Arjuna Schiks is a talented producer from Amsterdam. His productions are amazing, with beautiful, warm and rich melodies. Besides being a producer, Arjuna is playing great energetic live-sets, which feature his own productions. The first time I met Arjuna was probably in Zaandam, at a performance our mutual friend Isis was doing there a couple of years ago. And I have enjoyed his company and performances ever since. Now I’m happy to be asking him some questions… Interview & photography Ilja Keizer.
Why did you start making music and what is your goal?
Music has been on my mind since I was a child. I was always doing my own radio-shows with ‘My First Sony’ haha. (wasn’t everybody doing this…) Still it never came across my mind I would be a composer / producer myself. It all really started out, with the now famous program called ‘Rebirth’ made by Propellerhead, a magnificent program featuring a ‘909’ and a ‘808’ drumcomputer and two ‘303’ synthesizers. It’s a simple program, but the sounds it is producing are the greatest.
Perre, a good friend of mine, gave it to me when I was around 15/16 years old. Since that moment, I started to be more and more addicted to composing. So getting back to the question why I am doing this, it’s simply because I love doing it!
The most important thing in music for me is to create sounds and melodies that come straight out of my heart. And to try to always be passioned about the things that I’m working on.
It’s difficult to say what my goal is, I guess that if you have reached your goal, you will automatically try and set a new one. For the moment my goal really is to get my records released internationally.
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What has been the road to your success?
Someone that has been very important for my musical career is Isis (dj Isis), a good friend of mine. She really pulled me out of my ‘cave’ and pushed me to get a go on with my music. So when I climbed out of my ‘cave’, I decided to join in the ‘Grote Prijs van Nederland 2007’ contest. I never expected to do very well, but reached the finals anyway. The year after I won the producers-contest ‘Vinylized‘, which gave me the chance to release my first vinyl-record (Afterbelle) on Isis’ ‘All is One’ record label. In this same year Willie Wartaal (DJVT) and me released the hit ‘Konijntje’, a track that doesn’t resemble my style very much, but it generated loads of publicity anyway. So that’s something I will always tell starting producers, join in contests and try and get as much publicity that you can get.
How is the ‘AKA the Junkies‘ project running anyway?
At this moment things have been at slow pace, we did some work on it, and finished a couple of tracks. But we really feel we need to release a full album instead of just a single track. The material is quite different from the ‘Konijntje’ track, vocals are in English and it has more of an underground feeling. We really want to release an album which shows all our skills and abilities.
Where do you see yourself, compared to other producers?
It’s difficult comparing yourself with all the other producers around, because everyone has his own sound, and the same counts for the style of performing.
There’s heaps of good releases at the moment and I’m happy and proud to be part of this scene. Although there’s a great deal of competition, I don’t see it that way at all.
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Do you remember when you first started making music?
I vaguely remember making my first beats with the ‘Rebirth’ program I mentioned before. I was just having fun at that moment, without having any real ambitions, but still I immediately got addicted to the program. The ambitions of creating and setting goals only started years later to be honest.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
There’s many moments in life I get my inspiration from, even when I’m unaware of it at the very moment. This probably counts for everyone.
Another thing inspiring me, is music I get from friends and artists. Isis is giving me new records regularly and listening to her latest mixes always gives me a lot of inspiration, which you can hear in the tracks I produce afterwise.
A specific artist which inspires me big-time lately is the German producer ‘Einmusik’, who’s creating the most beautiful things. The 16th of April the ‘Stalker’ (club) was celebrating his birthday, having the two of us performing live-sets.
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What music do you listen to yourself?
I love many different styles of music, as long as it’s good. While working on this interview, I’m actually listening to Coldplay’s debut-album, one of my favorite bands. I also like Fat Freddy’s Drop and Arctic Monkeys and lots of things I cannot remember the names of. 
Can you tell us what you have been working on lately?
A thing I have been doing lately is finishing and mixing old tracks, making them ready to be released. A track called ‘Smaragd’, which will be released on ‘Manual Music’ soon, is something I am very proud of. The funny thing about it is, that I have composed the track about five years ago and it took such a long while to release it. I did some work on it though because my production skills have grown over the years. Another track I’m working on is a remix of Isis’ track ‘Eenhoorn‘.
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Okay, time to put some music on…, thanks for the interview Arjuna!
Download Arjuna’s ‘We Are E mix’ at Soundcloud.
Upcoming gigs:
23rd of April, Club NL (Krakers together with Philip Young) / Amsterdam
29th of April, Twstd Queensnight special (outdoor) / Amsterdam
30th of April, Queensday P.KING / Amsterdam
5th of June, Dik (Catwalk) / Rotterdam
12t of June, All IS One Festival (Ruigoord) / Amsterdam
20th of June, We Are E on the beach / Bloemendaal (woodstock)
15th of July, Kranck / Utrecht
24th of July, Freshtival/ Enschede
07th of August, Welcome To The Future / Amsterdam
14th of August, Loveland Festival / Amsterdam
Upcoming releases:
Smaragd will be released on MANUAL MUSIC and there’s a Franklin Reeves remix coming on the 90 Watts label. There’s more coming, including the Eenhoorn remix, but I don’t know anything about the release dates.
Website: www.myspace.com/arjunaschiks
Bookings: booking@wearee.nl / www.wearee.nl
How come the Indian name?
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