Many moons ago I started to get more actively involved in Amsterdam’s hectic nightlife. As I was doing so, I became fascinated with exactly how much this city has to offer. Almost every day of the week there are more quality parties going on than a sane man would ever need. There’s literally something for everyone and getting bored is simply not an option. However, among the metric fuck-ton of parties there are some stars that shine even brighter than Amsterdam can provide for. DJs, producers and labelheads that have outgrown the scope of our fair capital. Artists that travel the globe week in and week out to perform for audiences you can’t even fathom.

In my daily conversations I would tend to bring these guys up, trying to convince my friends that it’s not just London, Berlin and LA that are the breeding grounds for the soundtracks to our Saturday nights. I’d bring up personal heroes like Akkachar (Rwina Records), Nymfo and Full Crate. Some of them recognized the names but none of them realized what these men are responsible for. So I decided to take up the task of shining a little light on just how big Amsterdam is in the bigger picture.

For my first talk in this series of interviews I picked Bardo Camp, known to the rest of the world as Nymfo. Every now and then I’d bump into Bardo and every time he had all these stories about shows, ranging from the beaches of Vladivostok to Cape Town, South Africa.

So, tell me a bit about last year, what was 2011 like for you?

2011 was my best year yet. Gig-wise, finances-wise. Release-wise was a bit like the year before, I released 4 to 5 singles and a collab. Besides that I’ve worked on my album a lot. I haven't finished it yet but it’s coming in 2012. And I’ve switched to a new agency, ESP agency from England. A really solid agent with a great roster of DJs and MCs. They have 15 years of experience with booking DJs. So that was a great move, did a lot more gigs and they’re great to do business with and that made 2011 the best year for me yet.

Your agency is in England? How big are we thinking here, artist-wise?

My friends from Utrecht, Black Sun Empire are on there. As well as people like Marcus Intalex and Calibre, (who play less Drum and Bass). dBridge is on there, Klute, who runs his label Commercial Suicide on which I’m going to release my album. Old school guys, new guys, banging acts like Black Sun Empire and DJ Marky It’s something for everyone, they also have a good roster of MCs including Stamina MC, who does things with DJ Marky. It’s a real broad roster. And that's why I like it; it’s not like there’s 25 other DJs like me on there so that makes it easier to get gigs.

Whats it like being a Dutch guy with a foreign agent? What percentage of your gigs abroad?

About 80% of my gigs is abroad. Of course there are still a couple of good DnB nights in the Netherlands still, in Utrecht Tivoli, Melkweg has Major League, but it’s not every week. And yeah I do like it better abroad. Sometimes I’ll get an option and then I’d rather go have a cool experience abroad. With all due respect.

Would you say you’ve outgrown the Netherlands?

Drum and Bass is already pretty underground, in the Netherlands even more so and so there are less parties comparatively. I play on the parties we have here but they can’t book me for every edition. It’s not that I’ve outgrown it but there’s not enough to do in the genre. For a Dubstep DJ its easier, if you’re good at it you can go wild at least 3 times a week. And other genres too. I think that that's it. I like playing in the Netherlands and I’ve done so a lot, but there’s not enough to do.

We’re talking about playing abroad but when we’re talking abroad in terms of Nymfo we’re not simply talking a show in Belgium every now and then, we’re talking from Africa to New Zealand.

Yes I tour New Zealand at least once a year, which automatically includes Australia. The scene there is really good. If you're listening to the radio during the day you’ll hear at least a couple of Drum and Bass tunes. I’ve heard my own songs on the radio while I was sitting in the car with a promoter.

What was that like?

The first time it happened I literally yelled out ‘WHAT THE FUCK’. The promoter asked me what was wrong and then he went on tell me that this was normal in New Zealand. You have a lot of great producers there and if you turn on the TV you see videos of DnB tunes. So that’s fucking cool. And then the girls in the clubs, good looking girls, will come up to the booth and request unreleased tracks of yourself. That’s when you realize that they get it here. They know what’s up. They’ve been raised well. On New Year’s Eve there’s a festival on the beach that attracts like 5.000 people with a Dubstep and DnB line-up.

Do you think New Zealand is unique in that or is the Netherlands simply behind?

London’s also still great, with a weekly Drum and Bass night in Fabric. Belgium too, on Studio Brussel they play a lot of DnB on the radio. This New Year’s Eve I was in Ghent at a party with 5.000 people with a straight Dubstep and Drum and Bass line-up.

I saw the after-movie for that party, looked fucking crazy.

Yup and that’s only 2 hours away. That’s where you hear it on the radio, where you read it in the magazines, where they pay attention. And that whats I’m trying to do here, I try to push it more. I did a mix for 3voor12, my Lowlands set was on there as well. I did an interview with DJ Broadcast. I know magazines like DJ Broadcast have to pay attention to everything but I think they don’t pay enough attention to Drum and Bass. It keeps getting pushed in the corner and I think it should be made a bit more hip.

Do you think that the audience is there and that the media is behind or do you think those two go hand in hand?

I think that Dubstep did a lot for DnB. Especially something like Cable, the new clubnight here in Amsterdam. It was awesome to play there. I got a lot of good reactions and the crowd really enjoyed it. I think it should be pushed more in a context like that. I played Lowlands’ Bravo area together with Trolley Snatcha and Borgore and after that was Grooverider, a radio DnB DJ. I was on after that and that combination worked really well.

Lowlands, I saw that, went crazy.

It was the third time playing there and the Bravo stage is awesome. I had a great slot on Friday from 4 til 5, when all the other areas were closed and nothing else was on. That was a great experience.

You played together with Borgore and Trolley Snatcha. Do you think DnB will find its way back through heavier Dubstep parties like 50hurtz and Mosh?

Yea a bit, and then there are more broad appealing DnB acts like Chase & Status and Pendulum. I played the Melkweg after Pendulum who played all the hits from Skrillex to Dubstep to DnB. But you can tell that the crowd wants something different after all that violence. So after their sets I’ll play it a bit more mellow and you can tell the crowd’s really into that. But it will never be the same as when I started out, going to London for the first time, experiencing my first DnB party.

Despite all this you still live in Amsterdam, even though with your lifestyle you could live anywhere you want. What’s keeping you here?

Mostly my girlfriend. I used to live in Eindhoven but I had to go to the airport so often and I was with my girlfriend a lot so I realized that Amsterdam would be a good home. Now it’s perfect, she works here, I’m close by the airport and I have a lot of great friends here. Plus I really like the city.

Do you like the clubscene here?

I don’t go out very often. But there’s a lot to do and when I do go out I seldom go to DnB party. I really like Trouw, I like the Audio Culture parties, the Colors parties. I like that sub-genre a lot. So clubbing here is awesome. And even though my family lives in the south I can easily get there because the Netherlands is so small.

How do you experience the scene abroad, in places like London but also Africa and New Zealand. How do you compare those?

London has way more insiders, people know the tunes. South Africa surprised me, it was really western. Not up to date music-wise per se but they keep a really open mind. And when they hear someone from Europe is over they like that a lot because there isn’t as much happening as over there. It’s comparable in a certain sense but in some countries people recognize you more. They know you just a bit more.

Do you adjust your set? Do you play more ‘educational’ sets in Africa and more to the in-crowd in London or?

I always bring a CD folder full of every thing. Old school, new stuff, hard stuff, melodic stuff. I’m playing the Fabric again soon and then you go as deep as you can. South Africa is more comparable to the Netherlands where they prefer it a bit louder and not as deep. And that’s what I like about DJ-ing, I have this huge case of CDs and when you arrive at a spot and you think you’re going to go deep and then you’re in front if this huge crowd. I had this in Russia, I played Vladivostok and that was weird. In Russia they usually want to go really loud, and Vladivostok was 13 hours of flying and then I had to play a festival at a beach there so I figured they wanted to hear the hits. But then the DJ before me was a guy from London, who always plays really deep. And I was like ‘why is playing here?’ and ‘why is he on before me?’. Then he started off really deep and 2000 people went crazy. So it was really awesome that I got to do my thing there.

So 2011 was your best year, do you think you’re going to top it in 2012?

Well it has to be even better than 2011. When the album comes out, that’s a dream come true. And I’m sure I’ll try to do a good tour with that around the world.

Are you going to tour the globe? America etc?

Yeah if I can get my visa in order, which is a hassle. I know DJs that go there without one, claiming they’re on holiday, but if you get caught you’re fucked. If you want to do it officially, it takes a lot of time and money. That’s why a lot of Dutch guys haven’t played there yet. My buddies Black Sun Empire have theirs, which is really cool for them.

So the US, anything else on your bucket list?

Definitely; Tokyo, and especially Club Womb, is high on my list. That’s my dream. Most guys on my agency have already played there and hopefully it’s going to happen for me after my album drops. It’s to Tokyo what Fabric is to London and that’s fucking cool. Besides that, I’d love to play one of the New Year’s Eve festivals in New Zealand. So that, and the Americas, both North- and South.

You’ve already toured most of the eastern hemisphere, what are the highlights? What are the sickest places you’ve been.

The beach in Vladivostok was crazy, it’s only an hour and a half away from Japan, on the Pacific Ocean, waves literally hitting the dance floor. In a country where all the women are pretty and all the men are ugly. But South Africa is great too. Back then I just got a message on Myspace from a bunch of kids who wanted to book me really bad, they didn’t have much money besides my travel fee and a week of Holiday. So it wouldn’t cost me anything, but I wouldn’t make anything either. I immediately said yes, I know what it’s like as a booker without a budget and it seemed like a great opportunity to explore that part of the world. In the same manner I went to India this year. A bunch of guys got sick of Bollywood music and started throwing Dubstep and Drum and Bass parties. I didn’t make a lot money on that tour either but it was another great experience.

It’s cool that you still have the freedom to do tours like that.

Exactly, and on other shows your make a bit more and then it evens out in the end. I quickly realised I wouldn’t get rich from Drum and Bass but I still get to see the world.

Have you ever considered using all those contacts you’ve made on those tours so organize something in Amsterdam? You used to do the Red Zone nights when you still lived in Eindhoven...

Kind of, I don’t want to do it all on my own again, I used to be that stoked 20 year old kid that went to all the parties to hand out flyers and promote the parties but I simply don’t have time to do that anymore. But I do think now would be a great time to start another Drum and Bass night. With Major League in Amsterdam selling out most editions, Spektrum in Haarlem is going great, you’ll occasionally hear Chase & Status on the radio, I think this year is the year.

And that was that. Thanks for the great talk Nymfo, look forward to his forthcoming album on Commercial Suicide this year.

For more info on Nymfo visit his Facebook or his Twitter