Addicted to all kind of hard dance music – This is Psyched!

Our first set of Psyched was at this year’s edition of Q-Base. We really couldn’t believe what we’ve heard, as he mixed through such a variety of different hard dance music genres. By far, this was some kind of highlight at Q-Base. Ending a set with Schranz, this guy is definitely in love with all kinds of hard dance music! Passionated, energetic and dedicated – that’s how we discovered Psyched at Q-Base. Read our interview with him, as he shares some thoughts on what a good set is, what inspires him and why he loves all kind of electronic dance music!

Hey Psyched nice to have you here today. As we witnessed our first Psyched set at Q-Base we would love to know, how you experienced your set at Q-Base?
Well Q-Base is by far my favorite festival. My first track as The I’s got played in 2009 by B-Front in the Hangar. Since then it’s always a highlight in the festival season for me. So, to play here for the second time in a row as Psyched in the Theracords Bunker was just amazing.

Now, that we discovered our first Psyched set at Q-Base, we were more than surprised, by the way you mix and the tracks you choose. What makes a good Dj set a good one?
That’s a great thing to hear from you guys, thanks! I like to surprise people with my music. For me a good DJ set is a set with good transitions, unpredictable tracks and an active DJ is always +1. Nowadays you don’t see that a lot to be honest… I think to many DJ’s just pick the same tracks from the last couple of weeks, but we got so many good years of hard dance music. And besides that, a producer is definitely not a DJ. I hear so many times a transition between two tracks where the bpm is off. The good old days where all the DJ’s played with vinyl, 1,2,3 or 4 records at the same time. THAT’S what I love and like to recreate. Dare to be different…

By combining all kind of different genres within your sets, how do you prepare for a set, what are you doing if the crowd’s response is less than expected? How can you create a specific drive in a set, which keeps the audience moving?
I always make a folder in Rekordbox like every on else. If I play a set from 60 minutes my minimum tracks to play is 22 otherwise I’m disappointed in myself haha. I select about 40 or 50 tracks which I all make Hot-Cue’s in. I barely play a mid-intro because I just don’t like them that often, or I just play 2 mid-intro’s over each other so you have a long transition and flip the faders up and down.

Luckily the crowd never walked away from me, but you can always notice there is less interaction with the crowd when I play a too deep or outside the box track. Next thing to do is play a track over it with some vocals everybody knows and they are all Psyched again! The interaction and analyzing the crowd is the most important thing to do otherwise it will bleed to death.

We met you backstage as a very calm person, but on stage you go seriously wild! We love this kind of energy specific DJs have on stage – do you think this also one aspect of a good set?
Yeah that’s true I’m kinda calm but when I’m on stage and push the play button, I just push another button in my head somehow. Sometimes when I see movies of myself the day after I just feel a shame of myself “Why did you do that?!” For example, a couple of years ago when I still played as The I’s, I’ve climbed in the speakers to rock with the crowd. The sound engineer smashed me down from it because he thought I was a drunk visitor. Bruises all over the place but it was worth it haha.

But to be clear, I always check before what’s a stable place, what’s loose, respect the equipment like it’s my own expensive stuff and check the amount of space I have to move around. I don’t like to feel a caged animal! One of the craziest DJ’s I’ve seen are Proteus or Mark EG. Just love their enthusiasm. And last but not least, although I do love beer, a lot, I never play drunk because it’s still my job! 

Credits @Joris Raaijman – https://www.facebook.com/jorisraaijmann/

D-Sturb vs. Psyched at Ctrl. Alt. Delete – sounds like a crazy and fresh combination. Which talent or rising star should we all keep an eye on?
Yeah it sure was a fresh combination! He played totally different tracks as I did but that made it a fun thing. For him, for the crowd and for me it was a unusual set. Although it was an early time we had to play the crowd was already responding to it. He sure is a big talent and will rise bigtime I think! Besides that, there are several names who have big potential I think. Of course our newest member on Theracords: Invector. But also names like Retaliation, Secrecy, Infirium, Hardcraft, The Strangerz and so on…

Let’s talk a little about music. Can you maybe tell us which equipment you use? Do you prefer a specific software?
Well my “studio” is nothing more than an old M-Audio soundcard, 2 x KRK-RP6 speakers a subwoofer and a powerful PC with FL-Studio running on it! I still think I need to improve my sounds a lot and someday I’ll have that big studio with stuff in it so you can really call it a studio! Although I do produce my own tracks, I see myself more as a DJ. And as a DJ I have some nicer stuff, 2 x Pioneer CDJ2000, Pioneer DJM800 and 2 x Technics SL1200. I just love to play one of my 1300 vinyl’s!

Which tips can you give upcoming producers / DJs, when they want to buy their first real equipment?
I don’t have much to say about equipment since I don’t have any myself. As a DJ I would say, just buy vinyl and learn to mix without reading a bpm counter hehe!

When did you start listening to hard dance music? When did you make the first steps within the hardstyle genre and when did you play around with the first computer generated sounds?
Baaaaack in the days when Hardstyle was not even called Hardstyle, this was somewhere around the millennium I guess. I’ve bought cd’s like 538 Dance Smash hits. Which just contains dance related top40 tunes. But there was most of the times some extra tunes added to it. Those where more “underground”. I googled some more… oh wait google wasn’t even invented then! I searched some more from those artist and downloaded the whole album which contains also a bit rougher tracks etc.

Then searched those harder tracks on other compilation and found cd’s like Desire, ID&T hardtrance/hardhouse, Bitte Ein Beat, Harder Mach. “In the summer of ’96” uh 2005 I’ve bought my first Reeloop turntables and got 3 records for my birthday from my friends. Played them over and over again, bought more and more and still buy some now and then.

Your new track The Final Goodbye is influenced by Hard Techno and Schranz. Can you tell us more about the development process? What made you produce a track of this specific genre?
I was selecting tracks for Q-Base and thought f#ck the crowd, I’m just gonna play a Schranz track in my set. Since I love almost all the hard dance genres, I love to pick a different genre now and then within my set. Like hardtrance, industrial hardcore, schranz and definitely classics!!! But after searching some I couldn’t found the type of track I was searching for. So that was the time for me to make a Schranz DJ Tool specially for Q-Base.

Since DJ Thera played after me I thought it would be nice to end my set with a lot of atmosphere, so he can start his liveset with even more atmosphere! Just a warm break, industrial kicks at the first part and gated kicks with a lot of percussion in the second part and then a ending with only pads and piano’s. I Love it and couldn’t care if someone else didn’t. But I clearly didn’t seen the response coming which it gets after my set. DJ Thera e-mailed me the week after Q-Base and said it has got to be a release instead of DJ Tool so now we are scheduling it for a release on Theracords! 😀

When trying to explore new sounds and creating new tracks, where do you get your inspiration from?
I listen to a lot of music, anywhere and anytime. But not just Hardstyle. To be honest I think I listen to Hardstyle the least of all. I Like Pearl Jam, Scot Project, Rammstein, Tymon, Volbeat, The Prodigy, Kai Tracid, OBI, Kai Tracid, Limp Bizkit etc etc. I like a melody in my tracks and not just kick-screech-murder- everything tracks. But I do love shouting vocals, just gives a track so much energy I think.

Give us the top 3 albums you heard in the last one year.
DJ Thera – The New Era. Not because he is just my boss but his atmosphere is always good in the tracks. Also nice trancy melodies but with a massive kick!

N-Vitral – Louder Than a Bomb. Just so many kinds of hardcore in 1 album and even combined with Hardstyle.

Nero – Between II Worlds. Not better as their previews album, Welcome Reality, but at least it’s within the last year haha. Like so many genres, Dubstep/DnB is another I really like. And I’m really looking forward for the new Audiofreq album and the Geck-O album which I’ve already pre-ordered on 2×12” vinyl!

Which melody makes you smile the most?
Those melodies when an easy pad is coming up with a heavy sublayer underneath it. The melody comes up with a small pluck, the buildup is coming and then you already know you’re gonna have goosebums when the lead goes full on! Those melodies which almost make you cry! I got to examples for you guys, sorry again not Hardstyle haha.

Did you already find the love of your life? How does your personal life look like? What are you doing in your free time?
I already live together with my girlfriend for 3 years with our 2 lovely holy birman cats now in Dalfsen. Small town near Zwolle in The Netherlands. I work around 30 hours a week in the local café and when I’m not, I work on my music of course. Everybody thinks when you’ve played at festivals like Q-Base you are a millionaire and an full time DJ job but sadly not. It is my goal though to live fulltime from it! And if that means work every spare time on your music to achieve that goal, then I’ll just do that!

Do you have anything exclusive or something new with our readers to share? Some last words to anyone?
As September is almost done it’s time for October. But I just call it Psychtober! I’m gonna do a lot actually in this month. I have several gigs, tickets to give away, free tracks, podcasts, Theracords gift packs, all my mixes I’ve recorded from the past without annoying samples, stickers and most important: releases!

Hardcraft & Psyched – Voice of the Spirit will be available in October!

Thanks alot for the great answers, interview and passionated thoughts on the scene and the music! 

Click here to win 3×1 hardcope of Thera’s album “The New Era” and 3×1 hardcopy of the 7th edition of our Hardstyle Mag!