Hard Presents and DJ/Producer Destructo … yeah I’m blown away by that. I’m known as the EDM guy and that bit of information has gone right over my head. In an interview with West Coast Fix, Richards has made his opinion stated on so called “marginalized mainstream EDM” music. He’s not trying to prevent EDM from going mainstream, he’s just booking what will keep Hard fresh and different. And to this young and busy mind, his approach to acts at Hard is far outside the norm. Rather than feeding the system and trying to snag big and often times diluted main stage acts in hopes that attendees will see the name and buy tickets, Richards sees his job as a DJ of Djs. What does that mean? Well as he states, “these DJs have their set, and I have mine when I play – but I put all them next to each other to make one big giant fuc*ing set, which makes the whole day”.
Now as far as EDM going mainstream – “it is what it is”. Richards states that, “it’s not exactly what we do, but it’s great that shit is so big”. In my honest opinion and expertise, this industry that we all know and love is, in a lot of facets, one big unstable bubble. Money makes the world go round and everyone wants to make a living, which is great, but those festival and event coordinators that lack originality and only seek out the big huge names at festivals – you are feeding the bubble versus transforming it. Would they really rather not be trend setters?
Gary Richards is a cool guy, in both the event coordinating business and DJing/Producing side of it as well. Based on this interview, he has a “IDGAFOS” attitude; and people respect him for that.
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Source: Digital Music News
