Headhunterz: From the heart

Voted the world’s #1 hard dance act, Dutch young gun Headhunterz is considered at the forefront of the hardstyle scene. With his most recent album Sacrifice released in March and having just celebrated the 1-year anniversary of his monthly show Hard With Style, Headhunterz is in top form – which is good news for those headed to Defqon.1 to catch him headline the mainstage this September. But before the big event, Headhunterz took the time to have a quick chat with inthemix.

Having risen to the top in record time and smashing continually gruelling schedules for the past few years, man-behind-the-moniker Willem Rebergen took a step back last year to reflect upon his career and find which direction to move forward in. The track Dragonborn is the first result of period of reflection. “When you listen to it closely, it’s easy to tell,” Rebergen explains. “It’s a spontaneous track, it truly comes from the heart.”

Together with nine other tracks made over the course of the last year, Dragonborn is featured on his latest album (though he prefers to call it an EP), Sacrifice. When the album was released in March this year, Headhunterz announced that he would donate all the profits of the project to dance4life , an organization that inspires teenagers to put a stop to the spreading of HIV and AIDS. His motivation? “I realized that I felt a deep need to share the results of my success with the world. I wanted to do something that made me feel good about the way that I walk through life. Do something that’s truly fulfilling.”

May of this year saw Rebergen also celebrated the one year anniversary of his monthly podcast Hard With Style, which has had hundreds of thousands of hard dance lover waiting impatiently for the latest episode each month. The creator himself explains that Hard With Style is his ideal medium to express his excitement about music with people from all over the world. “I simply love to talk, and music is my favourite subject. For the audience the show offers just a bit more insight in the world of hard dance music,” he begins. “It’s a win-win situation and the philosophy is simple: quality. I drive on my senses while creating it. An episode is never finished before it feels completely right. That’s the reason behind its success. That’s why so many young artists are overloading me with smashing tracks. They feel the quality, see the success and they’re excited to be a part of it!”

While performing at events all over the world in the first few months of 2012 – including gigs in the US, Asia and Scandinavia – Headhunterz still found time to work on new productions. His latest remixes of Lessons In Love from Kaskade and Spaceman by Hardwell have made headlines all over the globe, and are a huge contribution to the global hardstyle movement as more corners of the world are exposed to the sound.

With a brand new studio just being finished, Headhunterz future output is looking promising. First up, of course, is next week’s performance at Defqon.1 in The Netherlands, where’ll he be taking the stage twice. On top of his mainstage performance on Saturday, Rebergen will also take part in the so-called ‘Gathering’ at the RED stage on Friday night together with Noisecontrollers and Wildstylez, as they will breathe life into this year’s anthem for Defqon.1: World Of Madness.

So what does Headhunterz have to say about his upcoming performance at the RED stage at Defqon.1 in Australia? “I did the closing set at the mainstage in 2010, and up to date it’s still one of the most incredible gigs I ever did. There’s an amazing sense of togetherness and the audience is great. I cannot wait to come back in September!”