K-pop songs are often a collaboration of talent from around the world. A hit might feature songwriters and producers from Korea, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S. “Jump,” Blackpink’s energetic dance-pop song was a collaboration by several people, including Korean hitmaker Teddy and American DJ/record producer Diplo. It was also the creation of several talented producers, among them Dutch producer Boaz van de Beatz, who supplied the distinctive dance beat that makes the song so catchy.
Van de Beatz began producing music more than a decade ago in The Netherlands, launching his own record label, Nouveau Riche, and working with such Dutch artists as rapper Ronnie Flex, Mr. Polska and Jebroer. His debut single “No Way Home,” featuring Ronnie Flex and Mr. Polska, was released in 2014 under the American dance label Mad Decent. The U.S. was where he saw his future as a producer.
‘The music scene in the Netherlands is limited in a sense that it’s very hard to go international,” said van de Beatz. “America is almost the leader in the international music industry. It’s so big there, obviously it’s a big country. So I felt it was just more of a natural step for me to expand my horizons.”
After a few years of commuting to LA for work, he decided to relocate, which made it easier to collaborate with Diplo, an artist known for his genre-bending solo work. Together they worked with quite a few well known American artists.
“Diplo will set up music sessions, studio sessions,” said van de Beatz. “At some point Madonna was there. Ariana Grande is a big name we’ve worked with. I even met Sting once. That song never came out, but just to name a few big names. Also a lot of rappers. I’ve worked with The Weeknd. Yeah, the list goes on. Diplo gets the requests and then he will turn to me to see if I can help him out.”
The list does go on. Van de Beatz has produced music for Yellow Claw, Diplo, Major Lazer, Jack Ü, The Partysquad, Pharrell Williams and Sean Paul, among others. In 2014, he produced Ariana Grande’s song “All My Love,” which is part of the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. In 2015, he released a remix of “Hey Mama” by David Guetta and in 2016, “Flippo” on Skrillex’s Owsla Worldwide Broadcast. “Jump” was his first experience with the k-pop market and it was a surprising one.
“We obviously knew about the scale of k-pop, but we were still a little bit oblivious of how big a release can be,” said van de Beatz. “So, even in the process of producing the song, we were kind of loose about it, relaxed. Like, alright, let’s do this, let’s see. But we were not really aware of how serious they were and the impact of that song, especially. It’s the comeback song of Blackpink. So yeah, we were all a bit surprised, because we were not so much in the loop. Ever since then we are much more focused on that market.”
Van de Beatz worked on the song with other producers, but the infectious dance beat was his. As was the galloping intro beat he describes as “a little country.” So many of the songs he produces have that energetic club scene vibe that makes people want to move.
“Usually, especially with really big releases, there are multiple producers involved, just because the whole process goes to so many people until it reaches a final stage,” he said. “So in this case, I produced the body of the production, the melody and the backbeat. The drums and that piece of music got sent over to the people from Blackpink. Then they added some, in this case I believe they added some guitars, and then they sent it to some other writers and they made some small changes in the arrangement. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of producers involved, but in this case, it was me and Diplo at the beginning stages of actually making the production.”
He’s now produced music in three countries. How do the music scenes compare?
“One thing I can definitely say is, as of today, a lot of music artists are relying more on social media,” said van de Beatz. “Whatever gets picked up on social media is something American and European labels will work with. I feel like in Korea it’s more structured and they really develop artists and they invest a lot more money. So in that sense it looks a bit more professional, almost.”
He’s working on more potential k-pop hits with Diplo.
“We are completely locked in and focused on some new projects, projects that also can make the crossover from k-pop to the U.S. market.
He loves producing music because, “it’s always a never-ending chase to perfection, so there’s always something new to discover. I never get tired of it.”
Although he now creates music on a few continents, his inspiration still comes from the sounds he encountered growing up in The Netherlands.
“The Netherlands is such a melting pot of so many different cultures,” he said. “It’s such a small country. So, I grew up on genres that could only exist in the Netherlands because of the cultures. They would mix Dutch music with Suriname music and with a lot of Caribbean influences and even Eastern European influences. I feel like that’s the backbone of almost all of my inspiration. I think it’s a fusion of dance oriented music mixed with, yeah, there’s always something organic about it. I’m not trying to make it too electronic, even though it is electronic, but it’s a fusion of many genres, mainly dance oriented. And in the case of ‘Jump,’ it’s really Dutch mixed with k-pop.”
“Jump” was released by YG Entertainment on July 11.