Searching For The Groove: C.O.N.E

With a penchant for the more bass heavy end of the electronic music spectrum rising DJ and producer has started to make some serious noise in the scene of late and garnered attention of influential London based tastemaker, radio station and imprint Rinse and one of his major influences in Solid Groove (a.k.a. Switch). With an acclaimed live show, a series of hotly anticipated upcoming releases and growing fanbase we thought the time was right to welcome the talented Dutchman to this weeks new talent section. 

We’re always interested to know how people started out, so what first drew you to electronic music?

Well it’s quite a story! I’ve always been brought up around music and began to play guitar when I was 8 years old. Then as I grew up I began to play in bands, you know the regular teenage stuff but throughout that time in my life I was always looking for something with a stronger rhythm, a real groove to it and that’s when I started getting into electronic music I guess.

So at what age was that?

That was in my 20’s man! Even then I was just listening at first but coming from a live music background soon after I thought to myself “I think I could do this” and then I decided to see what I could do as this was a sound that I’d always been searching for even if I hadn’t known it at the time.

Subliminally everybody wants to listen to electronic music…

Yes! (Laughs) I think you might be right. That’s when I bought myself a groovebox, some track recording equipment and cubase. Then after mastering the basics and starting to produce music I was happier with I wanted to start playing live as that’s what I’ve always done so it wasn’t new to me to want to perform live.

Coming to electronic music late did you find it difficult to break through and get gigs when you first started?

Not really as I’ve found people in dance music to be quite friendly. People want to like what you’ve got to offer which is really cool. Most people have an open mind and some of the other scenes I was part of are interlinked with music so I didn’t feel like it was closed off to me.

What are these other scenes you were involved with?

Oh, like urban street culture. Tagging and lots of scenes are connected from D&B to dubstep and other types of bass music. It’s all connected in the Netherlands!

Coming through a vibrant Dutch scene we’re sure you been to some awesome parties but where has been you favorite place to play?

To play? That’s a difficult question man! I would have to say at my friends warehouse party in Rotterdam. My friend works with a big sound system company so we just filled this large industrial space with really good speakers and then I got to play in the middle. That was awesome.

Sounds cool! If you could play anywhere then where would you choose?

It would actually be in your city. It would be at Fabric. That would be the ultimate as I’ve seen a few artists perform there and it was amazing so that’d be really, really cool. I’d also love to play some of the big festivals you know, Outlook and Exit would both be awesome to play.

Agreed, these days Eastern Europe is an awesome place to go for festivals as people move away from the traditional destinations for electronic music.

For sure, if they want me to play they just need to give me a call and I’ll head out to the sunshine!

If you could change one thing about electronic music what would it be?

Not much to be honest. The one thing I’d change is for people to be more open to other genres within electronic music. It’d be nice if the spirit was the same across the whole scene and people didn’t just listen to just one genre. If you like house that’s cool but it shouldn’t mean you automatically don’t like dubstep or techno or drum and bass and there are a few guys like that.

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