Page 53 - Zone Magazine Issue 030 - Lexicon Avenue

A few years later Cally & Juice was born with Shocker as their resident host. Together they went on to become one of the biggest success stories in hard dance. They took the UK by storm, and went on to play club and festival shows together at many of the most prestigious dance music venues all over the world. The trio became known for their incredible performances, creating an unparalleled atmosphere during their sets. Many A- list DJs on the same line-up as them would request not to play before or after them. During this time Bionic was born. Cally & Juice were resident DJs (Cally also being co-owner of the event) and Shocker was resident host, with their residencies lasting the full 16 years until Bionic ended. On New Year’s Eve 2014 Cally & Juice played their final set together and Cally’s solo career began. Shocker at this time started taking on more hosting performances by himself, showing that he also had his own unique identity and performance style.
Since then Cally and Shocker’s path has crossed regularly. Most promoters know how well they work together and the reaction they stir from the crowd, so it’s common to see them both appear at all the UK’s major hard dance events.
More recently, Cally and Shocker have been the driving force behind HDUK’s successful arenas hosted at some of the UK’s biggest hard dance events, such as Westfest and Ravers Reunited, while both being resident performers for the brand. They are also 2 of the busiest artists in the scene, both spending time in the studio, Cally for his high-quality reverse bass and euphoric hardstyle productions, and Shocker with his vocals featuring on tracks from many popular hardstyle and hard dance acts worldwide. They’re both signed to Twisted Artists Agency, one of the leading agencies for hard music in the UK, and busier than ever before with some very exciting plans ahead.
What inspired you to start HDUK?
C: The idea came when I went to HDE, the hard dance part of ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event). I was sat in the audience in a lecture and I just looked around and saw DJ’s, producers, event organisers and other figures from the music industry, and I thought it was pretty amazing, them organising this event where they could all get together to discuss the future of their scene and make new connections and arrange collaborations. I found that really exciting and felt that we miss that interconnectedness in the UK, so straight away I started to think of ideas of how that could be done. The first thing I did when I got home was invite just under 40 artists and promoters from around the UK to a group conversation to try and get something started. It was easier said than done though and I very quickly realised, not everyone had the same motivation, which is why HDUK has changed and evolved so much since the start.
Bionic was one off the biggest events in
Wales. Do you often get asked about it?
C: Don’t start that one off haha! Yes, so many people continue to mention Bionic.
S: About 2 years ago we posted a poll in the HDUK Community asking what everyone’s favourite event was, and to our surprise Bionic still came top, despite the last Bionic event being in 2016!
You have a new HDUK Podcast now - Can
you tell us more about this?
C: A podcast was on our list of things to achieve with HDUK from very early on, but we never wanted to rush it and wanted to ensure when we put one out, it would be to the same standard (or very close) to all the big podcasts out there for our genre.
S: We spent a lot of time working on a structure, ensuring we didn’t just use features already used by many other podcasts, and we wanted to make sure we chatted on there, as so many podcasts are music only, whereas we’ve always felt like a podcast should be more like a mini radio show. So we took our time with every part of it, including the design and promotion of it. The first 2 episodes have made a big impact and we’ve had great feedback, so we’re now excited to keep the momentum going and build on that initial buzz.
You pride yourself on pushing UK talent -
who is doing it for you at the moment?
C: I think pushing UK talent, or up and coming artists in general is so important. I see too many artists struggle for years to get somewhere, then when the few manage to break through, so many of them forget the struggles they had, and forget about everyone else in their position. I feel like it’s important for us to support these guys working hard who maybe haven’t had the recognition yet they deserve. I’ve seen too many talented artists, not get opportunities and then give up which is really sad. For some of them bigger success could literally have been around the corner.
S: As for UK talent really shining at the moment then without doubt J-Trax, MKN and Ed E.T would be top of the list, which is why we’ve given these guys so much support. Reklus also seems to be working hard in the background, so very keen to see what comes from him this year. There are also some up and coming guys we’re keeping an eye on including new act Serotonez who have grabbed our attention.
The events in the UK have seen a decline recently in numbers as well as regular parties and not as many UK DJ's being booked as
much as in previous years. Your take on this?
S: We’ve had so many conversations about this over the years. We’ve always said it all seemed to start with the recession. Numbers of people going out dropped rapidly. Then venues started closing as they couldn’t cope with lower numbers attending. Monthly events started only doing a couple a year and many events stopped altogether. The clubs and promoters that stayed in business had to cut back and spend less or risk losing money, so line-ups were smaller, production wasn’t as good as it used to be, and many of the younger crowds coming in, boycotted the clubs just to do a few big festivals a year, as they only wanted the big experience.
C: As for artists I think too much focus was on international names, something we were definitely guilty of as Bionic, and instead of focusing on our own, we put these guys on a pedestal for everyone. This is why when HDUK was started, it was very intentional to have ‘UK’ in the brand name, ensuring our priority would always be supporting our own first, and we limit the amount of European names we support and the exposure we give them. We’ll also be keeping this in mind when working on our podcast.
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