Tempest: A New Vision of Hardstyle

Today we have the chance to host one of the most amazing unknown talents that we have ever seen so far. They are two brothers and call themselves Tempest, and their music is like no other. It is so unique and absolutely mind-blowing. They recently featured in the latest podcast of WE R Hardstyle (November) with their jaw-dropping remix of Headhunterz & KSHMR track Dharma.

Even of they are not yet very known in the hardstyle scene, we believe that they have all that it takes to stand out among the greatest and the most influential artist of the scene.

What a pleasure to have you with us guys! How are you doing?
We’re doing pretty well. Thanks. We got some mates over at the studio and are being totally productive, not. (having guests in the studio most often doesn’t lead to any results at all, lol)

So first of all, behind the awesome duo of Tempest, you are two brothers from Germany, Richard & Albert, if I am not mistaking. Could you maybe introduce yourself a little more as I am sure a lot of people reading this article don’t know much about you?
You’re right. Ric (25) is currently working fulltime as a mechanic and Albert (21) is studying Media Design. We started making music separately in 2008 and are producing together since 2012. We’ve been Djing a lot lately and are pretty excited about our future.

When I listen to your tracks, I can feel that you guys already have all the maturity that only the guys who have been in the business for maybe 8 or 9 years have, or those who have experienced the golden area of Hardstyle. How long have you been listening to Hardstyle?
Ric always listened to dance music and came to handsup around 2000. Albert joined him in 2005 and we started listening to hardstyle around 2007 and never stopped since then. That also was the time we started playing around with music production.

What was the first Hardstyle track you have ever listened to and that maybe left a huge impact on you?
Rics first track was Headhunterz vs Abject ‎- Scantraxx Rootz.

Alberts was Project One – The Story Unfolds.

But at that time you were only listening to Hardstyle, you decided to produce way later right?
We actually started producing in 2008 with Fruity Loops 7 and switched to ableton last year which helped us improving our workflow a lot. We always looked up to the big names in the scene where our style pretty much originated from.

What pushed you to produce? Often people start producing Hardstyle because of a track that they have heard and that really touched them or because of after going to a Hardstyle event.
Ric always wanted to remake tracks he loves in a hardstyle version so he started to do various bootlegs. Albert started producing various genres until he settled down with hardstyle.

And you immediately felt that you had to produce Hardstyle together as brother or maybe one of you joined afterwards?
Fun Fact: We have been producing separately for about 4 years and Ric even had a release in 2010. Albert had been producing under the alias Tempest a year before ric joined him. It turned out to be the best idea since sliced bread.

Now I would like to ask you a few questions about where do you get this vibe that make you produce such amazing tracks or remixes. Where do you get that from?
We collect impressions from our everyday lives. Sometimes we get inspired by the most simple things like taking a shower and sitting in a train. But most of the times we just go to the studio and hit it. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to get shit done, honestly. It’s not that easy as it appears to be to build a whole track. 90% boils down to hard work and dedication.

I think I had once listened to an edit of what Headhunterz produces nowadays, I think the name of the track was Kundalini – Headhunterz & Skytech (Cyber Edit) and even though I have a huge respect for what Cyber does I felt like that track was lacking something… But when I first listened to your bootleg of Dharma, I immediately cranked up the volume and I was like “Yes, finally something that sounds like the Hardstyle I’m looking for ! “. Can you tell us a little bit more about this track guys?
Thank you, it means a lot to us being seen on one level with someone like cyber! The main idea for the bootleg was to revive the old Heady style. We got heavily inspired by “Doomed” and “The perfect Weapon”. Headhunterz basically brought us to hardstyle and we wanted to honour him by making this track. We never expected the track to gain so much recognition.

I was also really happy when listening to this track as it was fitting perfectly to this “old persian” atmosphere that make us think of all the ancient myths, and this perfectly balanced with the Hardstyle vibe that we know today. Really great job guys!
First of all, Thank You! Throughout producing the bootleg we watched the official music video several times to keep the mystical atmosphere. We always loved mystical and cosmic tracks like the ones headhunterz and noisecontrollers did.

But, this is not the only surprise that you have for us today as you are coming with two other bombshell tracks, Book of Love (Tempest Bootleg) – Felix Jaehn feat. Polina and Need You.  Book of Love reminds me of the track you play during the summer time at some pool parties, and it’s so refreshing. What inspired you for this track?
Well, as you mentioned, Book of Love is a Bootleg of a very famous track here in germany. We heard it in the radio and instantly fell in love with it. The other day we hit the studio and started doing our own hardstyle version. We wanted to keep the vibe of the track and only add some hardstyle elements instead of creating a whole new track. It turned out to be an energetic summer track. Every time the track is included in our sets the crowd is like ‘Meh, sounds like house music’ but when the melody drops they completely lose it. Pretty cool to see such reactions.

Need You is also a refreshing track, but I don’t really know what I feel like when I listen to it. I love the melody and sounds a bit like Frontliner tracks…   Maybe you can explain to us what you was you had in mind when you created this cool tune?
After we heard ‘Spaceship’ by Psyko Punkz at their last gig on Defqon this year we were thrilled by the simplicity of the intro and wanted to create something similar. The main melody was just a result of jamming in the studio and we thought: ‘that fits perfectly!’. Speaking about Frontliner, he is one of our biggest idols in the scene and for sure is influencing our style.

Now I was also wondering, are you were signed to any label?
Not yet. But it would be nice if we were. Let’s see what the future holds.

And if you had to be signed at one. Which one do you think would suit best to your style?
We’d love to be signed to scantraxx or dirty workz as we think our styles would fit together.

Well, there is absolutely no doubt about the fact that if you keep going this way, you Richard and you Albert, will have golden future in the Hardstyle scene, and who knows, maybe one day you will be remembered as the two german who changed the face of History… of Hardstyle… ! Thank you for your time and the whole Hardstyle Mag crew wishes you the absolute best with your music and your future career!

Thanks for having us on the mag. Shoutout to The Musical Madness Family, Pat aka Stargazer, Tobias aka Demolite and Timo for all the support! And always remember: Don’t think about producing while cooking – The Bolognese muss schmegga!