A mainstay of Melbourne’s hard dance community, Scott Alert’s popular Hard Kandy club night is nearing its 10th anniversary. A decade is a bloody long time, and in the notoriously fickle dance scene it’s an absolute eternity, so ITM felt it appropriate to catch up with Kandy’s elder statesman for a hard dance history lesson.

Your very successful brand and club night Hard Kandy is about to celebrate 10 years. That’s a massive achievement, so congratulations! You’ve run two very successful clubs nights – Hard Kandy and Climax – over the years. How do you keep things fresh and enticing for the punters?

It is an exciting challenge to keep things fresh. It is important to keep up with new musical styles and to keep up with different themes for your events. We also change our guest DJs to introduce different sounds and constantly push the boundaries, but still within the sound of the brand. Climax was my first playground (1994-1988), which taught me about running a night and incorporating different underground sounds to the public.

Over ten years in the scene, I bet you would have seen many crazy times with Hard Kandy. What has been the highest point for you? And if you don’t mind sharing, one of the lowest?

Well there have been many crazy nights. My biggest highlight would be Yoji’s first visit down under with Lab4. The atmosphere was unbelievable. I would say Xmas Kandy 2 years ago with Organ Donors was a wild night also. The lowest point was when I was in London a few years back and I got news that the club got trashed by some undesirables forcing it to close early.

Some have said that after many years of success for hard dance in Melbourne, the last few years have taken a slight downturn. Do you think hard dance and trance are now making a comeback?

All music styles seem to rotate in a big barrel, and every few years they become the flavour. I see trance making a big come back, with a lot of heavyweights in the scene like Armin and Tiesto playing sold out shows. People have rediscovered their love of trance, and I have to say the scene was drowning in a sea of electro for too long. People have been waiting a new development. In the end I believe a lot of styles are fusing elements to create many new sounds.

You’ve watched the Melbourne scene grow, evolve and develop. Taking a critical look at today’s scene, if you could change anything what would it be?

The government, for introducing policies that aren’t very well thought out. Other than that, I think we have one of the most exciting music cultures in the world.

Do you think clubs in Melbourne are keeping up with the rest of the world?

I think we are very current. However, it is important to play a balance of new and old music at any event to keep punters excited. If you play music that is too current then the punters can lose interest as people like familiarity with their music.

You’re a DJ, a producer, a promoter… what do you get up to that isn’t dance music related? Or do you literally live, breathe and sleep music?

Yes I am extremely busy, but loving every minute. I am focusing more now on production and building up local talent. When I find time I hit the slopes snowboarding and doing artwork on the side.

As a serious expert on hard dance and trance in Melbourne, tell me who do you think is the next big thing to come out of the city? Who’s the one to watch?

Well there is a lot of talent coming though. I have my keen eye on Ben Jackson, NFX, Dr.Willis and Harvest Brothers on our side of the wall, all who have new tunes being released shortly.

Looking ahead, could you see changes happening to the Hard Kandy brand that would affect the type of music played?

Hard Kandy will always be a hard dance club, but the brand will become more theme based, playing host to the particular sounds the guest artists are playing. So you will see musical styles from trance to hardstyle being played, but we program the line-up in such a way that punters get to hear a good cross section of sounds, and I know that the crowd will follow the brand whatever music is played, because Hard Kandy always delivers a unique exciting atmosphere.

Where do you see the Australia’s dance music scene heading in the future? And more importantly, where do you see Hard Kandy in 5 or 10 years from now?

We are doing more Interstate and international events with Hard Kandy. You will also see more music coming from local artists on the label and the clothing range will be expanded. As for 10 years… who knows! If it has been as good as the last 10 then I am excited. We have a lot to look forward to, especially because of the way technology is changing the way we promote and distribute music.

Classic Kandy takes place this Friday August 22nd at Billboard in Melbourne.

Thanks to KatMroz for assisting with this interview.