Jäger Music

Jäger Music is a platform that celebrates artist’s extraordinary tastes through events, collaborations and one-off projects. Until 2016, the programme supported Dutch EDM artists by sponsoring music videos and providing them with a content platform catered to a - halfway - mainstream audience. Starting in 2017, Jäger Music dove into the underground realms of Dutch dance music.

We hosted an event series (called The Taste Of…) and a content platform to give talented artists a platform to tell their stories and show their musical and visual programming tastes. The platform has been highly successful, building and boosting Jägermeister’s reputation within a hard-to-reach audience of tastemakers and influencers.

For over four years, I was Jäger Music’s designated content specialist, which provided me with a myriad of responsibilities - ranging from creative & art direction and content strategy & production to directing videos, managing the platform in its many outings and bits of account management. In 2020, I returned to Jäger Music as a freelancer to fulfil copywriting and PR duties, working on the Dutch side of the global #SaveTheNight campaign that aims to help nightlife overcome the COVID pandemic.

Interviews

Kubus

He is the brain behind beats of Rico, Sticks, DuvelDuvel, BangBang, Typhoon and a plethora of Top Notch classics. However, despite his many successes, Bart van de Werken is still passionate about making music. The man better known as Dutch hip-hop icon Kubus reveals the intricacies of his creative process. "As far as I'm concerned, the power lies in turning your mind off and genuinely feeling the music."

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Nymfo

I spoke to drum 'n bass deity Nymfo about the noble art of sampling and how he aims to help young producers during the COVID interbellum: "You can tweak your hi-hats for days, but that won't make your audience dance harder and certainly doesn't get you any more streams or sales."

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Alberta Balsam

Along the Rotterdam Maas, Alberta Balsam creates musical landscapes that are difficult to pin down. I spoke to her about how to squeeze great-sounding sonics out of your gear and how music can function as a psychological painkiller: "Emotionally, we all know that music does us a tremendous amount of good."

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Animistic Beliefs

While a luminous green line dances spastically - though right on cue - across a small orbicular screen, mechanical sounds echo off walls full of equipment. Linh Luu and Marvin Lalihatu are pacing from one side of the room to the other in utter concentration. We are in the Willem Twee studios, where the duo behind Animistic Beliefs is putting the finishing touches on Drift's Artist-in-Residence project. "The way an instrument is built ensures that you wield it in a particular, unique way.

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Tom Trago

"Yes! Hans!” Tom Trago calls out to the engineer who, with a twist of a knob, allows robotic beats, percussion, and the unmistakable sound of tumbling arpeggios flow into the studio in full regalia. The two exchange grins while listening to the fruits of a few days of analogue adventuring in Den Bosch. They both nod frantically: “This is starting to sound like something we can use. Let’s go!.”

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David Vunk

The moment he placed his needle in the groove of Duke Dumont’s ‘Nicht Vor Mitternacht’ during a set at Amsterdam’s Lente Kabinet festival, David Vunk unknowingly planted his flag on top of a mountain he had been climbing for more than a quarter of a century. His reputation as a DJ phenomenon was sealed - and it was about time. West Coast legend David Vunk looks back on 25 years in the game.

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Awanto 3

Steven van Hulle has been a pivotal force in Amsterdam nightlife for over twenty years. “Music was ubiquitous when I was growing up. It was either humming in the background at home or played by my uncles and aunts at family gatherings. That constant commotion sparked the start of my career.”

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Steven van Lummel

“When I told the owner of the auto repair shop around the corner that I was going to build a skate park nearby, less than 24 hours later, all the windows in our building were smashed. They even threw in a bathtub, just for good measure.” Steven van Lummel on his first acquaintance with the Binckhorst neighbourhood, just southeast of The Hague’s city centre.

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