Eva Simons: The Princess of EDM

By Putera Zamir  •  in Interview
Thirsty for JUICE content? Quench your cravings on our Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp

One of the international headliners of this year’s H-Artistry Trilogy at KWC KL, Dutch vocal powerhouse and EDM siren Eva Simons has come a long way since her beginnings. Back in 2009, Eva Simons’ track entitled ‘Silly Boy’ started to gain popularity on the internet and received attention from the likes of Kanye West. Bolstered by this initial success, Simons went on to sign a worldwide record deal at EM, which led to even more notable records from her up till mid-2010. Eva Simons then collaborated with Afrojack to create the chart topping hit, ‘Take Over Control’. JUICE manages to snag a couch session with the “Princess of Dance” and talks to her about everything from her hairspray cans to Amsterdam.

You’ve recently been on tour with LMFAO supporting their Sorry for Party Rocking Tour 2012, Whats that like? Are they really as wild as they appear on stage?
They are pretty awesome, they are exactly that y’know? And I think that’s why they’re so popular and so successful, it’s because they are who they are and their songs are absolutely awesome. I just love songs like ‘Shots’ or ‘I’m in Miami’, so we had fun, it was great to do that. Every night I had an arena show for 20 thousand people, and to be an upcoming artist already doing that, it’s just really cool.

What’s the wildest thing they’ve done off stage?
I think they can just do anything they want, they could pour champagne in people’s faces, and they’d love it!

So, you grew up in Amsterdam, does it live up to the hype of being, well, Amsterdam?
It does in a way, but when you grow up there, you don’t really care y’know? It’s coffee shops and everything but it’s also like a normal city, and for me it’s just really about just being an Amsterdam person, it’s cool but we don’t really see that, I mean you can see it, but you don’t have to see it.

Well, Malaysians really love Amsterdam…
Yeah? I love it. I can’t see myself living anywhere else but Amsterdam, only Miami maybe.

You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that you’re Afrojack’s neighbour, is this true?
No! Because like Holland is so small, you like always live 20 minutes from someone, in an hour you’re out of the country, so we live very close, but because it’s so small.

Have you ever like taken a drive past his house or anything like that?
I mean, we work together, he has his studio at his house, I have my studio at my house, so yeah, you can come and have your neighbour over y’know?

We’re probably not the first one to ask, but you’ve got an interesting hairstyle, what does it take to maintain it?
A lot of hairspray. I have to buy cans and cans and cans of ‘em, I went to the store the other day and I bought like already 20 cans for this month and the girl looks at me every time like “why do you need so many cans?” I’m like “Yeah look at my hair! I need a lot of hairspray!”

If it were alive, what would you name it?
I’d always say Fluffy, cause when I comb it out, it always looks like a big fluffy fluff!

In one of Will.I.Am’s recent interviews, he referred to you as the “Princess of Dance Music”, what was your reaction to that?
He’s just too kind, I always get emotional sometimes, the things he says about me, it’s just so nice, he believed in me, from the minute we stared working and I showed him what I can do, music wise and writing wise. He trusts me and I’ve put my trust in him, cause, he’s Will.I.Am y’know. We’ve just made this song called ‘This Is Love’ and it was a great experience to be number 1 with him everywhere, it’s crazy!

You’ve been known to be very proficient in the studio, doing your own mixes and basically engineering your own recordings, where and how did you start?
At school we had this side class called “How to Produce” and all the guys wanted to do it, none of the girls wanted to do it, I wanted to do it! So I went and started with Cubase, and then Logic came on the market and I’m like “oh I’m gonna work with logic now”. I just love it, I just love the fact that I can, I’ve got a very cheap mic, I don’t even have speakers, I’m just going to buy my speakers soon, and I just record everywhere! I could be in a hotel room, I could be in a corner, and record a song y’know? That’s how I record all my songs, they’re all in hotel rooms or on the bus, and that’s fantastic to just be able to do that and not need anybody else to do that for you.

You’ve been doing a lot of collaborations with artists, they’ve been enlisting you to sing on their tracks, but who would YOU love to work with in the near future?
I would like to work with Knife Party, I really like them. I just worked with Doctor P, we made a song called ‘Bulletproof’ and it just came out today, it’s on iTunes and um, I would like to work with… man there’s just so many people out there, all the DJs and producers, but yeah, Knife Party at the moment.

EDM has been around for ages but recently it’s been rising rapidly all around the world, how do you think the EDM movement has changed over the years?
I’m happy that it’s going so well, because there are more festivals, and shows like this for instance, like H-Artistry. I mean they could get a pop artist but they chose me as an electronic artist, an upcoming electronic artist to headline this event, it’s crazy what is happening to this music style at the moment, we’re getting so much and being watched, I love it, it’s great, with great opportunities for me.

You’ve toured the US and the UK, how was the crowd here in Malaysia?
I heard the people here in Kuala Lumpur can really party. This was the first time I’ve been to Kuala Lumpur, so I was really excited and there were like two and a half thousand people, they did not disappoint! And the food is fantastic….

Oh you’ve tried Malaysian food!
Oh yeah all the time! I love the spices, I like how you use your herbs, in Europe we don’t really get that a lot, like the herby food, and I love herby food.

There you have it, a reason to stop by again. 

H-Artistry Kuala Lumpur went down on Saturday 8 September 2012 at KWC KL. Find more on their future events at www.h-artistry.com.my. Check out the Princess of Dance at www.evasimons.com.