Boys and girls, this Truancy Volume is a very special one. The guys behind it, TWR72 (real names Roger van der Zwan and Tom Doorschodt), are two of the most exciting producers on the block right now and have a lot in store for the near future. On top of that they are also the first Amsterdam-based DJ’s/producers featured in the Truancy Volume series, and it’s about time! With a name change from The Walk and Rogerseventytwo to TWR72 last year, came a change of focus from DJ’ing to producing. A shift we applaud, and although these guys definitely know how to handle the decks we can assure you their live show is something completely different and fresh. Two releases to their name in 2010, a remix on Sound Pellegrino, all the big cats in the game supporting them, airplay on BBC1 and some amazing gigs throughout Europe – last year has been good to them, and this year will undoubtedly be even better.

TRUANCY VOLUME 22: TWR72 has been aired on Boris Dlugosch’s radio show over weekend. It’s just a little bit over an hour and consists a lot of goodies by the guys themselves, preferably to be played as loud as you can (although Tom begs to differ). TWR72 proved that not only we can rely on them for relationship advice, but we can also expect them to deliver us hyphy mixes from time to time. We caught up with them both, and asked them about the past, the present and the future. While reading make sure to stream their mix below, or on Mixcloud, or download the file here. Also, if any of you are in need of relationship, medical and/or accommodation advice from the guys, send our editors an e-mail and we’ll make sure to forward it their way.

Well, hello! Last year has been treating you guys very well. How do you look back on it, and what do you have in store for us this year? Last year was great for us! In 2009 we were already busy with producing a lot of tracks together. Then, in the beginning of 2010, we signed at Instant Replay and released our first EP, Shock. That one was a bit different from the style we have today, but it was a great start. In the summer we released our second EP, Tunnel/Schizophrenia, which attained huge reactions from all the big shots in the scene. That was a big honour for us! Just like winning the “Dinosaurs with Guns” remix contest. Next to that we were preparing for a live show, which was a dream for us, making people dance with our own tracks only. Because we aren’t virtuous on any instrument (we play every instrument a little bit), we decided we needed something extra. So we came up with a special visual show that is synced with our set, but is still dynamic; we can influence it. This year we want to release more EP’s, we are busy with a lot of new stuff, and do more remixes. Besides that we want to play with our live set throughout the country and at every self-respecting festival. What do you hope to achieve in the next 12 months? We hope to keep progressing like we’ve started last year and grow even further in the scene where we belong internationally. The biggest achievement would be to release a single (or remix) at a well-established label and to perform our live-set at a big festival.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you guys work together dynamically? Working in a duo can be really difficult if you don’t know each other very well and if you can’t say everything. We know each other for more then 15 years and it works great. We do a lot of things separately but always come together to put everything in place. For example, we both have to feel good about a track before we will do something with it. Next to working with each other, we also cooperate with a lot of other people. Steie does a lot of the designing for us, and with our live show we had help from Alexander and Bob.

Do you prefer DJ’ing or doing your live show? Difficult decision, but I think we have to say doing our live show. We have been DJ’ing together for almost 7 years now and it still is fun every time. Sometimes you really have to work hard to reach the people with your music. And when it works out in the end, that’s a great feeling. We learned a lot in those 7 years and we keep on learning more every gig. But performing live gives a different feeling. We only play our own tracks so we really open up ourselves to the crowd. That’s why we are always quite nervous before every show. If they love it, it’s fantastic. But if they hate it, that will give the worst feeling in the world. Luckily it was always fantastic! What has been your most memorable gig to date? One of he best DJ gigs for us was at Lowlands festival, where we played in front of 8000 people! And recently we had a great gig at the Sound Pelegrino party in Barcelona. The vibes were really good and we were really satisfied with our set.

What has been the inspiration behind the track listing for this mixtape? At the moment we are into a sound we can’t really define. It’s somewhere between techno, electro and minimal. Same as our productions. It doesn’t belong into the ‘real’ techno sound, but it’s also not electro or minimal. In our mixtape we tried to made a selection which overlaps all these sounds but still comes together as one. It’s also the way we mix the tracks together. It’s not the standard way, we always try to create a new piece of music during the transition of 2 or 3 tracks. What’s the perfect setting to blast the mixtape to? We think it will fit the best in a club, but… on your headphones it will be pretty amazing as well. Just make sure you put your volume up. But not too loud (that’s what Tom advices).

Do you have a last piece of advice to share with us? Well, we can give any sort of advice. Tom can give you amazing medical advice. Roger can advise you in searching the best vacation accommodations which he always does for his friends, but also in mixing and producing music of course, but that also counts for Tom. And if you ever have relationship problems, you can knock on our door.