Interview Delete @ Survival Of The Hardest, Vlissingen
Delete was born in Australia but his love & talent for Hardstyle music brought him to the Netherlands. He’s signed at Theracords & has been doing very well in the charts. Last year he surprised his fans with the premiere of Delete VIP at Supremacy. Anyway there’s enough to chat about so we decided to catch up with him just after his set at Survival of The Hardest in Vlissingen.
Hi Ryan! First of all, thanks for doing this interview with us! Did you have fun during your set just now?
Hi! No problem! Yeah it was great! The MC actually started singing happy birthday with the crowd because it’s my birthday today. Didn’t see that coming at all.
Haha nice, we have to admit we were a part of the conspiracy that came up with the idea to do that. So pretty much everybody knows you’re Australian, what’s your home town actually?
Newcastle! There’s also a Newcastle in the UK obviously but I mean the Aussie one.
Alright! How did you actually get in touch with Hardstyle?
I think I was 16 or 17 years old, back then I mostly listened to other forms of hard-dance music like Hard-Trance and Hard House. Suddenly I came across the music of legends like Deepack, Luna and Dana. I was instantly hooked on this so called ‘Hardstyle’ music. I wanted to share this music so that’s when I first wanted to become a DJ. I bought turntables & started collected vinyl records. Pretty much around the same time I also began trying to produce because I was so interested in how this music was made.. Especially Deepack motivated me to start producing, for example their track ‘The Prophecy’ has got an attitude and dark vibe that I hadn’t heard before & really sounded attractive to me. But it was the kick that sucked me in the most. It was unlike anything else. It was empowering music!
Interesting! Throughout the years you’ve had many highlights but let’s keep it at last year. What are your top 3 moments?
Supremacy was a huge highlight for me! It was amazing to premiere Delete VIP as I put a lot of work into making this act come to life. Next to that Hard Bass at Gelredome was also a highlight, amazing event and to perform in a team with my good friends Warface & Deetox was really special. Number 3 just has to be returning to my home-country for Defqon.1 Australia as it’s always special for me to return home, let alone play at Australia’s event of the year.
Understandable! Of course I expected you to mention Delete VIP. How did the idea of such a special live-act come about?
Well I’ve wanted to do a live-act in a special way for a long time already. In agreement with Theracords, Art of Dance gave me the green light to premiere something unique at Supremacy. VIP stands for Variation In Production and that’s exactly what my live-act is all about; special edits that are exclusive for Delete VIP. Delete VIP will take place for the 2nd time at Qapital & then Defqon.1 after that. Beyond that is a secret for now!
Delete VIP is quite a unique live-act indeed! When did you actually get the feeling, yes the Netherlands is where my future lies.
Basically already in 2012 when I got booked for Loudness by b2s. The crowd reaction was insane, nothing like I had ever witnessed. I was like, damn I gotta move here! Instantly hooked!
Haha we can imagine what that must have felt like! What we’re always curious about is how an artist gets his inspiration. If you got a blank page, how do you get inspired to create a track?
That depends per track basically. In some cases the vocal was already there & I built the track around it, that was the case for ‘Just Do It’ and ‘The World Is Yours’. Watching movies can definitely trigger inspiration as well as listening to other tracks, more specifically the structure of other tracks. Listening to Trance can be inspirational to me & also Drum & Bass. The structure, Sound Design and rhythm are unique in other genres so it’s cool to immerse yourself in them to keep a fresh perspective.
Interesting! Let’s talk music. You’ve done quite a bit of collabs already but we assume there’s way more to come. Could you shine some light on that?
Sure! Well I did a collab with DJ Thera for his upcoming album The New Era called ‘Judgement’. I’ve done one with Deetox and also Warface recently. I’m currently working with N-Vitral right now and I’ve got some more coming up with Outbreak, Prefix & Density, Degos & Re-Done and a new one with Vazard is also on the cards.
Cool! Very curious what the result of those collaborations will sound like! Alright last question, in case we would do this interview again in about 1 year time, what are the main goals you want to have reached by then?
Good question, well it would be great to get even bigger bookings and to play at events I haven’t played yet, especially with the number of festivals in the summer. There is a lot more to experience. Even though I’m happy how things are going we can always aim higher right?
Additionally, I want to further develop my VIP live-act and obviously develop myself more as an artist. It’s a life-long learning process.
That sounds great! We wish you all the best! Thanks for the interview!
No problem, thanks to you guys as well!
Follow Delete through these channels:
https://www.facebook.com/deletedj
https://www.youtube.com/user/deletedjproducer
https://www.instagram.com/delete_dj/