How Colyn Found a Dream Vocalist in His Older Brother

In interviews, I always love asking artists about collaborators, and I can only imagine the empowering feeling of finding a creative partner you really vibe and flow with, ala Missy Elliott and Timbaland. For Dutch DJ/producer Colyn, his most-frequent collaborator is his older brother Maurits Coljin, who's provided haunting vocals on a handful of his tracks, including releases on RÜFÜS DU SOL's Rose Avenue Records and Tale Of Us' Afterlife.

The brothers working together is quite a beautiful full circle moment, as Maurits was the one who introduced Colyn to dance music when they were teens, bringing him into the world of trance as it took over Europe. Marurits DJed as teen, with Colyn following suite, yet the older brother chose a career path as an audio engineer. Even though he's a talented singer and songwriter, he doesn’t have an artist project and just makes music on the side as a hobby.

So when the two brothers get together in the studio, not only does it result in great, emotive dance tunes, the younger brother who continued on the DJ/producer path is honoring the person who brought him there in the first place, his earliest inspiration.

“First of all, he’s an awesome guy — it’s super fun to work together. It’s always difficult to find the right vocalist for a track. Sometimes we look around and try to get someone else involved, and then I sit in one session in the studio with my brother and we end up with the whole song. And we’re like, ‘Wow, it’s that easy,'" Colyn told Beatportal about collabing with his older brother.

The close connection they have helps them cut through the B.S. and be honest, efficient, and in-sync with each other when working on a track.

"I think because we’re brothers we can be very honest with each other. So if we don’t like it, or if we’re moving out of the direction we should be going in, then we just say it to each other We don’t really have that awkwardness where you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s kind of cool,’ even if you don’t like it. I think that helps the process a lot, and he has a beautiful voice, which helps too. Usually, we write it together, so it’s him and me in the studio writing, then he sings it and I record it. And then we go back and write some more, and usually, after two or three hours, we have a first version of what is a song. It’s been super cool to release a few tracks with him already.”