Adding to the insanity that is already a busy year for Bingo Players, having “played last year for the first time on the Armin stage,” they can’t wait to get back and see just how much us Aussies, “go nuts,” to their sound. “We are really looking forward to the tour.”
Testing out a few new numbers and a couple of bootlegs, Bingo Players who consist of Paul Bäumer & Maarten Hoogstraten cannot wait for the few days off in the middle of Creamfields, “we’ve been a few times, so seen the zoo and the like. This year have some time in Melbourne so will be just chilling out, grabbing food, making some music and hooking up with some friends.” A tip to any worldly travellers, Australia is the place to go for “amazing Asian food, like sushi! We can’t wait.”
Modestly accepting that in this being about the fifth time to Australia, the guys must be doing something right, “we are so glad to be able to travel back to Australia, we just love Australia. We haven’t been to the beaches of the gold coast though so hoping to get up there,” Maarten said. Normally, “we only see the hotel, the airport, maybe a day out and then back at the airport.” An unfortunate part of their jobs, one wish would be “to be back (in Australia) for a longer period.”
With the tunes, tours and commitments, Maarten finds it hard to put the music down. “It is very difficult to disconnect. I’m always listening to music, watching docos,” admitting, “I’m quite a nerd,” laughing “I am always at home watching TV, playing video games, surfing the web, I’m pretty boring really – that’s it.” His non-musical vice is his serious gaming habit, “I’m an old school retro gamer. I don’t like to play the xBox. It’s all Nintendo 8 bit, Mario, Xelda!”
This personal side to Maarten is challenged when behind the decks being the DJ. “Being extroverted (on stage) is difficult. I’m more of a producer, behind the screen finding out new software for creating music. On stage you have to give yourself to the crowd and it can be pretty difficult,” admitting even with his impressive career, he will still “get stage fright. Playing for 1000’s of people is hard. But the crowd,” he says “give you so much energy, it makes it easier. It inspires me. I guess it is only really difficult when the crowd are standing still like ‘what are you doing’?”
“I like to think I’m humble,” as people, producers and artists. “We’re not here as a ‘fuck you – we’re here to play what we want and then take the cash’. We love it, we don’t look at it like we’re the stars that do what we want to do; we are there for the crowd – there to have a good time and are really, really grateful.” His honesty however is proven in the field, “when a DJ shows that they are not interested or not into it, it reflects to the crowd. (The crowd) see or hear that they are not motivated, that the DJ isn’t in a good mood like the crowd should be. If you’re not into it or energetic, the crowd they really feel it.”
Knowing the power, passion and energy dance music creates, Maarten won’t go as far as to say that it could be seen as serious as a modern day religion. “Dance music is about fun, having a good time, the party, yourself, friends, all with the DJ. It’s pretty simple emotions, it’s not really deep – it’s a straight forward thing; dance music. Everyone that goes to the club; goes for the party. We don’t have to think about bad things in life, we just go out and have a good time.”
The Bingo Players have been certainly having their fair share of good times. Their tunes are being played by the likes of David Guetta, Axwell, Fedde Le Grand, Martin Solveig, Laidback Luke, Roger Sanchez, Sander Van Doorn and Sebastian Ingrosso to name just a handful of world wild stars. They are loving the drinking and partying but admit, “we’ll (probably) survive for 5 or 6 years and should then turn it around and think about ourselves and healthy food,” laughing, “but it’s too much fun! We’ll see what happens.” Joking “I will try to do some (exercise) myself but it’s so hard to keep in shape, we might try the gym,” one day.
In the meantime, the tunes till be coming thick and fast. “We recently finished a track to be relased on the 19th of April. It’s more of a disco / vocal house track, we’re pretty excited for that.” The boys will also have “6 or 7 tracks we are testing out (in Australia) for release over the year. We’ve also made a few bootlegs to play at the festivals!”
Playing around Australia in April 2011, the only thing the guys wish they could offer more of is something for the fans. One example is their love for making the odd bootleg. “It’s all the legal,” joking “we could release illegally as we are OK with the idea of giving tracks to the people to enjoy. But that’s a huge problem with the legal side; you don’t want to have a case against you!” To keep things on the safe side, Bingo Players will be “release original tracks. We hear we are ‘the remix duo from Holland’ and we don’t want that label, so we are focusing on original tracks with our own label.” Their rules are clear, “we only want to release originals on that label.” For the moment their goal is “trying to make now 6 or 7 original and only 1 or 2 remixes.”
Bingo Players really do have it all at their feet. Living in Holland they have always been an accepting society of dance music in general. “House has been on mainstream radio for 20 years. It’s in the clubs, it’s everywhere. All the producers and DJs have been listening to it since they were young, they all grew up with it. I guess,” he admits is why more producers are from the same small space on the planet. “We listen to pretty underground music on mainstream radio, which is why kids, including me, got into dance music,” laughing “who wouldn’t want to be a DJ?” Australia seems very mature in light of the diversion of Holland radio. “The clubs the music isn’t played radio. I hope it changes in the next few years,” giggling, “maybe just enough to hear us…”
Creamfields Australia 2011 National Tour Dates:
Friday Apr 22 Planet Cream (Adelaide) - Adelaide Ent Centre (Indoor Stadium Show)
(2pm – midnight)
Saturday Apr 23 Creamfields (Perth) - Claremont Showgrounds
(12 noon - 10pm) (Subject to Council Approval)
Monday Apr 25 Creamfields (Melbourne) - Melbourne Showgrounds
(12 noon- 10pm - Public Holiday Monday/Tuesday)
Saturday Apr 30 Creamfields (Sydney) - Showring & Hordern Pavilion
(12 noon - 10pm)
Sunday May 1 Creamfields (Brisbane) - RNA Showgrounds
(12 noon- 10pm - May Day Public Holiday Eve)
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