HOUSE OF NUMBERS
Dam Swindle’s Maarten Smeets
Known for their widescreen approach to crafting cub-ready grooves, Dutch electronic house duo and Heist Recordings founders Dam Swindle, formerly known as Detroit Swindle, have carved a unique place for themselves in the scene, constantly dropping top-notch releases.
From deep to disco, tech to soul, the unstoppable duo of Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets join the dots between the past and the present with their own sense of storytelling. Their sound – which merges references from multiple decades into one smooth aesthetic – quickly rose to popularity for its careful blend of soul and rhythm, taking cues from their passion for obscure records, with influences ranging from house and funk to afrobeat and soul.
With the seventh edition in Heist Recordings’ “Roundup” series, in which label artists remix each other’s tracks, just around the corner, Dam Swindle‘s Maarten Smeets makes a pit stop at LAGASTA and enters its series of mini-interviews “House of Numbers”, counting down all his favourite things.
ONE thing you’ll do when lockdown is over…
Hug my best friends.
TWO guilty pleasures…
1. Videogames
2. Bolognese flavored crisps
THREE things you see from your window…
Trees, birds and a palm tree.
FOUR places you want to visit again…
1. Tokyo
2. The whole of New Zealand
3. Any ski resort
4. My old home in Costa Rica: Rancho Burica
FIVE people you are influenced by/admire…
1. My wife Roos
2. Anderson Paak
3. Prince
4. Kamasi Washington
5. Joe Dukie
SIX words to describe yourself…
1. Inspired
2. Restless
3. Positive
4. Goal Oriented
5. Messy
6. Funny
SEVEN things you hate in your country…
1. The lack of space
2. The over-organization
3. Fake kindness
4, Bad accents
5. The lack of surfable waves
6. Traffic jams
7. Rainy days when the temperature is just above 0
EIGHT o’clock in the morning, your day starts with…
My day starts around 6:45 with a shower, getting dressed and making breakfast for the fam and prepping for school.
NINE minute track that you wish it was even longer…
Paperclip people – Throw
TEN years later, how do you imagine yourself…
Grey, happy and hopefully still in physically good shape.
ELEVEN minutes to relax…
Staring at nature with a nice coffee in my back yard.
TWELVE inches version of a track you adore…
Ashford & Simpson – One More Try (12 inch Disco Mix)
THIRTEEN-year-old Maarten is dreaming of…
Playing drums in a punk band.
It’s that time of the year again: Dam Swindle’s annual frenzy of collaborations from another year worth of Heist releases, wrapped together in one package: “The Round Up”.
For those unaware of the concept of the Round Up: Each artist that released on Heist in 2020 gets to remix another artist from that year. Combinations are made by luck of the draw and this has been a key moment in the Heist calendar for the past seven years. The seventh edition in Heist Recordings’ “Roundup” series features eight remixes by the likes of Alma Negra, Teleseen, Crackazat, Pitto, Nebraska, Scan 7, Kassian, and label founders Dam Swindle themselves. Before it drops, we’re treated to a stream of the remix of Dam Swindle’s “Move Out The Way” by Nebraska, who goes for a UK house meets US garage meets Christopher Walken’s cowbell solo rework.
“The Round Up Pt. 7” drops on March 12th via Heist Recordings.
Pre-order it here.
