Estroe's sound is always emotional and always dreamy. Rotterdam residing DJane has a very smart sense for contemporary techno sound. Blending her atmospheric melodies with real catchy rhythms and pumping basslines, she really creates one of a kind 'Estroe style' which is really one of the best things you can hear these days.

Connaisseur could not resist to her amazing productions and immediately moved her from Connaisseur Superieur, label's sister for newcomers to the main label and did not blink his eye one moment on releasing her debut full of diamonds.

Really Estroe's debut "Elemental Assets" has really good tracks like the recent hit "Driven" or already an Estroe classic "Passionate Timidity". She released one of the most inspiring albums of 2010. We will be hearing from her so much in the forthcoming months. I was lucky that she found some time answering my questions just before her gig at Cocoon Club in Frankfurt. And I am really hoping to see her spin live here in İstanbul very soon.

How long did it take you to come up with this fantastic debut?
It  took me 1.5-2 years from beginning to end, Connaisseur made the suggestion to release an album and it took some time to produce the tracks, make the artwork, promotion etc.

What about signing to Connaisseur, you are their artist and your debut also is released from Connaisseur. How did you get in touch with those guys?
At some point when I felt a little bit secure about my productions, I just emailed them because I liked the label so much. After sending some material, Connaisseur decided to release "Driven" on Connaisseur Superieur, the sublabel they use for newcomers.
Since then we had good contact and I did some releases, with ZoeXenia together and on the Connaisseur CD compilations.

How did you select and decide the tracks in "Elemental Assets"?
We already had a few tracks that were a bit too deep or to slow to be released on a 12'" and after selecting those I just produced more tracks around that. Keeping an eye on the balance between the track. There are some tracks for the dancefloor but also for listening at home.

Do you have a favorite track in the LP or a track with a special story behind?
One of my favorite tracks is "Late Night Thinking" that I made in one night when I was in a moody wintermood. But there are stories about almost all the titles. "High Maintenance" is about people who find me sometimes "High Maintenance", "Inspirited Away" is like a word joke about being inspired and being spiritual. And "Flirtatious Concubine" came up after my great time in Japan.

What other releases or remix project are you working on?
At the moment I'm working on a remix for Francesco Pico, my fellow Dutchman and friend. But in the near future there will be a release on my own label EevoNext from Tim Wolff where I made a remix of. And a remix for Oliver Liebs' Solieb. I have to make new productions as soon as I have time for it.

You are on tour now, how are the feedbacks so far?
The feedbacks are good, it's nice to travel around and people are very friendly and open everywhere. The past weeks i've been to Italy, Romania and Russia and all bookings were very nice. This weekend is extra exciting because of the official releaseparty in the Cocoon Club in Frankfurt.

Your sound is so melodic. A fine blend of Dutch perspective. What are your influences?
My influences…so hard to tell. `But I do listen a lot of ambient music so maybe it comes from that?

How usually do you produce? What makes you go to the studio and dig for sounds in your mind?
I just feel an urge to make music, when I don't have the chance to make music I get restless. It's like therapy or sports. I feel very thankful since I live from my music that I have the opportunity to spend time in the studio. Although there is never enough time, the label,DJing and my promotion consumes a lot of time. I just sit down, fool around with a sound or a baseline, a string or atmosphere and built further from there.

What are you listening these days other than electronic music?
I don't listen much other music then electronic… I feel a bit ashamed. I do like Coldplay and I've been to a concert of Massive Attack recently but generally I like to listen to quiet ambient stuff, like the soundtrack from Solaris for example.

You are in the scene for so much time now but it is only 4-5 years that you have been producing. Was it a natural process or do you like DJing more?
I like both. I feel like a fish in the water behind my decks but during the week I really like to produce. It's a good combination although sometimes my head goes crazy with the overkill on music. That's why I like the silence at night. After DJing for some years I was just curious if I could produce music too, it was a nice challenge and I wanted to know everything about it. I never would have expected to come out with an album at some point!

What will you say about the disadvantages and advantages of being a female DJ/producer?
Nothing, I'm just a DJ/producer, nothing special about being female, for me it's completely normal.

What are your future plans regarding life and your musical career?
I hope to continue to be able to live from my music. I hope to visit more countries to dj and I hope for interesting releases and remixes and corporations.

What do you think about techno's current position and hard techno likely to strike again?
I don't really have an opinion about it, I wasn't really aware of it? But everybody should play what they like. I myself played banging techno for a few years and am not afraid for some decent techno, as long as I don't have to listen to it for hours.

What about your new and fresh label Eevonext? You are releasing real inspiring mint music!
Thank you! But it's been there for a while! It's not that fresh! We are with three people running the label. It started as a follow up of Stefan Robbers label Eevolute, a well established label in the 90's. Now we bring a combination between decent elegant techno and modern influences. We release music from artists like Future Beat Alliance and Artbleek, but also like to welcome newcomers like Tim Wolff. Every release one of the three of us makes a remix.

What do you know about İstanbul, would you like to play here?
I've visited İstanbul two years ago and really liked it, would love to play there sometime!
I was almost there last summer but there was something wrong with the organization.

Interview: Christopher Çolak
10 November 2009