We are more than delighted to have Clockartz here for a quick Q&A. What a happy day that is! These two young talents are slowly and surely growing some Solid reputation! You may have already heard tracks like “Vile Nature” or their amazing remix of Crossroads. If you haven’t, may Hardstyle Gods forgive you because you have sinned!
Alright let’s get things started, Konstantin and Sebastian you form a duo known as Clockartz. How do you guys feel today?
Hey mate we feel really good today, thanks. There is still a lot to do as we are doing our defqon1 preparations, finishing tracks, preparing the tracklist, making videos and photos and a lot of more things. Busy days, but we love it! 😉
So Clockartz is mainly Hardstyle, but I’m pretty sure there is a story behind all this. Let’s go step by step. First of all how long do you know each other?
We know each other for like 18 or 19 years cause we met each other in the nursery and we passed our whole early life, doing all different kinds of hobbies always together.
Hope I’m not too rude asking but how old are you two?
Haha no probme, Seba is 21 and Konnie is 22 years old.
How did you come up to listen to Hardstyle? When was the first time?
Well our very first contact with hard dance music was around 2006 or 2007 with tracks of The Masochist (Chemistry, Anticipation, No Newstyle, ecc.) and Da Juve – Dinnaken (Brainkicker Rmx) and after that we listened to all tracks of the hardstyle legends Headhunterz, Noisecontrollers, Frontliner ecc and we just fell in love with this energetic and awesome kind of music.
At this time we also did a lot of “Jumpstyle” and “Hardjump” videos and put them on youtube. Here you can watch our very first video hahaha 😉
jumpstyle konny und woscht
By making these kind of videos we also got in touch with hardstyle producing videos. We were really looking up to the DJ’s and producers work and we wanted to do it and try it by our own too. This was the main reason why we started to produce hardstyle!
You are from Italy, South Tyrol, which is such a beautiful place by the way. Could you describe your Studio-frame work? (in one of your videos we see your studio in a big countryside house, could you talk about how you work, and why is the environment easier to make new kicks?
It is indeed a very beautiful place to live. We live in a village with around 2000 in habitants, 15 minutes away from the main city which has around 180.000 habitants. We have a lot of agriculture in our place here and Konnie’s main work is agronomist, so he is cultivating and producing apples. Seba is car mechanic, but our studio is located at his homeplace and he has a big garden too so of course he has all those kinds of instruments which you use in the garden xD
Hehe actually this video was more fun then severity, just to make people laugh and talk about the controversial topic of “making a hardstyle kick”. But sometimes you really can record and use strange kinds of sampleclips for your kick. Just give your fancy full scope. It’s all about that in making music.
Let’s now talk about your music. How would you describe your style? Are you more appealed to the dark arts of raw nature or rather uplifting sounds of Euphoric Hardstyle?
We always try to make a unique sound with fresh, new and different ideas and we would describe our style as a mix of melodies (that are neither too happy neither too dark) and raw parts. The scene really needs something in between at the moment because in our opinion there is a lot of really raw music being played at the festivals and indoor parties right now. It should not only be “hard kick” and “dirty and distorted screeches”.
Of course it’s cool on the dance floor, but we think there should also be a story in the tracks too. You can tell these stories with nice and catchy melodies. So we really try to do like rawer mid intros and outros, more melodic mainparts and sometimes also antiqlimaxes. Thats what we do =)
Everyone has a favorite producer. So what is your favorite Hardstyle artist guys?
Our favorite Hardstyle artists are Ran-D and Digital Punk. We are in close contact with them, we send them our music and get feedback and if you sometimes get a nice feedback it really pushes you and your motivation. By the way they are really nice and friendly guys and the music they make is really cool.
You’re attending Defqon.1 this year, at the PURPLE Stage, and I bet you have been ready for this day your entier life ! So what are you cooking in your lab for Defqon.1 ?
This is going to be a awesome day of our lifes indeed. We wanted to visit Defqon1 for so long time but we didn’t make it until now and this weekend we already play there. This is really crazy!
We have 3 new tracks ready, which we really like and of course we will play all our other Clockartz tracks mixed with some new and special tunes from other DJ’S here and there. It is going to be a special set!
What can we expect to hear from your set there (raw/euphoric/ Deep House) ?
We will start with a track from Rihanna and continue with Calvin Harris and stuff like this…
No man just kidding. Of course we will do a set with mainly Clockartz tracks like we said before. It will be a mix between melodic and raw and especially at the end we want to destroy the stage and see people going wild by playing our rawer tunes (like our track INkA). But it’s better if you guys come and see yourself ;D
Is Defqon.1 your first outdoor event ever?
No no we already played at Wish Outdoor and Intents Festival and here in Italy we already played on Boom festival too so we already made some cool experiances by playing on outdoor events. The festival season is really cool especially when the weather is good, everybody is in good mood and dancing, having some beers, enjoying the party and life. Its great!
Since you form this duo, how many gigs did you perform at so far?
It’s very difficult to say how many gigs, but quite a lot especially at our home place in Italy we had a lot of gigs so far, one in Austria and also many gigs in The Netherlands up to now and of course we want to continue like this and also play in other countries in the future!
Alongside Hardstyle, do you have a job or are you studying at the University?
Like we said before Seba is car mechanic and Konnie is agronomist and he is studying agricultural and environmental sciences too. So during the week we are working a lot and at the evenings we always are in the studio to cook new tunes. Sometimes it’s really stressfull but it’s worth the pain cause we love being producers and DJ’s! One day we would like to do music as main work!
You are the newest guest at The Magic Show, and I cannot wait to hear what you have planned for us! Congratulations again for both making it to Defqon.1 and for the Magic Show!
Thanks a lot. We also just signed at “The Wishlist” booking agency besides artists like Audiotricz, Toneshifterz and Alpha ². This was a really important step in our career and we cant wait to perform on more and new events too.
Thanks for your time guys, the whole Hardstyle Mag team wishes you the best for your carrier and your studies! And don’t forget to check what these two crazies are all about at Defqon.1 PURPLE!
Grazie mille, thanks for the cool interview! We are really honored that we could do a interview with Hardstyle Mag! We wish you all the best for your future too! Cya guys at DEFQON1!
Cheers,
Clockartz