The legacy of Da Tweekaz: why this duo is at the top

By Nina van Zelst 21 January 2019

On the 26th of January, Da Tweekaz will receive the crown of their career: their very own X-Qlusive. Even though many only know the Norwegian duo from Disney bootlegs and tracks such as Jägermeister, this duo has achieved so much more. They have been working in the scene for years, have an unique style, released dozens of tracks and now they even have their own X-Qlusive: this is the legacy of Da Tweekaz.

2008 – 2010: from hobby DJs to Dirty Workz family members

Kenth and Marcus started as solo artists in Norway, where they produced different styles of music. Online they were very critical (in a friendly way) of each other’s tracks and remixes. Then one day, they ended up on the same line-up of a Norwegian event, where they started talking and decided to work together in the studio. Here they found out they got along very well, which marked the beginning Da Tweekaz.

The two were always into happy hardcore and hard trance, both as DJs, as well as fans. They kept an eye on each and every one in this scene. They also visited Dutch parties on a regular basis, visiting Qlimax and Q-BASE since the very beginning. These parties made their love for hardstyle grow and this led to the duo producing more and more within this musical style. Because Kenth and Macus just couldn’t keep up with all the Dutch hardstyle influences, they created a very unique sound which you can still recognize to this day. This sound has now grown into a complete style and is even one of the pillars of their brand.

Of course it didn’t take long before they both ended up on the Dirty Workz radar. After Da Tweekaz sent demos to the label, the organisation quickly realized this act was something unique. The label therefore sent a delegate to Norway to spend a weekend with the duo, in order to get to know them a little better. After this weekend the label could congratulate the two 23-year-olds: “Welcome to Dirty Workz.”

2011 – 2013: exponential growth and the release of their debut album

In 2010 the duo released quite some tracks, among which the EPs DNA EP and Examination of Time. Then, in 2011, they created one of their most emotional tracks so far: ‘Become’. This was released for the victims of the terrorist attack on the Norwegian Island Utøya. In 2011, Breivik – who has extreme political and anti-Islamic views – shot 69 kids in cold blood. Da Tweekaz wanted to show their respect by creating ‘Become’. In an earlier interview, Marcus shared his experience: “A lot of the victims’ friends were in the crowd when we played it. They were crying, and I was crying on stage. I will never ever forget that. I had sunglasses on, and they couldn’t see I was crying, but tears were just running down. I couldn’t stop.”

During this period, both Marcus and Kenth had to work full-time next to producing full-time. This resulted in both of them taking the leap and deciding to permanently move to Belgium in 2012, where they would only focus on their musical career. Of course this worked out well and even resulted in the release of the Da Tweekaz debut album: Time 2 Shine. This album, with well-known tracks such as ‘Break the Spell’ and ‘Feel the Night’, was extremely successful and led to one of their biggest achievements ever: entering the DJ Mag top 100 at spot 99. Also in 2013 the gentlemen were busy with their almost exponential growth, and got to perform at events such as Reverze, Defqon.1 and Tomorrowland.

2014 – 2017: huge bookings and the start of their own label

2014 was no exception and represented another great year for Da Tweekaz. In this year, they achieved their highest ranking in the DJ Mag Top 100 so far with a fantastic 66th rank. The duo also released the well-known ‘Frozen’ remix in 2014, which is still played everywhere to this day: at huge events but also at bars and clubs. Da Tweekaz got to make several anthems that year as well, they created ‘Celebration of Sin’ for Freaqshow and ‘Unlock the Power’ for Bassleader.

As if this isn’t enough, the duo also introduced the theme ‘#Tweekay14’, in which they released a new track and even a brand new videoclip every month. Both the video clip and single release followed each other in succession, which in the end resulted in the compilation album Tweekay14 – The Ultimate Collection. In the following year, 2015, Q-dance took Da Tweekaz to the Defqon.1 RED Mainstage for the very first time. Here, thousands of music lovers joined in on the Norwegian ‘ducky’ madness.

The following year Kenth and Marcus were once again very busy setting up their following theme ‘#Tweekay16’ and of course the album Tweekay16 – The Ultimate Collection. Many hits came out on this album, such as ‘Tequila’ for which the video clip was filmed during a 4-day shoot. Also the more serious ‘Heroes’ was a great gesture from these guys, since they created the track for the everyday heroes in our society. In the meantime, the duo also created the anthem for the Australian event Midnight Mafia: ‘The Hitmen’.

Da Tweekaz’ roots lie with happy hardcore. Therefore in 2017, the gentlemen decided to launch a brand new act: Tweekacore, the duo’s happy hardcore alter ego. As if maintaining two acts wasn’t enough, Da Tweekaz decided to found a Happy Hardcore label together with Darren Styles and Dirty Workz, called Electric Fox. Besides Tweekacore, artists such as Audiofreq, Dougal and Technikore have also released their music on the label. Even though Kenth and Marcus founded the label a little less than two years ago, Electric Fox has eleven releases from eight different artists under its belt.

Another major highlight in their 2017 was their spot at Qlimax. Their very first time to be precise, which is a great honor within the scene and can be found on almost every DJ’s bucketlist. Besides this huge booking, the duo released quite a lot of tracks. All of which did very well: ‘Komon’ now has almost 9,000,000 views on YouTube, but also the Disney bootleg ‘How Far I’ll Go’ is closing in on 5,000,000 views.

2018 – 2019: on top of the scene and a very own X-Qlusive

In 2018, Da Tweekaz had been working in the scene for a decade. Kenth and Marcus celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a brand new theme: ’10 Years Da Tweekaz’ and another album, 10 Years Da Tweekaz – The Definitive Collection. Among others, a remix of the track ‘Partystarter’ is featured on this album, of which the original track also marked the very first release of Tweekacore. Furthermore, the men created an official remix of Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me To Life’, the well-known and frequently played ‘Jägermeister’, and they were even responsible for the Reverze anthem ‘Essence of Eternity’. To close down the year with a bang, Kenth and Marcus got to perform at Qlimax for the second year in a row, this time as their Happy Hard alias Tweekacore.

Now the duo is as ready as ever for the brand new year. Bring on 2019, in which they will introduce their new theme ‘Tweekalution’. An evolutionary and energetic experience, according to Da Tweekaz: “In essence, Tweekalution’s concept is that of “evolution”, “energy” and “power” which we wanted to portray as an energetic fantasy in the realm of super heroes and electrifying experiences.”

Da Tweekaz have been working as DJs and producers for over 10 years now. Even though the scene changes constantly, Kenth and Marcus know how to stay at the top of their game and all of the above proves why. This article doesn’t even list half of where these men performed, what they have released and the influence they have had in the scene. Q-dance will reward them properly with X-Qlusive Da Tweekaz.

X-Qlusive Da Tweekaz will take place the 26th of January 2019 at the AFAS Live in Amsterdam. Tickets are still available via the official Q-dance website. Also the Hotel Packages for the event are still available. In the video down below you can take a look at the entire line-up.