After a world-beating tour and acclaimed album REBELS NEVER DIE revealed a tougher, darker, and more personal side to the electronic music icon, Hardwell returns with another boundary-pushing track that combines the edgier production style of REBELS NEVER DIE with a more vocal-driven sound. Featuring the additional talents of DJ/producer AZTECK and vocalist Alex Hepburn, ‘Anybody Out There’ takes the raw unfiltered energy of Hardwell’s recent work and spins it with an undeniable pop sensibility sure to light up both dancefloors and airwaves this summer.
In Hardwell’s words, “Although my new sound is much harder-edged and techier, I still love the beauty of vocal-based electronic music. Every genre, from house music and trance to electro and techno, has given the dancefloor magical moments through big vocal tracks. That feeling a big vocal song has on a festival crowd is hard to describe, but when that moment comes, it’s intoxicating.
Azteck and I have known each other for a while, having previously worked together on music. As his recent run of form proves, he’s a great producer with a fantastic ear for a topline. So, I knew a big vocal collab with Azteck would be a fire release for the summer. But the track needed a specific type of voice to make it work, and the unique raspy quality of Alex’s voice made her the perfect fit for the distorted topline on ‘Anybody Out There’.
This track is special to me because I’d been longing to repurpose my new style into a vocal-driven anthem that blended other elements of my sound to create a sort of hybrid track. It needed the right emotion in the track, the right chords, and the perfect balance in arrangement to fit the current sound.