NOW What’s burning a hole in Hardwell’s hard drive
01. W&W feat Ummet Ozcan ‘The Code’ (Revealed Recordings) “I’ve been playing that track for about six months now and it’s by far the biggest anthem in my set. It went straight to Beatport No.1.”
02. Dyro ‘Leprechauns and Unicorns’ (White) “The track sounds super- weird. It’s electro but there isn’t a proper arrangement, it’s just building, building and building and it kicks in out of nowhere.”
03. Dannic ‘Clobber’ (Toolroom) “It’s super groovy.”
04. Zedd ‘Clarity’ (Interscope Records) “The atmosphere and the vocal on this — the title tune from his album — is mind-blowing.”
05. Alvaro ‘Rock Music’ (Revealed Recordings) “It’s coming up on my label and he’s one of the guys to keep an eye on.”
started playing to huge audiences, when I was around 17, it was a real eye-opener to me. That’s when I reall developed my big room sound. When you play to big audiences, you can extend records more. And the progressive sound that I play, it’s more euphoric. It’s hard to create that same feeling in a small club.” But it’s not all about the DJing. For each set he plays, he’ll bosh out a fresh batch of re-edits. He put together his Nirvana re-edit and 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,” says Hardwell, who made the bootleg in 2008. “Erick
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Morillo, the Swedish House Mafia, Tiësto, Armin, Fedde — everyone seemed to be playing it. At that point, when I made it, I didn’t think it’d have that impact. I did it as just another edit for my DJ set.”
CAREER MILESTONES The booty, an edit of Steve Angello & Laidback Luke’s ‘Be’ that Hardwell had segued with Robin S’s classic ‘Show Me Love’, spread like a virus during the summer of 2008. But it wasn’t his only career milestone. In a period just over a decade, Hardwell’s had many magic moments to note, in production terms. When he was 17, it was his remix of Portuguese house tune ‘Cre Sabe’ that won him chart success across Portugal and led to him DJing in Lisbon to his first big crowd — a party for 10,000 people. He’d released his first remix aged just 14 but within five years, he was already penning productions to be proud of. The first, ‘Guess What’ (a Chuckie collaboration), never got an official release but, via the internet, became a cult underground hit. “You can still hear it on YouTube now, but it really doesn’t sound like me. It’s very techy and minimal. Nothing like the stuff I make now.” Later on, his own tune ‘Voyage’ ended up being his route to properly meeting his hometown hero Tiësto. “After hearing that, in 2010, Tiësto asked me for some more tunes to listen to,” 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 do warm-up slots for Tiësto all over the
world. “We clicked straight away,” says Hardwell. “I don’t know if it’s because we’re from the same town, or just have 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 knock 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 Holland. Dutch DJs definitely dominate the global dance music scene and Hardwell thinks it’s this spirit of collaboration — as well as the fact that there are so many venues to DJ at across Holland — 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 to collaborate with other producers. More famous co-productions include ‘Zero 76’, penned with Tiësto, and ‘Move It 2 The Drum’, co-produced with Chuckie. But he’s also currently in the middle of a collaborative project with Diplo, of Major Lazer fame. “I met him about four years ago, in Miami. He asked me to DJ at his Mad Decent party and we decided to try and make a tune after that. He quite often plays the trap remix 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