Dutch DJ/producer Brennan Heart is breaking ground with the launch of Sirius XM’s their first ever hardstyle music show, ‘Brennan Heart presents WE R Hardstyle.’ We caught up with Brennan Heart at EDC Las Vegas for a chat about his new show and the future of hardstyle, check it out!
Do you have anything special planned for your set, any surprises?
Yeah, I’m gonna play a new track with Jonathan Mendelson “Follow The Light.” I did another track with him called “Imaginary,” we did a follow-up and I’m going to play it tonight for the first time.
What’s the feeling you have when you play something out for the very first time?
Yeah, it’s a little bit shaky because they don’t know how to respond. It’s the first time they hear it too so sometimes you never know how it works when that first beat drops, it’s a surprise. Sometimes people go crazy and other times they need to hear it four or five times first, but yeah I’m excited tonight.
Photo cred: Rossumedia.com / Michel van Rossum/Facebook
What do you like best about DJing?
For me I’m also a producer, what I like is creating tunes in the studio and actually playing the tunes out for the crowd then seeing how tunes can grow. After a while a tune gets its own story – its own thing, that’s what I like about being a DJ and being a producer. For me that’s the ultimate thing.
Do you like DJing or producing better, if you had to choose?
Well that’s an interesting question. Well like back in the day, I was like more of a producer, but lately i’m starting to enjoy DJing more because of the experience and the crowd reaction that I can take that back to the studio and use it to write new music. So I couldn’t imagine what it would be like without those two things. They are both completely different. Writing music in the studio, it’s pretty much for a nerd, sitting behind a computer and pushing buttons all day long.
Yeah I know that feeling being in front of a computer for many hours.
Exactly you’re alone creating something you hope people will like. Then being on stage, sometimes in Europe I play for 30, 40, 50 thousand people, so that’s completely the opposite, but I like both. It’s like completely different but somewhere they connect.
You have something big coming you’re gonna have the first hardstyle show ever on Sirius.
Yeah I’m so excited. It’s like this big platform that Sirius gave me the chance to do this. I think it’s a big step for hardstyle for the genre. I wanna show people in the States what hardstyle is all about. It’s like a new step and a new era and I’m really excited about it.
What was your first reaction when they told you?
Oh my god. Fuck. It was good cause my management told me they were working on it and Sirius was interested and we had some meetings about it. Later on we were talking about the show on Sirius, it was a big surprise. I think right now this is the next thing for the genre.
Some hardstyle producers have gone away from the genre. Do you think that will happen with you or do you see yourself always producing hardstyle? Are you open to other genres?
For me I started hardstyle back in 2000. People love to call all styles a name and want to put a label on all styles.
Techno
They wanna say it’s like house, techno, electro. I know in the states people call it EDM but in Europe they have like a million styles and everyone wants to put a label on it whatever. For me I started writing music and it was organic. I don’t know if I wanna call it hardstyle. I just write music and get feedback from the crowd and the people and they are dedicated and I love it. What direction it goes it doesn’t matter as long as it’s organic and something natural. I think that’s the most important thing about writing music.
What do you want Americans to know about hardstyle, like people who don’t know about it?
I think for them it’s most important to witness an event in real time and feel the music. It’s not something you can listen to at home on your laptop. It’s nice to listen to some tracks in your car – it’s still cool but the thing is you need to experience the whole thing the hardstyle event at the party. So make sure you’re part of an event like EDC or Q-Dance or Mysterlands. I think that’s the point you really understand the music cause the beats are a little bit faster but still it’s a different kind of energy and people have to feel it you know. It’s hard to explain, we can talk about it for weeks.
You actually have to be there to feel it, to know.
I notice back home in Europe people say I’ve been to this party Death Con or Dance Valley and I saw you playing over there and I really liked it. It’s so much different to what I thought. When I listen to music at home it sounds like really hard but it’s something you really gotta feel live.
What are your next projects?
I’m working non-stop on projects. I just did a documentary called ‘Evolution Of Style’ we might do a follow up thing in the future. I’m writing a lot of tunes at the moment. I did a collab with Wildstylez – with him we wrote “Lose My Mind” two years ago. I’m working hard for the label. My label is called We R. We’ve got Code Black on the label, Outbreak. Actually we are signing a lot of new guys like Crisis Era from Canada. It’s exciting because it’s like this family thing which is typical for hardstyle as well. It’s like a big family and it’s something we do on the label as well. Everything falls into place at the right moment. The show on Sirius is called We R Hardstyle which represents the feeling of the music as well. It’s like this unity, this thing together and yeah its happening. I always dreamed about it and I feel things are falling into the right place now.
We R Hardstyle starts on Sirius XM Friday, July 18th at 3:00am EST.
Be sure to check Brennan Heart’s EDC Vegas set below!
https://soundcloud.com/brennanheart/brennanheart-edc-vegas-2014
Photo cred (Top): Aaron Chao Photo/Halo Productions
Connect with TURN UP THE BASS:
http://twitter.com/TURNUP_THEBASS
http://www.facebook.com/TURNUPTHEBASS.net
http://instagram.com/TURNUP_THEBASS
snap chat user name: TURNUP_THEBASS
Comments
comments