Shedding Light on Illuminize [Interview]

Shedding Light on Illuminize

8/21/2019

For those of you who are not familiar with you and your work, can you give us a bit of background on yourself?
Well I'm an American hardstyle producer and DJ based out of Athens, Georgia. Almost a year ago, I released a track called "Reality" on X-Bone Records which opened up a lot of doors for me, including this latest release on the renown Scantraxx label. As of now, "Reality" has amassed almost fifty-thousand plays across major platforms which is something I never expected. I'm so thankful for all the support it received!

What got you into music production? I don't think too many people know this but you originally started with house music, right?
So when I first started producing, I began by trying to make house music, but I was really more interested in dubstep because that along with trap music was what got me into EDM in the first place. However I found it extremely difficult to come up with dubstep ideas - I couldn't make a full dubstep tracks without having to reference songs every second. This was mostly because I had only been listening to EDM in general for like three months and I just started producing for one month at that point. I remember I would watch soccer videos and would hear the music in the background and be like, "This is super sick!" So I searched up the ID's and would listen to them. My girlfriend at the time was also a huge EDM fanatic, so she would send me a lot of music.

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A post shared by Illuminize (@illuminizedj) on Jan 24, 2019 at 1:43pm PST

I remember when she first showed me a hardstyle track, I thought it was the most boring sub-genre of EDM - the breaks were too long for my taste and I didnt like any of the climaxes/drops. But Hardstyle was her favorite EDM subgenre, so I had to listen to it pretty often! Eventually, it began to grow on me and I began to ask her for more and more tracks. It got to the point where I decided to try to make a hardstyle track. After only hours into making the track, I just knew that it would be the genre I would stick with. So after only six months of producing, I switched over to hardstyle entirely and it's been that way for about five years now.

I want to talk about this new track you just released called "Radiate." Can you tell me a little bit about the process you went through to achieve such a great accomplishment?
Yeah! So after Reality was released, I began to work on a follow up. I knew I wanted the track to be more euphoric, so I finished the concept of the track in about two weeks and I sent it off to a vocalist. Since I'm a junior in college along with a day-job, I worked on the track on and off. The track was done after one month but I wasn't 100% happy with the vocal. I searched around for someone else just for the fun of it one night without intending to replace the first vocalist. Then I stumbled upon Weldon, a country singer from Nashville Tennessee. I instantly fell in love with the demo he sent so I talked it out with the original vocalist and she said it was fine if I wanted to go with someone else. I finished up the track with the new vocals within three months and when school finally ended, I sent it off to Scantraxx and they accepted it.

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A post shared by Illuminize (@illuminizedj) on Aug 14, 2019 at 8:48am PDT

Being from Atlanta and having most of the US hardstyle scene being on the West Coast, how do you stay in touch with the American hardstyle scene when you're so far away from the "main hub"?
Facebook really plays a huge role in my life. I actually met all of my West Coast friends on Facebook. I was just a regular freshman in college, bored out of my mind so one day I thought to myself, "is it possible to add all these hardstyle producers on Facebook?" I added a couple hardstyle producers and began to chat with them. That is how I met a lot of people in the scene. I eventually went out west for EDC back in 2018 and got to meet a handful of them in person!

So Talon and Keiji, two individuals who seem to be very good friends of yours, they've been pretty successful as well in the American scene from what I've noticed. Can we expect any collabs with them in the future?
Definitely. You can probably expect something from Talon and me in the near future. In terms of me and Keiji, we have talked about it before. I am sure we will get to it pretty soon as well!

So your first big booking was out in L.A. last year. Do you want to touch on that?
Yeah, so my friend Dylan reached out to me about playing at a charity event in LA. It was a hardstyle show and toy drive. You could either pay ten dollars at the door to donate to charity, or bring in a toy to donate. The whole event was to help cancer patients and their families during the holiday season. I was very happy to be a part of it. It was a blast!

Who are some of your biggest influences?
When I started producing hardstyle I would always reference any tracks I felt were up to quality. It was never a specific artist. You could say I got influenced by many producers.

What are your top three favorite hardstyle songs?
Audiofile.002 by AudioFreq
Fly Away by D-Charged
Fake Shit by Rebelion

What is next for Illuminize?
Currently i am working on a two track EP. It is 80% done and I would say both of the tracks have extremely talented vocalists. There will definitely be a track in the style of "Radiate," but for the second track, I am doing something other than my typical euphoric stuff. After the EP, I hope to release my unfinished collabs with people. You can also expect a solo or two before the year is over.

I also have a collab with Rezonation, an Italian Hardstyle producer. The guy is an amazing producer, you can expect something from us perhaps after the EP. I will be announcing all my other collabs when the time comes!

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A post shared by Illuminize (@illuminizedj) on Oct 12, 2018 at 7:24pm PDT

Where do you see American Hard Dance headed in the future?
It is definitely growing. You have artists like MADGRRL, Lil Texas, TALON, Keiji, NTXC, Pulsatorz and Cim who are killing the game right now. It is hard to list everyone honestly the list goes on and on. I am excited to see what direction our scene will take with such talented people.