In the year 2016 there was an uprising of new talents signing at lots of different labels. One of the labels who deserves to be in the spotlight more often is Spoontech. Italy is back in business, more and more talents strike back with rough destinctive tracks. One of them is Malcolm Gallo, alias Unkind. Let’s have a chat!
Hi Unkind, we are honored to have you here at Hardstyle Mag. How are you doing?
Hey guys, everything is okay! Thanks for having me!
Can you give us a little re-cap of 2016?
Sure! Well, 2016 was an amazing year for me, signed at Spoontech Records, first gig in my life and a lot of people started to follow me everyday on social media!
For all the new readers, can you give us a little introduction about yourself?
My name is Malcolm, I’m 19 years old from Genova, Italy
I started to produce in 2014. Since I was 12, I want to produce hardstyle. I’m really in love with this genre!
How did you come up with the name Unkind, how does this suit your style of productions, or perhaps your whole musical vision?
Well, Unkind suits my production style because I always aim to produce “Heavy” tracks. Besides, I think outside the music spectrum, there are a lot of people who are really unkind so it is also an ironic fact.
You recently signed at Spoontech records, how did you come in touch with them? Why did you choose for Spoontech?
I’m in love with Spoontech Records since their first release. It was my dream to join this label as artist. I remember one day I was at school and during math class I recieved a message from Vazard, he asked me to send over some demos. It seems was interested in my music, haha. Well I almost cried, a dream did become reality.
Overal the sound of Spoontech artists are known as rough, odd (in a good way), and exploring the boundaries of Hardstyle, how would you describe Spoontech?
I’m talking now as a fan, not as artist, I think Spoontech is one of the best labels in terms of music, awesome melodies, ambients, themes! Spoontech music can catch you in a thousand feelings!
Your first release on the label was the EP including Insolence and STFU. Both tracks are very rythmical. You play around with different sounds, vocal stamps, kicks and snares. How do you start creating these rythms? Do you have them in mind before you start producing, or do they develope to a rythm while producing?
In every my EP I play with different styles, I really like to show a lot of styles that I can produce, from the dark melodic tracks till the industrial tracks at 160 BPM. I also produced a hardcore track that i will release it for free!
Unkind - Insolence
Let’s talk about your studio. What does your studio look like? What software and hardware do you use?
I built it in front of my bed in my room, my mom and neighbours aren’t happy about that, but they can understand the situation, haha!
Actually I’m using FL Studio as software for producing. Hardware, I have only a MIDI keyboard, KRK speakers and an external audio interface.
The rougher side of the Hardstyle spectrum is taking over more and more. What are your thoughts about this? Why do you guys think that people like it rougher than a few years back? How do you see this Hardstyle evolution?
I think its just a different kind of taste, a lot of people like a hard kickdrum or an aggressive ambient. It’s always an innovative style that people like the most.
Speaking about musical vision, when did you start listening to Hardstyle? What was the first track you heard?
Well, I started listen hardstyle in 2009, I was only 12 years old. My friends and classmates thought I was crazy because they didn’t know anything about this music genre. My first hardstyle track that I listened was “Attack Again” from Noisecontrollers. I still listen to this track these days!!
Your tracks seems to be influenced by many music genres. Which music genres do you listen to, and how can we see these influences in your tracks?
I mostly listen to raw/hardstyle. Sometimes I listen to industrial/hardcore tracks. I like to mix Industrial sounds with Raw energy in my tracks, you can notice it from in my kicks, the tail is like a harcore kick but the punch like a raw kick. I think this is the perfect mix for the style I want to produce!
Unkind - STFU
We also see collabs between artists from different genres. For instance Radical Redemeption just announced a collab with MOKSI, Noisecontrollers did create a track together with Sander van Doorn. What do you think about all these collabs. Is Hardstyle loosing his identity?
Hardstyle is not losing his identy. I think this is a good way to experiment something new! Who doesn’t like new stuff?!
Speaking about the identity of Hardstyle, how do you think i twill develope in the next years?
I really hope that Hardstyle never lose his fascinating and magical atmosphere! There are a lot of people who live for hardstyle music, I can see on socials and events that we are a big family! Thousands of people sharing an unique passion.
What was the first Hardstyle event you did visit?
My first Hardstyle event was “Legend Sumemer Festival” in 2013 here in Turin, italy. I can remeber that I felt in love with Gunz For Hire and Frequencerz that night. Really hard for me to forget that night!
Speaking about events, at which events can we see you the next months?
The 4th of March I will play for the first time at Loudness! I’m really excited! At the moment I have others gigs that will be announced in the next months!
There are lots of upcoming Italian producers, think about Rooler, the Purge, and Malice. Speaking about The Purge. We saw you guys are working on a collab, can you tell us something about it?
With the guys from The Purge, I started a collab because I think when we blend our style the outcome will be a really heavy banger! We will preview something pretty soon at our socials! So keep in touch :).
If you can choose any producer to create a collab with, also outside the Hardstyle spectrum, who would you pick?
Malice and Rooler are my gods. They introduced me and did learn me how to start producing hardstyle. I’m really happy for the results, they worked a lot for this! Oh, and by the way, I’m also working on a track with Malice!
In 2016 you did sign at Spoontech, did create some crazy bangers, what are your future plans?
A lot of new tracks are coming up! At the moment I only think to produce new music, than we will see what future offer me!