We Got Some Hardstyle History and an Exclusive EDC Las Vegas 2017 Mix From Brennan Heart

Brennan Heart, née Fabian Bohn, released his first record in the early 2000s, he had no idea he was standing at the genesis of a hard dance movement. At the time, there was no classification for a sound that fused the emotionally charged melodies of trance with the aggressive power of hardcore. He became a pioneer, and in a career that spans nearly two decades, he remains one of hardstyle’s most enthusiastic voices.

Brennan’s love for euphoric, melodic bliss, catchy vocal drops, and intense energy has led to landmark tunes like “Imaginary” and “Lose My Mind.” And even though he has a catalog that numbers well beyond 100 tunes, he is in no way limited to releasing genre-specific music. In 2010, he stepped outside the box and brought a full symphony orchestra onstage with him, a unique move for a dance music artist at a major festival. In 2013, via the feature-length documentary Evolution of Style, he became the first artist to fully document the evolution of the sound that was quickly gaining worldwide acceptance. And in 2014, he became the host of Sirius XM’s first-ever hard dance show, We R Hardstyle, signaling the genre’s stomping entrance into the American scene.

Heart continues to be an enduring champion of the hard sounds, using multiple platforms to ensure it holds a rightful place among dance music’s sea of genres. Through his events, record labels, releases, and radio show, he keeps finding new ways to keep that heavy bass kickin’.

Brennan Heart put together an exclusive mix ahead of his appearance at EDC Las Vegas this June. Listen below while you get a little history lesson from the don of hard dance himself. Find out what inspires his poignant and emotionally charged music, and hear what started his long-standing friendship with his brother from another mother, Don Diablo.

When

You were one of the originators of the hardstyle sound. What was the driving force behind the creation of a new sound?
Hardstyle didn’t exist yet—there was hard trance, trance and hardcore. It basically became a fusion of these different styles. In Germany there were hard trance artists, such as Cosmic Gate and Kai Tracid, and in the UK an even harder sound had come to life. From that fusion, hardstyle came to existence, and I made my first hardstyle track in 2000. I was one of the first people to make hardstyle, but in that particular moment, you’re not saying, “Hey, now I’m going to make hardstyle.” It grew into hardstyle gradually. At a certain point, hardstyle started becoming more melodic, and later, other influences were added, such as trap. EDM and trance influences have always been around. But did I consciously start to make hardstyle? No. I found an energy in certain genres that I really liked, and that turned out to be hardstyle in the end.

Do you feel that the sound has grown more mature and focused as it has evolved?
I once made a track about this: “The Motherfucking Point of Perfection.” In 2008/09, we reached a point in hardstyle where the ways of creating melodies started to become almost perfection. More and more, producers started to figure out that trick, so to speak. The consequence was that it kind of numbed hardstyle altogether from further evolving for a short while. 2009 was one of the best eras for hardstyle, according to a lot of people, and I agree. But from there, hardstyle evolved further. Nowadays, you can pretty much do anything. The genre has evolved with influences from rap, dubstep, trap, and even pop music. The audience seems to have grown more open-minded. I think it’s good that people also go back to the older sounds they still like. But what I like most about hardstyle these days is that you can combine pretty much anything. The audience has grown, just as the genre itself. A recent example is the psytrance influences in hardstyle; this is very refreshing.