Mar 29, 2018

Hardwell's Ultra Mainstage Performance

We were thrilled to be able to catch up with Hardwell, one of Ultra’s biggest stars year after year, ahead of his Mainstage performance on Friday. Hardwell’s Ultra tracklists are consistently the most viewed of any artist, drawing major attention due to the amount of preparation, new music and edits that go into his sets. Enjoy some insight into his mindset ahead of the headlining performance as well as a preview of what lies ahead for Hardwell and Revealed Recordings.

How has your Miami Music Week been going?

Really good! I’m here for a whole week so I checked out a lot of pool parties. It’s been busy, but in a good way. We did a great show at Liv last night and obviously today is Ultra.

What does it mean to you to play a peak time slot at Ultra with the livestream and premiere lots of new music?

Ultra to me is my favorite festival. That comes with the livestream, but it’s such an honor to actually be on a stage like that and premiere all of your new music. You know how many people are watching and trying to figure out what I’m actually playing. This is the moment that you can really hype your tracks.

Speaking of which, is there anything that you can tell us about what you’re going to play today?

Everybody knows during Ultra I’m always changing my intro and then keeping that intro for the full year. I love the intro. It’s a new Hardwell track, but I worked together with an orchestra from Holland, the Metropole Orchestra. It’s really like a movie score almost. I’m really proud of that. The intro is definitely one of my favorite parts of the set.

You can also expect a lot of tracks from the new Hardwell & Friends EP, a couple of collabs with Blasterjaxx and Wildstylez, and a couple of solo tracks as well.

What does it mean to you to always have the most viewed Ultra tracklist on our site?

It’s a really big honor. I’m checking the website everyday myself and to see so many people looking at my set – I work really, really hard to make new edits and come up with a new set for every festival. Not even just Ultra, but like, tomorrow I’m playing Lollapalooza in Colombia which will be livestreamed as well. Every day I want to play a new set, make new edits, and to see the appreciation from everyone on the site, that means a lot.

What can you tell us about what’s going on with your Revealed label?

The label is doing really well. We just put out the Miami Sampler. A lot of great releases coming up. A couple of solo releases, a couple of new artists. We have our own stage today and are going to do Ultra Europe as well. Besides the whole music thing, we’re going to continue to do events.

I think Revealed right now has a great position in the music industry since not many labels are releasing big room, or proper big room. I think Revealed is the perfect spot now if you want to release big room progressive house or electro house.

We have a great group chat and everyone helps each other, A&Ring each other, etc. That’s what I want to create with Revealed – I want to be a family, not just a record label. I want to be a platform for upcoming guys who enjoy making music. I know it’s a record company, but I don’t want to talk business, I just want to have fun.

Can you talk about your two radio shows and how you pick music for one versus the other?

I’m a big dance music fan. I listen to a lot of deep house and tech house myself so it’s just kind of natural to do a second hour of Hardwell On Air. And obviously Hardwell On Air is a reflection of my sets and the more energetic music that I like to play. Off The Record is my deeper side, my more personal side. This is what I listen to when I’m at home.

How are the next few months looking for you?

Release wise the Hardwell & Friends EP is coming out, and you’ll hear a couple of tracks from that today. And just a lot of releases. This is going to be a busy summer again. I’m back at Tomorrowland, doing a couple of solo shows, next week I’m back in the UK. I’m doing a lot of festivals this summer, I’ll be back in Ibiza – two months of no sleep basically. It’s a lot of fun!

Connect with Hardwell: SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Photo credit: aLive Coverage

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