Hard Dance? SAY WHAT?!?! Going into the DropZone with Erik "Crystallized" Pumphrey
I remember on long drive to Tahoe a couple months ago, a well-known local DJ friend of mine was jokingly referring to an acquaintance of hers saying that "they were going to try to bring Hard Dance back!". We all chuckled about it in the car together, for who could think of Hard Dance making a coming back into the dance scene? That was so 2000, right?
Wrong. Hard Dance has still been popular in Europe, and is starting to have a revival back here in the United States, especially in Southern California. A friend of mine that lives out in the midwest recently went to some events around Los Angeles, and was amazed at the popularity of the genre there. Hard Dance Nation, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, boasts approximately 26,000 fans on Facebook, at the time this article was written.
Intrigued by such an occurrence, I decided to catch up with Erik "Crystallized" Pumphrey, to get the inside scoop on this phenomenon, as well as talk about his released remix of Elvin Ong's "Motion", and his event DropZone, going down in Camarillo, CA at Rock City Studios on August 6th.
Some background on Erik:
Erik "Crystallized" Pumphrey came from the metal and punk scene when he was 15 years old, but wasn't quite satisfied with it. "I just wasn't happy", He states. He went to his first rave and found the atmosphere welcoming and friendly. He was also drawn to people coming together to have a good time and DJs on stage playing tracks that rocked the crowd. He was drawn to locals such as [DJ] Toxic Rainbow, who spun Euro Pop at the time, and Joey Mojo who played hard hitting Drum n' Bass. He soon started buying electronic music, and eventually got into DJing and producing himself.
He moved to Ventura County, CA, and started working with B Entertained throwing events, one of which was Camarillo's first "legit" underground, featuring Thee-O. He then went on to join Hard Dance Nation as a DJ and promoter, and now works with them as well as assisting other crews. He now has started his own crew, Secondary Senses, and is working on playing some upcoming gigs and getting some more of this tracks signed. _____________________________________________________________________
Driven By Beats: Tell us about the Hard Dance Scene in SoCal, and your overall take of the Hard Dance Scene in the US compared to Europe
Crystallized: Oh man, the Hard Dance scene is just kicking back up again in Socal! We are having artists like Isaac, Headhunterz, Showtek, Zany, MC DV8, and other Hardstyle artists coming down a lot more often. I'm just waiting for BK, Organ Donors, A.S.Y.S., Phil York, Fausto, Wragg & Log:One, etc. to start showing their names around here. US compared to Europe? I'm not sure about the entire country, since I haven't traveled enough to see what it's like in other states, but from a general perspective, Europe is always going to own the floor in any genre. When it comes to Hard Dance, most definately, you have Black Festival and Defqon.1, two of the biggest celebrations on the planet, (and) both are all Hard Dance.
Driven By Beats: Who are some of the dominate players in Hard Dance?
Crystallized: When it comes to fan base, Headhunterz, Noisecontrollers, Showtek, Zany, D-Block & S-Te-Fan prettymuch Scantraxx Artists. When it comes to sales, I'm on beatport every single day in the Hard Dance Section. A few artists I've seen go to top 10 almost every month is Organ Donors, BK, Leon B, A.S.Y.S. Noisecontrollers, D-Block & S-Te-Fan, BRK3, Klubfiller, etc. Every single Song that Organ Donors has released in the past 8 months has reached number 1, their new blend of Hard Dance is insane, completely original and has changed how artists make music forever.
Driven By Beats: Tell us about collaborating on your remix of "Motion" by Elvin Ong?
Crystallized: Motion was extremely fun to remix, I've known Elvin Ong for almost a year now. I met him last year at the Second Annual Midsummer Nights Dream in Bakersfield by Stereo Type Productions. Elvin makes awesome progressive music, and he's one of the funniest people I've met. Me and him were talking one day and he asked me if I wanted to remix "Motion" and have a chance of getting it released. I was all for it. He sent it over and I worked on it for hours on end, (and) I sat on my computer whenever I wasn't at work... Then on days I had off, I worked on it from the minute I woke up until I slept. This is my first released track too. So I was very excited about it.
Driven By Beats: What is the mission of Secondary Senses and tell us a little bit about what people have to look forward to at Dropzone!
Crystallized: My mission with Secondary Senses is to gain enough of a following to throw big cheap parties. I have some artists on the backline that I want to bring out, but this shit costs a fortune to do! So I'm just taking my time with it. I want this crew to focus more on the music. Most crews have their local DJs spin and huge artists that will always pull a crowd. I'm not like that and never have been. My plan is to bring artists that usually never play out here and taking risks. I really don't care about making money. I just want to have fun and share that fun with everyone. I won't book artists twice in a row, its going to be a different feel every time. I mean if you look at DropZone, half the artists have never played in Ventura County before, and aren't very well known here. Even though they know that its a small venue, they are just stoked to be playing for a new crowd. Which is the fun of it. I'm picky about DJ's, if your an arrogant asshole, don't ever think you will ever play for one of my shows. I don't put up with shitheads and neither should anyone else. It's about having fun, not making money. Although with this mindframe, I may go broke, hahaha. So I have to have some median in there.
For you guys going to DropZone, look forward to DJ's who know what the fuck they are doing, have been playing for years, have tracks you probably have never heard of before. Know how to change a track without you knowing until 2 minutes into the song. Don't get hyped on decorations and such, I'm not big on decorations, although we'll have some up, (it's) not a priority. It's about the fucking music, so I focused on that. Ventura, California: Welcome, To Dropzone. _________________________________________________________________
For more information on DropZone, and to purchase a ticket, please visit:
https://www.purplepass.com/#357/Secondary_Senses-Secondary_Senses_Presents_Dropzone-Rock_City_Studios-August-06-2011.html
Check out the DropZone video teaser here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmaDm4NgKA
Check out Crystallized remix of Elvin Ong's "Motion" out on Beatport!
http://www.beatport.com/track/motion-crystallized-remix/1968732
And check out Crystallized with Zany & MC DV8 at the Ventura Theater: 10/7/11 Thank you Erik "Crystallized" Pumphrey, for giving us the opportunity to learn more about the revival of Hard Dance! Best wishes, and we hope to see you at DropZone this weekend!