Afrojack

When I was growing up, I said to my ex-girlfriend, 'I will not be successful until everyone in Holland knows my name.' And it worked.

I'm a producer for fun. I'm not a professional schooled musician or anything.

At a festival, a lot of people came to see other artists, so you have to put on a signature set and performance: 'This is what I do, this is why I'm here.' At solo gigs, I'm a DJ - I'll play two-and-a-half hours, and not just my own music, also my favorite songs by other artists.

When I started producing, I was just making music under all different names. 'Black Afro.' 'Super Grandmaster.' 'Mister Bull.' Like, the most stupid, idiotic names. 'Afrojack' was one of those idiotic names.

I was in school - I was a good learner; if I wanted to get something done, I could get it done. I was lazy, though. I was always, like, sort of an outcast. And when I got home, I was always doing music, but when I was doing music, no one was there to judge it, you know? It was just me in my bedroom. It gave me freedom and made me happy.

For me, it's a great thing to tell people anything is possible. When I was 15, people told me 'You're not going to be a DJ.'

The only person you need to be credible to is yourself. When you stand in front of the mirror and nobody is watching, are you happy with yourself?

People always say, 'How is it to be so successful?' I'm not successful yet. Richard Branson is successful. That's successful. Michael Jackson was successful. U2 was successful. I'm just a guy, doing okay. But I'm a happy guy doing okay.

There's nothing better than making music and hearing 3,000 people chant, 'Afrojack! Afrojack!'

People need realness, reality. People can sense when someone is being pretentious or fake. It's because you feel it; you see it in someone's body language.

The only way you can be happy is if you be completely yourself. You have to be you. Don't be what you think you should be.

I studied psychology for a couple of years as a personal hobby, so you start learning about people and listening to your intuition, like when you you're feeling that people are not being entirely straight with you.