From Legendary Pokémon to Legendary Producer: Kygore's Rise in the Hard Dance Scene
From legendary Pokémon to legendary producer: Kygore's Rise in the Hard Dance Scene!
Kygore is an artist from California who has been on the scene for a while. He plays hard dance music throughout the US. Gus, aka Kygore, started raving in 1998 back when Nocturnal Wonderland ticket prices were only $20! His name was not only Kygore - he also used Delusion before. In this interview, we learn more about who he is and what he has done in the scene.
“When did you start producing?”
Kygore started producing in 1999 - 2000 when he had yet to have a legit copy of ‘Fruity Loops’. (Fruity Loops is what eventually turned into the FL studio that’s commonly used now.) He was dabbling into happy hardcore, hardcore, and gabber along with DJing those genres.
“What inspired you to produce?”
“I love music and I love to not only play it but also, I like to make it because when people listen to my tracks, I can see their reactions to how they like it or they don't like it, whichever. It's just nice to see people saying, oh my God, this is sick. And it's a good feeling,” Kygore says.
“Were you producing under Delusion?”
“I actually do have some tracks out as Delusion, but they're more recent. I was, you know, producing and deejaying, but I kind of stopped for a little bit because I thought happy hardcore was dead and then I came back, but I do have some tracks. My biggest track under Delusion is a remix I did with my friend A.o.S and it's a remix of S3RL's MTC and I think it has over 200,000 plays on Spotify right now.” Kygore continues to mention that he had to change his name. He submitted his first track to Dirty Workz where they told him they like the song but there’s already a Deluzion with a z instead of an s. They could not use Delusion for that. Delusion eventually evolved to Kygore and after rebranding his name, Kygore has been taking off ever since!
“How did you come up with the name Kygore?”
Kygore laughed with excitement, “This is the best story.” He proceeded to explain, “Umm, I'm dyslexic. Very bad. And so, I used to call the Pokémon Kyogre, Kygore. That's what I thought it was called. I thought it was Kygore and then I was like, 'Oh, it's not whoops! But like, I kind of like that name though, so I'm going to stick with it.” Kygore continued, “Honestly, it's really funny because in one of the Dirty Workz YouTube videos of my song, someone's like from legendary Pokémon to legendary producer and I'm like, I'm glad I'm not the only one that's dyslexic.” With such a bubbly spin-off, the mispronunciation of Kyogre to Kygore lives on and was never a mistake in the end! He casually proclaimed, “So I hope that people make me Kyogre Kandi and stuff like that. Just throwing it out there.”
“When did you start producing hardstyle?”
Under his previous alias, he was experimenting a bit with hardstyle. He wanted to strive for more bookings. So, as he saw the hardstyle scene growing and figured a necessary change of name to Kygore, he assumed a complimentary change of music production. He mentions, “When I wanted to go more of a route where I wanted to get better bookings out here, I was like, I need to go the Hardstyle route . . . Since I'm going with the new alias, I might as well start doing hardstyle. So, I was like, here we go, let's dive into this!”
“When did you start releasing under the new alias?”
Kygore claims, “It was very recent because I kind of got into an awesome situation of having amazing roommates named Lucky Rabbit and Talon, and they kind of gave me the motivation to just go for it.” He started releasing tracks under Kygore in 2023. He has 2 official releases under the Dirty Workz label called ‘Dig in the Dirt' and ‘End This Way.'
“As a pioneer of the hardstyle scene in America, do you have any future events?”
“Yeah, so on February 22nd . . . I'm playing a show in Arizona called ‘Future Club 7’.” This was his first booking in Arizona. Kygore has also played in Vegas, Utah, and Canada.
For his sets, he likes to “wing” it. He does not normally put something together; except the one time he did a Basscon show. He would describe his sets as high-energy and upbeat with random unexpected genres like raw to euphoric or vice versa.
“How do you start a track? Inspirations?”
“It’s very random. Sometimes I’ll just be listening to something and think ‘alright I have inspiration’," says Kygore. “I’ll get inspiration from other tracks, or I’ll hear something that is not hardstyle and think ‘Oh maybe I can work this into a track’.” He also says he hears something that he likes but wants to make it “harder.” Vocal samples are another point of inspiration he goes off of at times.
“What are some challenges you face with producing or touring?”
“Writer’s block! That’s always a thing,” he laughs. He likes to do other things and then come back to producing. A break is needed so that he can come back with a fresh mind. There have not been issues with touring other than not getting paid.
“In which direction do you want hardstyle to go?”
Kygore hopes that we start getting more euphoric music. Kygore likes rawphoric because it also goes hard. “I love [it] when people can sing along,” Kygore happily mentions.
“What are your dreams?”
“My dreams are definitely bigger and better bookings”, says Kygore. “Maybe a festival added in the mix. I don’t want to lose the spark. I want to keep it going.” He says he would love to have bookings both locally and internationally. He hopes the crowd here can grow the same way as it is overseas. “I mean, Dirty Workz has done stages at Ultra now two years in a row. So, there is some sort of want for it, it's just all of us need to band together and show up. And show everybody that hard dance is here and it's big and we want it!,” he claims. He also mentions that the good thing is we have RAVE’N now. (RAVE’N is an American Hard Dance label that was officially made public this year, 2024.) With aspirations to continuously release tracks with Dirty Workz, and future hopes with various other labels, look out for a release by Kygore under RAVE’N Records next month!
“What are your tips for aspiring DJs and producers?”
“So, for DJing, the nerves never go away. You'll be nervous. Just try not to stress out too much. I know I can say that, and it won't help, but yeah, I was very nervous at my first Basscon show. Very, very nervous,” Kygore chuckles. How did he overcome these nerves? “I played my first two tracks, and then I wasn't even thinking about it anymore until I started messing up a couple times. I was like, Oh no, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. But apparently, no one heard it. So, it's fine, it's fine,” he laughs.
Kygore moves on to mention that for producing try not to stress about it too much, and if it is not sounding the way you like it then walk away, refresh your mind a bit, and then get back to it. He also mentions that video games like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Tekken’, or ‘Final Fantasy’ are personal remedies for him to get refocused.
“Would you be willing, or do you plan on doing a set under the name Delusion?”
Kygore agrees to do a set under the name Delusion. “Preferably if I was going to, I would do an old-school vinyl set. But if someone wants [me] to [do a] straight happy hardcore [set] as Delusion . . . I can do that too.” Kygore also mentioned his last set as Delusion was also kind of nerve-wracking since he had to dress up as a cat maid! With bold interest, he would do it again if someone wanted him to.
Kygore leaves off with a personable message, "No . . . this is awesome, cause like . . . you don't really get much [attention]. You get it . . . with the big guys. Yeah, they always get interviews, but like, you don't get kind of the smaller guys, you know?"
Both Marcus and Kygore are excited to continuously support each other throughout their journeys!
If you want to listen or know more about Kygore, check him out at:
Instagram: @djkygore
Facebook: DJ Kygore
SoundCloud: Kygore
Spotify: Kygore
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Marcus is one of the leaders of San Diego Hardstylerz. He started listening to house, trance, eurodance and freestyle as a kid. After a friend showed him hardstyle in 2010, he formed a passion for the scene and music ever since. His hopes are to help thrive the hardstyle scene throughout the states to the best of his ability.
Writer: Marcus
Co-writer: Ivan
Editor: Herlinda
Follow San Diego Hardstylerz:
Instagram: Sdhardstylerz
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