
Connect with Maxximize Records:
https://www.facebook.com/maxximizerecords
https://twitter.com/maxximizerec
https://soundcloud.com/maxximizerecords
http://www.maxximizerecords.com
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