In this interview we discuss TIM-BER his collab with D.O.D and Afrojack on his track ‘Started’. We also asked him for tips & tricks on music production.

Name: Tim van der Stap
Artist name: TIM-BER
Birthplace: Amersfoort, The Netherlands
Website: http://www.tim-ber.nl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TIMB…
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TIM…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TIMBERNL
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/TIMBE…

How did you get started DJing and producing?

I started out dj’ing at the local youth centre at 10 years old. Whenever I was there I was busy with the “back in the days high end” double deck 19 inch CD players. Up until one of the workers there asked me to dj at one of their parties and I never really stopped. At that same time my dad was living really in the middle of downtown Amersfoort in the Netherlands where I’m born and raised. And it happened to be that our neighbor was one of the resident dj’s of a couple of clubs and bars which where really around the corner. He learned me how to really DJ. He gave me 2 vinyl records, explained to me really quickly how it worked and gave me 3 hours to practice in his small upstairs studio.

A couple years later when i was 13, a classmate introduced me to FL studio. I started making small bootlegs and eventually full tracks. After finishing school I started a 2 year study in Producing and DJ’ing at Pyntago and Pioneer DJ School to really learn about what I love doing and made the switch to Ableton.

Which famous artists influenced you? Why?

Wow, I don’t really know where to start to be honest. I grew up listening to al kinds of music that my parents where listening to. But what really stuck was the more electronic music; acts like The Prodigy, Massive Attack, Moby, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and Faithless. Later when I started DJ’ing in the youth centre I got to learn the genre ‘Bubbling’ 
Bubbling beatz by DJ Chuckie & Hardwell
Vato-Gonzalez’ Dirty House Mix tapes, Eclectic Beatz by Hardwell, Sneakerz Music, Nope is Dope mixtapes.

What is your number one tip for other producers?

Try to find your own sound, we’ve already got somebody who sounds like Martin Garrix…. Martin Garrix.

How has your music evolved since the beginning of your career?

Bubbling – Progressive/Minimal (the old school one, not the bigroom one) – Electro House – Bass House

Could you briefly describe your music-making process?

Messing with sound design for hours until some weird sound rolls out with a cool groove. For instance the what I call ‘hukepuh’ sound (thats how its literally saved in my library) that you can hear in started and in other tracks of mine.

How did your track ‘Started’ together with DJ Afrojack & D.O.D come about?

It “started” out as a solo track, completely finished. I’ve wrote D.O.D an e-mail with 2 tracks for feedback. A couple years before I released a track called “extravaganza” on D.O.D’s label Freequence. Ever since then I kept in touch with D.O.D just talking about music and for some feedback. He wanted to collab on one of these tracks. So the D.O.D & TIM-BER record was there. He played the track in a b2b set with Afrojack on Tommorowland. Afrojack was sooo impressed by the drop (I have a video of this moment on my instagram, really funny to see afrojack’s response) he wanted to release the record asap. D.O.D started chatting with afrojack about the track and if there was something he would change about the track. He wanted the breakdown to be different. D.O.D and me couldn’t figure out something new and that’s where Afrojack jumped onto the track. 🙂

How was it working with Afrojack & D.O.D?

Weird for many reasons. One of them being the fact that we never met in person until that point. And that everything went through Skype and text messages

Where do you usually gather inspiration?

All kinds of stuff. lately from frustration haha. That’s why the tracks are getting angrier. 

What personal advice would you give to someone wanting to pursue a career as a DJ?

DON’T DO IT FOR THE MONEY! Do it because you like it, love it, it’s your everything etc. There are so many so called (one trick) DJ/Producers don’t think you are special.

What has been your biggest challenge as an artist?

Learning sounddesign. When I started out producing I had this really harsh thought that if you’re using presets it’s not really your music. So it took me way to long to produce proper tracks because I wanted to do everything myself.

How were you able to overcome that challenge?

Years and years of hard work and studying.

What has been the most rewarding experience as an artist?

Known Artists/DJ’s coming up to me at parties, conventions whatever, “Hey! You are TIM-BER right? I love your tracks”. 

Can you describe your most memorable performance?

There are so many great moments. (This is the corniest reply ever, I KNOW). But what really stuck is the first time I played a festival. It was a small one, 4000 people. But weeks before I was nervous as fuck. My jaw was locked for days from grinding/biting together my teeth in my sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t move my jaw. I looked like I was poppin molly for life. But in fact I don’t do that shit, beer is life, beers are my bff’s.

What upcoming projects / releases / shows / etc. can we look forward to?

A free original track every other month from the ’No Thinking, Just Making Music’ project. Plus some bootlegs and edits I’ve been keeping for myself. Also I got some remixes coming up for some of my best producer friends. Including one track which is actually in Dutch and something totally out of my style. But these remixes just happend when I was vibe’ing out with these guys in the studio. I thought of doing these tracks under a different name, but is that really something we still do in 2019?