Bandwagon had the opportunity to sit down with Dutch EDM duo, Moksi, composed of Sam and Diego, at Saga Music Festival last December. Moksi have been rapidly growing in popularity, thanks to their unique style of bass-house and their signing to Yellow Claw's Barong Family label back in 2015. We spoke to the duo about their origins, their new merch line and more. 

How did the two of you meet and how did that lead to the creation of Moksi?

Sam: We met each other as friends about 11 years ago. I was a DJ, he was an emcee. So I was playing at a local festival called Solar Festival and I had seen him emcee before. I saw him walking around the festival grounds and I went up to him and said I needed an emcee, so I called him up on the stage and that’s how we started to work together in music. But nothing much happened after that.

It was only three years ago that we went into the studio together for fun and we started to work on songs and it just became Moksi all of a sudden. It wasn't really a decision or a goal, it just happened.

When you first began producing together, did you know that this current style of music was what you wanted to make right from the start or did it evolve from something else?

Diego: We kind of knew, in a way. We started out making something else first but that was way, way back, because I was always chilling in the studio when he was making his music; we weren't Moksi then. One day we were listing to a radio mix by AC Slater in a car while driving to a gig and we kind of knew from there that we wanted to do a U.K. bassline kind of thing so when we started actually working on tracks together and became Moksi, that’s when we started with this style of music.

You’ve worked many times with Chace, and you even have a collaborative EP with him. Are there more plans to collaborate with him in the new future? Perhaps on his upcoming album?

Sam: We’re constantly working with artists from Barong Family and Chace has always been one of our favourites to work with, so definitely. His style of music combines perfectly with ours. His radio and pop influences mix really well with our club and bass influences for some reason. I'm sure it'll happen again in the future and we're always down for that. 

You’ve just recently begun your merch line and it’s doing really well. What’s the whole experience been like so far?

Sam: We started to design the merch like a year and a half ago. It started off with a t-shirt but then we realized that Moksi’s all about a certain type of fashion because we wear tracksuits and bucket hats, so we decided to go for the tracksuit and flags. So it took awhile to develop it and as soon as it released, it sold out in like 14 hours and it was crazy. We never expected it.

2017 was a huge year for Moksi. You’ve really grown worldwide, especially with your work with Hardwell and DJ Snake bringing you out during Ultra. What was working with him like?

Sam: It’s been crazy, we never expected things to blow up for us so quickly because no one was really doing what we were doing. Bass-house didn't exist in 2015. When we started to make music, it was all for fun, we just wanted to play club shows. We didn't ever expect to end up on the main stage of Ultra in Miami. It’s crazy to see the EDM scene embracing the sound. So now we’ve worked with DJ Snake and Hardwell, and those two people are very different, with different styles of music. And then there’s Yellow Claw of course.

What was it like working with DJ Snake? Did you guys work in the studio together or was the track sent back and forth?

Diego: It was sent back and fourth because our schedule has been crazy and his schedule was crazy, we were all touring non-stop. We definitely wanted to work in the studio together but looking back, the track didn't need it, it worked out fine.

We’ve heard that you have an upcoming EP, can you tell us more about that?

Diego: We have an EP coming out but this time, it won’t be on Barong, and that’s all we can say for now.

We were told that the family will be reuniting in early 2018 to work on the second Barong Family album. What can you tell us about that?

Sam: Yeah, we’re going to be working on the second album really soon. Right now there are no collaborations planned, we’ll figure it out when it happens, like the last time. But seeing how the family expanded in 2017, we’re excited at all the potential new artists we could work with.