Interview with Sick Individuals

Few acts have maintained their place in the ever-evolving dance music landscape quite like Sick Individuals. With more than 500 million global streams, a catalogue of festival-ready hits, and performances at world-renowned events including Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival and Creamfields, the Dutch duo have spent years refining a sound that balances euphoric energy with emotional depth. Their latest single, 'Sunrise', marks a return to the progressive house roots that first propelled them onto the global stage, while also showcasing the maturity and evolution that continue to define their music today.

Released via Tomorrowland Music, 'Sunrise' has already been making waves across festival crowds and DJ sets alike, drawing listeners in with its uplifting melodies and bittersweet atmosphere. Following the release, we spoke with Sick Individuals about the inspiration behind the track, the emotions they wanted to capture, and how they continue to evolve while staying true to the sound that made them one of dance music’s most enduring names.

What was the initial inspiration behind 'Sunrise'? Was there a specific moment or feeling that sparked it?

“We’ve been reconnecting a lot with our progressive house roots lately, and while messing around on the piano we found these chords that instantly felt special. It gave us this nostalgic feeling we just couldn’t stop listening to. Funny enough, the whole track keeps revolving around those same chords, but they never get boring.

The idea behind ‘Sunrise’ is really about wanting to stay in a moment a little longer. Escaping the night together, losing yourself on the dancefloor, but at the same time feeling grounded because of the person next to you.”

How does 'Sunrise' reflect where you are creatively right now compared to your earlier work?

“When we started out around 2011, we already had a huge love for melodic house music. Then artists like Swedish House Mafia really changed the scene and made us fall even deeper in love with that emotional, melodic sound. That’s honestly where we feel most at home creatively.

Over the last few years, a lot of dance music became darker, harder and more focused on just nonstop energy. We kind of missed the feeling, the emotion, the togetherness. For us, it’s always been about creating a real festival moment, not just making people go hard for two hours straight.

Right now it feels like that melodic side is finally making a comeback again, just in a more modern way. You hear it in the sounds, the structure, the atmosphere. Tracks start moodier now, but then open up into these huge emotional chord moments. That’s something we love.

We’re also writing all our own vocals these days, which is something we didn’t really do before. So creatively it feels very fresh, but at the same time very close to who we were when we first started.”

‘Sunrise’ feels like a return to your progressive house roots. Was that a conscious decision?

“Yeah, definitely. Like we said before, we kind of got tired of only playing dark and super hard records all the time. Don’t get us wrong, we still love playing some heavy club tracks in our sets, but now they serve more as contrast.

Those moments create space to bring in new chords, melodies and harmonies afterwards, which lets us really tell a story during a festival set. That emotional journey is something we’ve missed and it feels really good to bring that back again.”

Do you think progressive house is experiencing a resurgence right now?

“Yeah, definitely. We talk about it a lot with guys like Martin Garrix, Nicky Romero, Afrojack, David Guetta and Swedish House Mafia. Everyone feels that melodic progressive energy coming back again.

What makes progressive special is that these tracks actually stay with people. They’re tied to memories and emotions, not just hype for a few months. Everybody remembers that one unreal festival moment, and progressive house creates those moments better than anything else.

The cool thing now is seeing a whole new generation connect with it too. The last year and a half we’ve seen younger crowds fully embrace the sound again, even if they never experienced the original progressive era. You can really feel something building.”

Were there any challenges or breakthroughs while making this track?

“This track honestly kept evolving the more we tested it during shows. The first version actually had a different male vocal on it, but it never fully hit the emotion we were chasing.

The breakthrough came when we stripped it back and rewrote the vocal into just a few simple lines that instantly capture the feeling of the track. Not too many words, not too many vocal melodies. That way the focus naturally shifts back to the huge emotional chords, which was the thing we fell in love with from the very first demo already.

That balance was really the challenge with this track.”

When working together as a duo, how do you divide roles in the studio?

“We actually have two studios next to each other, so there’s always a lot of running back and forth. Usually we start with vocals and lyrics first, and then build the production around it. With ‘Sunrise’ it happened the other way around, the chords came first and the vocal later.

Jim is a bit more focused on lyrics, structure and finishing the records, while Ray plays a lot of the instruments and sings on many of our tracks. But honestly, we can both do pretty much everything. That’s what keeps the process fun, because every track ends up evolving in a totally different way creatively.”

Tell us a bit about your previous collabs. Which one was your favourite?

“The collaboration with Axwell is still probably the most special one for us. Mainly because it happened so early in our career. We were still studying back then and honestly had no idea how the dance industry even worked. We were just making music in our little attic studio for fun.

When Axwell wanted to work with us on ‘I AM’, we instantly felt something big was about to happen and that our lives were probably going to change. He taught us a lot production wise and he’s still one of the artists that inspires us the most today.”

What keeps you motivated after years in the industry?

“Honestly, just the music itself. We still get the same excitement from creating new ideas as we did when we started. That feeling never really left.

Touring can get pretty exhausting sometimes, especially when you’re flying across multiple continents in a month, but the second we step on stage everything resets. Even during long airport days or dead moments backstage, we usually end up opening our laptops and making music anyway.

We’ve genuinely never lost the love for it, and that’s what keeps us motivated.”

How do you see the electronic music scene evolving over the next few years?

“It’s really cool to see how many different lanes electronic music has right now. There’s something for everyone, and because the scene is so global, every niche can find its own audience somewhere in the world. We hope that stays that way.

It’s also amazing that making music has become so much more accessible. Back in the day you needed a lot of technical knowledge to even produce a track, while now people can just fully express their ideas creatively. That’s also why so many fresh subgenres, artists and communities are popping up right now, which is really exciting to see.

And of course we hope the melodic side keeps growing too. After years of darker music, you can really feel people craving more emotion, positivity and togetherness again in the clubs.”

Can fans expect more releases in a similar style?

“Yeah, 100%. Fans can definitely expect a lot more music in this direction. We’ve been playing longer sets lately, sometimes three hour shows in the US, and our goal is to slowly fill those sets with our own melodic progressive records.

We’re constantly creating, both on tour and back home in the studio. Sometimes ideas stay on the hard drive for months until we suddenly hear the perfect vocal for it.

Right now it really feels like everything is clicking creatively, so there’s a lot of new melodic music coming this year.”

What’s next for Sick Individuals in 2026?

“2026 is shaping up to be a really exciting year for us. We’re working on a completely new visual show concept where people don’t just hear the music, but really get pulled into the world around it through synced visuals and storytelling. We want the whole show to feel way more immersive.

There are also a lot of collaborations coming with artists like Alesso, Afrojack, Nicky Romero and DubVision, plus a bunch more we can’t announce yet.

And of course a lot of touring. More than ever we want to bring emotion, connection and positive energy back into clubs and festivals. With everything happening in the world right now, you can really feel that people are searching for that sense of togetherness again.”

If listeners take away one feeling after hearing this track, what would you want it to be?

“We want people to hear this track and instantly drift away to a festival moment with their best friends around them. Just forgetting everything for a while, singing along, hands in the air, feeling completely free.

That feeling of togetherness and escape is really the heart of ‘Sunrise’ for us.”

Stream and download 'Sunrise' here