On the 9th of October 2015 another edition of Survival of the Hardest took place in the Timmerfabriek in Vlissingen, a pretty cool industrial venue. The line-up consisted of local talent and 2 big headliners: Tha Playah and Jason Payne. We interviewed Theracords artist Jason Payne just after his set and had quite a lot to ask. Check out the interview below.
Hi Jason, thanks for making this happen. You’ve just finished your set here at Survival of the Hardest. Were you actually already familiar with this concept before getting booked here?
No problem! Yeah I knew it! Thera has played here before and Degos & Re-Done also, so it was definitely exciting coming here. I really love the location, it’s really industrial and helps creating a cool atmosphere.
Ah great, yeah we can imagine it must have been cool to get booked here. We’re curious where your love for the harder styles comes from. Could you tell us something about that?
Sure! Well I think my love for harder styles started around 1992 with Hardcore, the music referred to as ‘Gabber’ in Dutch. It was like 10 years later, in 2002, that I was watching TMF for the live registration of Sensation Black. DJ Lady Dana made the anthem that year and watching that really started my passion for Hardstyle.
Nice! Of course back then in the early Hardstyle days of Lady Dana there was no such thing as Raw Hardstyle yet, that evolved. Where do you get your inspiration from if you want to start a new track?
That varies, but I like to get inspired by movies and TV series for vocals. As long as I can incorporate feeling and some aggression in a track I’m happy.
Great. How did your artist name actually come about?
Well, one of my friends came up with calling me Jason instead of Sanjay on a road trip. Suddenly someone called me Jason Payne and it stuck. I think it’s catchy and I decided to use it as my artist name.
Alright! We’re in October now, so we’re approaching the end of 2015. Reviewing your schedule a bit I think we can say it has been a very good year for you. Could you point out some highlights?
Of course! Obviously I have to mention Q-Base and Defqon.1 here! I’ve been going to both of these festivals for 10 years now and this was the first year that I could play there which of course felt really amazing. Besides that Decibel was also really awesome, but I also have to say that small club nights are also very special. The intimate atmosphere you have there is something I love. Something I won’t forget either is the un-official after-party of the unfortunately cancelled CRAFT festival. The atmosphere at that club was crazy because it was packed with Hardstyle lovers.
Nice, we can imagine those parties have been amazing for you. In the scene there’s currently the discussion whether Raw would be the new Big-room EDM, what’s your view on that?
I believe it’s very hard to make such a comparison. To me Raw is a genre of its own. There are also big differences within Raw, for example the Raw of Adaro is quite different from the Raw of Unresolved or Regain. Even though it’s all EDM the differences are simply way too large.
Alright. You’ve just given us your highlights of 2015, let’s look ahead now. You’ve released quite a bit of tracks this year including cool collaborations. Could you tell something about upcoming tracks/collabs/an album?
I can say some things about that yes. Well of course I would like to do an album but I want that to be perfect. I first want to improve my productions and I wouldn’t want an album to be a collection of separate tracks, it has to be a journey, a story. About upcoming collabs, I have some studio-time planned with Degos & Re-done soon.
Well, we bet the fans don’t mind waiting for a great album but it’s cool you’re already thinking about it! A collab with Degos & Re-done sounds very interesting, we’d love to hear that. Alright, final question, if people want to know your schedule they can check that out online but my question is which events in 2015 are you especially looking forward to?
Quite a lot actually! Penoze of Lose Your Mind is set to be amazing, I really like that concept. Additionally I’m excited to play at Dedicated soon. Of course playing abroad, in countries like Scotland remains absolutely amazing. The dedication of the crowd there is so crazy, it’s mind-blowing to play for them.
Follow Jason Payne:
www.facebook.com/jasonpayneofficial
www.instagram.com/jasonpaynenl/
www.youtube.com/user/JasonPayneNL
www.soundcloud.com/jasonpaynenl
© Festivalling.com
Interviewer: Alexander Bouten