MDC Interview#61 " Høbie "
Dutch DJ/producer Høbie discovered hard dance music in the early 2000s and has been devoted to it ever since. Throughout his artistic evolution, Høbie explored various mixing styles before embracing hardcore in 2020, and started producing his own tracks.
Drawing from a diverse array of musical influences, ranging from hardcore and terror to neuro drum & bass, Høbie developed a distinct and personal style, characterised by unique sound design, intricate rhythmic percussions, heavily distorted kicks and ear-tearing screeches.
Renowned for his hard-hitting and raw sets, Høbie showcases a boundless energy that knows no limits. His performances are nothing short of a relentless sonic assault, a testament to his unwavering dedication to the world of hardcore music.
https://soundcloud.com/hobienl
https://www.instagram.com/hobie_nl
Q. Where are you from? What kind of environment did you grow up in?
I originally come from a small village called “Berg aan de Maas” located in the south of The Netherlands. The area is mostly surrounded by farmland so there was not that much going on.
Once a year the town held a big party with a parade and side festivities, like old-timer car shows and games you could play on site.
Q. When did you first become interested in music?
Music has been in my family for as long as I can remember, I guess it’s in my genes.
Most of my family members participated in several organisations like drum bands and marching bands, with most of them playing instruments themselves. This meant that my interest in music started quite early.
I was 8 years old when I got my first set of bongos. Quite soon after that I also received a CD of Masters of Hardcore from a classmate, that was really the first moment I got in touch with a heavier electronic genre which was completely new for me. I was instantly hooked.
When I was 15, I went to a big indoor party, called “BLACK”.
They hosted the event in the Ethias Arena in Hasselt, Belgium. From that moment onwards my interest in electronic music only grew bigger and bigger.
Q. You mainly create Hardcore Techno/Hard Techno, when did you first discover these genres?
I’ve discovered Hardcore at a pretty young age, I guess this was around 2002/2003. For me this was something amazing, the feeling of discovering something new in music is one of the best things there is. This sparked a lot of my interest in electronic music, after which I started doing some investigation on where you can enjoy this music on a big loud sound system.
My investigation resulted in finding great festivals and parties where you could go to and have an amazing experience. I went to many local parties that played Hardstyle/Hardcore but also a lot of big parties which had several area’s you could explore and find exactly the style that you liked.
There are many moments during these events that have influenced me but there is one moment in particular that I will never forget. It was the Hong Kong Violence Horror House on Dominator 2013 Carnival of Doom. This was just one big chaos area which blew my mind from the moment I walked in. This moment was brutal in its own beautiful way and I’m really glad I was able to witness that.
From this point on you could say that I have been influenced a lot by HKV's music.
Q. What was your teenage years like?
I grew up mostly with playing video games, watching movies and I had an interest in tuning scooters.
We had a big barn with a pool table, a fridge, some dj gear and 2 couches, the time I’ve spent in there during my teenage years was unreal.
Almost every weekend we would host small parties for friends and just hang out and enjoyed the night. We would play some games on the pool table and play some tracks on the old dusty DJ gear. During the weekdays after school, I was either trying to make music or play Gears of War, Quake or I was working on my scooters in the barn. My interest definitely shifted a lot more once music became more and more serious.
Q. When did you start your musical career? When did you first start writing songs?
I’ve been working with FL Studio for quite a while. I think I’ve downloaded an illegal copy somehow when I was 14 or 15 years old, but I never really knew my way around the program or actually knew what I was doing.
Even though I got my first booking in 2011, I wanted to get better at music. So I tried to apply for a few art schools and audio engineering studies but I got refused everywhere. The most ridiculous reason for refusing me was because after a 5-minute chat, they decided for themselves that I wasn’t ''motivated enough''??? This actually led to a horrible period for me, I was obligated by law to go to school. So, I applied for a car mechanic study and dropped out after 2 months. Then I started working fulltime in some stupid logistics job to earn some money and tried again a year later to get approval for an audio education. This time I applied to a school in Eindhoven that taught Technical Event studies. In the first year I was really enjoying it but when the second year came around things went sideways again.
We had to do a 6-month internship for an event company. I discovered that this was not what I wanted. I wanted to work with audio, especially in a studio and doing recordings.
Eventually I made the decision to apply for Sound Education Nederland, this is an education course specialised in everything regarding audio engineering.
They taught me everything I know from scratch. They taught me the basics of song writing, mixing, mastering, arrangement and so on. They really tried to cover everything there is to get started with your own music career. I finished the whole course in 1 year.
I tried to make as many genres as I could during this period. I did some Drum & Bass, Lo-Fi HipHop, Bass EDM and lowkey some hardcore.
In 2018/2019 I had a Drum & Bass/Dubstep project. This was a fun time, there were some local gigs coming in and I had the pleasure to share the stage with some nice artists in the Drum & Bass scene.
Q. What are your influences in films, works of art, etc.?
There can be lots of factors that can inspire me to create something new out of the box. I like the weird things, not the common stuff, art that’s on the edge.
Personally I think most of my influences come from movies or extreme music genres. My biggest movie influence is also my most favourite movie, Alien from 1979. The whole vibe in this movie is amazing, especially when you discover that all the art in this movie has been done by actual artists which in my opinion back then was ground breaking. The darkness in this movie is superb. It has a lot of tension but it’s also right in your face. I think this is one of the most important elements in my music; dark, intense and in your face.
I’m a big fan of dark and gore movies but also love anime. Hellsing Ultimate, Berserk and Dorohedoro are my favourites. The darkness and art in those series are amazingly done, truly works of art in my opinion.
Another big inspiring artist for me personally is Jermaine “Terrible Godlike”, not only a friend but also an amazing tattoo artist/illustrator who makes art that is on the edge. He is always pushing boundaries on his projects and has done some wicked good tattooing. I’m a big fan of his work and take some great inspiration out of that.
Lately I’m discovering more and more weird breakcore kind of music which I really enjoy and take great inspiration out of for my own projects. Like I said, there can be lots of things in this world that can trigger my inspiration!
Q. When did Høbie start? Where did the name come from?
This project did start in 2018 once I graduated from Sound Education Nederland.
I made the decision to do a hard reset. Meaning all my previous projects would be stopped and all my focus would go into this new project. When I look back on it, I am very happy that I made that decision because it gave me so much beautiful experiences that I would’ve never had if I had stuck to my old ways of working.
The name Høbie comes from my real name “Hobie”. I’ve had several project names but nothing really worked out. I’m pretty lucky to have a somewhat unique name that you don’t hear very often, so after some consideration I stuck with my name and gave it just that little twist to give it that difference between my “alter ego” and my real ego hahaha.
Q. How did your 1st album “Tear & Mutilate” come to be?
This idea became real when I received refusal after refusal from various labels. Since my work is a bit different that the usual hardcore kind of music it’s hard to find a label that actually believes in your sound and wants to help you push out your vision and who also understands that vision. Besides that I also always dreamed of making my own CD album but it was never something I really took seriously. After all these refusals I sat down and thought about how I could still release my own music in a physical form without any help from labels or whatsoever.
It was a challenge for me to see if I had what it takes to bring this idea into existence. And it turns out I had. The whole concept was based on blatant heavy distorted sounds and in your face kickdrums, percussions and rhythms.
With the help of my good friends Jordy Lemmens and Robin van Genechten, we managed to get all the 12 tracks mastered, a great artwork and everything needed for the CD production.
It was a tough project but I had a lot of fun doing it and I learned a lot from it.
I probably won’t do a CD again. My eye is on a vinyl release now.
After my own CD I also had the honor to do a remix for Marco Gorissen ''Goriss'' which resulted in my music being released on a cassette tape through the label Homemort.
Vinyl is like that holy grail to me, so I will make sure I take all the time I need to make this happen in a proper way.
Q. Høbie's music has a sense of brutality/violence. Is this intentional?
Most of the time yes. Since most of my inspiration comes from the darker side in life, I think this will automatically be implemented into my music.
It’s not that I’m a depressed or a sick in the head person but it’s just the things that trigger me instead of the happy melodies that come around and everybody sings along to. Not all music/art has to be happy and correct. I think the best and most brutal art comes from that roughness in life.
Q. What do you consider important when making music?
I consider a lot of things but for me the most important thing in music is flow. This maybe sounds kind of weird but if there is a solid flow and the tracks keep pumping, the energy you’ll bring to the listener is unreal. For me personally UK Hardcore and Early Frenchcore are the holy grails of hardcore. The brutal rhythms and flow in these tracks get me hyped.
Being creative with weird overdistorted samples, pounding kickdrums and heavy percussion is amazing. A good example would be Micropoint – Barbarians or Deathmachine – Synapsids VIP.
Other than that, I think it’s very important especially in hardcore music to have your own signature sound. If I check the hardcore top 100 for example, I’m a bit disappointed because 80% the tracks that are in there sound exactly the same to me.
Usually, you could tell by the sound of a kickdrum which artist was playing. Nowadays it’s super hard to recognize any artist only by listening to their music. So, I really hope people do explore and enjoy the broader side of hardcore. Go check that weird area on a festival, usually the most beautiful discoveries are made in those areas and stick with you for a lifetime.
Q. What is your music production process and what equipment do you use?
Regarding my gear; I use a desktop PC with FL Studio, as audio interface a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3th gen combined with a Mackie Bigknob Studio, this allows me to switch from speaker sets and check mixdowns in mono. For speakers I have a set of Adam A8X, a Avantone Mixcube and a set of KRK ROKIT 8 2nd Gen for DJing combined with 2x CDJ2000, 2x CDJ850 and a DJM700 with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for recording sets. For hardware I use my Akai FL Studio Fire, a Digitone, a Akai MPK Mini and a Komplete Kontrol S49.
My production process can be triggered by basically anything, I don’t have a go to start point. Sometimes I start with a sample, sometimes with a new kick I’ve made or just a random vocal I found and sampled. Usually I do my kicks by sampling, layering and with the use of Serum. I found this combo to be very effective to build each layer of the kick. It takes some practice but once you hit the right spot then it is easy to save the preset and use that as a base to build on further in the future. This also gives you that signature sound overtime because that base you made will always be the foundation of all your new kickdrums if you build them that way.
My go to plugins are definitely Izotope Trash, Camelphat, Oxford Inflator, Ohmicide, Serum, Sylenth1, Current and Arcade from Output.
Q. What are the positive and negative effects of AI on music? Would you use AI for your own music?
I think that you should perceive this as a positive thing rather than a negative thing because there are some great results you can achieve by using AI powered plugins.
Yes, I do agree it’s a bit dangerous sometimes since it can be very deceiving when people use AI for making a beat with a Drake voice for example but again, I think when used in the right way it can boost your creativity a lot.
I’ve actually used several AI powered plugins already and I really like them. I use “RANDOM” for example. This is some sort of synth engine which can give you some really crazy sounds. I’m also using a random MIDI generator to trigger my synths in some tracks. For me personally this is extra crazy because it’s never the same, your melody keeps evolving. This is what I mean by boosting your creativity, it will constantly give you new variations and ideas to work with.
I’m not the best in writing melodies so for me this is a perfect tool. I would definitely try out some AI powered plugins to see if it’s something to add to your toolset.
Q. What is your favourite song you've written?
There are actually 2 tracks I would pick. The first would be Darkness Elixir because I personally think it’s the best track on my album and one of the tracks that have the most “Høbie” vibe. It’s a more technical track but it still does it's work on the dancefloor. This track definitely was one of the tracks that pushed my boundaries to a different level and showcased my sound the most.
The other track is a track that I made as a joke but turned out to be way funnier than expected. It's an older and not-so-great track, so I will never release it but we had so much fun making it that it became one of my most fun memories.
The track ID is “Kopje Koffie” which is Dutch for “Cup of Coffee”. It’s basically some offensive voice clips I’ve got from friends and stuck together in one of the worst terror tracks I’ve ever done. It’s super offensive because all the voice clips are about me but I love to joke around with my friends and have a laugh while producing weird music with them. These kind of memories really stick with me the most. Like I said in previous question; not every single piece of music has to be correct.
For me, making music should always be fun. Adding friends to something I've created only doubles the enjoyment.
Q. How do you feel about the current Hard Techno movement? When do you think Hardcore Techno and Hard Techno started to crossover? Do you think this has had a positive impact on both sides?
You can think of this what you want but music keeps evolving and I perceive that as a positive thing. I like my music extreme and hard hitting. So yes, I’m happy people are getting into more and more hard/extreme stuff because of that crossover.
I've noticed that there are a lot more people discovering their new favourite music genre and I think that’s amazing. Nonetheless I do think there will be more of a split in these genres in a later period.
Is it positive? To be honest I can’t really answer this question because I can only speak for myself, I would personally say yes but for some other people who like the more “older style” of both these genres I would say no. It’s a matter of personal preference, if you’re up for it or not and that’s totally fine.
Q. Hard dance music has always been popular in the Netherlands, why do you think that is? What is the biggest difference between Holland and other countries in terms of music?
I think that’s because of the subculture that has started in the Netherlands. Gabber is the only subculture the Netherlands has and therefore it’s quite big. Hard dance music has been around for so long and it still is, for me that says more than enough. The people who love this kind of music genre have some real dedication.
Q. What are your favorite producers and labels these days?
The list is long but to give a few of my favorites: The DJ Producer, Akira, Drokz, Epsilon, Nasenbluten, Rotator, Repeater, Delta 9, Hellfish, I:gor, Matt Green, The Destroyer, Micropoint.
For labels, Enzyme X, Hong Kong Violence, Deathchant, Heresy, PRSPCT, Bloody Fist Records, Cock Rock Disco, PEACE-OFF, Genosha, Sealand Recordings, Triple G, Third Movement, and Murder Channel!!!
Artists outside the “hardcore” category would be: Ivy Lab, KAVARI, Chee, Amon Tobin, Two Fingers, Shades, Tsuruda, BAW and IMANU
Q. What kind of activities do you want to do in the future?
I’m currently planning to start my own label. I do have a collective called Alarm Fase which I run with 2 of my best friends. Jordy Lemmens does all my artworks and the art behind Alarm Fase and combined with Marco Gorissen “Goriss” we have had a podcast series where we showcased artist we like and talents we discovered. Although Alarm Fase has been quiet for some time now, I’m definitely planning to be more active, start a label and maybe host local events to grow the community.
I also hope to travel some more in the future. Japan, Spain, Portugal and America are high up on my list to visit and play some shows if possible, so lots of networking and research to get that crossed of the list. Other than that, I’m still focussed on a lot of new music. Exploring my own limits mostly and having fun while doing this. My focus has shifted a bit more towards the extreme side of music.
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