Eric "Fender" van der Kwast @ Dance Music 101

Eric van der Kwast is the founder and CEO of TTTM / Talk To The Management, a boutique artist management company since 2011 and he also is a DJ under the alias “Eric Fender".

- Life: when was the moment you figured out that Dance Music was meant to you? 

In 1991, when I heard a radioshow called "For Those Who Like To Groove" on Dutch National Radio, it was a radio show that only played underground house and techno. Before that I was listening to synth and electronic pop music but these house and techno tracks from NYC, London, Berlin, Milan and especially Detroit and Chicago really got me hooked. 

- Laugh: when was the last time you had real fun? 

Must have been on Ibiza with a group of friends this summer, enjoying good food, drinks, sunshine and good quality underground house and techno! 

- Love: name the one thing you love more than anything – and why is that? 

Playing vinyl is still great to do, I have a nice collection of classic house and techno which is not available on any digital portal so these records are very valuable to me and always great to play, especially on a solid soundsystem with a rotary mixer (or Richie Hawtin's Model 1 mixer, that I tested recently).

- Past: name a significant moment in your career in Dance Music – and why is that?

In 2006 I was involved with the first releases of Fedde Le Grand, I remember the email he send me with "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" as an “.mp3”, it blew me away. The rest is history. Dutch house music and Dutch dj's became even more populair. In 2007, I started the Sneakerz MUZIK label with Dutch Dj Erick E and his business partner Dick Leijen who where running a booking agency that already organized the so called "Sneakerz" events, we worked together with Spinnin' on the distribution side. We did over 300 releases including succesfull hits by Sidney Samson, Franky Rizardo, Bingo Players, Bassjackers, Ralvero and so many more. I was looking for talents and we gave them the opportunaty to grow as producers and DJ's. It worked very well and was a very “exiting" couple of years.  

- Present: what do you think that is trending today in music, clubs and festivals?

There is so much new and fresh music, new styles and combinations of various genre's that make today's dance music spectrum, scene and industry very interesting. New markets open up, like in Asia, other markets like USA start to focus on American talent instead of international. It is a contant moving market. I think every country should have their own hero's in dance music, this creates a scene which only makes the genre to grow. Dutch DJ's and producers are still all over the globe and focus more on cross-over dance music aswell.   

- Future: where is industry heading in the years to come?

As the middleclass is growing in various bigger countries in Asia and South-America, demand for dance music and events will keep on growing. There will be more festivals with a greater variety of dance music , not only bigroom , future house or trance. In Europe and especially in The Netherlands we have a great festival season from April till September , with over 150 festivals with "dance" as the dominating genre. And with ADE as biggest get-2-gether of the global dance music industry it feels good to be Dutch and in the centre of dance music. I am expecting many years of growth in our industry.