Firsts things first, you are sat in a café having a cup of tea, what biscuit do you choose to dunk with?

Bastogne Biscuit (Dutch) (if they have it, it's the best)

Convoi was just released, excited? And what were your aims with this track?

Yeah, so exited because I've been playing it for some months now and so many people were stalking me to get it. :) The idea was to create a crossover track and make sure the feel is techy, the break is trancy and the drop is huge! Guess we nailed it!

It has been voted in Corstens Countdown top 3 for the last three weeks, twice at #2 and then two weeks ago it finally knocked Brute off the top spot to reach the first place. How does that feel and how important is support from the biggest names on the scene?

It feels very good and it works very well too. I guess when you're in the studio and finishing such a track like this, you can feel that it rocks. When you play it, it rocks. But then big names say it also... that Rocks!

Spotfire had clear dubstep influences, do you feel that the crossing over of genres is the way forward?

YES! I'm so exited to see more and more crossing over going on! What will be next? You tell me. :)

As an up and coming producer what challenges do you foresee and how do you plan to overcome them?

The only challenge for me is to NEVER produce because I need too... I mean, sometimes I hear colleagues talk about "I need to come up with a new track fast otherwise I'm getting behind..." I say behind of what? It's all from the heart and you need to leave yesterday behind and focus on the future! I'm happy with every release I've done so far and I know exactly what I want to do next!

Have you ever doubted you'd make a breakthrough? If so how do you feel looking back on that period now?

Never doubted a second... I hear you say why? Because I just know I'm born to do this! I want to entertain people and give them a crazy night filled with different styles of music! I'm a DJ from the age of 12 and I've been playing every weekend since... small parties, big parties, hardcore, trance, techno, groovy house, I've played it all. But now, after all this time I know wich way I wanna go! Sky is the limit!

We have several up and coming producers and DJs on our website, do you have any advice that you can give them?

Keep on doing what you do best! And don't be scarred to ask for help! I mean, I couldn't have accomplish this without my friends and family!

Moving away from music just briefly, how does Jacob van Hage unwind and relax?

Taking the wife, the three kids and the dogg to the beach and just blow it off! After that, taking the kids to my grandparents and relax in the sauna & bubbles with the miss!

Any funny stories from gigs to share?

Yeah, imagine I send a couple of JVH t-shirts to the UK to some fans and few months later I'm doing a gig in Holland and they are in front of me... wearing the t-shirts! That was funny, crazy and so cool!

And what are your 3 favourite cities to visit? Either when working or getting away from it all.

Scheveningen (The Hague) because of the beach, Amsterdam because of the shopping and Maastricht because of the romance. :)

You got your big break at HMH in Amsterdam and you are now resident at Timeout in Gemert, what is the best gig you have played and what made it so special?

I have to say, next to my first time ever at Tomorrowland (wich was pretty awesome) there are some Saturday nights at my residency which were priceless! It went off from 23:00h untill 05:30h. Yes, and I played them alone!

I am a staunch fan of vinyl and I grew up in the era of CDJs, however I dislike the current trend of using laptops during gigs to mix tracks. What do you use? Also what is your view on this so called "Digital Revolution"?

I started with vinyl too and played with the Denon double decks and first Pioneer table tops... Nowadays I play with 3 or 4 x CDJ2000 and the 1 DJM800, 900 or 2000. I have seen so many laptop guys (most of them having problems non stop: battery low, crashing without reason, using the same playlist from 6 months ago), but I'd rather want to be at home I guess because of the face they are puling... Where's the creativity? I preffer guys like Chuckie, Erick Morillo, Real El Canario... true masters of flipping and jugling with music. Almost magicians!

You are currently signed up to Spinnin' Records and your last two releases have come under their sub-label Doorn Records. How important it is that your record labels let you do things the "Van Hage" way?

Very important because no label is going to tell me how my sound needs to sound! If that happens I will find another label, no problem! Even got some stuff ready and thinking of starting my own label to release it!

I noticed on your facebook that you are releasing free mashups, what's the thinking behind this?

Let me explain this, first of all, I NEVER release a mashup while the promo of 1 or 2 or 3 of the used tracks is still running. Second, I offer them for the fans because those are all mashups I do because I'm doing them for some time live before sharing :)

Lastly, what can we expect from Jacob van Hage over the next few months?

More releases, more collabs, gigs with Dada Life, Ferry Corsten and so much more! Just keep an eye on me and always let me know what you think!

Jacob van Hage - Convoi (3D Animation video)
Beatport download: Jacob van Hage - Convoi