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The Belgian Wim Vanoeveren a.k.a. techno hero Tom Hades and I have met several times since 2014. He even had an Indonesian-style dish at my very own dining-table. One of our interviews, of course was about the story of his first gig. “What more could a DJ want than a completely enthusiastic crowd when you play a live set that you put together in less than a month?"
“The first gig I did professionally was in Colombia. I believe I was nineteen. Marco Bailey had, without telling me, put me on a line-up as a live act. Until four weeks before the event, he had ‘forgotten’ to tell me.”
Portable studio
“On top of that, in those days everything had to be made with hardware in the studio. So, on short notice I had to achieve to bring a portable studio. I immediately bought a laptop and a flight case to take some material along.”
Rake some tracks together
“It goes without saying that I was nervous. My baptism of fire was suddenly going to be in front of a mass of 4000 exuberant Colombians. I had little time to rake some tracks together that I could play. This was a very labor-intense job because I had to record everything from the hardware, track by track, on a DAT-recorder. Afterwards I had to digitally transfer this to WAV’s that I finally imported via a sequencer, Ableton 2.0.”
Less stage-fright
“Marco was a huge support for me because he was so self-assured which me gave me the necessary confidence as well. In the end it was one of the most memorable moments of my career. Maybe it even was the best baptism of fire possible: immediately standing in front of a huge crowd, because later, at smaller events, you will experience a lot less stage-fright.”
“The set went fantastic! What more could a DJ want than a completely enthusiastic crowd when you play a live set that you put together in less than a month? What I learnt that day, is that you can really handle everything as long as you have confidence in yourself and radiate fun when you’re on stage!”
This interview with Tom Hades is originally published in June 2015 on DJMag.nl.
Who is Tom Hades?
Covering all flavours within the techno and tech house genres with his productions released on respected labels such as Adam Beyer’s Drumcode, John Digweed’s Bedrock, Umek’s 1605, and long-time collaborator Marco Bailey’s MB Elektronics, it’s obvious that Tom Hades can tackle all dimensions of the sound with unparalleled ease.
Never one to shy away from globetrotting, Tom Hades’s DJ-ing and live shows have taken him around the world a multitude of times. From Fabric in London to Fabrik in Madrid, and from Awakenings to I Love Techno, Tom Hades’s work ethic demonstrates a literal tour de force.
Tom Hades started to discover and experiment with electronic music when listening to the likes of DAF, Kraftwerk and Front 242 in his formative years. At the age of 15, he bought his first keyboard, the famous Casio CZ-101, transformed his Amiga 500 into a digital audio workstation, and started creating music.
Having met Marco Bailey in 2000, they made the huge anthem “I Love Techno” in 2001, a global phenomenon that led to Tom Hades starting to do live performances and playing all over the world. In 2004 they launched the successful Rhythm Convert label, which was relaunched in 2010 as Rhythm Converted, a solo project run by Tom Hades alone. Having already attracted many big artists, the label is moving ever upwards in the global techno scene.
Having released his debut artist album, “Rude Boy”, in collaboration with Marco Bailey in 2004, they followed up with “E=MB2” in 2009 on MB Elektronics. Both albums were critically acclaimed around the world, and were stepping stones towards “The Missing Touch”, the first solo album from Tom Hades in 2013. Tom Hades’s sound always has a strong emphasis on straightforward baselines and eternal catching melodies – it is made for dancing!
Often Tom Hades also brings a certain melancholy to it, which enables a really unique listening experience. The focus on a typical Tom Hades track is also always on strong percussion elements by bringing a fresh vibe to the end product, that saturates his audience as well as his fellow producer and DJ colleagues.
Today Tom Hades also operates under the namge Sigvard. Tom Hades is a steady part of today’s techno scene!
More Tom Hades?
Don’t forget to check my feature interview with Tom Hades!
