Hardstyle Mag Says Thank You!

Hey, my name is Thilo M., 20 years old and studying Event- and Tourismmanagement. I am the owner of Hardstyle Mag and just one random dude with the love for hardstyle. I’d love to involve you into the story of Hardstyle Mag, my story! I thought the time is perfect to let you know how everything has started, how Hardstyle Mag evolved and what role this project plays in my life. But, you can also see this article as one huge THANK YOU, to the ones who are involved in this project, to the ones who support us, to the ones we work with and to those who will get in touch with Hardstyle Mag now or sooner.

I thought about this kind of article for a longer time now, since I actually like to stay in the background. Since I launched this project, there is just one picture existing, which shows the team! Until now I never thought of changing this kind of relation to you. And when I am talking about you, I mean the people who follow us, read our articles or comment below posts! It was never necessary that you know who we are, it was always the content we want you to feel connected with. But I felt like 2016 was one hell of a great year for all Hardstyle Mag members. I want to give something back to the fans, but also the team – which is, in this case, some deeper information about the true origin of Hardstyle Mag, to create a more meaningful connection to all of you.

Thank you all – Mitchell, Thibault, Maziar, Kevin, Hedvig! You guys made Hardstyle Mag to what it is now. You form its shape day by day and give the backup I need. No, you’re not only the backup, you’re fighting at the front. Delivering quality content each week. Ideas to make this project grow. Thoughts and fears about possibly failures and you give the feedback and input Hardstyle Mag needs. Without you, we could not have reached the status we have now. It is great to work with all of you and I hope we can continue and even enhance our effort for this project. Let’s do it – 2017 is our year!

Thank you all – Fans, follower, thanks to all the Artists we ever worked with, thanks to all the labels and agencies, to all our contacts and possibilities all event organizer gave us. Thanks to all the people we are in touch with Hardstyle Mag. Hardstyle Mag wishes you all a merry christmas and happy new year! See you all in 2017!

So, back in the days, before I even stepped into the hard dance scene, I used to listen to all kinds of music as a childish teenager. Well, it was even earlier. I went through rap, I listened to Nirvana and Nickelback, but also quite harder and darker music like Nightwish. I also remember how I felt in love with one of Timberlands albums. I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. I always had a great connection to music, although I never played an instrument. Nowadays, I listen to music every day. However, I remember my first steps quite well.

It all started at my best friends and neighbours house. Do you remember the time you played outside with your friends? I was about 12 years old and every day I rang the doorbell of my neighbours house and asked him to come outside. But, he also had a fucking PS1 and during some rainy days we went inside to play some FiFa. While we were playing he turned on some self burned CD’s and there was one song who marked the beginning of love for hard dance music. It was ‘Lovestruck’ by Comiccon. I highly recommend to check out that song. It’s actually more into the Jumpstyle genre, but I didn’t even knew how to call it back in the days. Anyway, I really liked this song and started listening to similar songs, just by browsing YouTube.

After quite some time I discovered the first Hands Up sounds on Technobase.fm. All German fans should know it, right? It’s pretty similar to nowadays Hardstyle. I think the natural path of dance music will always lead you into to faster, darker, harder and smaller sub genres or even new genres. So, it happened with me. I got bored by Hands Up and the these happy melodies. Although I always sorted out tracks with, what I called “hard” and weird intro part, the songs on my Mp3-Player became rougher, Screeche intros, other kicks, similar to Jumpstyle, but still different and more powerful.

And yes, that’s how it started with Hardstyle guys. I mean, until I was fully soaked into the scene and began o grow interest in the first events, Qlimax, Defqon.1 or Q-Dance were words I didn’t understand or knew how to interpret them. I didn’t know what an MC is and who the hell is screaming between tracks during a live set. One of my alltime favorite sets is still Blademasterz Live during the Scantraxx 10 years anniversary, together with MC Da Syndrome – dope shit!

By time, Hardstyle grew to a constant in my life. I bet, it wasn’t even different to the story of you all!

Hardstyle Mag started as an idea I had with my best friend in school. To be honest, during math class! The idea of a hardstyle magazine evolved out of our hunger for something different and more powerful. Before Hardstyle Mag was founded, Hardstyle United was our both actual project. I was 17 years old when we founded the company Hardstyle United. You can browse the history on the Hardstyle United Facebook page, quite funny! It was a music label for upcoming producers in the scene. We released some tracks and also brought Freak’n Noizes to life – a newcomer music compilation, sold via iTunes, Amazon f.e.-, with over 10 tracks, an own trailer (which is still fucking awesome, greetz to Rick), single tracks and a one hour mix by non other than Omegatypez.

We set up the website, secured the domain and Facebook page and created the first logos, some sort of branding for our product. Hardstyle United still functions as the company behind Hardstyle Mag. Over the years our Facebook page grew to what it is now. First, we wrote German, but we realized, to reach all of you, English is should be our prefered language. The idea of a true magazine was stuck into our head and we created the first magazine. Looking back to it: It was garbage, seriously! With each edition we had more pages, more content, a better design and more exclusive stuff. With our 5th edition we ordered the first printed magazines for ourselves. With the 6th edition we started to sell actual printed magazines, the 7th edition was one hell of a success. Looking back at this, I am more than proud!

For over one year we were focusing our social media and online presence. Our website was updated and is now fully HTML5 and responsive. We launched a new Instagram account and Snapchat account. But, we are aware of your thoughts and wishes about a new magazine and we are more than hyped to do another edition, but the time is not right at the moment. A 8th edition of our Hardstylemag is coming, when the time is right.

2017 will be a great year! We are working on new content, new ideas and new projects. We can not wait to share new articles, interesting interviews, awesome reviews and brand new concepts with all of you! Stay tuned.

Have a great christmas time and a fucking happy new year!

Thilo M. & Hardstyle Mag