Oslo’s nightlife is currently a hive of activity. DJs, club spaces and concepts are cropping up in what seems to be on an almost weekly basis. It’s bringing a lot of new music and new approaches to the dance floor, in a post-pandemic era where a whole generation was robbed of the dance floor for two years. In that period they’ve had to recontextualise the dance floor, the DJ and even the club as they started going out again and as they went from the dance floor to the DJ booth, they breathed new life into the scene.
Hetty and J. André are two figures at the heart of this new wave. Hardly novices, both have been active DJs since their teens, and they were one of the first to repopulate the dance floor after the pandemic. There hasn’t been a week at Jaeger where I haven’t seen either Truls Hetty and/or Jørgen André on the guestlist at Jaeger and when they are not on the dance floor they are in a DJ booth somewhere in the city.
One of those DJ booths has been Jaeger’s sauna on a Sunday. Hetty and J. Andrés’ Moving Heads has been settling into our weekly residencies for the summer season and with that we’ve asked them to join our Jaeger Mix alumni for a session. The DJ duo parlay some of that Sunday summer vibes over the course of two hours with a focus on the 90’s era of House music, “clearly reflect(ing)” the sound of Moving Heads. Frenzied percussion, bouncing bass-lines and spirituous textures culminate in this dance-floor focussed mix.
Picture by Heine/OYNE
Welcome to the Jaeger Mix. Tell the good people who you are and how you arrived at the Jaeger mix.
Thank you for inviting us! We are Truls Hetty and Jørgen André Nergård. Two music and club nerds who like to move heads. We’ve been doing our own DJ projects for 10+ years, and still do, but we have shared booths often the last couple of years.
What initially brought you together?
We have been aware of each other’s existence for the last decade or so, knowing we shared some taste in music and had some friends in common. As two introverts, things take time, but we went to the same parties, shared a lot of music and slowly grew together. We had our first gig together in 2021 and we like to play together, but aren’t really a duo.
Individually, what’s your earliest memory of a piece of music?
T: Kaptein Sabeltann and Michael Jackson on repeat.
J: Probably David Bowie in my father’s red Nissan Bluebird.
Where do your musical allegiances lie in terms of genres and styles and what instilled this in you in the beginning?
T: I went to Sunkissed in 2011 for my first rave experience and I instantly fell in love with that deep and rattled stuff the guys were playing. Some phases of different sub genres have come and gone since then but the rattled house music is a stayer.
J: I’m not that aware of genres and styles anymore, it’s more the mood and vibe I’m looking for, and it gets more interesting for me and the audience with breaks and time to breathe once in a while. I don’t follow charts and hypes and I’m only buying and selecting music based on my ever growing artist and label favorites.
Your Sunday night Moving Heads is the latest addition to our weekly residencies. Can you tell us a little more about the concept and how it came about?
J: We’ve had that guy showing up alone, staying in the back of the dance floor the entire night with his eyes closed and head subtly moving to the beat. I think that sums up the concept perfectly.
T: I remember going out a lot on the weekdays, including Sundays in my early 20s. It’s just a different vibe that I’m easily preferring if it’s the right combination of people that are there for the music. It’s less busy than weekends obviously, so you can connect with people on a different level. You can actually make friends.
J: Yea, It’s a social thing. We also try to mainly invite our friends to play with us and a lot of our friends happen to be good DJs.
How is this mix a reflection of the sound of Moving Heads, and how might it be different to what you do on a Sunday night?
It does clearly reflect it, in terms of the 90s/00s sound, the dynamic range and not too serious selection. We are still calibrating the Sunday-vibe but it’s a ballpark. Every Sunday is going to be different but with a common thread. Sometimes we can go a bit deeper, sometimes more disco or even more house, but you’re gonna know who’s playing.
Did you approach this mix trying to reflect that Sunday vibe and what else went into the planning for it?
As a duo-ish, we don’t usually plan too much. We can have an idea of where to start, but usually we just start somewhere and see where it goes. It can cause the night to take any direction which is exciting and it gets that natural dynamic flow of different sounds. We picked out a bunch of records in advance that we thought would fit, but ended up playing something else so.. we hope it turned out alright!
At its core, the mix is very much anchored in the sound of House music, but how do you guys make it your own, and what is it about House music that appeals to you?
We will always have that house anchor connected, but we tend to challenge that by looking for records where not everyone else is looking. Finding old, hidden stuff that’s not necessarily stand on its own, but flies in the right context, and combining it with more conventional-ish stuff is really fun when it works and it makes it personal.
As something recorded at the start of the night, did it push the mix in any surprising directions for you?
Yes, It’s kind of a weird feeling playing to an empty room and at the same time showcase music you would play on a packed floor. If we recorded the mix in our studio It would have been a little less clubby I guess. So yes, I think the circumstances made us do the mix with a dance floor in mind, more than we expected.
It relays a lot of that energy of a dance floor. What are the key elements in your opinion for getting people on the dance floor?
In the beginning of a night, after the first drink it’s all about giving people the courage to be the first ones on the floor. We wouldn’t play the moodiest stuff at that point, but rather more funky, easy listening music that can be stripped down and repetitive, but physically gets your body to move.
Is there any particular track in this mix that you think accurately embodies all those elements?
J: The intro comes good in my opinion – setting the mood for the rest of the journey.
T: Around 1:16, that’s Abstract by Smithmonger. Mid 00s house, authentic sounding, lots of sub. Also Sunny Bigler by Leon Sweet at 1:34 is a cool one. Makes you move.
The first couple of Moving Heads events have been a success. How do you hope to see it grow and how will you be developing the concept for the future?
Yeah, it’s been some really cool Sundays! Our plan is to just keep on building a solid foundation of sunday heads, polishing our sound and make sundays a thing again. If we do things right maybe the season extends too..?
What else is on the horizon for Hetty and J.Andre?
We got tunes coming out at some point, both together and individually. We will also do some parties outside Grensen 9 this summer, and other cool appearances coming up, so keep an eye out, as they say!