As I was embarking on my usual morning scroll through my Instagram feed, one certain post caught my eye and made my stomach turn slightly. For those of you who are familiar with the works of young Belgian producer, Outlander, you would know that he burst into the hardstyle scene around 2011 when he signed to Dirty Workz and produced some killer tracks such as “Flying Space Monster,” “Our World” and “Telepathy.” His production style has always been unique with lots of electronica, progressive and generally ‘trippy’ aspects blended through and he was one of the young producers that I have had my eye on for the last few years.
However, in recent times, the roof has fallen through for Outlander and it’s no secret that he has been taking out his array of frustrations in the public eye – on social media. It’s old news that the majority of line-ups are packed with raw hardstyle artists and that the general consensus suggests that ‘harder is better,’ so as an artist who produces melodies, this can cause some growing pains. Coming from having bookings every single weekend to nothing at all can be demotivating to the tee and can affect your entire life, especially if music is a full time commitment.
This is currently happening to Outlander… But does that make it okay for him to take out his anger to his 11,000 fans on Facebook?
In his Instagram post from Saturday, 2nd May, 2015, Outlander stated that:
Promotors don’t book me anymore because i’m “unprofessional” on social media. I’m not a puppet. I speak what’s on my mind. Music business ain’t a child care centre. I care about the truth. I worked very hard to achieve everything and i always been honest with my music. #sorrynotsorry
A photo posted by OUTLANDER (@outlandermusic) on May 2, 2015 at 3:20am PDT
Yes, the truth is 110% important and as an artist, it’s important to be honest, but that should be spoken through your music – not what you say online. Yes we get it, Outlander is clearly pissed off that the hardstyle scene is changing – but there’s plenty of other melodic artists who keep their heads down and working when times are tough rather than taking out their deepest frustrations on their fans.
Shortly after the Defqon.1 line-up was released, Outlander took it to his social media to ‘announce’ that he was not playing at Defqon.1 (people could have read the line-up for themselves).
To keep everyone up-to-date: i'm not playing at Defqon this year. Congrats to everyone* who made it on the line up tho!*Except those who can't make (their own) music or whatever, fuck them.
Posted by Outlander on Thursday, 19 March 2015
Then on the same day, he continued on to post a status saying that he would be continuing making music that veers away from hardstyle.
Hi, this has been on my mind for a long time;I'm slowly stepping away from Hardstyle and i'm looking out for new…
Posted by Outlander on Thursday, 19 March 2015
So he announced that he was not playing at Defqon.1 and directly had a dig at DJ’s that don’t produce their own music who are on the line-up, then the same day he said that he was going to veer away from hardstyle… Makes sense.
We understand that he’s frustrated at the fact that he’s put in hard work and effort to produce creative music, but this constant ranting throughout social media is not going to get him bookings at all. If he shifted his focus to the positives such as the fact that he’s got great musical ideas, is signed to a diverse label that allows him freedom and has a loving and dedicated fanbase rather than acting as though the world has turned against him, then oh, how things would be different!
It’s extremely important for an artist to be able to express themselves in a creative way yet there is nothing ‘creative’ about complaining. Fans, especially the young ones look up to producers and DJ’s as role models and that is one thing that all artists should be aware of when posting things online. It’s tempting to let your frustrations out, but to 11,000 people who look up to you…? We are all only human and to some degree it is okay to share frustrations and converse with others about it, but the one thing is – it should never bring other artists down.
So Outlander, wherever your future music career takes you, we wish you the very best and we hope that you can find your happy medium where you can express yourself freely and make whatever music you love to make!
For the rest of you reading this – what do YOU think?
1 Comment
Outlander got himself some points, but he forgets that he didn’t made so much progress last couple of years, so he doesn’t really deserve those bookings imo, no offense. And he’s little announcement of DefQon is really sad, hate the game not the player 😉