Interview || Things You Do With Siege

Siege chats about his latest release Things You Do in this Exclusive Interview

It’s been a very quick journey rising through the ranks for Sieg Motmans AKA Siege. Born and bred in Belgium, it was from a very early age that Siege’s eyes opened to the world of Dance. As every young Dance music fan does he gathered his life savings and invested in a set of turntables. The rest, as they say, is history.

Having established himself in his native club scene, it wasn’t long before Siege’s musical talents lead him into the studio. After sending out demo after demo the young talent was given the opportunity to remix U&Me’s ”Touch Me” in 2009. His remix gained the full backing of Laidback Luke, Steve Angello and David Vendetta who all championed his work in their DJ sets. 2012 has been a busy year for Siege, he has received continued support for his music from the worlds elite radio & club DJ’s. Pete Tong has played and supported every release this year and has included ‘Roads’ on his Ibiza ’12 All Gone compilation. Ever since Siege’s re-edit of Djuma Soundsystem’s ‘Les Djinns’ took the blogs by storm at the beginning of the year he has been commissioned for remixes on Elton John Vs Pnau ‘Good Morning to the Night’, Adam F ‘When the Rain Is Gone’ and more recently Tommy Trash vs. The Aston Shuffle ‘Sunrise’. Kicking off the summer Siege joined forces with fellow Belgium and friend Sem Thomasson, their first collaboration ‘Balance’ was snapped up by Michael Woods for his Diffused imprint. 

Siege is now back busy in the studio working on new music which resulted in a release on the mighty Ultra Music and remixes for Atlantic Records and ONELOVE. Siege has a lot more to come in 2014 so watch this space!

Hello, Siege Thank you for taking time out to do this interview with us. It is a huge pleasure. 

No worries – my pleasure!

How are you doing? And if you could be any animal in the world what would you be and why? 

At first thought a cat because I would be able to sleep all day – but I would get bored of that rather soon. On second thought I would like to be an eagle – because being able to fly must be awesome!

1.     This is a staple TIE question, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear South Africa?

Actually the vuvuzela is the first thing that comes to mind.. Suppose the 2010 world cup has something to do with that haha

2.     Can you tell us a little more about who you are? If you weren’t making music what would you be doing?

I’m a DJ/Producer that lives in Belgium. If I wasn’t making music I would probably be working a job that has something to do with biochemistry since I have a degree in that and management. Or working in a restaurant cause I really love to cook as well. But I’m really happy with what I’m doing right now and can’t see that changing in the near future…

3.     Everyone all grow up with ideas of what we want to be when we older, Have you always wanted to be a DJ/ Producer?

Not sure I know what a DJ/Producer was when I was a little kid haha. But I remember always being into music. I played the piano for a while when I was young. Then I discovered electronic music and really liked it. At first I was just listening to it, later I bought a basic mixer hooked it up to a tape deck and my discman and tried to mix my favorite numbers into a set. Obviously that didn’t go to well since my tape deck and discman didn’t have pitch control…

4.     You started out as a DJ . Take us through how you got started as a DJ?

Well after it didn’t really worked out with my basic setup I discovered a mixing program for my computer. Thanks to that program I’ve learned about pitch control, beats per minute etc. and I figured out how to do a proper mix. But that wasn’t the real deal off course so I saved some money and bought me two turntables and a decent mixer. I started playing at some small local venues at first and after a while I was playing clubs all over the country.

5.     After DJ’n the next step was obviously production. How did you go about learning to producer and how did you handle the feedback you received from labels in the beginning?

I think I just went on with it… Nowadays you have tons and tons of information on the internet and tutorials on YouTube – that wasn’t the case when I first started producing.  So I just played around with fruityloops and tried to make some tracks. At this time this was just for fun so I don’t think I’ve sent my tracks to labels back then. After a while I’ve switched from fruityloops to Ableton Live, discovered the Laidback Luke forum where you could read a lot about producing and interact with other producers. At this point I was taking it more serious and was investing quite some time in producing music.

6.     Tell us about the first time you sat down to producer a record, how did the record turn out?

The first record I finished that I can remember was my first release as well. I went to university and there I ran into two guys I knew from when I was little. They had an act called U&Me and they had a label as well. At the time they were working on ‘Touch Me’ and agreed to let me remix this. This turned out quite good for me, beyond expectations actually. Laidback Luke picked it up and hammered it. After Luke others followed, even Steve Angello was playing it. It also reached number 11 in the Beatport House top 100 which was unbelievable. Back then I didn’t really realize what was happening, but looking back on it the support was pretty overwhelming. One of the two guys from U&Me is Sem Thomasson by the way, with whom I share the same studio building now.

7.     Your break into the industry came with your remix of U&Me Touch me in 2009 . Looking back would you change anything about that remix?

Haha, compared to today’s standards the production was sounding pretty poor, so probably would work a lot more on the mix…

8.     How would you describe your sound in 3 words?

Emotional, driving and groovy.

9.     Your recent track Things You Do is amazing. It stands out and is unique. What were you trying to achieve with the track?

Back in 2009, around the time I put out my first release the music was groovy and sexy, it slowly evolved into what we now know as EDM. It just got harder and harder and I think that the music in a way lost it’s soul. I’m trying to move in the opposite direction, bringing the soul back and I’m happy to see a lot of producers and deejays are doing the same. With things you do I was going back to basics. I wrote the bassline hook first – I felt it was quite catchy and loved it straight away. With the breakdown I’ve tried to stay away from the big synths and looked for something that sounded a bit more oldschool. The only thing that was missing for me was a little vocal hook. So I went to a bunch of sample cd’s till I found this one which worked wonders with the track!

10.  Nowadays most people get into DJ/Producing for the lifestyle of it the passion seems to be lost. What are you aiming to achieve with your work?

The past few years I was still studying so I was making music just for fun, because I loved doing it. Now I’m graduated so it’s my fulltime job. This means first and foremost I’m making a living with something I love to do. Apart from that I want to move people with the music I make. When playing a dj set I want them to have a good time and enjoy themselves.

11.  Where would you like to see yourself in the next 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years, ie what is your career plan?

I can talk you through it but that would take us a while haha. But in a nutshell I want to tour more, produce more to reach out to more people. Later on I would love to produce for pop acts as well, not making dance music for them but produce pop tracks with real drums and instruments. At some point I’d like to help other artists as well. Think there are a lot of people out there making amazing music – it’s just so hard to get noticed these days…

12.  What one track in the musical universe do you wish you had produced?

That’s a tough one… Maybe something from Daft Punk, ‘Digital Love’ or ‘One More Time’. Think they’ve been an inspiration for almost every producer that’s doing electronic music right now. Or something from Chic like ‘Soup For One’, it’s so groovy just makes you want to move.

13.  One place you need to play before you die?

Ibiza – I’ve been there a couple of years ago and the atmosphere is just insane… I’d love to play on the beach when the sun’s going down in the sea!

14.  Name one thing your fans don’t know about you.

On Friday evening I play football and transform into a half decent right back haha

15.   This interview wouldn’t be complete without a controversial question. Where do you see EDM going? And what are your thoughts on the use of ghost producers?

For me EDM is just a term. Deep house is also electronic music you’re supposed to dance to – right? But when referring to the mainstream dance music I think it’s going to evolve.. At the moment it’s all pretty much sounding the same and I think people will get bored of it and search for something else. We can only wait and see what’s going to be the next big thing.

If you’re a gifted musician who has great ideas but not the technical ability to develop them in a song why not seek for help? Don’t have a problem with that. If you’re just paying somebody to produce a track from start to finish and you’re acting like you made it – that’s something else. Don’t really see the point of this and don’t think it’s a good way to build a career.

Do you  have any last message for you fans..

I want to thank every single one of them for the support!

Thank you so much for doing this interview with us.

You’re welcome and I can only hope for the same…

Layla and Yasmin