My Year In Hard Dance

Hard Dance Top Trumps

Gigs Played: 111

Tracks Released: 9

Countries Visited: 5

Biggest Crowd Played To: 60,000

Longest Set: 2 hours

Compilations Mixed: Masif Hard Dance Anthems 2

Click below for my top ten!

Cally & Juice

What's been your biggest achievement of the year?

This year I guess our biggest achievement is not only getting one of our tunes released on the mighty Q Dance label, but it actually being the A1 track (of 5 tracks on the release). We've admired and respected everyone at Q Dance for many a year now, and have been lucky enough to play at 2 of their huge events, and even got to host a Bionic arena at this years Q Base event. To get such commendation for them to put our track as the A1 track on their highly respected label is a great achievment. Especially when we're aware the UK scene and sound over here is quite different from theirs, so this was a great pat on the back for us.

What moments will you never forget?

There's definitely a few we wouldn't like to choose between. Playing to our home crowd at Swansea's Escape Into The Park Festival. Every year this get's better, imagine 6,000 of your home crowd crammed into a 5,000 capacity tent and your half way there to imagining it. Definitely an emotional experience. Playing the main stage at Brixton's Hard House Academy at peak time. Our set in the Bionic arena at Slammin Vinyl's WestFest, again this is an event that seems to get better every year and is one of our favourite events to play at. And finally DJing on board a boat party in Ibiza as the sun was setting, all very memorable experiences.

Who's been your favourite newcomer of the year?

Definitely DJ Frisky. Although she's Juice's other half so it would be easy to be biased, this year she's easily had her best year yet, with her achievments including her joining the UDJ's agency, playing all Frantic's main events, DJing for Defqon 1 in Holland and producing her own tunes. It's hard to argue with all that already under her belt. She'll definitely be one to watch next year, both at home and abroad.

Who's been the artist of the year for you?

It has to be either Showtek or Headhunterz. They were the first big hardstyle acts to start moving away from the jumpstyle sound, which really never took off in the UK. It's only since they've made this move that others have started to follow. The past couple of months has seen some of the best hardstyle produced for the past few years. Hopefully it'll continue in this direction.

What's been your favourite label of the year?

Again hard to single out just one label that has been consistent in providing quality tunes, especially as the European sound is very hit and miss for us, but if we had to pick one it would probably be DJ Activator's 'Activa' label.

What do you think has been the best track of the year?

It's so hard to single just one track as a favourite. I'd say the second part of the year has easily been the best for tunes with massive floor fillers such as 'Oh My God' and 'Freedom' (see our Top 10 of 2008 on TID). As for our own material, among our favourites are our Linkin Park remixes, Numb and 'Given Up' and original tracks 'You Don't Know Me' and 'Are You Ready' (both forthcoming releases on Ourstyle).

What's been your favourite event of the year?

Definitely Q Base, run by the mighty Q Dance. It's hard to believe that such a small country can draw in 60,000 people to an event that was predominantly hardstyle. Also the level of production was like nothing else we'd ever witnessed. Add to this the fact we were lucky enough to host a Bionic arena there, definitely made it one of the highlights of the year.

What's the funniest thing that's happened to you?

Well this happened to a close friend of ours, Niall a.k.a. DJ L.E.D, but it was when we were with him so we hope this counts... On our return from Q Base this year we were at the airport all having a few drinks while we had to wait for our plane. Some had more than others and we all noticed his girlfriend, let's say, winning the 'who can get drunk the quickest race'. When it came time to board the plane and Niall told her we needed to leave the bar we heard her shout "fuck you I want another vodka!". With good reason Niall was worried she wouldn't be able to board the plane so his concentration was elsewhere. When he got asked for his passport as he didn't hear what the lady at the desk said, so turned around and said "I'm sorry, could you repeat that again, I didn't hear you coz I'm pissed as fuck!" With that he got pulled out of the queue and wasn't allowed to board the plane. They then had to spend about 10 hours sobering up in the airport before they could board the next one! Not so funny for him at the time though he did laugh after.

What do you have planned for the next year?

Well the past year we've finally got round to releasing some of our tracks we've produced, and set up our digital label. But we're producing tunes faster than we can release them at the moment so we're hoping to get our releases out quicker from now on, so you should see a lot more material from us to buy. We're going to aim at a digital release at least once a month and we'll still be putting out vinyl releases also, not forgetting tracks and remixes we'll be doing for other labels. Early next year we also have our first tour of Australia and from the anticipated feedback we've had from that already we're hoping this will become a regular thing.

Hard Dance Awards