A man between two worlds. With his act Adaro he belongs to the Hardstyle legends, as ‘Gunz for Hire’ he forms one of the best known Raw Hardstyle duos on this planet. Ever since, Adaro seems to follow his own path, unimpressed what was currently hot in the scene. But it is precisely such characteristics that have founded his success and his way of music that have been enriching our world of Hardstyle in a significant way.
Rene
His performance at this year’s Defqon. 1 at the Blue Stage was a strong statement. With tracks like ‘Heaven High’ or a new remix of ‘No time to Sleep’ he delivered a full 40 minutes high energy show at the blue stage. This guy seems to breath Hardstyle music and it feels sometimes that is continuously active in the background. But what did he do during the pandemic? Now after his Defqon.1 performance we want to know more. Therefore we met Adaro for an interview to find out
HEY THIJS, THANKS FOR THIS INTERVIEW. WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT FOR HAVING US SO CLOSE AFTER DEFQON.1. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN LATELY?
Thanks, guys for the interview! I’ve been doing great. The perspective with the Dutch festival summer is positive so that gives great energy and good vibes.
In the studio I’ve been very busy all quarantine time long. I’ve had more studio time than ever because of no traveling in the weekends, so I also had more releases than ever.
The most recent one, “Adaro & Vertile – Walk WIth Me” is at this moment already the nr1 on Hardstyle.com for more than a week, so all amazing stuff!
HOW DID YOU EXPERIENCE THIS YEAR’S DEFQON.1 EDITION
Defqon at home was really a milestone in this year where you work towards with your new music to premiere it there. My Adaro set was at the Gathering at Thursday and the reactions were really overwhelming, my inbox exploded. Afterwards I can look back on a very great weekend. The production of the event that Q-Dance did was really next level, the most epic that I’ve ever seen. You can look back the set now on the Q-Dance Network for an exclusive period of time, so go check it out if you haven’t yet!
VISIT THE Q-dance Network here
YES WE WATCHED YOUR SET AT THE BLUE STAGE AND IT SEEMS TO BE, THAT WE HEARD SOME NEW STUFF. DIDN’T WE?
I played a set with the stuff I ‘ve been working on the last period. And premiered a brand new track with Kronos, “Up 2 No Good”. Also I premiered a new remix by an older track of mine “No Time To Sleep”. I will announce the remixer soon. And I also played some new Gunz For Hire material! And as in every set I play some cool stuff from my colleagues as well.. I love to play sets with variety.
ON THURSDAY YOU PERFORMED AGAIN FOR THE SECOND TIME BUT A B2B WITH INVECTOR. HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED WITH HIM BEFORE? AND FOR SUCH B2B’S HOW CAN NORMAL PEOPLE IMAGINE HOW THIS WORKS? DID YOU PRACTICE IN ADVANCE? OR DID YOU ALIGN YOUR TRACKS IN ADVANCE?
This was the first time I have played b2b with Invector, and to us it tasted like more!
We didn’t practice anything, we just shared our selection of tracks we wanted to play beforehand to listen through and went with the flow! It was a great experience, and I’m sure if will happen more in the future. We also talked about making a collab next year, so nice plans!
OH HAHA, YEAH A COLLLAB WOULD BE NICE. PLEASE LET US KNOW IN ADVANCE.
CAN YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST PERFORMANCE AT DEFQON.1? HOW WAS IT?
I think it was in 2011 in a b2b set with Ran-D in the Blue tent. I remember it was total madness, a great memory!!
YOUR ACTI WITH RAN D – GUNZ FOR HIRE IS A LEGEND. TRACKS LIKE ‘SORROW’ IS ONE OF MY ALLTIME FAVOURITE. WOULD YOU SAY THAT YOUR HEART TENDS MOR TO RAW OR MORE TO HARDSTYLE?
Thanks! To me it is all hardstyle. I like to listen to it all. But hearing it live and partying, I prefer the music with more power.
SO TRUE!! IT’S ALL HARDSTYLE. IS THERE A COLLAB YOU ARE STILL DREAMING OF?
Yeah of course, I would love to work with some of my favorite producers in the hardstyle and hardcore scene. For example The Playah, Angerfist, D-Sturb, Sub Zero Project, Mad Dog. I talked with some of them about it and maybe one of these will happen sometime.
INTERESTING 🙂 HARDCORE ACTS: INDEED THOSE WOULD BE GREAT COLLABS. THE NAME ADARO, HOW GOT IT CREATED?
My last name is Ploegmakers. I like the Spanish language, so I looked up what Ploeg means and it’s Arado. I remembered it as Adaro, so its basically a mistake but I like it more now haha
BESIDES THE HARDSTYLE GENRE IS THERE AN ELECTRONIC MUSIC GENRE YOU ARE INTO? OR COULD YOU EVEN IMAGINE PRODUCING MUSIC FOR?
Yes of course, I produced club, house and trance in the past (Driftwood – Freeloader for example) and in the corona period I picked it up again on a hobby base. I will do this separately from Adaro under different names. I get a lot of joy from it and learn a lot of new studio techniques this way. I just always want to grow as a producer, that’s my main motivation in life.
OH INTERESTING, TRANCE IS ACTUALLY A GREAT GENRE. NOWADAYS, SOCIAL MEDIA IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE AN IMPORTANT FACTOR TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL. HOW MANY HOURS A WEEK ARE YOU APPROXIMATELY SPENDING TIME ON THEM?
A lot of hours. I have like a love/hate relation with it. If I could choose, your music would be the only reason for success. That’s the most important thing in my opinion.
But as you say in your question, that’s not the case. It’s more and more about your image, social media hypes and algorithm tricks. So it’s adapt or die in this world, so I go along with it and spend a lot of time and work on it.
The thing I like about social media is the contact you have with your fans. This is where I put most of the time and work in. I try to answer every question that I get because I think that’s super important and I really like that interaction. Without your fans you are nothing.
IT’S REALLY HONORABLE THAT YOU TRY TO ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS. BTW. HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TIK TOK?
I have the app online, and checked it out. But I think in the hardstyle world it is not necessary (yet). I’m a professional music producer and not a professional influencer.
ARE YOU ALREADY WORKING ON NEW MUSIC? OR ON OTHER PROJECTS? CAN YOU TRADE A BIT?
Yes I’m always working on new music. Solotracks are in the making and collabs with Aftershock and High Voltage are almost finished.
With Gunz For Hire we have just premiered our new show Seek & Destroy at the Defqon at home broadcast. We have much more in plan with this, but I cannot say a lot about this. Just watch out this year!
IS THERE A MESSAGE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND OUT TO YOUR FANBASE NOW?
I would like to thank you all for supporting me! It really means a lot. Let’s make the future bright and embrace getting together more than ever. See u soon guys!