Two level-headed guys from the south end of Holland. One name that’s all over today’s house scene. From the funky ‘I’m Going Down’, deep ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ and playful ‘On The Flow’ to the more recent Leon Bolier collabs ‘Ever Single Piece’ and ‘Lost & Found’, each Redondo production has found its way into the hearts and charts. Producer Loops hooked up with the talented duo of Freek Geuze and Johan Jacobse, and not just to chat…

Producer Loops: Hey guys, thanks for taking some time to meet us! How are you both doing?

Redondo: We’re great thanks!"

Producer Loops: We'd love to know where you’re both from and how you got into music, and how that resulted in a collaboration?

Redondo: We both come from the south of Holland, grew up together at high school, so we go way back. While lots of classmates were spending time with their Playstation 1, we started producing music and that ended up in many projects from 2010 onwards...

Producer Loops: Is there some sort of division between you two – or is every Redondo track produced together? Do you meet up in the studio, or swap projects?

Redondo: We have been producing together for around 15 years so there isn’t really a difference between something one of us started. We are not together in the studio so much, we mainly fire over ideas and the other one finishes them. Easy way to work cause sometimes you’re bored of a track and the other one gets super hyped to finish it.

Producer Loops: Lots of producers are perfectionists. At what moment do you consider a track to be finished?

Redondo: That differs every time. Sometimes when you make a club track you have to test it a couple of times, but when you make a radio track you want to show it to friends and the label and together decide what - for instance - the best arrangement should be. Technically you’re pretty much there, but there are a millions of ways to put it. In the end there should always be a moment when you say ‘that’s it, this is the final version’. Lots of released tracks could have been better, or worse, when nobody said ‘let’s roll, it’s a wrap’. At least you gotta have confidence in the track and the desire to put it online asap, even though you can’t always do that.

Producer Loops: How do you guys reflect on the very first Redondo release ever? Was it hard to get it signed back in 2010?

Redondo: Not really, because we were already working together with those labels, with different projects. We had a lot of contacts already. Though, with Redondo, we wanted to aim at a new market, so sometimes we had to work hard to get our tracks out there. Demo sending was never really the right way for us, it has always been a matter of knowing people from a club night or through a mutual friend.

Producer Loops: Fast forward to 2016 and Redondo’s become one of the biggest names in the house music genre. Is it a matter of hard work and releasing the right music? Or did you guys step in right in time for the deeper house sound to gain ground worldwide? Or a combination of both?

Redondo: The change of sound really came to us. When we produced ‘Love Too Deep’ it was June 2013 or something. Not really a time where this oldskool influenced house music was the next best thing in the charts. In the end it got licensed by Spinnin’ Records and the rest of the story is that we released lots of follow ups there. Most of them in a different direction though, we try not to focus on 1 style and preset only.

Producer Loops: These days, it looks as if everyone is jumping on board the deep-house and tropical house bandwagon. What do you think of all the competition out there? Is it overkill?

Redondo: There is an overkill for sure, but that’s what defines every hype. It’s a bigger problem that there are super talented guys out there but they don’t get heard because of the flood of crap that is also out there. When someone’s name is unknown it is easy to put it on the ‘crap’ pile, but you have to listen to it to discover. We have a label ourselves too, Witty Tunes, and it takes a lot of time to listen to demos. I’m not gonna say we listen to everything, cause that is almost undoable, but we try to listen most of it and every time you sign someone you didn’t know before you’re happy that you made the decision to actually listen carefully. Back in the day we signed Cuartero and MetodiHristov that way for example. Look at them now..

Producer Loops: The Redondo sound has always been stuck between techno, house and deep-house. What makes your tracks stand out as a typical Redondo tune, despite their diversity?

Redondo: Groove! We like to keep our drums and loops organic and not so electric. It’s hard to define it but give us the stems of something that is not from us and we make a Redondo groove out of it automatically. It’s in our veins probably.

Producer Loops: Speaking of diversity, how important is it to be open-minded as a producer?

Redondo: Very important. These days everything goes 4 times as fast. Boom, there’s a new release – aaaaand it’s gone. You gotta step up your game before people get bored of it. We always love it when a DJ or producer knows what he or she’s talking about when it comes to selecting records. We like to keep an eye on House, Deephouse, Techhouse but also some disco-ish stuff from an all-time hero like Fred Falkefor example. We just don’t wanna miss out on something. When we check a Beatport chart from someone and I only see their own productions and the top 4 on Beatport… come on. That’s not your job as a DJ.. explore stuff, go on a hunt for those rare grooves!

Producer Loops: You guys recently released another collab with Bolier, a long-time friend and very talented producer in his own right. What makes producing with Leon work so well?

Redondo: I guess our friendship at first, but also his skills in the studio. We know what he can do and he knows what we can do. Most of the times we end up having a great day and a crazy night out and make the initial collab via Skype by the way.

Producer Loops: Now, with us being a sample pack website, we’d love to know if you guys use any packs? Do you make them your own?

Redondo: Of course we use them. People who are against using samples are kind of fooling themselves. House music was born through old loops and mashing/editing them all up so end of story. Of course you gotta be able to combine that with your musical skills of course. We love the Riemann packages, super high quality sample packs in there. Also Rafa Barrios, Tom Middleton and Leftwing & Kody made some quality sample packs.

Producer Loops: Actually, we’ve giving away a little spoiler here…but there’s a Redondo sample pack in the making for our Producer Loops label! How is it coming along and what can we expect?

Redondo: It takes a lot more time than we expected, cause you are making it for others now. It is coming along nicely, but it takes some time to make it all sound useful.

Producer Loops: It can be quite a time-consuming process, to create a sample pack. What is the biggest challenge you guys are facing?

Redondo: The fact that you don’t wanna make it too ‘finished’, but on the other hand you gotta make it useful. You don’t want to block creativity by making a full drum loop with everything in it that can be put in a track and boom that’s it, but you also don’t want to make it too raw. We want people to think ‘this kick is great, I gotta make a track with it through the clap I got in this other pack’ for example.

Producer Loops: We can’t wait to hear the results! So, as our last question… What’s the most useful production tip you guys have got for aspiring producers?

Redondo: It may sound silly but: Look for the right sample. Don’t call it a day by just clicking some various stuff into a track. You don’t need to layer 3 bad claps. Just pick 1 great one. Or layer 3 great claps of course, nothing against layering. It also wouldn’t hurt to remake one of your favorite tracks. Just for your own use of course, but you’d be surprised how many tricks you can learn from actually listening so carefully that you can actually remake it.

More info on Redondo’s upcoming sample pack soon! Sign up for our 1GB Free Pack on the homepage and we will email you when the product is available.