Dutch duo Fouk return with ‘Sundays,’ a record that marks a bold shift from their dance-floor foundations into a richer, more song-focused world. Speaking on the eve of their release for Boogie Angst, they reflect on their creative evolution, the collaborations that shaped the project, and the personal moments that continue to influence their sound. What follows is an open, nostalgic, and deeply human conversation with two artists who have grown up together — musically and personally — and are still finding new ways to surprise themselves.
WWD: Welcome to When We Dip! How are we today?
Thanks for having us! We are doing well, we’re in a nice creative flow with our music, and we’re enjoying the busy family life next to making music.
WWD: We are talking to you on the eve of your new release on Boogie Angst. How are you feeling about this launch?
We are super excited about this EP. We are very curious about what people think, as this EP feels like a new chapter in our musical growth. It took quite a while to get the EP finished, from instrumental to the finished collaborations. It has been a really cool journey for us!
WWD: This release moves away from your normal dance output. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes, it does. We’ve always flirted with song structures in our club-based music. It was never just house music that we made. We do a lot of crossover from disco, funk, soul, and everything that inspires us. But this record is even more song-based essentially, something you can listen and sing along to instead of being focused on the dancefloor. That doesn’t mean they won’t do well in a club setting though — that is still in our DNA. 😉
WWD: It’s reminiscent of New York. Maybe it’s the remix talent. What do you think about the vibe?
We love that vibe, as we are very much inspired by those styles of music that came before us and shaped us. So yes, it’s definitely a New York disco / post-disco / new wave vibe. That became more pronounced once we started collaborating with the other artists on each song. Especially on ‘Tune It Out’ and ‘Reverie,’ and it helps that The Phenomenal Handclap Band and 79.5 are based in New York 😉 So you’re right on the money with the New York sound haha! And with Archil & Leon we have the French influence — it suits the song so well!
We started out with the instrumentals that we’d written, then we got in touch with the artists we collaborated with as the songs needed strong vocals. And maybe something more than that — we were very open to input from them if they felt like adding or changing something in the arrangement and instruments/fx. Which is the best thing about the collaborative process: the exchange of creative ideas.
WWD: Is this the first time you have worked with BA?
No, we’ve made a couple of remixes of Kraak & Smaak over the years on Boogie Angst. We’ve known them for quite a while now. We’ve always had the idea of doing original music for them, and these songs were the perfect fit.
WWD: Let’s go back to when you first got together. What was the initial spark?
We met in high school. We loved to nerd out about games (fond memories of playing GTA 2 in the attic of our parents’ houses), fiddling with electronic circuits, or watching movies and just hanging out together with Daniel’s older brother as well. The trance sound was big at that time, and we bonded over that — buying our first decks and a lot of records followed after. I guess we were about 15 years old. After that, we wanted to find out how these tracks were produced, and the first tracks were born after a period of trial and error. It would be fun to revisit those first projects if we can find them!
WWD: When you first started making music together, was there a track that marked your production beginnings / that inspired you to make the music that you make today?
After we started listening to big-room trance music in the beginning, this is what pulled us into the deeper stuff. This was in the heyday of the Global Underground UK progressive house sound — end of the 90s, early 2000s. (Special mention: Sasha – Xpander.) We listened to James Holden and his Border Community a lot! (Listen to his remixes of Britney Spears’ Breathe On Me, the dub especially — such a jam!
We got in touch with the more soulful, deeper house music a few years later. That started with us being huge Jimpster fans and everything that came out on Freerange. (Jimpster’s album Amour comes to mind.) And there’s so much more! Sorry — we got pulled into memory lane a bit, so we provided more tracks than you asked us to!
WWD: Who were the producers at that time who were making you sit up and listen?
As we mentioned, we were big-time into the Global Underground progressive sound from back in the day: Sasha, John Digweed, Deep Dish, Sander Kleinenberg, Timo Maas, Satoshi Tomiie, James Holden, Nathan Fake.
But the French Touch has always had our love as well since its popularity when we were in high school: Daft Punk, Alan Braxe & Fred Falke, Cassius, and all their other monikers/collabs.
When we moved on to the deep house sound: Jimpster, Shur-I-Kan, Milton Jackson, Manuel Tur — with us discovering artists like Moodymann, Andrés, and MCDE soon after. It has been a journey and it still is!
WWD: When you started out back in the day, did you have a vision of what sort of music you wanted to make?
Atmospheric, deep, and melodic progressive trance music. Really different from what we do today. Although it’s still melodic and deep — just a different context.
WWD: Does that musical vision remain the same today?
Maybe not exactly haha if you compare it to what we make today. Although sometimes little hints of what we made come back in our productions — especially in some of our later ones.
The overall love we have for making music and having fun is the main thing that remains. Our interests have never been focused on singular things — we love a broad range of music. The love for groove, funk, and house has always been there, but it only got to the surface of what we did later on in our journey.
WWD: What advice would you give to a young self about the music industry?
Stay true to yourself, don’t believe the hype. The hype will end — keep doing what you love and don’t get sucked into doing what’s popular or the fact that you’re playing primetime and have to make music that fits that time. Keep that flame alive from when you started out doing all this, even if it feels hard sometimes. We’re not saying we are past all those feelings, like self-doubt from comparing ourselves to others — it’s still a rollercoaster at times. But we’re older now, and because of our experiences we can place those darker feelings a bit better.
WWD: What was the first track Fouk put out?
As Fouk: Cat Lady
As 3 Colours vs. Junktion: Spring of Day (can’t find a direct link as this has disappeared online unfortunately!
WWD: Which of the records you produced do you think made the biggest mark for Fouk?
Coconuts (Heavy On The Bacon), Kill Frenzy (Kill Frenzy EP), and Cat Lady (First Things First EP). Those catapulted us onto the scene and opened many doors. They gave us the opportunity to travel and play our music around the world! Sorry — we couldn’t pick just one 😉
WWD: There’s got to be a record that you felt was brilliant and went under the radar. Is there one we should check out?
Belaire – Ride It (Fouk Remix)
We are still very happy with how this disco song with upbeat vibes turned out. Unfortunately, when it came out it did not get the attention it deserved, so this is our pick for this question.
WWD: As a duo that has been working the scene for a while now, you will have seen some changes over the years. What aspects of what you do have remained the same and what aspects have become fundamentally different?
The rise of mobile phones and social media has changed so much about the music scene. When we started, there still was a semblance of naivety about social media — it brought us in touch with our fan base. Right now it sometimes feels more like a blasé “dance monkey, dance,” if you know what we mean (haha just realised that’s a quote from the movie Zoolander). This subject has been talked to death already, but that for us was the biggest change. Also the feeling that you are never in a free space to just dance and not worry when you’re out dancing. It’s good that clubs have been banning phone use more and more.
We like doing those in-the-studio snippets we post on our socials though. It’s a means of communication with your fans. There are so many forms of communication nowadays that it’s just not possible to reply to every message we get — sometimes things slip through. It can be a bit overwhelming.
Still, a lot has remained the same — like sharing the musical love together in clubs and at festivals with great like-minded people. Being together and just vibing in sync to the same music is the best feeling!
WWD: What inspires you guys to make music?
The past, the present, life generally. We get inspired by people around us, traveling, reading, and relaxing. There’s a lot of beauty in the small things. We’re dads now, so we have families of our own. That opens up a whole new world of love and inspiration. It’s so cool to pass on that inspiration to your little ones.
WWD: Where do you dig for new music?
All over — from our colleagues in music, digging in the record bins. We receive a lot of promos nowadays (in quite a wide range of electronic genres), and it can be very much like digging because it can be hard to find the really good stuff.
WWD: Was there a particular inspiration for this new EP?
Writing more song-based music not necessarily made for a primetime dancefloor or club. Still, it’s very much tied to what we do, but we wanted to be free of our regular way of working and see what came out of it. When starting on writing these songs, they were created very spontaneously — they just flowed from our minds. We didn’t know which direction to take them initially, so they weren’t finished until a few years later.
WWD: How did you go about selecting the collaborators?
We sparred with Wim from Boogie Angst a lot about vocalists/artists that we love and would suit the instrumentals we had written. Then got in touch with them, and it all went from there.
Unfortunately, there was no budget to travel back and forth to be in the studio together, so we sparred virtually. That was also a good thing — they got to create in their own bubble initially without worrying about stepping on any creative toes.
WWD: Are there ever personal events in your lives that influence the music and its direction?
Of course — we are influenced by our feelings, and with that comes our inspiration for making music. So certain life events like becoming dads, deaths in the family, love, health issues — everything makes a mark on our mindset when creating. Life events or difficult things change or fade over time, so the music we make can be kind of a snapshot of how we felt at the time we made it.
WWD: You named this EP ‘Sundays’ and after many listens, we can feel what you mean about spilling over from the weekend. Quite a feeling to capture. How and when did that occur to you to encapsulate in a song?
To be honest, the lyrics came after. They were written by Archil & Leon. We wrote the instrumental titled ‘Sundays’ with that lazy, laid-back feeling. It’s super cool A&L managed to capture and also feel that vibe of the track in the lyrics and vocals.
The weekend can often feel like a totally different world compared to the rush and haze of the rest of the week. It’s your own bubble to recharge, and you miss that sense of peace. So you can’t wait for the weekend to begin again and to be in that bubble with the people you love.
WWD: What upcoming artists do you think are making great music right now?
Gareth Donkin — this guy’s on fire and has a new album on the way. And from The Netherlands: Makèz. Love what the guys have been doing. They’re shooting stars in our eyes!
WWD: What is the most recent record you purchased?
Kareem Ali – Renewal EP (On My Heart is amazing). It’s house, it’s deep, and it’s soulful — what more do you need?
WWD: If the world was a massive Monopoly board, who would you send straight to jail and who would you give a get out of jail free card?
Good question. There are so many people wrecking the world right now that it’s impossible to pick just one. We live in Europe, so if we look to the east there’s an asshole (or multiple) wrecking the world, and if we look to the west there’s another asshole (or multiple) wrecking the world. It feels like the world has gone mad.
Our get-out-of-jail-free card would go to the poor people that have been wrongly imprisoned without any trial/process by ICE. But that same thought applies to anyone being oppressed essentially.
WWD: Is there anything else you would like to talk/tell about?
The ‘Sundays’ EP feels like a really good path to continue to explore musically next to our house output. So expect more music like this from us in the future!
WWD: What can we hope to see next from Fouk?
There are a couple of house tracks coming up that’ll be on separate celebratory compilation releases. People have been asking about them as we posted snippets when we made them. The response was amazing, so can’t wait to have them finally out there.
We’re also working on a couple of remixes and edits. Can’t say much at the moment, but this year will be fun!
WWD: When you are both not making excellent music, what might we find you doing?
Daniel: In my spare time I love to cook, and I love to tinker away with electronic circuits. I recently built a replica of the SSL G-Bus compressor.
Hans: As I’ve turned my hobby into my job, I’ve had to find other things to do in my spare time. Doing things with my family takes up a lot of time nowadays. I love building Lego with my son, and I’ve started building adult Lego sets (such a cliché I know hahaha), which is something that relaxes me a lot. I can get a bit stressed out quickly, and the influence it has on my body isn’t so great. So getting to relax and finding my own quiet spot is very valuable. I read a lot of books, and a lot of those are fantasy books. Been reading that genre since I was in high school, so yeah — I’m a bit of a nerd haha. I’ve always loved to draw and paint as a child, so I’d love to pick that up again. Did you know I used to work as a graphic designer before turning to music full-time?
WWD: Great ways to unwind! Thanks for the chat, guys 🙂
‘Sundays’ is available here