Regulars will know we’re big supporters of up and coming talent and South America’s HIIO are just that! Over the last few months, the Colombian and Argentinian partnership has made huge strides in the mainroom game, garnering support from many of the industry’s leaders. Signs would indicate this summer is an important one for the boys as they look to break it big in both Europe and North America. In anticpation of this, we took the time to find out all about their rise, new music, collaborations and a date at a certain Belgian festival this summer. Check it out below!
We want to go in-depth with HIIO. Tell us about how you guys got started Djing and why the decision was made to form a duo?
Thank you for having us! Well, we both have always known we wanted to be DJs from very young ages, and both have been in the scene for a while now as individual artists. We actually met through a mutual friend, and did a collaboration together called “Something About You.” After this, we realized how well we work together as producers and decided to form HIIO! We have a really great team working with us and it was the right decision!
Do you feel you’ve made your mark on South America? Is it inevitable that North America and Europe come next?
We love playing in our own country, and we will always continue to play here, but yes!!! HIIO are more than ready to go international and make our way to North America and Europe. We are very excited to announce that we will be playing at Tomorrowland 2013 on July 26!
We have a lot of tech-minded readers, what can you tell them about how you make your tunes? Have you a favorite vst/plugin/piece of equipment you can’t do without?
When we’re in the studio we work with Ableton 9 and the vst’s that we can’t live without are Nexuz and Sylenth! When we’re on tour it’s very necessary to have a few things with us, like the MIDI Controller Akai Mini PK, our Studio Headphones (Sennheiser HD 380 Pro) and our sound interface Steinber UR22.
You’ve received support from a host of top names, including Dirty South, Roger Sanchez, John Dalback, Otto Knows and Chuckie who played your new track “Waiting For The Night” on BBC R1. What impact does the support of such huge industry names have on you
guys as up and coming artists?
For us, when we see how much support we receive, we truly are thankful. For example, when Chuckie played our “Waiting For The Night” track on BBC Radio 1’s Residency as his “Loud & Proud” track, that was amazing support for us. Having his support is huge, since he’s such an industry leader.
Any chance we can look forward to a collaboration with the guys who’ve supported your tracks in the past? Chuckie, John Dahlback etc.
Yes!!!! Of course! We most likely will be working on something with Chuckie, since we did a remix for him in the past for his “Are You Ready To Jump” and it was very successful. We had a lot of fun remixing that track. Working with Chuckie in the studio is never a dull moment, haha.
Things are moving very fast for HIIO! Where do you guys hope to be this time next year?
Hmmm… this time next year, we hope to be preparing our set for EDC Las Vegas! We would absolutely love to play there!!! EDC is amazing!
Progressive/Mainroom House is so popular right now it’s amazing, do you have any fears the popularity of the genre will, however, eventually run its course? How do you see the industry developing?
If anything it will only continue to evolve, and we want to try our best as producers to move music forward as much as we can. It’s not going anywhere!!! Hahaha!!!
Last but not least, what are the summer plans for HIIO? Will we get to see you guys in Europe? More releases on the way?
As we said we have Tomorrowland 2013 to look forward to! This really is a dream come true for us. Then we are headed straight to the magical island of Ibiza! We of course have more releases on the way, and we are working hard in the studio to give you more music! Thanks so much for this interview!
“Good Vibes and House Music To Everyone” – HIIO