From: The Netherlands
DJ style: “Big room house, trance.”
Best known for: “Energetic sets, music, and our NWYR project.”
Fave tune of 2018: “Armin van Buuren ‘Blah Blah Blah’.”
Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2018: “Maurice West.”

W&W have been on a real musical journey. They started out making trance, then veered more towards electro and big room. But in the last year or so they’ve somewhat gone back to their trance roots with a new project, as well as completely rebranding their entire label and radio show.

“We felt like our time with Mainstage was coming to an end and was too focused on only being a label,” say the pair, aka Willem van Hanegem and Wardt van der Harst.“Rave culture is an entire movement, which encapsulates all genres of dance music. We want to make everyone who raves feel welcome and a part of the community.”

Also this year the pair started their first full production world tour, Year Of The Dragon (because they’re born in 1988, Chinese year of the dragon). It sees them play two sets — one as W&W and another as NWYR, which is where they go back to their trancey roots. “Last year we experimented with a more Euro-dance kind of sound,” they say. “But we always want to keep pushing ourselves to do new things.”

Words: KRISTAN J CARYL