Tagged: go hardwell or go home


We catch up with the hardest working man in dance to talk his rise khổng lồ fame, his Revealed Recordings label and his bid for world domination...

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“After I vị a gig, if I’m in a tiệc ngọt mood, it’s my tour manager’s job to lớn remind me that this is my job,” says 25-year-old megastar DJ Hardwell. “Even though when I DJ & travel it doesn’t feel lượt thích a job. It feels like a dream come true.”

Living the dream, for the Dutch DJing dynamo, involved doing 250 gigs last year. This year, he says, he’s got as many lined up. And that includes his very first “solo concert” tour that he’s calling I Am Hardwell. It’ll start in Amsterdam, at the Heineken Music Hall, on 27th April.

“It’s the next step in my career,” says Hardwell, whose CV, so far, includes his own solid-gold big room house hits, co-productions with Tiësto, an Essential Mix and hitting No.6 in DJ Mag’s Top 100 poll last year.

“It’s going to be my own show, with my own stage. We’re going to announce the dates one by one and, at the moment, that’s about as good as it gets for me!” ROCKING THE CROWDBefore he starts his I Am Hardwell bid for world domination, the Dutch star is due to DJ in Miangươi, for the Ultra festival (16th March on the Main Stage), và for DJ Mag’s annual Miangươi Music Week pool tiệc ngọt (20th), at the South Beach-based temple of opulence known as the Delano.

“I was at the DJ Mag party last year,” says Hardwell. “I never expected that I’d be on the line-up this year!”

And then he’s off, talking about his lakiểm tra re-edits, the original productions he’s going khổng lồ thử nghiệm out for the show và the tunes he’s A&Red for his own Revealed Recordings label (make sure you reach his Revealed Recordings tiệc ngọt at Mansion on the 21st), that he’ll play too.

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“I never play the same mix twice,” he says. “I couldn’t bởi vì that. My main goal is always to entertain the crowd. That’s why I use CDJs when I DJ. I would never, ever, use a MacBook. I use a Mac and Logic Pro to lớn make music, but I think it’s awful when you see a DJ standing there, fiddling with their laptop on stage, looking lượt thích they’re checking their emails instead of engaging with people. I want to lớn interact with the crowd. I want to feed off their energy và for them lớn respond to lớn mine.”

MAGIK MUZIK STORE

That ethos has been the same since the beginning, since Hardwell first started DJing, aged 13, playing everything from salsa lớn hip-hop, early house tunes và pop at a local dance school (where kids learned to lớn tango) in his home town Bredomain authority. “I bought my decks when I was 12,” he says. “They were a phối of Reloops that I got from the local record siêu thị Magik Muzik store.”

That siêu thị, just a few minutes from where he grew up, isn’t there any more. But, back in the days when Hardwell was better known as Robbert van de Corput, the siêu thị was owned & run by Tiëskhổng lồ. “I used lớn go in there and buy records and I’d sometimes see hyên working behind the counter, when he wasn’t touring or away DJing,” recalls Hardwell.

“When I finally did meet hyên properly, 10 years later, I never mentioned that I’d met him before, when I was a teenager that no-one knew.”


Hardwell’s long-running affair with electronic music started way before he was a teenager. He started playing the piano aged six. As an only child, he spent a lot of time listening to lớn the music his mum & dad would play at trang chính. And, when they weren’t playing music, he’d turn on the radio.“I think the tune that really made things cliông xã inlớn place for me, in terms of electronic music, was 2 Unlimited ‘No Limit’,” he remembers.

“It was after I first heard that on the radio that I went onto lớn my dad’s computer and downloaded a program to make music.” Using this program — Magix Music Maker — Hardwell put together his first rudimentary tunes. And, at that stage, he was only nine-years-old. “It was weird because none of my friends were interested, so I did spend a lot of time alone on the computer. It seemed like all the other kids my age were more interested in playing with Lego.”


MAIN STAGE MASTERY

From those early production building blocks, Hardwell has gone on to lớn carve sầu out a career that many people spover a lifetime và more trying khổng lồ achieve. By the time he was 19-years-old he’d played at every major stadium gig & festival in Holl&. At that age, he says, he remembers playing the main stage at Dutch festival Dance Valley.

“I was DJing to 20,000 people,” he remembers. “I was so nervous but, more than that, I was excited.” It’s Hardwell’s irrepressible excitement — he can’t stvà still or stop grinning when he’s behind the decks — that makes hyên ổn impossible to resist. Using just CDJs, his DJing isn’t just flawless, it’s clever too. And within the parameters of his big room, progressive house sound — playing everything from Porter Robinson, lớn his own tracks such as ‘Spaceman’ and re-edits (always his own) of rock tunes such as Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and Linkin Park’s ‘Numb’, he’ll tease the crowd with a cheeky acapella that he’ll weave sầu in & out across a few tracks.

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“I’d get bored if I just had lớn stand in the DJ booth waiting for one record khổng lồ nearly finish before I brought the other one in,” he reveals. “That’s why I’ll always add acapellas & make weird cuts. I’ve sầu always wanted khổng lồ be a really energetic DJ. That’s something I had in mind since I first started DJing. I’ve sầu always wanted khổng lồ entertain the crowd instead of just playing records.”


BIG ROOM SOUND

This full throttle, flawless approach khổng lồ his art is probably what draws gargantuan crowds to see Hardwell every time he plays. At his gigs there’ll be at least half a dozen people in the crowd holding banners with his name on them.

“The big room, progressive sầu sound I play is ideal when it’s played lớn bigger crowds,” he says. “And when I first started playing to huge audiences, when I was around 17, it was a real eye-opener lớn me. That’s when I really developed my big room sound. When you play lớn big audiences, you can extkết thúc records more. And the progressive sầu sound that I play, it’s more euphoric. I think it’s hard to lớn create that same feeling in a small club.”


But it’s not all about the DJing. For each phối he plays, he’ll bosh out a fresh batch of re-edits. He put together his Nirvana re-edit và another he did of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ in four hours apiece. And he’s also well-known for his mash-ups. His ‘Show Me Love vs Be’ bootleg, he says, was one of the “milestones” of his career so far.

“That was the first track I’d done that got picked up by all of the DJs that I really looked up to lớn,” says Hardwell, who made the bootleg in 2008. “Erick Morillo, the Swedish House Mafia, Tiësto lớn, Armin, Fedde — everyone seemed to lớn be playing it. At that point, when I made it, I didn’t think it’d have sầu that impact. I did it as just another edit for my DJ set.”

CAREER MILESTONES

The booty, an edit of Steve sầu Angello & Laidbachồng Luke’s ‘Be’ that Hardwell had segued with Robin S’s classic ‘Show Me Love’, spread lượt thích a virut during the summer of 2008. But it wasn’t his only career milestone. In a period over just over a decade, Hardwell’s had many magic moments khổng lồ note, in production terms. When he was 17, it was his reset of Portuguese house tune ‘Cre Sabe’ that won him chart success across Portugal và led to lớn hyên ổn DJing in Lisbon to lớn his first big crowd — a các buổi party for 10,000 people.

He’d released his first rephối aged just 14 but within five sầu years, he was already penning productions to be proud of. The first, ‘Guess What’ (a collaboration with Chuckie), never got an official release but, via the mạng internet, became a cult underground hit. “You can still hear it on YouTube now, but it really doesn’t sound lượt thích me. It’s very techy & minimal. Nothing like the stuff I make now.” Later on, his own tune ‘Voyage’ ended up being his route lớn properly meeting his hometown hero Tiëslớn. “After hearing that, in 2010, Tiësto asked me for some more tunes to lớn listen lớn,” says Hardwell. “I sent him ‘Molotov’, another track I made around that time, and he said he loved that too. It was after that he invited me to open up for him for his gig at Privilege in Ibiza.”
Hardwell clearly remembers the date, 19th August 2010. It was his first big gig in Ibiza. And, after that, he went on to lớn vị warm-up slots for Tiëslớn all over the world.

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“We clicked straight away,” says Hardwell. “I don’t know if it’s because we’re from the same town, or just have sầu the same idea about music.”

COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT

Tiësto, for a long time, was arguably the biggest DJ in the world. If Hardwell’s momentum continues at the pace he’s currently working at, he could knochồng the more seasoned DJ off that top spot. “We don’t look at it like that,” reasons Hardwell. “Really, we play different sounds, and there isn’t any competition.”

And that collaborative, rather than competitive spirit stretches across Hollvà. Dutch DJs definitely dominate the global dance music scene & Hardwell thinks it’s this spirit of collaboration — as well as the fact that there are so many venues to lớn DJ at across Holl& — that is the reason why.

“We do all support each other,” says Hardwell. “But also, on one Saturday night you can play four gigs in Holland alone. It’s so small, that you can drive from each one to the next really easily.”


Hits such as his own ‘Spaceman’, ‘Encoded’ and ‘The World’ don’t stop Hardwell from wanting khổng lồ collaborate with other producers. More famous co-productions include ‘Zero 76’, penned with Tiëslớn và ‘Move sầu It 2 The Drum’, co-produced with Chuckie. But he’s also currently in the middle of a collaborative sầu project with Diplo, of Major Lazer fame.

“I met hlặng about four years ago, in Miangươi. He asked me lớn DJ at his Mad Decent buổi tiệc ngọt & we decided khổng lồ try & make a tune after that. He quite often plays the trap rephối of my tune ‘Spaceman’ in his Major Lazer DJ sets. And he’s played my ‘How We Do’ tune too, the collaboration with Showtek. Diplo says he loves the energy in my music và we have sầu been working on a tune together.”


Both Major Lazer & Hardwell were on the bill for two-day beach festival Zoukout last December in Singapore. They played on different stages, on the same night.

“We were supposed to work on a trachồng together the next day,” says Hardwell. “I didn’t see Diplo in the khách sạn in the morning, but I knew we were on the same flight the next morning, so I walked onto the plane with my máy tính xách tay open and ready. Thing is, he fell asleep. By the time he woke up, about four hours later, I’d put together a whole plan for a tune. It will come out eventually, & it’ll be a Major Lazer-style thing.”


LOVING IT

Hardwell’s energy is unquenchable. His skill is unquestionable. He knows what he wants, & how khổng lồ get it. And he hits at it from all angles — his DJ sets, his radio show, his productions, his re-edits, his record label, his own tailor-made concert show.

“I love it all equally,” he raves. “All the different parts feed into lớn each other. People keep asking me if I’m going khổng lồ make an album, but I don’t want to lớn at the moment. I think an album slows you down. You have to stop, spkết thúc time in the studio. I think my sound has developed so much because I make traông xã after track. I don’t want lớn be locked in a studio for six months. I don’t want to stay still.”

Hardwell misses his friends & family, but because of his DJ schedule, he doesn’t often get to lớn see them. He lives in Breda, but he rarely spends time there. The places he sees most, he says, are airports and hotel rooms.

“When I got my first gigs at Hollywood, in Rotterdam, my parents would have sầu to lớn take me to lớn the gig and stay with me in the club until I’d finished,” admits Hardwell. “They had to lớn keep doing that until I was 18. They have always supported me & I wouldn’t be here today without them.”
As huge as the hype currently is around Hardwell, he’s not about lớn start believing it. And that’s probably what makes him so special. You can see it in his face when he DJs. He’s the same age as most of the people he plays music lớn and it’s clear that he loves every single tune he plays. “You asked me if it’s a job,” he says. “It is a job. But it’s the best job in the world.”