TLC Interviews Destructo: NYC Goes HARD This Saturday At Governors Island!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of chatting with DJ and Promoter extraordinaire Destructo AKA Gary Richards, founder of the HARD events. In addition to the earthquake that hit Los Angeles that very day, our scheduled interview had to be pushed back as Gary put the final touches on what was scheduled to be HARD LA. Foreshadowing? Last week fans who were hoping to catch the amazing line up at the Los Angeles State Historic Park in Downtown Los Angeles were disappointed by the announcement of the event’s cancellation.

An official statement reads, “The cancellation was not a result of lack of support or the full approval from the personnel at the City of Los Angeles and California State Parks who have signed off on our comprehensive security plan. We have decided to instead produce one massive event on August 7th at the same amazing location, the Los Angeles State Historic Park in Downtown Los Angeles.”

Regardless, THE SHOW GOES ON IN NEW YORK THIS SATURDAY! Gary and I gushed about our favorite bands, the music industry, event planning, the future of HARD and much more in the interview below. Check it out and be sure to plan your summer around the HARD Summer Music Festival.

mp3: Die Antwoord – Zef Side
mp3: Rye Rye – Bang (Featuring M.I.A.)
mp3: Chromeo – Night By Night (Skream Remix)
mp3: Major Lazer – Bruk Out (Remix by Destructo & Uberzone)

> Hi Gary. How’s your day, where am I speaking to you from?
GR: I’m in LA, better. We just had an earthquake.
> Oh I just saw that on Twitter! Is everything okay?
GR: Yeah, we’re cool. Our offices were rocking and rolling for a minute there but we’re cool. How are you?
> I’m doing well, currently Upstate (New York) with my family. If you hear any kids screaming in the background just ignore it.
GR: It’s okay I got you, I know the drill.

> I was speaking with your publicist earlier who told me that you had to push back the interview to deal with some legal things in LA. Was that related to kicking off HARD LA?
GR: Yeah I mean when we do our events we deal a lot with police, fire, city council to make sure everything is on the up and up. Doing events for thousands of people you’ve got to make sure everything is sorted so people in the neighborhood know what’s going on and that everything is in line for the event.

> So there’s a lot of start up, I always thought that the venue just handled all of that.
GR: Ohhhh no, that’s all shit that we deal with. I wish the venue handled all of that. Basically when you do shows at say Terminal 5, Roseland or those places it‘s kind of “turn key” – you don‘t really need to do anything. For the HARD shows in LA and New York with M.I.A. we’re doing non-traditional venues: a state park in LA and Governor’s Island in New York. We have to bring in the stage, lighting, sound, toilets, everything. There’s a lot of planning with city, state, building and safety, fire and all of that.

> Would it be safe to say that this will be the biggest year for HARD?
GR: Yeah, it’s pretty big. We’ve got the two LA/NY M.I.A. shows, then we’ve got HARD Summer and the tour and Haunted Mansion. It’s been a big year, big year already. We had the Bloody Beetroots sell out in LA, HARD 13 sold out, we sold out Terminal 5, Miami and San Francisco. It’s definitely growing.

> I’ve been to the HARD NY shows, such a great time.
GR: Cool, the New York crowd is definitely different and fun.

> How do they differ?
GR: Well in New York from what I can tell, they don’t have a rave scene. It seems like it’s mostly college kids and music fans, they’re not all glow stick-ed out and wearing the furry boots and all that. They’re just more into the music. Me personally I like that better.

> HARD NYE ‘07 was the first event, correct?
GR: Yeah we did New Years Eve in LA with Justice, Peaches, 2 Live Crew, Aoki, Busy P, A-Trak.

> Going into that, what was your vision versus what actually came of it?
GR: For the first event?

> I guess both, or in general. You can choose your destiny.
GR: Well for the first event I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve been in the music business for like 15 years, I’d been producing electronic music CD’s and had a label . People just don’t buy CD’s anymore so I thought “if I continue to be in this business, what am I gonna do? Maybe I’ll try and do an event. I’ll go back to Djing and producing events.” I shut down some streets in downtown LA and booked some bands, it was an awesome event but I really had no idea how to produce an event, I learned very quickly and it turned out to be great.
Now 3 years later I feel like I went to grad school for producing events. [all laugh] Dealing with crowds and the city and all these things that we’ve been through. I never really had a total vision of “okay, where would we like to be in 3 years?” but I can definitely tell you that we’re in a place that I never envisioned. Especially in New York, I can’t believe that my first event sold out entirely. My biggest vision or idea I had was basically that I was trying to do a dance party, but something different. I was trying to do a dance music event but keep it cool by booking Justice, booking Peaches, booking Busy P, booking Spank Rock, Crystal Castles, trying to book more dance rock stuff rather than trance. It was about creating a new style and new vibes. That was the plan and it seems to have worked.

> Before you started HARD, did you have a lot of experience going to festivals?
GR: Yeah, my brother and I were on Ozzfest and one year we had 8 bands there. I’ve been to the first Coachella, the first Lollapalooza. I’ve going to concerts since I was 8 years old.

> Do you have any plans to take this internationally?
GR: Yeah we’d love to take it internationally. We’ve been talking to some people in Europe and Australia about doing some stuff over there. It’s definitely on the table but I find that for us it works better if we go in small steps with smaller venues first.

>Being that you’re actually an act on the bill and you’re putting this together, how do you juggle both?
GR: [laughs] That’s a good question. It’s really awesome and it sucks. It’s great because when I DJ it keeps my head in the game for booking. I’m always booking what I love, it really helps keep a cohesive feel for the event. However, I’m usually first on the bill so in addition to getting the whole show ready, I’m DJing and then getting back to work. It’s a lot of hats to wear but I’m lucky I get to do it all, it’s definitely fun but difficult too. A lot of times I’ll be so focused on getting the doors open and making sure the equipment and artists have arrived, then all of a sudden it’s like “oh shit I’ve got to DJ!” We make it work, I make it work who’s “we??”

> Tell me a bit about the event on Governors Island on July 24th.
GR: There’s a huge field on Governors Island with 2 stages set up. The event wil be 8 hours…I’m excited to bring all of this music to New York in one day. Die Antwoord, Skream, Benga, Maya‘s album [/\/\/\Y/\] will be out for 2 weeks then. That’ll be awesome. With LA it’s a 36 acre park in downtown LA, you got the backdrop of the city and the bill is pretty similar to New York but with Flying Lotus, NERD, Joker, Skream and Benga. I feel like it’s a little bit of a different direction for us. I’m always just trying to keep it fresh and new.

> What has the journey from the beginnings of your career to now been like?
GR: Awesome, I’m very lucky. My dad always told me if you love your job you can have a great life. I can’t believe that this is my job, dealing with artists and this type of music. There are a lot of hiccups along the way with planning an event but for the most part I’m very fortunate and lucky to have been working with music for 20 years. I’m as happy as can be.

> Is there anything in the future that you would like to change or improve about HARD?
GR: One of the definite things on the HARD to do list is to book Daft Punk.

> Yes, please!
GR: And that’s about it, just keep being able to do safe festivals across the country. Just doing what we’re doing but yeah, booking Daft Punk would be pretty cool.

> I agree, the HARD events are crazy fun but at the same time contained.
GR: I was leaving T5 and some guy, this guy Joe Donut…I was trying to get a cab and he was like, “Destructo, Destructo do you need a ride?”
> I know that guy!
GR: I told him where we were going but I don’t think he knew how to get to my partner’s hotel in the East Village [all laugh] It was kinda cool, he was stoked to just hang. I was happy that everyone seemed happy and pumped when leaving, good vibes.

> Are there any genres of music you don’t foresee yourself exploring with the HARD events?
GR: I always try to switch it up but I think the meat and potatoes will always be electronic music. I definitely have a few tricks of my sleeves for things I want to book, but you’re going to have to wait and see. I think people will be psyched.

> What can we expect you to bring to turntables this time around?
GR: I try to bring madness, get the crowd pumped. I just did an all vinyl set in LA this past weekend. For the tour coming up we’re going to markets where I’ve never been, so I want to give them a taste of what we do in LA. For the bigger festivals everyone’s so good and I don’t have to even DJ, but when we go to the smaller sets I want to put together the best sets I possibly can. That is one of the things I really dug about New York, I DJ-ed first at Terminal 5 and I was like “are these people going to like what I play? I even know what the fuck people like in New York!” I started off kind of groovy, funk and techno. I was trying to build it and build it but within 10 minutes everyone was just ready to go! We’ll feel it through but I’m imagining now when we hit other cities, once the door opens people will be ready to go. I’ll try to warm it up but I don’t know how long that will last.

> Well that’s all I’ve got for you Destructo, thank you for the interview! I’ve been looking forward to these events this summer for quite some time.
GR: It’s gonna be a good one!
> I’ll definitely say hi at Governors Island.
GR: Hunt me down!

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22. July 2010 von anthoNYC
Categories: music news | Tags: destructo, gary richards, hard festival, music news | 5 comments