Rising star Joren Edwards, who is currently a student at the famous Herman Brood Academy, has taken the time to chat with UpFrontBeats about his successful first release on Moss.Co and future aspirations. The Dutch producer’s ‘For The Terrace’ EP has been a firm favourite on the speakers here and we are super excited to present to you our interview with Joren Edwards.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you first became introduced to electronic music and what has lead you to where you currently are’

First of all, thanks for having me, always a pleasure to talk about music. Well, when I was a little boy my mom and dad always played music at home on the television and radio, so I saw and heard a lot of artist and different kind of genres. There was a channel called TMF, you could call them to request a song. I was in love with the track ‘Around The World’ from Daft Punk but scared as hell for the videoclip haha (I was about six at that time) We always called twice a week to hear that track.

When I was seven I started to play drums. After years of playing drums I started to produce music with the computer, just for fun and experimenting in all kinds of genres and tried to sample some of my dad’s records, for example the Pink Floyd’s album ‘Animals’. Being busy with music production for years now and learning a lot on school helps me improving and developing my music. To make a long story short, listening and seeing Daft Punk is definitely the thing where it all started.

Coming from the Netherlands, you must have enjoyed a wealth of underground techno parties and artists, with the likes of Dekmantel, Joris Voorn and Tom Trago all residing in the Netherlands. However, have there been any musical influences which have guided your thoughts and inspiration’

I’m very lucky to live in a country like Holland. There are some very inspiring clubs here, one of my favourite clubs is Shelter, I came there for the first time almost 2 years ago and the vibe and sound there is huge, felt a connection immediately and had the goal to play there. So happy that I’ve played their last weekend for the second time already.

A couple of weeks back I visited a party from the VBX Crew, they invited Rhadoo, Raresh & Petre Inspirescu to play. My level of inspiration after these parties is very high and I’m able to produce a lot of new music then. Same goes for the Slapfunk parties. You’re hearing so many good tunes that you’ve never heard before. DJ’s that I like are Samuel Deep & Julian Alexander (Ingi Visions) Ferro, Reiss (Spokenn) Archie Hamilton, Enzo Siragusa, Ricardo Villalobos, Dyed Soundorom for example.

Congratulations on your first full EP titled ‘For The Terrace’, which saw it land on Archie Hamilton’s Moss Co. label, but how did you get about creating the EP. What was the inspiration for the EP’ Were there any challenges associated with the EP’

Yes, thanks a lot guys. Very proud and happy to make my debut on Moss Co. After my vacation in the summer where I went to France and Spain for two weeks with some good friends, it was time to focus on the music again. The EP was made in two weeks. After finishing the last track, I mailed it to Archie. A couple of months before that, he played at Thuishaven in Amsterdam, so I had a chat with him and he gave me his personal email address. Some days later I saw a post of East End Dubs on Instagram, he was at Sunwaves together with Archie and suddenly on that video I saw Archie playing one of my tracks. After Sunwaves Archie contacted me and now I’m happy to say that my EP is coming out on the 5th of April on Moss Co.

Currently, you are a student at the Herman Brood Academy, but how has the academy affected your music production’ Are you able to share with us a little bit about your experience’

That’s right, I’m in my second year, so next year is gonna be my last year at school. In the basement we have a lot of sound booths with speakers, so we’re able to make music there on our own. One of my favourite classes is called ‘Discipline’. In this lesson you learn a lot about using compression, EQ’s, acoustics, mastering, and all sorts of synthesis. We get about twelve hours a week to produce music in the basement of our school.

As electronic music moves forward, we believe it’s important to look back on history, are you able to share with us a track which best describes your musical journey and any stories associated with it.

That has to be ‘Around the World’ from Daft Punk. I’m not playing that record but that was the start when I was a young kid. Hearing al these electronic sounds for the first time, but always with my eyes closed, as I mentioned before, the videoclip always made me cry because I was scared of it. I’m into in crate digging at local record stores, I go there once a week with some friends of mine. For me it’s always a big learning process to discover old artists and labels.

Juggling a work life balance seems relevant in today’s society, but how do you go about unwinding and keeping the mind fresh and focused’

Almost every night I go out for a walk before I’m off to bed. I walk for a short thirty minutes with some nice music from Bon Iver. I’m also going to the gym four times a week. This keeps my mind fresh and body healthy for the long studio hours. Also, nature inspires me, the woods, the beach, being outdoors.

As your career progresses, what do you hope to achieve’ Are there any particular artists or labels you hope to work with’

Yes, for sure, I’m a big fan of Slapfunk and FUSE London. The releases on both labels are always very good and different. On Slapfunk you can expect some housy and stripped down cuts and on FUSE it’s more a rolling vibe witch I’m a huge fan of. Playing at Sunwaves or Mioritmic would be a dream come true. Hopefully in a couple of years, I’m a patient guy.

After a successful first release, what’s next for Joren Edwards’ Anything in the pipe line we should be listening out for’ Any exclusives’

I’m playing in Belgium the 13th of April in Club Vaag (Antwerpen) after that I’m playing at Strafwerk during Kingsday so really looking forward to these two gigs. Next up release wise is a remix I did for Benson Herbert’s label MIRIAM which will be coming out end of May, I’ve got some more things coming up so keep an eye on my socials.

• FB: facebook.com/jorenedwardsdj
• Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/jorenedwards