How’d you get into DJing/Producing Hardcore?

I got into Hardcore mainly through Oliver Chesler who was a big part of Industrial Strength (as Temper Tantrum) who currently uses the name The Horrorist. I went to college and became friends with his younger brother. I graduated in 96 so after school that meant in 97-98 his brother was playing me a lot of early Industrial Strength stuff like Disciples of Annihilation and Temper Tantrum (which Oliver was a part of) as well as the DJ Skinhead stuff. At the time I was playing in a lot of bands, doing a lot of work with the Akai MPC, tape loops, guitars, drums, and just doing a lot of experimental music in general. When Alex (the brother) introduced me to Oliver, who at the time had started Things To Come Records, because of the music stuff I was doing he asked me to play live with him and then after that I started to do production and got very into that kind of music – the Things to Come sound. Then as we started to play out live in Europe I began to see some of the shows that were going on there, like Mysteryland, the Thunderdome stuff, some of these giant parties in Europe. I actually saw Lenny Dee play there and then I met Lenny Dee and even though he lived in Brooklyn like I did, I think I got to know him first in Italy. I saw him play with Jappo who’s now Unexist at the Number One Club back in the day and at Club Florida and then I saw Lenny Dee play at Club Cocorico. It’s over in Rimini Italy. It’s was a pretty amazing show and it was unbelievable the way the club responded to Lenny DJing. And on the spot I said wow, this is pretty cool. I would love to be able to do something like this. And he basically told me, “Yeah, when you come back to New York, we’ll hook up and I’ll teach you how to DJ the way I learned and I’ll show you what my method is.” And then he taught me how to d.j, and that’s how I got into DJing. I started to be drawn to the harder sounds at that point. It reminded me a lot of what I grew up with, loving punk rock and early Industrial (EBM) and that sort of thing. And from there Lenny and Oliver really encouraged me with my production and that’s how I got into the production and DJing and into Gabber, Hardcore techno and that sort of stuff.

I heard you brought Hardcore to Colombia, can you tell us about that?

Yeah, it’s true as far as I know. I mean – I can’t say I “brought” it there. I was just one of the first foreign artists to play hardcore there. So the story is: Luis aka DJ Sonico who’s from Bogota – Sonico is his name for hard techno, and Sonicore is his name for Hardcore. He’s a big DJ in Colombia, pretty legendary. Anybody in Colombia will know who this guy is. He’s an amazing DJ. He is responsible for introducing a lot of sounds into Colombia. What he told me was he was in Europe and he was asking about some more underground sounds – records that they had there. Midtown Records gave him a copy of one of my first albums, which was Satronica on Apocalypse Recordings. And apparently he took that back to Colombia and started playing it and getting a good response. So then later he got in touch with me and we started talking. And eventually I did a remix for one of his tracks. And then eventually he booked me to play down there. And when I went down I played half hard techno and half Hardcore. I don’t think the people were necessarily used to Hardcore, but they got into it. It was funny, they weren’t into the anthem-y hardcore stuff but they loved the hard techno. Since they loved hard techno that’s why I started with that and then I went into the Hardcore and I think they were very much more into the Industrial Hardcore stuff over any Mainstyle tracks. At that time (2007) a lot of people were playing hard techno along with the Industrial Hardcore. At the time Waldhaus, Tymon, and Stormtrooper were collaborating a bunch on  mashups of those different sounds. Anyway, then I was booked there again. I played by myself. And the next year I was booked and came with Lenny Dee. And then the next year was booked with Lenny Dee and Jappo (Unexist). And then year after that eventually did a show with Lenny Dee, Unexist and Sickest Squad and I think from there they started to see that Hardcore could do quite well there and then you started to see artists like Art of Fighters to Angerfist to Lady K8 and these types of people playing down in Colombia. I was the first artist as far as I know, from abroad to get booked in Colombia for Hardcore though and then it took off from there. Colombia is amazing. I can’t even begin to tell you the stories from some of those shows – way too surreal.

What kind of music inspires you?

I grew up liking diverse kinds of music. I listen to anything from early Industrial (EBM) kind of stuff like Front 242, Ministry, the different kind of music that was coming out on Wax Trax, X Marks the Pedwalk, all of these kinds of bands along with the Misfits, the Ramones, etc. And I think that’s why I got into Hardcore in the first place was because of all of that early punk rock kind of stuff I had been into. And when I was growing up, when I was much younger, I don’t know – people were not as cliquish about music. There was this one nice moment then that you didn’t necessarily have to be a punk or a skater or just a Goth or just a this, or just a that. People would listen to all these things at the same time. You’d have one mix tape and it might have Front 242, and it might have Bad Brains on it at the same time. It might have Dead Kennedys along with Skinny Puppy and that sort of thing. Along with like Depeche Mode. I wasn’t really a Raver in the beginning so a lot of people came at this stuff from some of the Techno things that were going on that they had heard coming out of Detroit or some of the House music coming out of Chicago and that sort of stuff. When I heard Hardcore though, it reminded me a lot of early really dirty Industrial (EBM), it had the spirit of Punk Rock where you could really take music from any other genre and kinda bastardize it into the Hardcore sound. I think that’s what inspired me then led me towards Hardcore and Gabber and any kind of music that has some sort of soul to it, or has some sort of emotion to it, or is raw. Anything from like Johnny Cash to Willie Nelson to all of the bands I previously named, Indie bands like Pavement or a wide variety of bands that I love or inspired me that kind of brought me to the place that I am at now which is producing some of this rawer more Industrial Hardcore, or to the new label that I’ve been working on which is slightly more accessible Hard Dance.

What are the five Hardcore songs that have really inspired you?

The Mover “Over Land and Sea.” Hard Creation, “I Will Have That Power.” Claudio Lancinhouse and The Stunned Guys “Atmosfera.” Euromasters “Alles Naar Klote” is one of the tracks that inspired a lot of the Hardcore and Speedcore that came out of New York, which inspired DJ Skinhead “Extreme Terror” which would be another song that has changed my life. And if there was a sixth one it would be  Art of Fighters “Hardcore Makes The World Move.” And if you want my main Hardcore influences after that it’s obviously Lenny Dee, Horrorist, Tymon, Unexist and the entire Industrial Strength catalog. I could literally name a million more artists and DJ’s who created the hardcore scene – Manu le Malin, Marc Acardipane, DJ Delirium, 3 Steps Ahead. If only there was enough time to name them all!

Also want to talk a bit about the future and the USA scene in general and what inspires me now. The Europeans are obviously masters of the hardcore sound but I’m inspired that DJ Treachery, CIK, and Cap, to name a few, are starting to make a name for themselves in the US scene. Having artists produce hardcore in the USA is something we sorely need more of!

What are some of your favorite places to play?

Of course I love to play Scotland, the energy there is amazing. The Arches Club there, it was a great experience. I love playing Colombia. It’s great energy there as well. Italy of course and I’ll never forget playing Sala Due at The Number One Club. That was an amazing experience. Then of course playing in Holland is amazing for the crowds there who come from all over the world for festivals like Dominator. Dominator especially, is an amazing experience. I feel blessed to have been able to play there. And the list goes on. I love all of the places I’ve been to, Spain obviously too. Those are the ones that really stick out in my memory. And of course Minneapolis (Yeah Jared Hanson!)

What was the scene like in New York in the beginning and again now?

I think the scene in New York is changing. Hardcore now is becoming acceptable for the younger kids through Hardstyle. I think the Hardstyle scene is really taking off in New York. Some of the E.D.M. music is becoming a little bit more raw, more hard. I think people here are starting to understand the differences between electronic music and that it’s not all just the same thing called techno, just like rock people understand that bands play everything from Folk to Heavy Metal, people are now starting to understand the differences between Hard Techno, Hardcore, Dubstep, etc. versus some of the slower varieties, more accessible varieties. And things are starting to pick up again, because of the impact of Hardstyle. Now people are starting to gravitate to some of the harder stuff. I think that there was definitely a lull for awhile in New York for Hardcore. I don’t think that the Industrial Hardcore or Speedcore that’s popular in Europe is very popular at all in New York City. I think it has to be the more anthemic mainstyle stuff for the people here to really get into it. And I guess it’s changed from the beginning of Hardcore here when there were some larger parties in New York in the late 90’s, early 2000’s where you would hear the more Gabber sound, you’d hear The Horrorist, the Lenny Dee stuff. You’d hear the Rob Gee stuff. The early Delta 9 stuff. I think one of the good things is that the drugs have changed. In the early New York scene there was a lot of dust. You’d be smelling it at a lot of events and that made people a little bit crazy. And people got a little violent. And I think that for the most part venue owners decided that they didn’t want to deal with it. It became very hard to find venues at a certain point that would actually allow Hardcore Techno to be played. They really didn’t accept the concept of electronic music that was that fast with people moshing to it, it didn’t make sense to them. The early vitality in the mid/late 90’s started to die because of the things that I’ve mentioned, but I see it picking up again through the younger kids getting into Hardstyle and into the more anthemic mainstyle Hardcore.

How’d you come up with the name Satronica?

It’s a combination of Satanic I guess and Electronica. It’s because when I was younger I was obviously into Metal and have those sort of metal satanic tattoos etc and it just sounded like a cool combination of words and I actually used it for my aol messnger screen name on my computer to be honest. Then when I started to produce, I went to think up a name to use and just couldn’t think of anything better so, I just decided to use that and stuck with it.

Okay, now what are you planning next?

I’ve been working on a label called Kontaminated Recordings (Click here for link.) with Jeremy Malvasia also known as DJ Delirium. It’s a sublabel of Industrial Strength. And what we are trying to do is make  make music that is hard E.D.M., has the spirit of the some of the Hardcore and Hardstyle, but has a little bit different tempo. It’s 128 to 130 b.p.m. but with the spirit of Hardcore It’s slightly more accessible for some of the kids in the United States than Hardcore is and so we are pushing that a bunch. We have releases out already and the next release will be myself and Jeremy which we’re really excited about. Also I’ve been doing a lot of collaborations with some European hardcore artists so soon you’re gonna hear a collaboration with me and Unexist, then another with Unexist, Art of Fighters and myself coming up soon. Then with Unexist and Noize Suppressor and myself which is coming out soon. And I think a little further out soon you’ll hear one with Unexist and Crypsis and myself. So as far as hardcore I’m currently just working on collab’s, and doing a bunch of vocals for European Hardcore artists. In the works though, are a bunch of work with American Hardcore artists. I’m 100% behind trying to push the sound now in the United States. So look out for a few surprises with the up and comers in the US scene!

By Jake Allen