MarcKOLT, aka Bouwe de Vries, is a talented young Dutchman from the city of Utrecht. Most of his time he’s producing sick neuro drum and bass in his own studio in the very same city. He has done 2 EP’s and several singles for Eatbrain now and his latest EP, Call of the Void, has been released just over 2 weeks ago. (go check that out!)
I’ve put together a small Q&A the other day and Bouwe was kind enough to take some time to answer so we all can get to know him a bit more. So let’s go!
Hey Bouwe, how are you doing?
I’m doing really well!
Let’s dive in straight away: when and how did you get into making music?
Technically I started when I was 10 and borrowed Magix Music Maker from the local library. I haven’t stopped making music since, although I didn’t start taking it properly serious near the end of high school.
You’ve recently dropped your Call of the Void EP on Eatbrain. How did you get involved with Eatbrain?
I think this was over 2 years ago when I just finished the demo for Octopus. At the time I finally felt like I found my sound and knew that I wanted to make an EP to showcase this. I sent the demo to Jade and he was immediately excited! Even though I was completely unknown he still wanted to take the risk on doing an entire EP (and plan the second one) and gave me tons of great feedback along the way.
Are you happy with the way the EP turned out? Also: how’s the EP different than your previous work?
I’m really happy with how the EP turned out! My first release was a bit… silly? I guess. Over the top samples, lots of funky riffs and somewhat Jump-Up’ish intros. I loved that, but I also wanted to show that I can do more serious and musically interesting stuff. So that’s what I tried to do with this EP and I think it worked out pretty well.
Please tell us a bit about your studio and your workflow. What DAW are you using, do you have any favourite plugins or VST’s you’d like to share?
I mainly work in Ableton. I’ve tried most DAW’s over the years, but Ableton has always been my favourite. The workflow just gels really well with my approach to production. Most of the build in plugins of Ableton are fantastic, and on top of that, I use the usual stuff. Mostly Fabfilter plugins and Serum.
In terms of workflow, I generally start out with a super basic drum pattern and start making riffs. I rarely work on any other part of the song until I’ve got a riff or other interesting leading element that I’m excited about. The only exception to this is Space Ghetto, which I wrote almost in one take on my Ableton Push.
How would you describe the sound of KOLT?
Probably as a blend of Jump-up, Neuro and dancefloor stuff? I guess that’s not very helpful haha. Just whatever I like and enjoy making really!
Name 3 of your favourite current drum and bass tunes
1. Rido – Alien
Alien by Rido is one of my favourite DnB tracks from the recent months.
2. Rockwell – Content
Content by Rockwell is awesome too
3. Proxima – Odd One / Jumpy
and I love the new Proxima release on NEU!
Which artist(s) do you look up to the most? Why?
My favourite artists at the moment are probably Rockwell (still play out a bunch of stuff from his album all the time), Annix, Former and Teddy Killerz. As for non DnB, I’ve been listening a lot to Tom Misch, Nils Frahm, Maribou State, Anderson Paak and Lorn.
Can we see you play anytime soon?
I’ve got some really cool stuff coming up soon, but until then you can check out my new podcast for Eatbrain to get in the mood!
Where can we follow you online?
You can follow me on Facebook and Soundcloud for the usual stuff, on Instagram for more dumb antics, work in progress stuff and dog pictures and on Spotify for regularly updated playlists!
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