Having finally made his return to Frequency, Music Dutch tastemaker WinWel has just unveiled “Am I Enough,” bringing together rich melodies and intimate vocals over a laid-back drum & bass production. With a musical style driven by organic elements and ethereal melodies, the classically-trained Dutch musician is quickly making a name for himself within the scene, while always looking to further explore his talents; whether that’s through his complex live show or his recent debut as a singer.
We had the chance to catch up with WinWel and discuss his latest single, his official remix for Flux Pavilion, his plans for the future and much more.
MC: What’s up WinWel! How are you feeling today?
WinWel: Hi! I’m feeling great, very excited about the release of my new song! A bit scared as well, since it’s the most personal song I’ve written to date, but mostly excited 🙂
MC: You just released your latest single “Am I Enough” via Frequency Music. Talk to us a bit about the song and how it came to be.
WinWel: It all started with me falling more in love with drum & bass after opening for Fox Stevenson in November last year. I wanted to give my own take on a more chill drum & bass type song, that’s how the instrumental started to form.
As for what the song is about, I’m quite a busy guy who is working almost all of the time. I recently realized that the main reason I do it is to make people proud. Whether it’s my parents, my family, my friends or my fans, nothing makes me happier than to hear someone’s proud of me, those four words always hit the hardest. I recently realised that this is not healthy. As if without my achievements and performances, I’m not good enough as a person? I need to accept myself for who I am and what better way to cope with that than to write a song about it. That’s what I ended up singing about in the song!
MC: You debuted your own vocals on your previous release “Sometimes It Just Feels Good To Be Sad.” How did you decided to start singing?
WinWel: After finishing my songwriting minor at the ArtEZ Conservatory I graduated from last year, I started writing all of my own songs. I think songwriting is the most beautiful way to tell stories or talk about your feelings. Though at first I let other people sing what I wrote. Unfortunately that didn’t feel personal enough to me, even though the vocalists I’ve worked with can sing much better than me haha! But I wanted to make a stronger connection with my fans and I reckoned singing myself would help with that! I’ve had a couple of singing classes at the Conservatory but I’m still learning, it requires a lot of takes for me to be happy with my vocal performance. But I’m getting better slowly! And I do feel the connection I made with ‘Sometimes It Just Feels Good To Be Sad’ is a lot stronger, which I am very happy about!
MC: You recently had the chance to officially remix Flux Pavilion. How did this opportunity come about and what did it mean to you?
WinWel: I’ve been a huge fan of Flux Pavilion ever since I heard ‘I Can’t Stop’ for the first time. And after I released my debut EP on Circus Records (the label of Flux Pavilion and Doctor P), Flux’s manager Andrew gave me the opportunity to remix one of the songs of his latest album ‘.Wav’. I had a lot of fun remixing the track and it felt unbelievable, since slowly a dream of mine was coming true! That’s what made it quite an emotional process for me too, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry a couple of times haha. To do an official remix for someone that inspire you to start making music, someone you’ve been looking up to for the past decade, truly is the most euphoric feeling I’ve ever experienced!
MC: You have a really unique live show, which incorporates live music elements as opposed to just DJing. Talk to us a bit about the show and your presence on stage.
WinWel: The first instruments I ever played were drums and piano. I started drumming at the age of 4, and taught myself to play the piano at around 8 years old. I’ve come to develop my skills on those instruments over the years and still like to play them a lot! I did DJ a few years, but felt like I could offer more and missed the musical connection with my songs. Since almost every song I write starts with me playing behind a piano, and if it’s not a piano it’s my kalimba or me singing. So I wanted to combine my skills as a pianist and drummer with my electronic music and offer a more dynamic musical show to my fans!
On stage, my number one goal is to connect with my audience and take them to a dreamworld where everything imaginative is possible, away from all the stress and chaos we experience in real life.
MC: Who’s your dream collaboration? What about your dream label?
WinWel: Ooh that’s a tough question! I have a lot of artists and labels I would love to work with! If I had to pick a few, my dream collaborations would be with Droeloe, Flume, Labrinth and of course Flux Pavilion.
For dream labels, I’ve already had the honour to release on one of them multiple times! Found/Red, from the amazing Seeking Blue label of Mr. Suicidesheep. I grew up discovering 80% of my favourite artists on Sheepy’s channel, so releasing on there was a dream come true! Other labels I love are Cloudkid, Monstercat, Lowly and NCS but if I had to pick a number one dream label it would be Bitbird! I love all of the artists that release on there and would more than love to join them myself one day!
MC: What’s your favourite song at the moment?
WinWel: Alright so this switches often haha! But at the moment I find myself listening to Flux Pavilion’s ‘Emotional’ featuring Matthew Komma a lot, together with ‘Whispers’ by Oshi, ‘Mount Everest’ by Labrinth and ‘Highest Building’ by Flume.
MC: What makes the perfect song, in your opinion?
WinWel: For me, the most important part of a song is the melody and harmony. That’s why I start every song behind the piano most of the time, because if a composition can sound beautiful on a piano – without any arrangement or production – it can only get better! In my opinion that’s the core to every song, and the part that always moves me the most. And I often find myself listening to songs that aren’t even that well produced, but I still love so much just because of the composition.
MC: What’s next for WinWel? Do you have any exciting things coming up later this year that you can talk about?
WinWel: I’m working on some great new singles to release later this year, and recently finished a very nice collaboration with an amazing singer/songwriter and producer that will hopefully see the light of day soon! I really love all the new songs I’m making, you can see me exploring some different combinations of genres as well as some that resemble my older songs! Either way, I hope you’ll love them as much as I do 🙂 Other than that I hope to play more shows and develop my live set even further!
