Shocksteady

Shocksteady is a Dutch electronic music project formed by producers and DJs Thijs Ploegmakers and Dirk Jans, two childhood friends from Schaijk, a small town in the south of the Netherlands.

Their musical journey began in the early 1990s when they discovered house music. They enjoy almost all of its variations—trance, techy, groovy, funky, or harder—as long as the music is creative and has a strong flow.

Before Shocksteady, Thijs and Dirk teamed up with producer Ron van Kroonenburg under the project name Driftwood in 2002 and 2003. The track Freeloader became a worldwide club hit and even reached the mainstream charts in the UK, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. As the DJ team Driftwood, they performed in several European countries.

Shocksteady’s first record, the single Take a Ride, was officially released in January 2006 on Liquid, a label affiliated with Spinnin’ Records. The vinyl—featuring Shocksteady’s Brazilian Wax Mix and Club Mix, plus a remix by Santoro Project—quickly gained support from many renowned DJs such as Cosmic Gate, Blank & Jones, Lange, and Mark Norman.

Thijs Ploegmakers, whose life revolves around music, has taken piano lessons from an early age. At 14, after hearing Bonzai Channel One in a local club, he discovered hardcore, started collecting records, and began experimenting with music software. His strength lies in creating melodies.

Dirk Jans, for his part, became a house music fanatic after hearing the classic 303-Energy in the early 1990s. He began experimenting on a Commodore 64, and his love for electronic music only grew with the rise of the Dutch hardcore scene.

After completing their higher education—Thijs in economics and Dirk in mechanical engineering and business administration—the two friends decided to devote themselves full-time to music, investing in studio equipment. Their ambition for Shocksteady is to produce all styles of house music.