Nonsense and disorder. Bad TV and good pharmaceuticals. Red-hot jacuzzis and airborne explosives. Diet & exercise. Heartbreak and head. Comedy and chaos. Wine, women, and song. Daydreams and nightmares.
scott hardkiss is one of electronic dance music's most innovative & enigmatic DJ/producer/artists. he's created his own bizarre, funky, surreal, and uplifting fusion of psychedelic house, breakbeats, funk, rock, hip-hop, techno, disco, soul, jazz, dub, ambient, blues, latin, classical, go-go & surf music to name just a few. scott was born in the bronx, ny and grew up between nyc, dc, & philadelphia. in the 80s he fell in love with old-school hip-hop's "anything-goes" sound, got his first set of turntables & taught himself to dj, being further influenced in dance clubs where electronic music was blended together happily with rock, pop, & new-wave. he went on to study literature & art at oxford university, living in the uk during the initial explosion of the rave & indie-dance scenes and travelling to the spanish islands to take in the diverse balearic sound. all of these experiences led him to found hardkiss as a creative outlet for his own personal style of music & art through djing, production, design & events. with his vision thus born he set off to open heads & hearts and make booties shake by organizing & djing at some of the first raves & electronic-music multi-media dance events, beginning on the east coast and working his way out west to san francisco.
he eventually inspired a motley crew of weirdo followers to join him in his mission and together with his newly-adopted "brothers" started the seminal record label, "hardkiss music" in 1991. using the name god within for his own original solo productions, scott became one of the true innovators of the electronic sound of the 90's and his ground-breaking records ("raincry," "the phoenix," "acid funk", "infinitely gentle blows") & musical style were embraced by djs, producers, & music-lovers worldwide. in 1995 all of the vinyl single releases were compiled in the classic allbum "delusions of grandeur," which scott named after a series of multi-media events he produced combining music, art & film. he wrote his label's procovative dadaist press releases, waged absurdist promotional campaigns, and lovingly designed the surreal, color-drenched artwork & hand-scrawled graffiti logos which packaged the records & cds himself.
as a club dj, he became one of the first americans of his generation to tour coast-to-coast and beyond, being touted as one of dj magazine's "top 50 djs in the world" and making journeys to spread his sound to exotic international locales. he's performed at countless legendary clubs & events such as tribal gathering, twilo, the roxy, the loft, crobar, spundae, buzz, giant, motor, fabric, heavenly social, big beat boutique, bedrock, red rocks, ministry of sound, back-to-basics, sabresonic, dorian gray & drum club. he always pushed the dj envelope by refusing to stick to simply one sound or style, constantly surprising with eclectic, bold selections, dropping rock & pop songs, creating his own infamous remixes (like elton john's "rocketman") for exlusive use in his sets, and incorporating live musicians and vocalists into performances.
scott's musical ambitions eventually grew even further and in 2001, after a decade in california he returned to nyc and began to shift his focus towards composing & producing score for film & tv and working more extensively with live musicians. his music has been featured in major motion pictures including "kiss kiss bang bang", richard linklater's "bad news bears" , spike lee's "he got game" & "187" starring samuel l. jackson. he recently composed the score for several acclaimed short films in the "reel moments" series: "room 10," directed by jennifer aniston and starring robin wright penn & kris kristofferson, "orchids," directed by bryce dallas howard and starring alfred molina, and "cutlass," directed by kate hudson and starring dakota fanning, virginia madsen & kurt russell. his music has been much in demand in tv, being used in show themes, programs, and promos for mtv, hbo, vh1, comedy central & direct tv. and scott has become one of madison avenue's most sought-after composers, specializing in cutting-edge modern music for major international ad campaigns including motorola, american express, levi's, sprite, hennessey, phat farm and dasani.
he's also executed a diverse array of production & remixes for and with a wide range of other artists of many different genres & styles. the hardkiss mixes of elton john's "believe" and republica's "ready to go" hit the pop charts, and he's produced songs with artists including p-funk legend george clinton, grandmaster flash' melle mel, and the glide church gospel choir. scott's remix of the flaming lips' "do you realize???" was featured on the lips' release "fight test," which was nominated for the grammy for best alternative album, and he collaborated with dr. octagon's kool keith on a psychedelic hip-hop track for mtv's "amp 2." he created a symphonic remix of the polyphonic spree that featured an orchestra of over 150 musicians and his club mix of "cherry," the single for lisa shaw's debut album, was released by naked music. And most recently scott crafted a lovely spaced-out remix of (ex-luna/ galaxie 500 leader) dean wareham & britta phillips song "singer sing" for the duo's fantastic remix album "variations."
scott is currently completing his highly-anticipated debut full-length album "technicolor dreamer" for release this summer on his own new label god within. in this marathon retro-futuristic party jam he's writing, producing, arranging & performing all songs himself, along with contributions from artists including lisa shaw, britta phillips, j bowman, bobby harden, steven bernstein, stephanie alexander and a large band of live musicians, adding even more organic funk & soul to his next-school electronic sounds. it's all part of scott hardkiss' kaleidoscopic sonic vision, fusing the futuristic with the traditional, the electronic with the acoustic, and body-moving rhythms with heart-and-soul-moving melodies, vocals & songs.
Mr. Hardkiss, just stoppin by to say Hola mi amigo! Cant wait to get my hands on the Hey DJ parts and rock a remix! People LOVE the Lord Knows tune!! Hope to see ya soon!
Cheers champ, an honour having you here, be well, and do enjoy the library/blog's contents, here's hoping that it'll inspire you, as your creative spirit has inspired mine, sweet dreams then...
New Album would be nice.... cannot get Delusions off my Computer......god...the Grandeur of it all... it must be the Phoenix having an outer body experience
Hell yea on the new album and tracks on here!!!! Thanks for hittin us up with some new shit. Ive been waiting a long time for this album. Cant wait to get it. Erock
