Name: Noisia Location: Groningen, Holland Links: www.noisia.nl www.facebook.com/noisia www.soundcloud.com/noisia When and how did you discover your passion for music? – Around 1999, when we started listening to electronic music, breakbeat and drum&bass specifically. At the time it was just something we were ‘into’ but i guess 15 years later it’s pretty evident that we found our, ahem, “passion” then. How come you ended up making electronic music? – Because that’s what we were listening to at the time, and we also didn’t play any traditional instruments, apart from Martijn who played the piano. How would you describe your style and do you normally draw inspiration from across genres? – We often try to make music that is visceral and or high in energy, or otherwise stimulating, and a lot of it sits at 172 BPM. We draw inspiration from lots of genres, every now and again something comes by that rocks your world, and it’s often not from your own neck of the woods. What’s the best thing about working as a musician and songwriter? – We’re our own bosses so we get to play with music and the technology when we want to as well as make songs and express ourselves when we  need to. Not having to rely on any one instrument also means the musical freedom is theoretically infinite. Is there a typical formula or scenario that keeps repeating itself when you write? Walk us through how you usually go about writing. – Often we’ll start with just a sample or a loop, and probably most often we’ll start with drums and then bass. It’s generally a combination of sound sculpting and playing around with basic elements of a loop. Taking time to program a sound that’s in your head, then turning it upside down to see what it does, successively constructive and disruptive, and back again. What are you currently working on and what’s next on your agenda? – Lots of music, and more music, and shows, and music, and releases, and a radio show. Name a few career highlights so far. – Remixing the Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Ip”, playing Rampage festival for 15,000 people in Belgium, and hosting our own Noisia Invites Festival in our hometown Groningen. How does Toontrack tie into your songwriting process and what Toontrack products do you regularly use? – Superior Drummer 2 gets a lot of use in our studios. We have pretty much every library there is installed, with all the bells and whistles. It’s fun and incredibly flexible. We have made hundreds of drum loops with it, and use it in almost every track. We don’t have a real drum kit in the studio, and we want to get one, but I’m scared we’ll be disappointed with it’s features 😀 WATCH “THIS COULD BE” BY NOISIA.