The fourth musician in our series is Hadron Sounds from Berlin, Germany. He recently spoke to Tassoula Kokkoris about his artistic journey.
TK: How did you become a musician?
HS: My parents are both musicians. My dad plays bass; my mom’s a singer. Also, my grandparents were very involved in the local brass band association from the local village where I am from, so I had music all around me as a kid. Until I was 18 my bedroom was above the rehearsal room so I had big bands and other bands playing twice a week under me sleeping.
I started playing the recorder at age 6 or 7, then learned the drums and trumpet, a bit of bass and piano. Production started at age 13 or 14.
TK: How did you get involved with Future Youth Records (FYR)?
HS: I trusted strangers on the internet (laughs). They had this open call for songs about social justice or climate change or mental health to win free artist coaching—I sent a track that I thought was great. Three months later I got an email inviting me for the artist coaching, which included production, mixing, touring, etc. Then Jason from FYR wanted to take it bigger and the “Saltwater” collaboration came next … so here we are.
TK: What was it like working with Julian Lennon in the studio?
HS: Meeting Julian was great because he was so friendly and warm. The whole experience was so impressive—all of the musicians and the atmosphere in the studio.
TK: Who are your musical inspirations?
HS: Initially I started production because I liked David Guetta—I just loved those 2010s EDM dance tracks, but in overall influence, definitely the big band musicians like Count Basie and Glenn Miller. In current music, Grey, Zedd & Skrillex—there’s little bits and pieces I pick out from here and there. The Mystery Jets I worked with on production in London. That’s when I realized you can make art and be political at the same time. Art activism!
TK: Since you are now working on the Think Earth campaign, what gives you hope for the environment in the years to come?
HS: There’s progress slowly and steadily being made—in general, though there have been plateaus in recent years, I feel like we’ve been on a progress trajectory. To be honest even if the oil companies want to make the most money, the fact now is that renewable energy and alternative methods are becoming cheaper and more profitable than the old models, so eventually, they’ll be forced out of business. It’s just a matter of when and how fast we can make the change.
TK: What are you working on musically?
HS: I have two tracks on the Think Earth EP—one is “Change” —I call it the “Bohemian Rhapsody” for climate activism because it’s all over the place musically, and it’s got a fierce message that we’ll keep on standing, always demanding until we can finally breathe. I also remixed Julian Lennon’s “Save Me.” When I first heard the track, I heard it in the context of this campaign, so I thought, “That’s Mother Earth saying ‘Save Me’ to humanity.”
After this campaign, we’re releasing additional songs about climate change and climate activism. From October, which is mental health month, we’ll focus on that. The two main areas of focus for me are climate change and mental health.
For updates on Hadron Sounds, follow him on Instagram at @hadronsounds.
The Future Youth Records Think Earth Campaign EP featuring the new version of “Saltwater” will be available for purchase on Earth Day on our collaboration website. Proceeds will equally benefit our Save the Mirning Sea Country campaign and Future Youth Records. Pre-save the music here.
