He is known for his musical diversity which reaches from Hardstyle to Hardcore and for his mohawk – Audiofreq! The Australian producer has been part of the Hardstyle scene now for many years. Beside his single project, he also belongs to the duo “Bioweapon”. His music has contributed to the nowadays hardstyle a lot. This is why Hardstyle Mag thought the time had come for an interview.
Hey Sam nice to meet you, and thanks for the time. We are really looking forward to this.
How do you currently perceive the whole corona situation?
Corona is an unfortunate crisis that is bigger than all of us. It’s definitely quite confronting when my colleagues and I depend on parties taking place to earn our living. It’s really scary having the agenda evaporate overnight without a definitive end in sight. But that said, when we come out of this, we’re gonna be stronger, more energetic and the scene will definitely feel refreshed. Maybe this is the global time out that we all needed but never took. I’m a big believer that restrictions and dilemmas also breed creativity and usher in new winds of change so I’m definitely looking forward to the next chapter.
Yes, its really a hard time. So let’s hope it gets over soon.
We saw that you are performing at Defqon-1 Black. What a surprise – can you tell us more about what we can expect?
It’s definitely gonna be the biggest challenge of my career! I feel like the announcement of my performance on the black stage certain raised a few eye-brows and so its up to me to prove the sceptics wrong. I relish in such a challenge! What I’ll be bringing to the black stage is what people who are familiar with Audiofreq can expect, forward thinking, hard hitting, energetic beats! There’s gonna be so much cool music I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it!
We will be there – cause we neither cant wait 😉
Did you visit your very first Defqon-1 still as a guest or already as an Artist? When was it?
The first Defqon I visited was the 2009 Australian edition and then visited the Dutch edition in 2010 back in the Bioweapon days. Both times I went as a performer but did my fair share of partying!
Haha we can believe. But thats great.
There are so many great festivals out there, but what do you think is the reason why Defqon-1 still seems to be untouchable and therefore something unique?
I always call Defqon-1 the Mecca for the harder styles a place where people make the pilgrimage from around the world to the holy grounds of hard beats. There’s a unique energy around the grounds because of this – some people have been waiting their whole lives to make this pilgrimage and that excitement permeates through the crowd. As far as I have experienced, Defqon-1 is always trying to grow and be a more exciting experience for is patrons and is never one to sit on its laurels and just dial it in for the next edition. That symbiosis of people that genuinely want to be there, and the passion of Q-dance really gives Defqon-1 a unique atmosphere.
On the socials we saw a pic together with Angerfist. What are you guys planning?
I’ve known Angerfist a while and we’ve always got on well when we’ve run into each other at parties. Early last year I did a remix of his track Streetfighter and he was so impressed with my take on his remix and my interpretation of hardcore that he wanted to jump into the studio with me and work on a jam. Hopefully what we’re cooking up is finished by Defqon time!
Fingers are crossed 😀
This leads us to our next question – the EP “Ascension” was really a big one – but also a pretty fast one. Can we expect more like this in the near future?
Absolutely. I’ve always had a passion for faster harder music so much so that I had a 200BPM track released on a Dance Dance Revolution game around 10 years ago. I’ve been looking for reasons to revisit that tempo ever since and after the response for ‘Fire Power’ that came out on my Beyond 150EP, it just made sense to
Are there any plans for 2020 we should be expecting?
Even though there’s a load of events that have been cancelled, that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the music and that’s exactly what I want to focus on. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, there’s so much more music coming: I’m currently wrapping up a “classic hardstyle” Retrospective EP consisting of 4 tracks of hardstyle in the style of the much loved 2008-2011 era, following that I’ve got a bunch of collaborations with Somnia, Destructive Tendencies, N-Vitral, Lil Texas and of course Angerfist. There’s also some more Bioweapon stuff that Code Black and I have been cooking up
I’ve also planned for mainstream hardcore EP, and I’ll do another 200BPM EP after that.
WOW 200 BPM – sounds hard!!
I love working on EPs, probably more so than albums because you can really explore a theme, concept or approach for a couple of tracks and move onto another style for the next one. It’s less intense than an album but, at least for me, offers a similar creative freedom. It keeps things fresh for me, and a bunch of music comes out for the fans to enjoy rather than sticking to a single at a time. In summary, there’s so much more music on the way!
How you perceive the current Hardstyle scene?
I’m a big believer in variety and I feel like now the scene has really blossomed in a healthy way. Now more than ever there are more artists pushing the boundaries of hardstyle in very exciting ways!
What does music mean to you? And how did you become a producer?
I draw a lot of or parallels between music and food, where we receive nourishment and sustenance for the body through meals, we music is food for the soul. Both are absolutely necessary to have a happy life.
For me, making music is more than just an activity, it comes from a deep inner need to creative. I’ve always been a tinkerer, a person that likes to pull things apart and manipulate stuff, and my relationship to music is an extension of that. My drive to become a producer came quite early in life, wanted to change and manipulate the music I heard, I had a different vision of how ideas could be interpreted. To extend the above illustration further, I see myself as a chef cooking my own food to keep my my soul fed
Is there an Artist you have always been dreaming of to collaborate with?
I like to think outside of the scene on who would does something completely different to what I do to create interesting and exciting results. People like Junkie XL, BT, Periphery and Noisia do amazing work, I wonder what results would come from them doing some hardstyle.
Ah that’s a good question. Maybe we should contact them.
If you would describe yourself as an animal, what would you be? And why?
Definitely small in size but large in spirit. So, a mongoose?
Aww sweet a mongoose! Cool.
Coming back to Defqon-1. I think most of us are going to attend. What can you tell the people, if they come to the black to your set – what can they expect? Or why shouldn’t they miss the set?
What could be better than Sunday worship on the holy grounds of Defqon-1 blessed by hardcore from Brother Audiofreq??
Is there a message you would like to send to your fanbase now?
Find salvation in hard beats in the name of the Father the Son, and the Distorted Kick Drum.
Really thank you for your time and hope to talk to you soon again. All the best for you
Thanks Audiofreq for the interview, really nice talking to you. Hope to see soon again – and stay healthy 😉