Born and raised in the south of the Netherlands, Mike Redfields has been producing and mixing House and Techno music for years, blending genres and putting out lots of music since his music career’s restart in 2018. With a passion for all types of electronic music, Mike aims to bridge the gap between house and techno in his music, as well as on his very own label Fuzion, bringing a journey of emotions through dance music to the crowd.

Coming off the release of Answers, his new Melodic Techno production, Mike Redfields has a chat with SIX AM to talk about the origins of his musical career, his love for blending genres, and the direction of his label Fuzion.

Hi Mike, thanks for chatting with SIX AM! It’s a pleasure to have you, how’s everything going?

Everything is going really well, thanks for asking! I have been working on a lot of things for the last couple of years and I am excited for what’s coming.

 

You’ve let it be known that Mike Redfields is not your given name, but rather your own chosen stage name. Where did you find the inspiration for the alias?

That’s kind of a funny story. The first part is pretty simple, my real first name is Michiel in Dutch and in English that would be Michael, which makes Mike the abbreviation. But that was not enough as there are many Mike’s around the world.

I’ve performed in the past but with different names, when I finally found the time to start producing again back in 2018, around that time I was having dinner at my parents place and my dad actually came up with the idea to use my mothers last name (Rooijackers) and translate that to english which is ‘Redfields’. We laughed a bit about it and eventually I thought it was a great idea, so I started using it.

 

You’re from the Netherlands, which is currently a hot spot for House & Techno in Europe. Being born and raised there, how did you first get introduced to the scene? When did you start mixing/producing?

Back in the 2000’s I went out clubbing with my friends to clubs in Belgium and the Netherlands. At that time I listened to all sorts of music, but most of the times it was the harder electronic music (Hardhouse, Jump, Hardstyle, Techno). At that time, me and some friends also helped out with a couple of music events in the area and I always had this huge passion for electronic music. For some reason, I always listened most to the harder styles of music and in my spare time I started producing a couple of tracks (mainly with Fruity Loops). But due to the fact that I was also running my own IT company at the time, which started to really grow fast, I sort of had to choose between my work and music as a hobby.

In the evening I kept on mixing and creating music. And in all those years we always created a local Summer BBQ event with a group of friends and co-workers which was something very special. Eventually in 2017 I found the time again to start producing and kept on working on my tracks, trying to make them better.

At first I wanted to write music to deal with feelings I had from a relationship that ended around the same time and eventually, when people around me started saying they really liked what I was doing, I kept on going and here we are.

The next step will be to get out there and perform in front of a crowd again.

You’re known to be a genre blender as you make music anywhere from techno to deep-house and tech-house. When most producers would choose to just stay in one genre, what inspired you to blend them all?

I believe as an avid music listener and fan that you should not be bound to one genre. You should create what you feel and experience. In my case it started with deep house to write down feelings and things I couldn’t talk about that much but I always kept having this urge of creating harder styles of music, because that’s where my heart is.

I feel both genres (House and Techno) are part of who I am and what I love so I keep writing in both directions.

 

Your new project “Answers” takes things with a very melodic approach. At this point in your career, what emotions are you aiming to evoke in your work? What did you aim to evoke in your past work?

It all started with Deep Love back in 2018 then came Aftermath, Fall Again and after that a bunch of Techno tracks. As I said, the music I write usually comes through my feelings and I felt the need to experiment with both genres and see if I could find a sweet spot in between. Answers basically is a combination of both and a way of writing down my experiences from the past couple of years.

Artists like Artbat and Belocca have been great examples for me.

 

Since 2022, you’ve been running your own label ‘Fuzion Music’. What do you wish to accomplish with this label? Where do you see it 5 years from now? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

For a couple of years, together with my good friend Ruud, who is a producer/DJ himself (Radion6/Jack Porter), we had the idea to create a platform and label to help upcoming DJ’s and producers that were either not able to get in touch with the big labels or were just figuring out what their next steps would be in the big world of music.

I had the chance to work with a lot of distribution platforms, figure out the pros and cons. And all the things I learned on how to distribute, but also how to plug your music to the world, I wanted to share with other artists.

Fuzion basically is a twist on the word fuse, where we try to blend house and techno music. A home for both genres.

For the next couple of years we are going to work on talent stages at existing festivals in Europe and help upcoming artists to get the word out.

 

Thanks for chatting with us Mike! Is there anything else you’d like to share before you get back to making music? 

I just think that in this big world of music producers and artists it can be tough to be seen and get a chance to get your music in front of a bigger audience. I hope for the next couple of years we will be able to continue to build on our platform and help upcoming talents to get out there by using the connections we have built and working together.

Apart from that, I have a couple of cool new music projects coming up myself and can’t wait to share it with you all.

Thank you.

Connect with Mike Redfields: SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Beatport | YouTube