Words by Art Jefferson
Photography by Mark Hoogeveen courtesy of Eelke Kleijn
Eelke Kleijn isn’t your average, run-of-the-mill electronic producer, he’s truly a composer. Having studied piano since the age of 12, his production is ripe with lush instrumentation whether it be husky tech or melodic deep house. Embraced by the likes of Pete Tong and Fatboy Slim, just to name a few, the Rotterdam native has released original records and remixes on Global Underground, Ultra, Toolroom, EMI, Spinnin’, Eskimo and more (including his imprint Outside The Box), with acts ranging from Nadia Ali to Benny Benassi and John Legend all being officially reworked by the musical wizard.
Stepping outside of the traditional electronic music circuit, Eelke Kleijn has also composed scores for movie Hollywood trailers, television series and adverts including Rush, Parker and This Means War, as well as clients ranging from Nike to T-Mobile.
Already having a firm relationship with Mark Knight’s Toolroom Records, Eelke Kleijn has returned to the label to mix the latest edition of the Toolroom Live series along with Prok & Fitch, as well as Boris. What listeners can expect, similar to his previous recordings, is not just a set to move the dance floor, but to take them on an all-out voyage.
You are known for the intricate compositions within your music. Does this love of composing stem back to your childhood of studying piano?
Eelke Kleijn – For as long as I can remember I’ve always had a thing for melodic music. Often when I sit in the studio, a melody is one of the first things I come up with. And that definitely has to do with sitting behind the piano and just improvising. I love rhythmic music as well, but melodies just have a way of really touching your soul.
Growing up in Rotterdam, I would imagine that you were exposed to many sounds circulating around the city. Not only is Holland a big electronic hub in Europe, but what many people outside of the Netherlands may not know is that Rotterdam is also one of the biggest Hip-Hop cities in the entire country. What sort of sounds influenced you to create music?
Eelke Kleijn – To be honest I was mostly influenced by electronic music. I actually hated Hip-Hop when I was growing up! But that has changed in the past 10 years, nowadays I am much more open to different sounds and styles. There is something good to find in each kind of music, you just have to be open for it.
There is a level of romanticism in some of your tracks, in particular I’m thinking of songs such as ‘A Tale of Two Lovers’, ‘Mistakes I’ve Made’ and even to a degree, ‘Lovely Sweet Divine’. When did you develop this love of what I would call “passion music” and was that something that you always wanted to incorporate into electronica?
Eelke Kleijn – Especially on my second artist album Untold Stories you can hear me experimenting a lot with melody, but I think it was also there already on the first one. I’ve always loved melody and even though that sometimes makes a track harder to play in a club kind of setting, music isn’t always about clubs. It’s also about chilling at home, listening in the car or on headphones. And those are perfect moments for some more romanticism in electronica!
You’re no stranger to the Toolroom brand, releasing various records on the label. How did that relationship initially come about with Mark Knight and the company?
Eelke Kleijn – My relationship started after Toolroom took up ‘Onderhuids’ for release back in 2013, but I’ve always been a fan of the label and throughout the years I played a lot of the music in my DJ sets. I met Mark at BPM in Mexico as well as a few festivals here in the Netherlands, after which we started talking about doing some more music for Toolroom. Really good to be a part of the family!
You have contributed a selection to the Toolroom Live 02 compilation, which by the way is a great mix. It surely has your lush imprint all over it. Talk about the idea and sound that you wanted to convey with the new compilation.
Eelke Kleijn – Well first things first, it’s a Toolroom Live album so I thought it should convey my live sound. But that doesn’t mean it should be all techno and drums.
Some of that romanticism we were talking about earlier, I was really keen on capturing that vibe as well because it’s such a big part of my sound. I’m not really a DJ that plays the same vibe for hours, I love variation and mixing up sounds and styles, and I thought that shine through on this CD. But most importantly, I wanted this to be a mix that will still be interesting after a few listens and hopefully also after a few years!
Another one of your claims to fame is film scoring, which judging by your musical heritage seems inevitable. When approaching a film or advert project, how difficult or easy is it for you to mentally and creatively switch from crafting songs for the dance floor to a sound more specific to that particular film?
Eelke Kleijn – Sometimes when I’ve been touring for a few weeks it does take another mind set to get into film scoring. Not just inspiration wise, but also in terms of mixdown and sound. Scoring for film with orchestral sounds requires a completely different mix from dance music, so often it takes me a day or so to really get into it again. The amount of melancholy in melodies and the like are different as well, the 2 worlds don’t always combine well. So it can take a bit of time to really settle back into one or the other. I like to work on projects for a few days, sometimes even weeks at a time so you don’t have to go back and forth all the time.
I know that you are doing loads of shows and festivals throughout the summer. Can you let us in on any forthcoming projects that you’re
working on?
Eelke Kleijn – Currently in Australia for a tour. Then I have a big tour in Argentina coming up again in May. Always one of my favourite places to play, and this time I am really glad to play all 5 major cities in 1 tour. Then with Before.Now.After (Arjuna Schiks, Miss Melera, Olivier Weiter and me) we are also playing a couple of festivals this summer in the Netherlands, not all of which I can announce yet but Loveland will be one of them. I am also going back to the USA for another tour, and will be playing around Europe regularly. Plenty of stuff to look forward to for me!!
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