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Scott Hardkiss

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" yes, yes, y'all"

Location: New York, NY

Websites:

• http://myspace.com/scotthardkiss
• http://scotthardkiss.com/

Bio: From the Bronx to the Bay to Bellevue and back, Scott Hardkiss is as silly as a hillbilly from Piccadilly, and as serious as your ... (more) father’s heart attack. His individualistic and eccentric mind helped give birth to the American electronic dance music scene and defined the San Francisco / West Coast style by creating his own eclectic mix of bizarre, funky, psychedelic & uplifting sounds. A true renaissance man, Scott Hardkiss is a DJ, musician, writer, designer, record producer and visual artist. Never one to stand still, he’s now unleashing his most fully-realized vision yet-- his highly-anticipated debut artist album Technicolor Dreamer on his new label God Within Recordings.

Originally hailing from the Bronx, Hardkiss found refuge in the arts and fell in love with old-school hip-hop's funky sound-collage aesthetic & brilliant graffiti. He got his first set of turntables at age 10, taught himself to DJ, and began sonic and visual experimentation and vandalism. He went on to the Ivy-League to study literature, philosophy & art. There he met beat-poet Alan Ginsberg, who took an immediate liking to the young artist and privately encouraged him to, "under the right circumstances, with the right people, try psychedelics." Which he may or may not have done in underground dance clubs, acid-house parties, hip-hop jams and go-go shows in NYC, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.

During a year studying Shakespeare & creative writing at Oxford University, Scott found himself in the UK during the birth of the rave and indie-dance scenes. From the Glastonbury Festival where he witnessed 75,000 people communing all-night to beats in a field, to The Canary Islands where he soaked up the eclectic & sensual Balearic vibes, this sealed the deal for Scott. He resolved to combine the best elements of his experiences and upon returning to the US founded Hardkiss as an outlet for his style of music & art through DJing, production, design, and events. With his vision thus born he set off to open heads and hearts and make booties shake by organizing and DJing some of the first raves in the US, beginning on the East Coast and working his way out West to San Francisco at the dawn of the 90s.

It was there in SF that he began to receive international acclaim as one of the true innovators of electronic music, inspiring a motley crew of weirdo followers to join his mission and establishing his seminal record label, Hardkiss Music. Scott conceived of the label as art-driven and cult-fan-based, and strived to make each release special: an intoxicating blend of shimmering sound, beautiful imagery and thought-provoking words. He and his “brothers” kick-started the new West Coast sound and were the Merry Pranksters at the forefront of the birth of the American electronic dance music scene.

Spearheading a movement towards warm, colorful, eclectic and trippy electro-funk in an ultra- conservative fast, hard & cold black-and-white age, Scott Hardkiss refused to stick to simply one sound or style. “Raincry,” his first release under the name God Within, was the shot heard ‘round the world for atmospheric, uplifting breaks and went on to transform dancefloors and mix shows everywhere and be featured on countless compilations, films, & TV. Several trail-blazing releases followed including “Daylight,” “The Phoenix,” “Acid Funk,” and “Infinitely Gentle Blows”— all of which are now highly-collectible underground classics, as well as his ground-breaking DJ mix-CD, “Yes.” Then, in 1995, Hardkiss released the quintessential compilation “Delusions of Grandeur,” widely praised as “one of the most influential albums of the nineties.”

As a highly-sought-after club DJ, Scott became one of the first Americans of his generations to tour coast-to-coast and beyond, criss-crossing the nation almost every night of the week for over ten years and making international journeys to spread his sound to exotic international locales. He strived to constantly surprise the dancefloor with diverse, bold selections, mashing, re-mixing and re-editing classic & obscure rock, pop, disco, and funk songs for more than a decade before it became fashionable and creating exclusive “specials” for use only during his live sets, like his notorious remix of Elton John’s “Rocketman” – earning him the distinction as one of DJ Magazine’s “World’s Top 50 DJs.”

What followed this early indie success was the signing of a multi-million-dollar deal with the world’s largest major label during the industries “electronica” hype-storm of the late 90’s. But after the departure of his A&R rep and the beginning of the implosion of the record industry, Hardkiss soon found himself stuck in major-label limbo. Trapped and unable to put out new music or break free of contracts, Scott burned the master tapes of the new album over which he had been toiling, stopped releasing records, deleted all back-catalog titles, and dismantled the Hardkiss crew. He split to start all over in NYC in 2000.

Scott celebrated the return to his hometown with a new DJ mix, Mixer’s “United DJ’s of America,” which Spin magazine gave 4 out of 5 stars. But as he toured relentlessly behind the release he became further disillusioned by what he felt the movement which he had worked so hard to help create had mutated into instead: over-commercialized superstar-DJ trance hell, centered around egos & money & all the wrong drugs. It all came to a screeching halt in September 2001, when Scott awoke to the attack on the World Trade Center in his loft located less than five blocks from Ground Zero, where he lived and worked before, during, and ever since that day.

With his world turned upside-down, he chose to withdraw from clubland and refocus his energies in the studio writing, arranging and producing music for film, TV and commercials and working more extensively with live musicians. Though completely self-taught, before long he was contributing to the scores for major motion pictures, short films, trailers & ads for directors including Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Jennifer Aniston, Bryce Dallas Howard and Kate Hudson. The demand for his music in TV also grew as he scored shows, themes, & promos for clients including HBO, MTV, Comedy Central, and VH1. He became one of advertising’s most successful composers, specializing in creating cutting-edge music for national campaigns including American Express, Levi’s, Motorola, Sprite, & Hennessey. And he collaborated in the studio with a wide range of artists including George Clinton, Kool Keith, Melle Mel, and members of the New York Philharmonic & Glide Church Gospel Choir. He also did remixes for the likes of Elton John, The Polyphonic Spree, Esthero, Dean & Britta and Lisa Shaw, as well as The Flaming Lips track “Do You Realize?” which was featured on the Lips’ release “Fight Test”, and nominated for the Grammy for Best Alternative Album.

Newly re-inspired, he set off on finally recording his first full-length album of original material. The result is Technicolor Dreamer, an optimistic response to all the heartache and tribulations of the past and a blueprint to a joyous future. Hardkiss wrote, produced, arranged, engineered and performed an hour’s worth of fun, surreal-yet-catchy songs in his home studio featuring witty, sing-along vocals & melodies and booty-shakin’ dance grooves which take his signature psychedelic fusion sound to the next level. Scott goes beyond his DJ persona by grabbing the mic and taking the lead on vocals, singing & rapping, and picking up his keyboards, guitars, drums, bass & more. He’s joined by an incredibly diverse & sexy band of vocalists and musicians including the immense talents of Britta Phillips, Lisa Shaw, Stevvi Alexander, Steven Bernstein, J Bowman, Bobby Harden, Tabitha Fair, Greg Skaff, Ernest Carter, DJ Afro, Alex Moulton, and Disco D. Backed by this gang of extra-special artists, Scott is preparing to once again hit the road and reemerge as a touring artist playing multimedia events with a funktastic live show spectacle.

Technicolor Dreamer is out August 2009 on God Within Recordings, Scott’s new and proudly-DIY independent label dedicated to producing and releasing his own and other like-minded artists’ music. The label is preparing to re-issue Hardkiss’ entire long-out-of-print back-catalog of classic CDs & vinyl and, for the first time ever, make them available digitally as well. It’s only fitting that the label’s first release is Technicolor Dreamer, which brings together a kaleidoscopic spectrum of musicians, artists and genres to create an album that can be perfectly summed up as a technicolor celebratory funk-fest.

Yes, yes, y’all…

For more information about Scott Hardkiss and Technicolor Dreamer, please contact Stunt Company:

Sue Marcus – 718.222.8963 or sue@stuntcompany.com

Sonia Aneja – 718.222.1746 or sonia@stuntcompany.com

Gary Crump – 718.222.1479 or gary@stuntcompany.com (less)