Get to know Australia’s Hakkuh Wallaby, Slender the Man!

Harrison Cox from ‘The Slendy Show’ (aka Slender The Man), is one of Australia’s most iconic faces when it comes to all the insane dancing styles found within the Harder Styles.

Whether it’s about having a “skitz time” whilst hakking to brutal Uptempo Hardcore for a whole hour straight, or starting a Muzz contest in the mud, this guy doesn’t back-down from anything. Bear Grylls has a serious rival with this ‘m9’ as he tackles pretty much any challenge his fans dare him to do.

Recently challenged by Andy The Core to do a one hour Hakk Marathon to his last Hardcore Italia podcast, Slender The Man came out alive and with an awesome video to prove it. He also took on the challenge to answer a few of our questions, without muzzing or hakking.

Will he make it through this entire interview without fulfilling his addiction to dance? Let’s find out!

– Entering our premises today, we have the one and only Slender The Man, straight outta Straya! How are you doing Harrison?
I’m doing very well, thank you for having me!

– Australia is known for two things in the world: It’s year-long summer and being home to nature’s scariest critters that not even an asteroid could wipe out. But clichés are like myths – they are meant to be destroyed.

For you, what are the most emblematic things that represent Australia?
For me, it’s the Australian sense of humour and the way we look out for our mates that are at the core of our national image. The Aussie sense of humour comes from our great desire to laugh at every opportunity – especially at ourselves. We recognise that there are times to take life seriously, but it is equally important to relax and not be so serious sometimes.

If you have ever had an Australian friend, you will know that they will often make fun of you, but it comes from a place of love rather than malice. Some of those clichés are true though, our country is insanely hot and I’m pretty sure everything that lives in my backyard is out to kill me.

– Alright, you come from the beautiful city of Sydney, which is Hardstyle’s epicentre down under. How did your love affair with the harder styles begin?
I started listening to Hardstyle when I was about 13 years old and before that, my gateway into the genre was listening to Hard Trance music like DJ Dean’s “Protect Your Ears.” I came across Hardstyle almost by accident back in the days of Limewire; I would randomly search for tracks by genre, and a few Hardstyle search results would always come up.

Also, I remember playing Counter Strike online back then and logging into a game where the host of the server had all of these Hardstyle plug-ins programmed into the game. These were automatically downloaded to my Windows Media Player (lol) and included tracks like Showtek: Party Lover, and Headhunterz: Rock Civilization. I thought these were awesome and progressively I went down the rabbit hole into the realm of Hard Dance Music. Since then, my tastes have progressively branched out and I’ve taken a particularly liking to the Hardcore scene in recent years.

The channel actually started as a way for me to complete a university assignment – I never intended for it to continue beyond that point! 

– You are getting more and more famous everyday around the globe with your amazing and crazy hakkuh & muzz videos. What is the whole philosophy behind Slender the Man?
The channel actually started as a way for me to complete a university assignment – I never intended for it to continue beyond that point! People started watching and it became a great creative outlet for myself, so I decided to keep making videos and branch out into different styles of comedy on the channel. It was also a really great way to put the stresses of life aside for a brief moment and have some fun on camera.

The whole philosophy behind the channel is really to share the music that I love with other people. My favourite messages to receive are from people who say “thanks to your videos, I now love Darren Styles, or now I listen to Art of Fighters every day,” because now they know the joy I get out of listening to this music.

Despite the illusion of “fame,” I can certainly tell you I am just a regular guy who has been very lucky to meet some wonderful people making these silly videos. Also, the channel has really helped with my confidence, especially on the dance floor (I used to never dance)! I’m also really proud that The Slendy Show is built by the community; the people who help me out in my videos are now my good friends who I otherwise wouldn’t have known if I did not go down this road.

– Since you are an expert at dancing,  could you maybe enlighten me on what ‘muzzing’ and ‘hakking’ consist of?
Okay, first of all, I’m definitely not an expert in these (or any) dance styles at all! My favourite thing about these dance styles is that everyone has their own unique spin on them. People have come up with all sorts of crazy moves and variations that have allowed these dance styles to resonate with the wider Hard Dance community – because no two dancers are the same.

Hakkuh is a style the Dutch would know much more about than myself, but it has always been synonymous with the crazy foot and leg movements of Hard Dance music. Aussies have seemed to appropriate the term (chuck a mad hakk!) to consist of moves that would be considered outside the scope of the traditional Hakkuh style, such as fly kicks and pin drops. To us, it is all in the spirit of fun, so we don’t get bogged down with labels.

Muzzing is a little more of an Australian take on the “tektonic” style that prioritises fast, fluid arm movements in time with the music. It has taken off in the past few years due to the creativity that people have invested into different moves, and also because it is great fun to do!

Despite the illusion of “fame,” I can certainly tell you I am just a regular guy who has been very lucky to meet some wonderful people making these silly videos.

– And why the name Slender the Man?
Well, the name comes from the fictional character “Slenderman.” I dressed up as this character in order to protect my identity in the early days of the channel, as that was crucial for my assignment at the time. Further, I didn’t really have the confidence to dance without the mask the way I do now. I’ve kept the name because the character has since taken on a life of its own – and it reminds me of the humble beginnings of the channel. “Slendy” represents the crazy part of myself that I choose to let out once in a while, so I’m glad he lives on in the channel name. 

– Most of your challenges consist of playing Hardcore music in public places, such as shopping malls, or more notoriously, the Sydney University library. Has anybody ever tried to stop you from dancing or tried to turn off the music?
I deliberately approach these videos in good spirit, so the people around me tend to see the fun side of it. However, there have been a couple of times where I have been shut down and thrown out of places, including shops, markets and I’ve even been told to “move on” from certain street corners.

One time, a security guard was escorting me out of a shopping centre and I started talking to him about the videos and the channel. He started laughing and once we got outside he asked for a photo and said that if it wasn’t his job then he would have joined in the party! I make sure that if people do want me to move on from a particular spot, I’ll happily do so. It’s about trying to give people a laugh, and sometimes if the situation is not responding, we will head somewhere else rather than be (more of) a nuisance.

– The video of you and Jeromaia dancing on the beach wearing a wetsuit and swimming fins is priceless! Two questions though: where did the inspiration for this one come from? And how did people react when they saw two crazy c*nts hakken on the beach?!
Actually, it was an idea from all of the fantastic people who watched the “Frenchcore Challenge” video on the channel. The wetsuit was Jeromaia’s idea, and we looked at all the comments as to how we should dance in it. Uptempo Hardcore seemed like the most impractical way to go about it – so that’s what we did. People stopped what they were doing and watched us from afar as we struggled to dance in such difficult conditions. Some even came up and had a laugh as we told them what was going on. Just another regular day here for us at The Slendy Show!

– So Jeromaia is also your partner in crime and he helps you out a lot with the videos. How long have you known each other for?
Jero and I have known each other for a couple of years now after we met at a series of Hardstyle and Trance parties. We quickly discovered that we both enjoyed mucking around on camera and the rest is history! It’s difficult to label him a partner in crime, because really, the channel has so many awesome people that make it happen! All of my mates who I have met through these videos, Kiran, Chris, Brandon, Josh, Spyro, Elliot, Liam, Miles & Alex just to name a few – none of these videos are possible without their help.

– That’s cool! Now aside from ‘Slender The Man,’ you are also a Law student and working in Marketing. Is that hard to keep your passion flowing with your work and your studies?
It really is a challenge. The amount of time I have to work on videos and content for the channel is very limited due to these other duties. Similar to many people who have a passion or hobby on the side, balancing work and other life commitments is incredibly difficult.

Although I love making these videos, they sadly do not pay my bills and living expenses, so a job is a must. I also value education as I believe it opens up many doors in whatever field you choose to live your life, so study has been important as well. I’m glad that I have these videos and the Hard Dance community to brighten up my day when the workload gets heavy. With that said, they also bring a bit of added stress because content has to keep flowing at regular intervals regardless of how busy I get.

– If you were to perform one day on the Defqon.1 stage, would you accept the challenge to dance during Power Hour?
That would be an absolute dream! I have always wanted to experience Defqon.1 in Holland, but every year it is during my mid-year exams! I hope to travel and see what it has to offer one day. To perform on any stage at any festival around the world – especially Defqon.1 would be amazing. As long as there isn’t too much Uptempo Hardcore, I’m sure I could survive the Power Hour – and even longer!

– To finish this interview with style, we have a challenge for you man. Alive at Night challenges you to dance in inflatable pants to Sefa’s Masters of Hardcore set. Are you game?!
Fucking oath I am!

It was awesome to have you with us today Harrison and we are glad to have dedicated people like you in the scene! We love what you are doing and we wish you the absolute best for the future! Maybe one day we’ll see you taking our Sefa x AAN challenge soon ;). For those who want to watch a crazy Aussie dude hakk 2 death, be sure to hit Slendy up at his social links below! 

FACEBOOK   |   YOUTUBE   |   INSTAGRAM