Harderstate - Hardstyle & Hardcore Forum

Hi Onne, at the beginning I would like to thank you for your time on giving us a short interview for our website http://www.hardstyle.cz. It is not needed to introduce you to most of our fans since you have already been on the scene for a while and have more successful tracks, many projects and event performances behind yourself.

At the beginning, I would like to mention the latest topic related to your name and that is your new label – Lussive Music. What has brought you to the idea of establishing your own label? Does that mean that you have completely left Scantraxx or is it just a kind of its sublabel?

After 10 years of activity in the music business I found myself ready to take a next step. With my company Lussive Media I often help out young and talented producers with improving their music and producing skills. For some time now I had the idea of launching my own label to release their music. As A-lusion I also experiment within the hardstyle genre. Not always instant hit material. Sometimes these projects are a bit hard to release by a label such as Scantraxx. Music must fit the vision of a label. With my own label I can do what I want.

I haven’t left Scantraxx at the moment, so I can still release my music there. Recently I released a new version of Music in You. For now I’m working hard on setting up my label and deciding what to do with it. Maybe I will use it for young talented producers to get started with their career.. or maybe I keep on releasing my A-lusion music on it. Anything is possible for the future so stay tuned!



I know that at the moment you have been working on releasing new tracks within the “Out In The Open“ series of albums which will consist of 6 episodes. What should we expect from this project?

The project will not contain 6 episodes, so that information is not correct. Ambitious as I am, I decided to launch a new type of project in the beginning of this year. The physical CD and vinyl market isn’t as big anymore as it used to be so I decided to focus completely on digital distribution. So in fact, it’s a digital mini-album project with a new episode every 6 months. „Out in The Open“ because I don’t want to have any limitations while making new hardstyle music in the studio. It can be everything between 145 bpm and 150 bpm. But since I also really want to focus on quality, I might have to ‚slow‘ down the project a bit. This is something I’m experiencing right now. In a few months I hope to bring the next episode with a few banging tracks!



As soon as the new festival season has started, you were honoured by having a chance to create an awesome anthem to one of the Dutch events – Beat the Bridge. I have to admit that the event has got my attention with its concept, as it takes place on one of the Dutch bridges. How would you characterize this last creation of yours with the same name as the event – Beat the Bridge?

First of all, thanks for the nice compliment. I’ve known 2 of the organizing guys for quite some time now. When they asked me to help their event growing bigger by producing an anthem for it, I didn’t hesitate. It’s really great to see all the positive feedback on the anthem and event. And of course it’s not a DefQon or Decibel Anthem, but for me it’s great to be a part of it as it’s a great event with over 5000 visitors.

I had already played there on last years event so I knew what the vibe was like on the event. First we started out by producing a raw styled track, because that genre is so popular in Holland right now. But that sound didn’t fit the events atmosphere at all so we started over with a more mainstream track. The event takes place beneath a bridge which was very important during the Second World War. A lot of lives where lost in battle there. Therefore we decided to write a track about freedom and life. So with a positive vibe. Maybe a bit standard but we felt this was the right thing to do. Of course we didn’t only create mainstream elements in the track. The in- and outro are actually quite hard so people can go really crazy on that. I was so proud to see the reactions of the people when I played the track. It’s an amazing feeling to see boys and girls singing along with the vocal and shouting out the „Beat The Bridge“ theme voice. Amazing experience!!



When looking back at the past year, how would you evaluate your activity within the hardstyle music scene?

I’ve made a lot of music as A-lusion and all my other aliasses. maybe a bit too much ;-) But because of that I’ve certainly grown as a producer again. I’ve DJ-ed on some amazing festivals and played in a lot of countries again. Maybe not as much as I did in 2008-2009 but I am working on a lot of things on the side as well now. As some of you might know I’m also working for my company Lussive Media. With that company I provide individual music production courses, mixing, mastering and audio on demand. Some of the music many of you listen to, is actually mixed and mastered by me. I do this for Dutch producers, French, Italian and German labels, etc. I’ve also made festival intro’s, party mixes, etc. So I’ve been really active in the hardstyle music scene.



Recently we can witness the arrivals of plenty of new DJ talents along with the spreading of hardstyle into all parts of the world. How would you characterize this current situation on the hardstyle scene? Who do you think is the most promising talent on the scene that we should direct our attention to?

Back when I started producing music, we had to learn everything about synths, cables, connections, mixing, etc. We also had to invest a lot of money in our studio, which made producing music an expensive hobby. Nowadays people only need a mouse to make a beat So it’s much easier to learn how to make music and possible talent is discovered much sooner. That’s great for them of course! What I really don’t like it the fact that all the new guys are producers and not really Djs. So some new artists have less interaction with the crowd and don’t know how to read them. They sort of already know before their set what they are going to play and they don’t adapt to the reaction of the crowd. Some of them also don’t really care about other DJS in the line-up and play at 155 bpm in the beginning of a party. I’m not saying everybody is doing this because some new artists have both the talent for producing and Djing.

Good thing is that some of the new guys have actually changed the genre with their personal influences. For instance the trancy influences of Code Black and Wasted Penguinz. They make great music which is extremely nice to listen to in a podcast or in your car. The total opposite of the raw genre, which is only meant for going wild on a party. Some new producers really are software magicians & wizards. Great tracks that spread the sound worldwide!There’s a lot of great talents around. I don’t have any particular favorite.

How much time do you spend in the studio when producing music, do you have any habits or maybe some bad habits which follow you during the music production or on stage?

Sometimes I’m not active in the studio for a few days in a row. But sometimes you can’t get me out and I make 12 hours a day. It all depends on motivation and inspiration. Because it’s my job now I needed to learn how to work in a way that works best for me. I’ve learned that I am at my best when I have an idea or inspiration. I used to be looking for ideas. But now I do other things and get back in the studio when I’m on to something. I’ve got a bad habit of always checking the internet while I’m working in the studio. Social media addict!! Anybody know a cure for this??

It has been only a while ago since you released together with your colleague Scope DJ many tracks and a successful album. Do you guys plan on carrying on with this project even in the future and on creating together something new?

For now the project is on hold. We decided to focus on our solo careers for now. But who knows we’ll be working on the Second Identity project again in the near future?! Of course we are still working together in the studio at the moment. But now as A-lusion & Scope DJ again.



I have noticed that after almost two years you decided to quit on your career at Scantraxx Radioshow. What had led you to make the decision?

In the very beginning I had the idea of launching a radioshow / podcast. Even before all the other podcasts came around. But I didn’t want to take any risks and paying a lot of money by using other peoples music. There is of course money involved in this because of copyright. And then I got the opportunity to do the Scantraxx Radioshow with Scantraxx music only. This made it possible for me to create the podcast and get experienced with this. It was great to do! But after nearly 2 years I felt I was only promoting other tracks and artists, even though I didn’t really feel their music or tracks in particular. Everything you do, needs to be based on a challenge. I lost that challenge so I decided to quite creating the show. I am thinking of created my own show after all, with the Out in The Open concept. But this is still just an idea I need to work out.

Your plans for the future? Can we expect some new collaborations?

My plans are of course to make music for Out in The Open Episode 2. And for that I also want to do a few collaborations indeed. I’ve already created a few ‚starters‘ with some artists. I won’t tell who yet, since I want to wait with that until the music is finished and ready to be played. Furthermore I want to travel even more around the world with my music and spread my love for the harder styles.



Where can we see you in the nearest future?

This month I will play on a festival in Holland and a club in Austria. Of course you can also find me playing on Dutch festivals like DefQon.1, Intents Festival and Dance Valley. Check my schedule on http://www.a-lusion.com/agenda to see where I’m playing.

You might have been asked about it already for a few times, but for sure your fans would like to know how did you come to your pseudonym – A-Lusion?

In the end of the 90s I was an active member of the so-called tracker scene. I made music with software as FastTracker II, Modplug track, etc. Back then my name was OnneW (as my real name). But nobody actually knew how to pronounce this in English. So I searched for a new name. Back then I made trance music and I stumbled upon the name Allusion. It had to go with some kind of magic and that did fit my sound at that time. But that name was already taken so I decided to be creative and changed 1 L with a -. And „A-lusion“ was born!



What are you saying to our new website http://www.hardstyle.cz which connects all of the Slovak and Czech hardstyle music fans?

Thanks for interviewing my for your website. I will check your website regularly since I think it’s great that you are supporting the hardstyle scene and sound in your countries. Keep on going with this dedication!

Would you like to say something to our hardstyle music fans within the Slovak and Czech Republic?

I would be honoured to play for you in a club in your countries. They are one of the few European countries I haven’t played in. So as soon as I’ve got the possibility to do so, I won’t hestite. Are there any good clubs that have hardstyle nights? If not? Gather your troops and ask them for a banging hardstyle night with me on the line-up. Wanna interact with me? Add me on http://www.facebook.com/alusion

Hardstyle is in our hearts!

At the end I would like to thank you for the interview and wish you a lot of success in the future. I hope that we will meet up soon at some of the events, whether in Holland or somewhere else abroad. We also hope that we will be able to see you performing somewhere in our parts.

Patrik

FunkatronicDingus wrote:I feel like the interview was riddled with middle fingers towards Scantraxx :rofl

DjVero wrote:The fact that he mentions Wasted Penguinz in one of his answers makes me think they're going to join Lussive