See Electronic Artist Hardwell Talk New Music, Dream Collaborator
On Saturday, July 30th, Dutch DJ and electronic producer Hardwell played Rolling Stone Live: Chicago, our sixth annual day party during Lollapalooza. It was one of three gigs he had that day. “I slept one hour last night,” he told us with improbable enthusiasm and energy before his set. “If it wasn’t for the love of music, I don’t think i’d be here right now – I’d be exhausted.”
Hardwell made his first impact on U.S. charts in 2015 with his debut album, United We Are. That same year, Rolling Stone spotlighted his set at New York’s Electric Daisy Carnival as one of the “best things we saw” at the festival.
While the electronic musician has been gigging hard recently, he has still found time to work on new tracks, collaborating with a combination of new singer-songwriters and “some big names,” though he declined to go into detail just yet.
As for his dream collaboration, he points to Pharrell Williams. “I admire him in every single way, as a songwriter, as a singer, as a fashion designer, and his whole personality,” Hardwell enthuses in the video interview above. “For collaboration, I’m always on the lookout for guys who have that same energy, with a positive state of mind, and just, you know, make music. If you’re really positive in life, everything else will come by itself.”