Interview with Solstice

Hi Solstice, thanks for having us! How are you doing?
Hello! First of all, thank you so much for this intierview and your interest, I appreciate a lot this support.

I’m fine, very happy with how is going everything. Doing what I love, step by step and keeping strong.

For those who don’t know you yet, can you give us a little introduction?
Of course! My name is Juan Vilchez. A Spanish 21 years old guy who makes Hardstyle, Euphoric mainly, but I don’t think about styles (Euphoric/Raw). I just do what the inspiration let me, don’t care what. I make hardstyle for the audience mainly since 2012 under my old Alias (Dacompazz). At the end of 2014 I signed with X-Bone Records, a new talent sublabel of Scantraxx giving me the chance to grow inside the label.

I believe in creativity, constancy, personal signature and music. One can say that I’m polytheistic. Whitout these things, music is dead.

Recently you released a collab with Timekeeperz called ”New Chapter”. This track is in our opinion very magical with the uplifting melody. Can you tell us something about this track? How did you guys meet?
I know Federico since I was invited on a Facebook producer group some years ago. I couldn’t tell you exactly how I contacted with him, It was something spontaneous. I had very good vibes talking with Fede. He is a great man, very funny and we are always making jokes. I would like to work and know him in person someday! It want to work more with him because is a great mixture of styles.

About the track, we started it almost a year ago. Talking in Facebook as usual, we had this idea and we started to develope it. We are happy with the results and sharing positions in the charts with the best hardstyle artists of the world. We are not superstar, we are Just two crazy and motivated guys so it is unveliable for us. The best way to get good music is enjoy the making process.

You are signed at X-Bone records, how did you come in touch with them?
It was in 2014. In october if i’m not wrong. I sent my track ”The Reality” to a lot of labels without answer. I decided to work on the track more but I was demotivated. Then, I was thinking in send the demo to Scantraxx but without any hope obviously because I never had sent something to this label. Why? For me the required quality to sign there was only achievable by Gods of musical production. Scantraxx was, is and will be the N∫1 Hardstyle label for me so it was my ideal label because my idols comes from it, and that scared me a lot at the time to send my demos. Anyway I tried it hoping nothing. Time after that, I saw a gmail notification on my phone while I was in classroom and bang! A possitive Scantraxx answer. They were interested to release ”The Reality” on X-Bone, I could not believe that No. 1 label was interested in my music.

Let’s go back in time. What was the first Hardstyle track you’ve heard and left a huge impact on you?
The story begins in 2009, I’ve listened to other genres like Hardcore, Jumpstyle, Drum & Bass, Trance, etc. But surfing in youtube in I discovered Headhunterz performing at Qlimax of the same year. When the video started, I was freaking out with the lights, lasers and the format of this party but then… the music begins. It was Psychedelic, for me the best hardstyle track ever with Tonight. Was love at first sight, a something totally different musical experience. It’s difficult explain those feelings. Those days I was making low quality Trance and Jumpstyle just as hobby in FLStudio, so some time afterwards I decided to start making Hardstyle.

Speaking about producing, when did you decide to become a producer yourself?
Well It is a funny story. In 2007, playing Counter-Strike in a friend’s house I quit the game and I saw that weird Fruity Loops icon in the desktop that struck me. I opened it and I saw that you could do rhythms easily. I decided to download a demo and make beats with the pattern box with a Jumpstyle library. Later I was so obsessed that I started to study self-taught and try to design my own sounds and improve my music track after track. Step by step, I’ve learned a lot of technical and musical knowledge and I can’t stop to learn new things. Thanks to that, I’ve played on partys and national well known festivals with all my idols and the best artists like Brennan Heart, Gunz4Hire, Code Black, Atmozfears, Bass Modulators, Angerfist, Da Tweekaz an a lot more! Now I hope perform someday on Netherlands. It is one of my biggest dreams and I’m ready for it.

That is indeed a great story, haha! So after you noticed this icon you also stopped playing Counter-Strike? Or do you still play some video games once in a while? Lot’s of artists get inspiration from gaming vocals or sound effects, where do you get your inspiration from?
I stopped at once. But in that time I was addicted to shooters. I was enthralled making beats in the FL studio pattern box so I forgot CS quickly hahaha

My inspiration comes from my town. ¡guilas (Murcia) Is a seaside town in Southeast of Spain with wonderful sunsets, so is a huge inspiration source. You’ll notice this on my next track :).

What is your vision of Hardstyle, and how do we see that in your productions?
Hardstyle is not common music. It has something special that in my opinion makes it stand out over other genres. It is freedom, within the genre you can do a lot of styles and kinds of tracks so the future will be brilliant. We have a lot of good producers with outsanding skills that are making new trends every year. It’s exciting to add new stuff to my music and I hope inspire someone with in the future like the great artist do in me.

There is indeed a lot of freedom in the genre we call Hardstyle, still some people argue a lot about Hardstyle vs Rawstyle vs Hardcore. What is your opinion about this?
In my opinion, Hardcore has his own scene so I don’t know why people is trying to compare it with Hardstyle. You can love both of course.

About Raw vs Euphoric. I like both too but I’m getting tired of the Kick+Screech Hardcore at 150 bpm’s trend and everyday I see more people waking up against it too. Was cool but now is overused.

I understand why this formula has rised so quickly and strong. It’s easy to develope and attractive when started to sound but is time to stop. Anyway something like this is happening with that ”extra happy euphoric” to be honest.

I want something complex, fresh and Innovative. I don’t mind what style is.

I love the RAW from 2012, 2013 because are very hard tracks but with cool dark melodies and complex hard kicks. I also love Raw producers like Ran-D, X-Pander, Krowdexx, Riot Shift, Sub Zero Project, Riiho, and all those kind of artists that want to make something new and elaborated inside Rawstyle. Something further away a Kick and an Screech

In Euphoric Hardstyle there are a lot of things to improve too like a lot of ghost produced artists with same ripped kicks, same presets and melodies ruining the work of other groundbreaking good artists and giving a bad image of us. I’m tired of hear Wildstylez and Codeblack bad copies 🙁

In conclusion: People should enjoy good music (RAW or Euphoric) and reject all those repetitive, ghostproduced and clonical tracks instead of argue which is better, RAW or Euhporic. The important point is Quality vs Quantity. Both are Hardstyle and we have to take care of this great genre.

What is the first Hardstyle event you did ever visit?
My first Hardstyle event was here in Spain. I wasn’t a big format, was in a well-known national club called Central Rock. I won’t ever forget. Since then, I’ve visited huge national festivals. Now, I would like to have the oportunity to visit some dutch festival like Defqon 1 or Qlimax for example.

As producer you always have the dream to perform you tracks live on a big stage or in a club. Did you play any gigs yet? What was your favorite moment?
Only in Spain yet. 2015-2016 has been a awesome year for me because I’ve played on some the best Spanish parties and festivals with my idols. Unvelieable starting.

My favourite at this moment was Rave In The River in Zaragoza. What an atmosphere!

If you have to choose between producing and DJing, what will it be?
Producing but from my point of view a nice artist must control both things.

If you can choose any producer, also outside the Hardstyle spectrum, in the world to make a collab, who would you choose?
If we are talking about dreaming collabs: Darren Porter, Arty, Hardwell, MarLo, Ashley Wallbridge, Above & Beyond…
But if we are talking of newcomer producers as me: Maybe 2Louder, a new EDM Spanish duo or SPKRFRKS (Navras & Pherato EDM formation)

You did sign at X-Bone, made some magical tracks, what are your future plans?
I’m in X-Bone Family for 2 years now, so I’m working to reach a major label. It’s something difficult because you need a Quality+ fresh idea combo. This is my motivation. I’m working on some tracks with different styles as comercial vocal euphoric, reverse bass, emotinal and i’m collaborating with one of the melody masters of the scene: Anklebreaker! I’m also thinking about make some raw tracks! 😀