Page 30 - We Rave You Magazine | September 2022

INTERVIEW > INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH HARDWELL

As always, it’s exciting to hear new Hardwell music. What
has inspired this new stylistic direction that you are bring-
ing through with your upcoming album?

Creatively I went back in the studio and started playing
around with new ideas. After a while, I was like “what music
actually got me into dance music?”, so I started reconnecting
with all my old records, tapes and CDs I listened to as a kid
and in the early phase starting out. There was a lot of inspira-
tion from the sounds of that time, as well as a desire to start
an entirely new chapter in what was my “Hardwell sound”.

Before premiering this new music to the world, was there
a part of you that felt nervous in any way, or was it all just
pure excitement to get it out there?
Absolutely! I was unbelievably nervous about making a
comeback with this new show and sound. Taking a decision
to play just new music instead of doing something like 50%
old music and 50% new music, was my way of making a
statement. It was important to me to let the world know I was
back and with new music.

Between the time just before you went on your hiatus and
the time since returning, was there anything that had
struck you as being very different within the scene (such as
changes in what genres are popular now, etc.)?
One thing that struck me was what an incredible moment in
time we lived in during that ‘EDM bubble’. It was such a key
period in dance music history, and whilst it wasn’t for every-
one musically it was a time in the history of our scene that
broke down barriers, opened new doors and arguably elevat-
ed all genres and artists in the scene. The scene has now
evolved again, we’re now seeing a more inclusive and fairer
system take shape in front of us, all which will only be a good
thing for dance music artists, fans, and the whole industry.

Beyond ‘Rebels Never Die’ which is out now, is there any
new music or collaborations in the pipeline that you may
be able to tell us about?
I’m always working on new music and recently even started
working on some more vocalish tracks in the new style with
big chords and lots of emotion, but right now my main focus
at this moment is on this new chapter with the REBELS NEVER
DIE album, and the upcoming shows of my album world
tour. It has been an incredible summer so far with shows at
festivals like Ultra, Tomorrowland, Untold and Creamfields.
The recent show at Ushuaïa Ibiza was also something
special and the fans were crazy. It felt so good to be back
there after so long. I’m now looking forward to taking this
new REBELS NEVER DIE tour show to other events in Europe, as
“The scene has now evolved again, we’re now seeing a more well as North America, Dubai, and then over to Asia. A list of
the remaining REBELS NEVER DIE shows can be found via my
inclusive and fairer system take shape in front of us, all which website www.djhardwell.com.

will only be a good thing” REBELS NEVER DIE IS NOW OUT WORLDWIDE, AND FANS CAN
HEAD TO THE REVEALED RECORDINGS WEBSITE TO STREAM, BUY
OR DOWNLOAD ON ALL MUSIC SERVICES.

30 we rave you.com PC: REIN KOOYMAN sep 2022 31