For the very first time in their career the men from D-Block & S-te-Fan are coming with their own live-act, named ‘Ghost Stories’. This was announced via the line-up release for Reverze 2019, which will also be where the act will premiere. We talked to Diederik and Stefan about the new act, their 15-year anniversary and the future of the duo.
The idea for creating a live-act came after the gentlemen finished their album Antidote. During the making of this album they were able to find their love for hardstyle again. “And especially hardstyle in which melody and energy find each other. ‘Angels & Demons’ for us was the perfect example of what hardstyle stands for: mysterious themes, a cinematic atmosphere and a massive load of energy.“ Because of the great reactions they received on this track, Diederik and Stefan decided to make a sequal of both the track and the video which resulted in ‘Twilight Zone’. “And that’s when shit hit the fan! We started brainstorming about how we could create an entire experience around this style and this is how we came up with the idea of an audiovisual live-act and the name ‘Ghost Stories’.“
“We have been working on this live-act in secret for months now“
The premiere of the very first D-Block & S-te-Fan live-act will take place at the 14th edition of Reverze. The men have chosen this event especially because they have a 10-year history with the organisation. “We can still remember clearly how we played at our first Reverze, with a moving stage on which we could see the massive audience through small holes in the stage.“ The conversation with Bass Events about their idea of the live-act also went very well. “The enthusiastic response together with the visualisation and the ideas that came up immediately gave us the feeling that this should be the event where we would firstly perform the live-act.“
The name ‘Ghost Stories’ obviously gives away the same track will be played during the performance, but this doesn’t mean the men don’t have loads of new music ready. “We are currently working on a lot of new tracks for the live-act, which will be played in between tracks that we have already released with this style. This all in a half-hour audiovisual show.“ More about these new tracks will be announced in the lead up to Reverze. The name ‘Ghost Stories’ was already planned long ago for both the song as well as the act. “We made the track in collaboration with Jonas Schmidt from Q-dance and we named it Ghost Stories to launch a ‘soft kick-off’ for the live-act. We have been working on this live-act in secret for months now, designing the logos, making new music and creating content around the visual aspect.”
“Because it’s an exclusive act and we are only aiming at big events, the whole has to be very strong“
In the trilogy of the tracks ‘Angels & Demons’, ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Ghost Stories’ the character Merel returns multiple times: she has the leading role in the videoclips and lives through all the Ghost Stories. Even though the duo is done with the trilogy, this doesn’t mean Merel will dissapear completely. “She will definitely be in the visuals of the liveshow and maybe she will even be on stage… anything is possible! The story will be told through the chapters of our Ghost Stories.” D-Block en S-te-Fan don’t want to give away too much yet, since you shall have to see for yourself how the act turns out. “For us it’s a project through which we want to take the next step. It will be an exclusive act, which can only be seen on a few events. We are going all-in with Ghost Stories live and the visitors will experience this as well.”
Creating a live-act with so many underlying thoughts is a large amount of work. Even though they have to do a lot, Diederik and Stefan love the work and the feeling. “Because it’s an exclusive act and we are only aiming at big events, the whole has to be very strong. This takes a lot of time, but the visitor will definitely see and hear all of this hard work on Reverze!”
“We’ve had moments in which we didn’t know if hardstyle was for us anymore“
Besides the fact there is a new live-act coming up, 2019 is special to the duo for another reason: D-Block & S-te-Fan celebrate their 15-year anniversary. “The biggest highlight of our career is that we still have fun in what we are doing after 15 years, that we stayed relevant through the years and we still have so much passion for hardstyle. We’ve had moments in which we didn’t know if hardstyle was for us anymore, but since we started on Antidote 2 years ago, we have been in such a high.” Diederik and Stefan therefore don’t look back with a bad feeling on anything. “We believe highs and lows are a part of life and they give you good insights. So even if a period in your life was rough, you can still get positive things out of it.”
With Ghost Stories LIVE the anniversary of the duo will start with a bang, but it does not stop here. “Keep an eye out on our socials! There are too many new things coming!”
Reverze – Edge of Existence will take place the 23rd of February 2019 at the Sportpaleis and the Lotto Arena in Antwerpen. Ticket sale starts the 5th of november 2018 at 19:00, via the official website of the event.
Footage via Facebook-page D-Block & S-te-Fan
