Hard Infrantry is a terror act with a lot of special elements to it. But that’s not all. Behind the scenes they are doing a hell lot more than just producing sick tracks. For this, we spoke with Kevin, one of the DJs of this trio of musical lunatics.
Hard Infrantry came about ten years ago. All three members were already active in the scene and already knew each other, but the Hard Infantry project started with only Kevin and Bart. “We were mainly busy with playing industrial and doing radio shows on HardSoundRadio”, Kevin says. “At the time, Frank happened to have a good studio that we could visit to bring the show to the next level. From that point, Hard Infantry became a trio.”
According to Kevin, the thing that makes Hard Infrantry unique is their sound. “You will hear some Noisekick influences in the tracks”, says Kevin. “But that’s simply because Noisekick is the reason why we started producing. He was like an inspiration to us.” The kicks are mainly created from hardware. “This is not unique by itself, but the whole process after that probably is. If we look at our act, every gig always feels like we’re just spinning some tracks in the studio, while enjoying some gold-colored friends. We are just having fun and play some terror.” The Hard Infantry act consists of a DJ performance by Kevin and Bart, some live manipulation with a Kaoss Pad and Frank as the MC trying to get the message across the audience even better. “Also”, Kevin adds. “It’s the job of the MC to make sure there is always enough beer.”
For in the bookings
The guys started producing a lot of tracks by themselves, but in the beginning they still needed to learn a lot more about sound design. However, this resulted in some nice stuff. “At the time, we made an unofficial remix of Noisekick’s “Fucking Bastards” track. DJ Stinger sent that one towards Noisekick, which resulted in our first release on Noisekick Records. After that, we released way more tracks on this label and a year and a half after our first release, we made our debut at Noisekick’s Terrordrang in Club Rodenburg. And later, it became official when we joined Terrordrang Agency. Hard work really pays off.”
In times of COVID, Terrordrang Agency was discontinued. Because of that, Hard Infantry fell into a pit. The momentum was gone for the guys. But after wandering around for a while, they decided to join the label agency of Madness-Industry for their Dutch bookings and Speedcore Italia for the international bookings. “After a year of having two agencies, we decided to switch completely to Speedcore Italia. We felt at home here and the amount of support we’ve got from them is indescribable. So it seemed like a logical choice. And it became a very good choice. The people of Speedcore Italia are great!”
Spreading the sound
At a certain point, Noisekick decided that he wanted to keep Noisekick Records only for his own productions. However, he didn’t want to leave a hole and so Terrordrang Records was born. “Noisekick asked us if we wanted to run this new label, and so it happened. We have now been doing this for five years with full enthusiasm.”
But what are the requirements to get a track released on Terrordrang Records? Kevin: “We took a bit of the guideline from Noisekick himself. He always said “It really has to bang!”. The tracks have to be technically right and it has to keep up with the rest of the establishment. We get dozens of demos and sadly enough have to disappoint many artists. But we always give them the message to not give up and continue with what they do. New producers are the future of our scene and this should always be supported.”
Back to the basics
Recently Hard Infantry started with a new party concept called Outcast, a unique and diverse event organized in the Willemeen in the Dutch city of Arnhem. “In the past we were already involved with events, especially in the Willemeen. The passion came back to haunt us, so we thought it was time to do something.” Kevin describes that Outcast stands out because of its simplicity. “Nowadays you mostly see big events with many displays, lasers and all kinds of fuss, which indirectly boosts the ticket prices. I think we have to go back to the basics, so we keep it simple. A DJ booth, a sound system and some artists at a great fitting location. The entry fee is accessible and we want to keep it that way. We look at the perspective of the visitor, not a financial point of view.”
Not only the line-ups itself are selected with great care. Outcast is an event that doesn’t stick to one or two music styles, which means that there is an edition for every hardcore fan. “This has multiple reasons”, Kevin explains. “First, we want to build up brand awareness for Outcast. This also gives us the opportunity to collaborate with other concepts like Speedcore Italia and FrenchKickz Records. The benefit of this is that concepts that are normally pretty far away suddenly became accessible. Plus, even though we mainly play terror and speedcore, we feel at home with every kind of hardcore genre.”
“So, do you want to have a party without nonsense, where the visitor and the music are the number 1 priority? Then Outcast is definitely your style! And the unique location makes the whole party complete!”
Do you want to come to Outcast invites Speedcore Italia, Saturday the 13th of March? Tickets are available at our website.