Riiho interview

Hi all and happy monday! 

Well at least as happy it can be... Another week, another interview! This time around it is with Riiho, who will be rocking the party next time at Rawzone party at Y 31 (26th of march). He is next generation producer/dj making his mark big time on the scene and deservably so! Hope you like the interview, which was translated from finnish by yours truly.

You have been making really good material for several years now. What got you hooked on electronic music and especially on hardstyle?

First of all, big thank you!

My friend gave me a usb stick full with all sorts of music. From there I found few hardstyle tunes. Those tunes aroused interested in the hardstyle genre and that was the beginning of it.

If we compare Finnish scene to other countries, you have been gigging, what are the main differences between the countries?

Main differences that I think of is the size of the events and scene. In Netherlands parties the atmosphere is also something, that everyone should go and experience.

Where the inspiration for the tracks comes from?

Most of the times inspiration hits me when I've had a cup of coffee and start tinkering with old sounds or making new ones. From that point on it starts to reel under its own weight and many times I awake several hours later to having a cool part of the track ready.

What has been most memorable gig so far?

It definetly is Loudness in march 2014. 3-arena was full during our set and I've never seen so energetic crowd.

What is your take on thegenres getting blurred as an artist and as a dj? At least the line between rawstyle and hardcore is quite wavering.

I see it as positive thing. My own and many other find tons of tracks suitable for their musical taste, that lie between these two genres. Thinking from event point of view this allows more smooth progression for the night, when moving on from rawer hardstyle to hardcore.

Hardstyle has really exploded during last years to a big thing as well as hardcore has too. This offers naturally visibility to the genres and gives artists a boost, but how do you see this evolution?

It has been really great to see how hardstyle scene has grown in Finland past years and how much more there are parties. Larger audience gives artists, promoters and listeners more possibilities.

What can we expect from you in the future?

New music! I've been lately been working on new material in the work timeframe and little by little there is new production ready. One of the tracks is waiting to be released and will be premiered at Brennan Heart party. And couple of cool gigs are waiting to be released too

First ever interview!! With Djane J7

Hi all!

I am really proud to publish my first ever interview with no-one less than Finland's own Djane J7, who is one of the leading players in the hardstyle scene. She is known for her spot-on selection and energetic stage persona (and for the glitter headphones). So here we go!

The interview was originally done in finnish and translated to english :)

First of all big congrats for making it to Outbreak podcast with Pyschological attack, which is kicking tune. How did this happen and how did the track got started?

Thank you very much. Some time ago Outbreak announced of Facebook that he was looking for tracks by new artists for some special radioshow, that he was requested to do a mix for. I thought I'd give it a go and for my surprise I noticed last week that the track had made it in the mix! It was fantastic and it was good thing by Outbreak to create a mix of only lesser-known artists tracks.

The track itself might'e started from just ideas running through my head + the kick, which I wanted to make really low, bit coreish and ruff, that would be good to build an atmosphere on that I had in mind. The first thought was already to make it right away gloomy but melodic track where the kick follows the melody. From that the track slowly but surely started building.

One of my favourite ones is your bootleg of Conjure One's Tears From The Moon, which is just so beautiful. What inspired you to do a bootleg of that tune?

Thank you, nice to hear you like it! I liked a lot of the original vocals and the Tiesto Remix of the song, which I listened to a lot some time ago. For some reason that song came back to my mind and I thought it would work for sure as hardstyle version, so I started to work on the idea.

And the obligatory question, why hardstyle? What got you into it?

When I still was learning how to dj, I listened and played already then early hardstyle. My friends hated the genre at hand and I myself got even more excited of happy hardcore, hardcore and freeform than of hardstyle, so that was left in the shadow of those genres. Actually I even hated for a moment hardstyle. Only in 2010 I listened to the genre with ”fresh ears” and fell in love with it completely over the time.

These days you play other genres than hardstyle too and I think it is just great to see people move away from their comfort zone, if one can put it that way. Will we be hearing more hardcore sets from you in the future?

All throughout my dj-career I've been interested in combining genres, because I like a lot of different genres and to me it would be boring to stick to just one genre... Quickly spring to my mind that I've played on my gigs at least these kind of combinations: dark psytrance + hard nrg, freeform + dnb, electro house + hardstyle, dubstep + hardstyle + dnb, hardstyle + hardcore of course and so on. My intent is to in the future focus also on hardcore, and even at the moment I'm working on core productions.

What was the highlight for you in 2015?

At least one of the highlights was new and interesting thing was when I got in Toxic Sickness hardcore web radio as a resident dj. From there you get monthly a new hardcore mix by me, which is good thing also for international publicity.

What do you have in store for us next and where can we catch you?

Over the year I hope to finish new tunes and letäs see what other surprises we come up with! Next gig is 6^th of February at Circus. It is the Clublife Birthday party with Brennan Heart. Other upcoming gigs are for example 27^th of February Fury Presents Wasted Penguinz at Nosturi and 18^th of march at Waterland Festival in Serena.

Thank you very much for the interview and support.

Toxic Sickness Facebook page

Toxic Sickness radio player 

Don't just take my word for it, hear it yourself:

Conjure One ft. Sinead O'Connor: Tears From The Moon J7 bootleg:

Mixes and tunes by Djane J7 can be found at Soundcloud

Sweden goes hard

I got good news for you all! The first ever interview is on it's way and will be released this week :) I had an honour to chat with no-one else than Djane J7! But meanwhile over the gulf in Sweden...

I just heard of this upcoming event:

FIFO 26/2 eventhuset, Stockholm.
Line up:

Hardstyle: KIMZZA / FREDDZ (SE)

Rawstyle: D-STURB (NL) / UNRESOLVED (IT)

Hardcore: ETERNITYZ (SE) / THE DOPE DOCTORS (NL)

Tickets in advance 250sek from:http://www.tickster.com/sv/events/rzetz7ceetlghyt/2016-02-26/f-i-f-o-we-party-raw-26-2

door price: 300sek

Eventlink :https://www.facebook.com/events/427470804117357/

Clublife & Mindcore presents Radical Redemption & Angerfist party report & Clublife easter thursday revealed! (hardcore/hardstyle/hard trance)

Since Juha at Kehto won't cover this party, we decided that I'll be the one to tell you guys of the hardcore parties in Finland and abroad (when I make it). This time around it was Clublife and since I ain't a bit sleepy, I'll write it now, since I got big news too!

What can I say? This was truly historic event in finnish hardcore scene and it was totally rocking. The minute they opened the doors, there was already a line outside Circus. This doesn't happen too often so I really was shocked almost of this! Last time it happened in Hardstyle Festival and that was in 2014. Eventhough the line was quite long, we got all in quickly, which is a big plus, when it's freezing outside, but not inside. Far from it.

It is really good to see promoters working together and pushing the genre forward in our small country. It isn't first time Mindcore and Clublife have joined forces for maximum impact and they never fail to deliver! I've been at Mindocre parties too and they been top notch everytime and I hope to see more of Mindcore parties in the future! Both Clublife and Mindcore never fail to create epic party! If you see either organizer's party, be prepared for epic night out.

First up djs Neon and Triton. These 2 always deliver with maximum impact. Loved every minute of their set, which was just perfect way to kick the evening off. So beautiful melodies and you really could see them having good time behind the decks. They even played classic by RMB and that brought memories back from the mid nineties, when I saw them live. Was it really that long ago? Sigh, still that track (Spring) gives me goosebumps as do most of RMB singles. They just have so many memories in them. Sorry, got sidetracked a bit there. So back to business. Really melodic and energetic set, well done lads!

Next up was Zerateph who was wearing a mask and black hoodie. Now we moved to harder sounds which was logical progression and worked really well. The sound volume could've been bit higher, but good set! Sometimes a bit raw for maximum impact on me, but no complains anyhow from me, And the mask was cool! Might've been Kylo Ren mask, someone correct me if I'm wrong and seeing Star Wars everywhere. The energy lever did rise during his set and evening progressed really nicely. Running order was well-planned, eventhough Waily and Radical switched places. This is where the dancefloor started to get more audience and they showed their respect to Zerateph.

And so we come to Waily next. He really knows his art and did some scratching, which really takes skills to get it right. And he did it. Nice change of pace in the middle of set, when he started blasting hardcore and I got nothing but good things to say of his set. Waily always has energetic stage persona which is fun to watch and selection which sounds really good to my ears. At this point had to get something to drink and to sit a bit. Waily kicked the big gear on with his set. Dancefloor really rocked well and got quite crowded. We did hear his bootleg of Jukka Poika's reggae hit Silkkii, which created a wtf looks on my friends faces. Good bootleg, if you ask me! And heard Scooters Move Your Ass hardcore version, which slayed the floor. This is how you should remix or create a bootleg: respect the original but deliver something new to the track. And that version knew how to do just that. Golden oldie for new crowd.

Don't fuck with the Radical! I didn't really know what to expect from him, but boy did he nail it! One of the best sets definetly of the evening might even be no less than best one. Really balanced set of hardstyle/rawstyle and bit hardcore thrown in the end. Really well balanced and built set, no wonder he has such a loyal following. I always liked his productions and now I know why he is called One Man Army. That he truly is. He came and slayed my feet completely, blimey what a set honestly! I know I'm repeating myself here, but he put up an energetic show and has incredible stage charisma. He really gave 110% of him during his set and I'd call him Radical The Feet Slayer after that set. He really tore the roof off the Circus. As I'm writing this, my feet still ache from raving.

Raise your fist...for Angerfist! Radical slayed my feet and thanks to raising my fist, now my arm hurts too. So by this point, you can tell the party was excellent. Let me start with that I do have big respect for Angerfist. He has created his image really well with mask and a hoodie. That alone sets him apart from rest and is recognized by just seeing a record cover or any merchandise. His set logically contained a lot of his own productions and tracks from his latest album Raise & Revolt. Were there too many of his own productions is matter of opinion but for my liking yes. Voice Of Mayhem always delivers as well does Dance With The Wolves and Dortmund 05. The set was lot harder than I expected and was build around his own productions. The set worked well and blew the last remaining bits of the roof skyhigh and there was lots of fist in the air. But for me, it was bit of a disappointment, but hey, you can't nail it everytime. Might've been since I didn't get into the latest album that much, since it had some tracks that sounded fresh, but most were same old same old. In good as well as in bad way. Depends on your view. After this, feet slayed and fist raised, I had to leave since friend of mine sprained his ankle.

This was truly historic night in finnish hardcore history! Extra lightning and smoke machines really worked well and I hope to see them in the future too. Incredible party, now time to hit the hay and chill down a bit first with Parralox's electropop.

Oh yeah, the easter thursday main artists were released and this is another one history in the making!!

Yup, you DID read right! Frontliner is back! He reaally rocked at Helzinki Hardstyle Festival in 2014 and I'm really thrilled to see him again! Neophyte need no introduction, now does he? Legend, one of the grand masters of hardcore, This will be another epic party thanks to Clublife!

Place Circus Salomonkatu 1-3 Near Kamppi Shopping centre
time 22-04
• Ticket sales starts on Sunday 17.01.16
• All ticket prices includes 2,5e service fees

★ Early Bird ticket 22,5e - limited amount !
★ Regular ticket 27,5e
★ VIP ticket 32,5e - limited amount !

Tickets can be bought from Ticket Master / Lippupalvelu http://www.lippupalvelu.fi/?language=en-us