“The music brings people together I guess.”

Described as a cry from the wilderness bringing you onot the dance floor making you forget all but the sounds, Bizzey, Jim Aasgier and Nizzle, three guys from Amsterdam, Netherlands, are known as Yellow Claw. With a number of chart-topping hits and collaborations with everyone from Mad Decent founder, Diplo, to DJ Snake, Tyga, and Iggy Azalea it’s no wonder the guys were discovered while throwing crazy parties back in 2010

Interview and Photography by Mike Greene

Mike: You guys are from Amsterdam and travel the world doing what you love. What’s the biggest insight you’ve gained about culture and the places you’ve seen?

Nils: The biggest insight.. I think that’s almost impossible to say. We’ve been blessed to encounter so many continents, and you notice in every country there’s something you like and remember. For instance in Asia, we love their food; in the states we have a couple of cities that we love exploring and seeing the architecture of; and also Europe it gets really cold and rainy but it can be beautiful. We just visited Sweden and Stockholm too. Dead cold but great vibes.

Mike: What about the people you’ve encountered during your travels?

Leo: I think it’ really cool that you can visit a country like for Australia for instance and meet some cool people, then you’ll leave for a year and come back and just hang out with those folks again and it’s all good. We’re basically make friends everywhere we go. It’s cool that way.

Nils: We’ve met people from Russia and Africa and you end up talking about music – kicks, snares and hi hats – and sneakers (laughs). The music brings people together I guess.

Mike: Have you guys heard the term six degrees of separation?

Leo: Yea. It’s how we’re all connected.

Mike: Do you think there’s a difference in creating music that will gain popularity in Amsterdam versus here in the states or elsewhere?

Leo: Besides language, no. A banger of a record will be a banger everywhere.

Mike: What was it like growing up as producers in Amsterdam? Where did your love of music stem from?

Nils: I think that answer is different for the three of us. We all come from different backgrounds but the common thing is that we were all attracted to this one side of music, the electronic 75 BPM flew over from the UK and that’s what got us together.

“Everytime we approach something differently there’s a different output than what we started with. It keeps things really interesting.”

Mike: What was the underground scene in Amsterdam like? Was there an underground?

Leo: Absolutely. That started out with the early house stuff like 2Unlimited for instance.

Nils: Still now, there’s a lot of underground stuff going on. I believe techno and hardcore stuff still does really well over there. To me those are two scenes that will never rise to the top and will never get onto the radio, it’s all about those huge parties. Every party thrown, the same crowd kinda always shows up you know.

Mike: Where did you guys fall within those two scenes?

Nils: Nowhere to be honest. Hahaha.

Mike: Was there anyone, for either of you, that got you started in music? A family member, friend, etc?

Leo: My parents had a record store. I’m born in a record store.

Nils: My parents put me in music classes from a young age, and my love grew from there. I played 6 to 7 years of piano.

Mike: Was there any particular musician from your childhood, that you or your parents listed to, that affected the way you produce? Was there anyone you tried to mimic?

Leo: For me it was mostly Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfielnd, Endya. A lot of motown.

Mike: So a lot of groove, funk, and old school R&B

Nils: In my early DJ years I loved to play Madonna and Whitney Houston (laughs)

Mike: Are you dropping any of that tonight?

Nils: Ah yes! How did you know? It’s going to be a 60 minute special… (starts singing Whitney Houston “I’m gon make it anyway”)

“To me techno and hardcore stuff are two scenes that will never rise to the top and will never get onto the radio, it’s all about those huge parties.”

Mike: Fast forward a few years, and how did all of this evolve into the start of “Yellow Claw Thursdays”?

Leo: They basically just called me and said “Yo, there’s one open thursday every month” for which I replied, cool I’ll check it out. I called Jim and then we did this. That’s it. We always played sets for an hour plus and over there we would play for hours on end. It gave us a lot of room to experiment and play weird instrumentals no one knew. If you have an instrumental you can fill in the words and see what works.

Mike: I’m glad you brought up experimentation because each of your songs have a different style to them. Do you feel that by not sticking to a specific genre you’re able to see what works and experiment with your productions?

Nils: Every way you look at something from every perspective, it’s a totally different gateway, for instance from 150 BPM to 160 BPM there are differences in each. Everytime we approach something differently there’s a different output than what we started with. It keeps things really interesting.

Mike: How do you all collaborate together since there’s 3 of you? Do you all work together seamlessly or do you focus on individual aspects?

Leo: We have 3 separate studios, two in one room and one separate. We send stuff back and forth and most of the time we send each other back and forth and we’ll provide feedback. In the end though we all have to like it together. It pushes us to another level because we all look forward to creating but it’s exciting when the positive feedback leads to something better.

Mike: What’s something you’ve learned with collaborating with so many external people? Diplo, Pusha T, etc.

Nils: Every producer has their own way of working and it’s interesting to see how that works. Even something like seeing somebody use Ableton since we use Fruity Loops it’s interesting to see what a producer does with the specific functionalities those programs come with. We also did writing session in LA with really talented songwriters which was of great inspiration to Leo.

Mike: So what was the process like this time for “Blood for Mercy”?

Nils: Normally we make music for the clubs. This time we could be a little bit more adventurous. That was really fun to do.

Leo: It’s basically the sum of the past 5 years but evolved. Better and more advanced in a way. We didn’t want to make the mistake of creating an album with sounds people have never heard from us.

Mike: It’s your evolution from the ground up.

Nils: Exactly. We’re proud of how it turned out.