24-02-'14 Desudo @ Core Magazine Promo Mix

When you think of music saviour, you may want to bring Gearbox to mind - that's if you love your hardstyle and hard dance that is. Phil and the team have been smashing the boundaries of possibilities for the past few years. Core wanted to know more. Check this..there's a naughty little present for you guys too!!…

Gearbox is increasingly becoming a 'household' name amongst the hard dance and hardstyle following. Can you tell us a bit more about when and how it all began?

Luckily when I first got into DJ-ing, I also stumbled across a website that is responsible for the success of Gearbox. The website is LSDB.EU and is a forum website for downloading and discussing live sets. The feedback the members gave for each uploaded mix was fantastic, so I got in the habit of making regular mixes, calling them Gearbox as they went from the slower bpms if hard dance into hardstyle. It was from these mixes that I got offered a weekly slot on a small online hardstyle station and things just progressed from there.

So, how have you grown since those times?

In every way possible. The listeners of Gearbox went from a few downloads a week to a monthly podcast on 5 stations and broadcasts to over 3000 live listeners and much more than that including downloads. Off the back of the radio show's success I also done live events and also started Gearbox Digital.

What, in your eyes, has contributed towards the increased success and popularity of Gearbox as a station?

Confidence in the brand. I hate to admit it, but label owner and radio broadcaster is a sales job. You need to sell the label and sell the show to the artists so that they want to be included in it. But the success is due to passion, when I first started out hardstyle was my life. I loved everything about it, without that passion, you wont achieve anything.

Now, you also have a label - how has the success of the radio linked to the success of the label?

To be honest, the radio show has been a constant as we have always had great guests on, but the the radio show is the biggest contributing factor to the success of the label. To have the likes of X-Pander, Vazard, Regain, Lee Mac, DiabLik and Kujin Fu all on your first release, some groundwork has obviously already been done. The label really did hit the ground running, our second release received two radio one airplays which was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Who are your most talented up n comers?

Luckily, we have been getting so many demo's sent to us over the past year and we have had a massive choice of artists to pick from and if I am being completely honest, I would suggest that all our artists are up and comers. The talent from all the guys is outstanding and they wouldn't be a part of the label if I didn't feel like they had potential to be massive.

Artifact has been getting some very positive feedback, Adventum's talent is undeniable, Sick Sense who hasn't had his own EP released on Gearbox yet has already been asked to remix for Spoontech, Antracks is working on a collab with Mark EG as is Artifact, Jason Payne is considered to be one of the best up and coming all round DJ's, his mixing ability is absolutely superb, I consider Shellshock to be the most original, experimental, defined and downright superb artists on the go right now, his productions should be heard by everyone as they are inspirational,

Yhimself is a new edition to the team and has such a great ability and already has a massive fan base, and we have also confirmed one more new artists who we haven't yet announced, but I will give the clue that he recently done an interview with yourself, and he is awesome. As for Hard Dance, keep an eye out for Vontek and Darren Hall.

Where do you see the label in 5 years and how will it evolve do you think?

Honestly, I have not thought that far ahead, but I do know that I am really pushing the Hardstyle as the artists we have currently producing for us have incredible talent. If we can push to be more successful than the likes of Tillt, then I will feel an incredible sense of pride. I wouldn't be surprised however if I ended up taking the label to another genre as I'm growing a real deep love for Techno.

So, 4 years as a radio station, 2 years as a label - how are you going to celebrate? Who's playing and what can we expect?

Well, we are celebrating in March with another huge event, Gearbox Weekender 2.0. We have booked Splinta, Rufio, Sykesy, Re-Tech, Ric Henderson, Quinny, Vontek and many other local dj's as well. The radio show for February is going to promote the names we have playing, so the line up will be Splinta, Re-Tech and Vontek for Hard dance and the hardstyle this month will be provided by Artic, Warface and Adventum who celebrates his newest release at the same time of the broadcast.

Do we get an invite?!

My invites extend to everyone who has an urge to drink, be merry and dance like they've escaped from a mental hospital.

What about Core readers, fancy giving a pair of tickets away?!

That's a done deal!

What's next on the horizon?

For the near future we are going to be looking at taking some events to Holland and also we are gonna work on some artwork and other design work for website, label and our artists. It's all systems go all the time. And for the immediate future, I am going to thank you for inviting me for an interview. Really appreciate it.

Oh...and just in case that wasn't enough.....check this out for Monday filth...

Edited by djdesudo on 24-02-2014 17:58

Nice interview

Cheers mate!