Tim: How I got into hardstyle
Did you look forward to the moment you turned 18? Finally old enough for a hardstyle party! Did you discover the music at a later age? Or did you change your mind completely, after your friends dragged you to a festival? In How I got into hardstyle, our Hardstyle Reporters tell about their party career, how they discovered hardstyle and how they fell in love with it.
Tim is our newest Hardstyle Report team member. He is tall (and can shoot video's perfectly above the audience), has great moves, a huge love for the hardstyle classics and is a real hardstyle lover in heart and soul. With his humour, writing talent and passion for hardstyle, he puts a smile on our faces with his stories, blogs and reports. This is how he got into hardstyle.
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My love for hardstyle once started with a YouTube video that lasted exactly 4 minutes and 28 seconds. It was the aftermovie of Decibel outdoor Festival 2012, that made my heart beat at a speed of 120 bpm. “Dope, energy, crowd, illegal, bass, extreme, loud: DECIBEL!” Words spoken by a heavy and shadowy voice, many people would label the beginning of this video as dark. Not me. I experienced a huge rush and became curious about what was to come. I watched how thousands of people carefree hit hard beats in the hot summer sun. During those minutes I imagined myself in front of the mainstage with a beer in my and, stomping my feet by the waterfront. I had to be there, I had to experience this myself!
When I was little, I listened to what the people in my environment were listening to. In my father’s car, I heard Dutch hits through the speakers. “Zijn het je ogen, is het je stem”, my father sang in a duet with Koos Alberts (a Dutch singer) as we hit the road together. In the car, in the workshop or in the evening in the bathtub: that music was always on.
Now, I am not opposed to a night out of tapping watery beer in a sweaty Dutch party tent with good company, but this was not the genre in which I felt completely free. I liked Top 40 music, but nothing equaled the invincible feeling I experienced as soon as I slammed hardstyle through my earplugs on my way to high school. In a few seconds, Coone changed my 45-minute cycle route through the tall trees of the forest, from a nightmare to an explosive chase in which I played the lead.
It was 2013 and like every year a dance festival was organized during the ‘Aaltjesdagen’ in Harderwijk, where I live. The hardstyle area was new this year. From 14.00 to 00.00 you could go mental by the Veluwemeer with Brennan Heart as headliner. The man was an idol for me from the start. I had to be here. Unfortunately, I was only fourteen years old, but luckily I was quite tall for my age and I had the shoe size of an adult man. With nerves of steel and a poker face that would make Lady Gaga jealous, I bluffed myself through security. Together with my friends, we experienced an incredibly fun day. I already knew then that this would not be a one-off experience. Someday I would be in front of the Decibel outdoor Festival mainstage!
What went down the following years is history. I am almost 22 years old now and I have gained a lot of party experience. The endless energy, close friendships and unforgettable moments that I have been able to discover in recent years are of indescribable value to me. I could fill 15 pages with beautiful moments such as my first indoor party, magical outdoor moments or my first afterparty. But this is how I got into hardstyle.
Where many see Defqon.1 as the holy grail among the hardstyle parties, I consider Decibel outdoor Festival as the ultimate home of the hardstyle fanatic. If you asked me what my greatest wish would be, I won’t have to think about it twice: a time machine that brings me back to Decibel 2012: the hot hell of Decibel.
Tim is our newest Hardstyle Report team member. He is tall (and can shoot video's perfectly above the audience), has great moves, a huge love for the hardstyle classics and is a real hardstyle lover in heart and soul. With his humour, writing talent and passion for hardstyle, he puts a smile on our faces with his stories, blogs and reports. This is how he got into hardstyle.
My love for hardstyle once started with a YouTube video that lasted exactly 4 minutes and 28 seconds. It was the aftermovie of Decibel outdoor Festival 2012, that made my heart beat at a speed of 120 bpm. “Dope, energy, crowd, illegal, bass, extreme, loud: DECIBEL!” Words spoken by a heavy and shadowy voice, many people would label the beginning of this video as dark. Not me. I experienced a huge rush and became curious about what was to come. I watched how thousands of people carefree hit hard beats in the hot summer sun. During those minutes I imagined myself in front of the mainstage with a beer in my and, stomping my feet by the waterfront. I had to be there, I had to experience this myself!
When I was little, I listened to what the people in my environment were listening to. In my father’s car, I heard Dutch hits through the speakers. “Zijn het je ogen, is het je stem”, my father sang in a duet with Koos Alberts (a Dutch singer) as we hit the road together. In the car, in the workshop or in the evening in the bathtub: that music was always on.
Now, I am not opposed to a night out of tapping watery beer in a sweaty Dutch party tent with good company, but this was not the genre in which I felt completely free. I liked Top 40 music, but nothing equaled the invincible feeling I experienced as soon as I slammed hardstyle through my earplugs on my way to high school. In a few seconds, Coone changed my 45-minute cycle route through the tall trees of the forest, from a nightmare to an explosive chase in which I played the lead.
“HARDSTYLE HAS BEEN THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM WITH WHICH I GO THROUGH LIFE SINCE A YOUNG AGE”
It was 2013 and like every year a dance festival was organized during the ‘Aaltjesdagen’ in Harderwijk, where I live. The hardstyle area was new this year. From 14.00 to 00.00 you could go mental by the Veluwemeer with Brennan Heart as headliner. The man was an idol for me from the start. I had to be here. Unfortunately, I was only fourteen years old, but luckily I was quite tall for my age and I had the shoe size of an adult man. With nerves of steel and a poker face that would make Lady Gaga jealous, I bluffed myself through security. Together with my friends, we experienced an incredibly fun day. I already knew then that this would not be a one-off experience. Someday I would be in front of the Decibel outdoor Festival mainstage!
What went down the following years is history. I am almost 22 years old now and I have gained a lot of party experience. The endless energy, close friendships and unforgettable moments that I have been able to discover in recent years are of indescribable value to me. I could fill 15 pages with beautiful moments such as my first indoor party, magical outdoor moments or my first afterparty. But this is how I got into hardstyle.
Where many see Defqon.1 as the holy grail among the hardstyle parties, I consider Decibel outdoor Festival as the ultimate home of the hardstyle fanatic. If you asked me what my greatest wish would be, I won’t have to think about it twice: a time machine that brings me back to Decibel 2012: the hot hell of Decibel.
