Did you ever take a good look at the person sitting next to you in class and think “Well, he looks like a person I’d like to join on a world tour and rave up the biggest festivals with”? That must’ve been a passing thought in either Ruben or Victor’s head as over the years ex-classmates managed to trade the classroom for headlining spots at Ultra and countless other festivals across the globe. This spring sees Vicetone finally releasing a whole body of work in the form of their Aurora EP, which sees the Dutch duo exploring every corner of progressive house. We caught up with the chatty guys to see how they approach making music, how often they bring family on tour and whether Doodle Jump is the best way to suffer though any interview (spoiler: it is).

How are you, where are you and what are you up to?

Ruben: Right now we’re both in our separate studios in Holland.

Victor: Spending a week in our hometown Groningen on the north of Holland before going back to America.

Does it get hard going back and forth between your home and America?

Victor: You get used to it. And it’s always nice to see you family. My sister’s coming over and my grandma’s coming over, so it makes it a bit easier. This feels like home and LA feels like home, too.

Ruben: And the food! If you grew up in Holland, nothing beats the local Dutch food. But there are some things we miss about LA: weather, having our own place, better studios and stuff.     

Do you actually invite your grandmothers to see your shows?

Victor: She’s 82 now, but she saw the live show on YouTube. We recorded our Ultra set in Miami and we put it online, so my family watched it. In August we had a gig in the south of France and I invited my whole family and she came as well.

Ruben: Last summer we were playing a festival near Amsterdam called Dance Valley. I took my family there. It was really fun. We don’t have a lot of opportunity to take them, but every time we do, we invite them over. And my parents like to have holidays in Florida, so they specifically booked the trip so that they can see us play Ultra. They went to pool parties with us and saw us DJing. It was very fun.

Do they give you any parental remarks?

Ruben: They just love what we do.

Victor: My mom might be 56, but she’s really into dance music, ‘cause it’s always blasting on the Dutch radio. So she loves it and she also loves the stuff that we make. Sometime she makes remarks about our live sets: if we didn’t play a specific track or if the transition was too long. It’s good to have her opinion. I don’t know too many people her age who love dance music as much as she does.

How did you two meet and decide to start making music together?

Ruben: We met when we were having the first class of the year when we were 15. We had an economy class and it was a completely new class. We didn’t know each other but sat next to each other and became friends over that school year. We were exchanging music and stuff. Even in our college years we stayed friends. Once I built my studio he was the only person I knew who was also knew the production side of music. And I had nobody to share it with, so I called him up and he stayed over for 5 days straight just making music. That’s how we knew we were destined to do that. In some weird way we just work very well together.

So that economy class never came handy career-wise, huh?

Ruben: At the time I was studying international business and management, which was pretty good. It was all in English which really helped me speak the language better. But I was very miserable whenever I had to go to a class and couldn’t do music. So we had to follow our guts.

Victor: It went so fast. We started around 2012. I had one more test to make so I could pause my studying. But we were already planning a tour in America. So eventually I had to cancel that class to go on tour. So now I have to continue with the music, ‘cause I don’t have the plan B anymore.

What took you so long to release an EP? Were you waiting for the right moment?

Ruben: We were very focused on the track-after-track strategy. But after a while, we had too much music laying around that we couldn’t release as a single for a number of reasons. Number one, it would take too long: we make a lot more music than just 12 singles a year. So we wanted to release a bigger package. And then some tracks aren’t suited to become big singles. So the EP gave us the opportunity to get a little more creative and release tracks that are a little different.

One of the singles is called “Bright Side,” but is there a dark side to DJing?

Ruben: It’s funny that you’re asking this today [the interview took place on March 29]. Today Tim Berg/Avicii announced he’s stopping touring for a while for health and personal reason. We don’t want to sound like downers, ‘cause we do love what we do. But a lot of people don’t understand that the bigger you are (like Avicii), the tougher it may get for you when you’re on the road. You don’t see your friends and family for months. You basically live in hotel rooms and on airplanes. When you’re leading that lifestyle, it’s very easy to neglect your health: stop eating healthy, stop exercising, let the jet leg get the best of you… That’s the dark side to this very amazing job that we’re lucky to have. You go to USA, Asia and Europe all in one month. It starts to take its toll on your body.

Victor: You do need to take some time off to have that period when you’re calm and have normal schedule. We took January and February off for studio and it recharged our bodies. And we made a lot of new music.

How do you survive the road?

Ruben: We barely drink at all. We don’t smoke and don’t do drugs. And that’s already a great start to keep your head sane and stay healthy on the road. We try to get as much sleep as we can. We take disco naps before the gigs. And eat healthy. We wouldn’t feel that good if we were eating McDonald’s in every city we get to! So we’re always energetic for a gig and give better performances.

What’s your craziest on tour memory?

Ruben: I remember right after our set at Electric Zoo two or three years ago, it started to thunderstorm like crazy to the point where the festival got cancelled and people were evacuated. It was raining so hard that all the artists had to wait in that little tent before getting out. We were just happy we could play our set.

Victor: The craziest in the sense of proud moments was playing main stage at Ultra last year. We made the anthem for Ultra 2014 called “United We Dance.” When we played it on main stage, we saw all the reactions from people singing along and applauding—they all knew the track from the aftermovie. That was probably the proudest moments of all of our sets.

What’s the worst thing that can happen when you play live? You know, besides thunderstorm.

Ruben: Pressing the ‘CUE’ button when the track is still playing, which means that the track will abruptly stop. It hasn’t happened for two years now and—knock on wood—it won’t. But it did happen two or three times when started DJing. It’s the classic DJ mistake.

I’ve seen you giving producing lessons on YouTube. Do you watch any tutorials yourself to improve your skills?

Ruben: We certainly pick some things up online. Like if we have a new synthesizer, we most definitely look up tutorials on YouTube and the manual. We’re constantly learning new things.

Victor: The nice thing about this job is that you never stop learning.

Ruben: Sometimes you hear a new track from Skrillex and go “How the hell did he come up with that sound?”. And—boom!—you’re on a new quest to learn something.

What are your ultimate all-time favorite dance records?

Ruben: The one that springs to mind is “Adagio for Strings” by Tiesto. “Don’t You Worry Child” by Swedish House Mafia. “Pjanno” by Eric Prydz.

Victor: All these melodic tracks mostly from the Swedes. “Call On Me” by Eric Prydz. I’m just looking on my phone – got all these classic dance tracks.

So you made a track for League Of Legends. Are you big video games fans?

Ruben: We don’t play League of Legends, but we do play other ones. We don’t have much free time, but there’s always a little bit of time you can find to play a video game. With League we know the basics of that universe, but we’re too afraid to start: it would probably take over our lives.

Any cool phone apps you’re using all the time?
Ruben: Doodle Jump. I’m playing it right now. I’m not joking. For some reason I like to distract myself with that game, so I can think clearly. It’s not like I’m not listening. It’s just a very relaxing game. I’m still listening and still giving answers, right?

I wouldn’t even know you were playing!

Ruben: I remember the first time I did it with my girlfriend when she was talking, she got a bit annoyed. But then I explained to her that I always do that. So now she’s like “Why aren’t you playing Doodle Jump?”