Metronome #36: The Partysquad

Insomniac’s Metronome series features mixes from some of today’s fastest-rising electronic stars, as well as championed legends. It takes listeners deep across a wide range of genres, movements, cultures, producers, artists, and sounds that make up the diverse world of electronic music.

In the blink of an eye, everything changed for Dutch production duo the Partysquad. Yes, they’ve released hit tracks on every label imaginable, including Spinnin’ Records and Dim Mak, but they reached mass global appeal when they teamed up with Diplo and his Major Lazer crew on the worldwide smash hit “Original Don.” The game changed, and the Partysquad forever went down in electronic music history.

Musically, the Partysquad, Jerry Leembruggen and Ruben Fernhout, are all over the map, jumping genres throughout the years, from Dutch house with Afrojack via “A msterdamn” to disco house with Alvaro on “Lucky Star.” It’s all part of their “creative chaos” way of life, an ethos reflected in their equally noisy and sonically innovative Rebel Yard imprint.

Today, the duo adapts a grown-up approach to their party vibes with their latest single, “Bombshell” featuring vocalist Maikal X. The grandiose, reggae-driven bomb is fiery and powerful enough to serve as the official anthem for World War III. It’s the digital call to arms missing in electronic music today.

Whether exploring exotic genres or inventing new ones, the Partysquad continue to fuse multiculturalism and international diversity. On their Metronome mix, the Partysquad remain loyal to their one true sound: party music.

You gained success via your Dutch house tracks, but you’re breaking new ground with reggae-influenced music today. Those are two very different sounds. How did you come to this creative crossroads?
I think reggae music is the most powerful genre out there. Also, it is fun to mix reggae influences with not only house music, but with all types of music. We tried to do this in a way where we still respected the reggae genre. The first time was on our track “Murderer” on the Hollertronix #10 EP on Mad Decent.

Did Diplo have any influence on this change? Or was this something that came to you independently?
Diplo was really digging the crossover; that was the reason he wanted to release that EP. After that, we started working together on “Original Don” for Major Lazer, his project that he entirely built on reggae crossover influences.

How do you deal with fans that are unhappy with your new creative direction?
We think our fans understand what we do. It would be a much bigger transmission if we switched from house music to making operas or something. For now, it’s still party music and that’s what the Partysquad stands for.

Your new song “Bombshell” is very powerful, a call to arms so to speak. Music has the power to influence social change and create actual riots, but electronic music is silent in this regard, in my opinion. Do you agree or disagree?
We totally agree on the fact that it has the power to influence social change. Although the “Bombshell” lyrics might suggest differently, it has never been and will never be our intention to start riots with our music. Mostly, we are only about riots on the dancefloor. But while we talk about this song, I wanna add that sometimes we do wanna stir things up a little bit. We could’ve easily made a sweet video with crazy dimes, but instead we chose to work with the controversial Dutch director Teemong and just let him do what he does: stir things up. Upfront we can also grab this opportunity to tell the viewer that we mean no disrespect to anyone; it’s just craziness like anyone that knows Teemong’s work can expect from him. Be on the lookout for the video after the weekend.

Let’s talk about your label, Rebel Yard. What is the imprint’s way of life?
Rebel Yard is the record label on which we put out the most varied mix of music that we like, a creative playground for upcoming talent. Not only in terms of music producers, but we want to give everybody a platform on which they see a reflection of the rebel that’s deep inside them.

Much like Partysquad, the sound of Rebel Yard is all over the place. Is this all based on your “creative chaos” mentality?
You can pretty much say that, yes. But it’s a well-curated “creative chaos.” Our team lives up to get the most out of Rebel Yard as a creative platform. Next week, we are launching our new website, which will be much more than just the website of a record label. We recommend everybody to keep an eye out on www.rebelyard.com.

If a listener were to go through your music discography, they’d find a very diverse set of sounds. Is there ever a disconnect for fans caused by such diversity? Does this ever cause confusion for your old fans and listeners discovering your music now?
We actually never heard that back from our fans. Of course, nobody likes every single song of the artist that they are a fan of, but we think that every track that we put out there has that Partysquad sauce, whether if it’s a house track or a more reggae-influenced trap tune.

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