‘Feels Incoming’ – Up Close And Personal With Neilio.

When thinking about hardstyle that swirls with ‘feels,’ emotional story-lines and an epic atmosphere that packs a punch, I think no further than one artist who has seen some highly impressive years. Neil Bourke, or better known as Neilio is smashing out the spine tingling releases by the truckload, regardless of the “raw4lyf” movement within the hardstyle scene. We caught up with this young mastermind to have a chat about his new releases, plans for 2015 and musical vision.

1. So lately you’ve been smashing out the releases such as ‘See You On The Other Side’ and ‘Apache’. Awesome job. How has the response been so far on these new tracks?
The response has been great! Today hardstyle is very broad, but a lot of attention goes to raw-hardstyle. I’m glad to see people still appreciating euphoric hardstyle too.

2. Now something about one of your older tracks, WINMY. What was the main story behind the track? Was it made about anybody in particular?
My brother Eoghan (Ohwin) wrote and sang the vocals. It’s a personal story, but the lyrics make it very clear what’s going on. Also I’ve noticed that a lot of people can relate to the track, because we all have someone we wish we never met.

3. Which musician do you idolise most?
That’s a very hard question and actually changes quite frequently. At the moment I think Da Tweekaz are very inspirational.

4. If you could reincarnate as an insect, what would you be?
As a grasshopper or a bumblebee. As a kid I used to catch insects all the time.

5. What did you eat for breakfast today?
The usual, nothing.

6. What are three essential pieces of equipment that any producer should have in their studio?
Studio headphones, studio monitors and beer.

7. Boobs or ass?
(o)(o)

8. Can you give us any insight into any productions/collabs that you are working on at the moment?
I’m working on a couple new things. I’m doing a follow up to WINMY with Ohwin. We will be recording some new vocals soon. Also working on a track with a really cool reversed bass intro and I think I nailed the melody just last night!

9. What are your thoughts on Crocs?
My mom has them. Enough said, right?

10. What musical influences led you to start producing hardstyle?
My musical taste was very broad back in the day. I guess I was still looking for the perfect genre. Used to listen to underground hip-hop and rap from Atmosphere to rock by Rammstein and other pop poop. I found out about a music making program called Ejay (which is just placing samples in any order you liked and it always sounds good) and it kinda started from there.

11. How are you feeling about your new nickname ‘Feelio’?
I like it. People who know my music know it’s emotional and euphoric, so the name Feelio represents me in a good way 🙂

**Feelio in action**

12. What are your musical resolutions for 2015?
My goal is to release one track each month. Whether it be a free release, bootleg, re-amp or anything else, I will release it! I am just going to try and push myself to do more with my music. Also, I would really like to make an album, however at the moment I don’t have enough time or resources to do it… But maybe in the future!

13. And what about your personal resolutions for 2015?
My resolutions are to try and exercise more and lose some weight. Oh, and maybe be a little more organized and spend more time with my girlfriend!

14. The hardstyle scene has evidently seen a shift towards the ‘raw’ side. What keeps you staying true to the euphoric sound?
I love euphoric hardstyle. I also love house and trance which is kind of always euphoric. I will never stop making euphoric stuff, so get used to it! (Feelio incoming)

15. As a euphoric producer, do you feel unmotivated sometimes by the huge popularity of ‘rawstyle’?
Actually in a way it motivates me to stay more true to euphoric hardstyle. However, sometimes crowds don’t react to the tracks I personally would love to hear, because it’s not raw enough. Also this year was really good for me in terms of bookings, but right now I barely have any. I think it’s due to the popularity of raw, but maybe it’s me? :-S

16. When producing melodies, what inspires you the most?
Sometimes I’ll be waiting somewhere or during my break I’ll be humming a melody. I usually try to remember it or I record it into my phone so I can use it later. Mostly I just sit in the studio and place note after note until it just sounds good and catchy.

17. What is the key to producing a catchy melody?
I wish I knew. I can’t describe to you in words what the key is, but in most cases a simple melody works better than a complicated one. Also I think predictability might play a big part. Like having the feeing you know the melody as it progresses.

18. If you could be a piece of fruit, what would you be?
Potato. (Neilio, a potato isn’t a fruit…)

19. You recently had 14 tracks voted into the HS top 2000 which is a huge achievement – do you agree with the placing of the tracks and what are your thoughts of this?”
I am very thankful that people voted my tracks so high (so everyone reading, that voted for me, THANKS!) I am especially happy where “WINMY” placed, it’s so great to see that people voted the track so high in the countdown, it means a lot to me. Although I can see some people disagreeing with the placing, in the end my tracks got the votes to be in there and that’s great!

Kudos to Neilio for having a shitload of his tracks in the Hardstyle 2000 countdown and for his fantastic releases over the last few years! Although you classed a potato as a fruit, we still love you Mr. Neilio. This is definitely not the last that we will be hearing from this young-gun, so keep your eyes out. We wish you the very best for 2015 Neilio and we hope to hear a new track from you every month!