Dance music fans likely know Gary Richards for Hard. That rapidly exploding brand of parties and shows includes local events like Holy Ship, the all-electronic music cruise that departs again from Fort Lauderdale next January, as well as a two-night stand at Grand Central in Miami that starts tonight. But while he's been crossing the globe taking Hard as far as away as Australia, Richards has also been semiquietly working on his own original music under the name Destructo.
As Destructo, Richards often DJs Hard events, but it's only now, after close to two decades of being involved in the scene, that his first EP, Technology, is ready. It's set to be released on April 9, and it's long in the making.
"I've been going into the studio for a year, working with these guys called Oliver," Richard says of his collaborators, a recently much-lauded production duo from L.A. "For like 20 years, I've been trying to make music and do this, and I've had releases here and there, but I've never really found guys to work with. I met these guys, and we did the track 'Technology' in like one night."
The result was a techno-flavored, robotic stormer that immediately grabbed buddy Boys Noize, who offered to release it on his own label for new talent, BNR Trax. What "Technology" was not, though, was more pummeling electro-house beats. Instead the track, as well as the other offerings from the collection, are slinkier, deeper, and far more nuanced than one might immediately expect.
"Because my name's Destructo, I think people assume I'm just going to be jackhammering it and it's going to be speed-metal techno or whatever. My thing is just to make people dance," he says. "When I'd DJ in places, everyone was trying to outdo the other one on who could play the hardest tracks. I just wanted to change that and do something different."
Hear what he means on Thursday night at the second edition of Hard Miami at Grand Central.
Destructo, at Hard Miami: The Main Event. With Boys Noize, Busy P, Brodinski, Gesaffelstein, and others. 10 p.m. Thursday, March 22, at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami. Tickets cost $25 in advance; age 18 and up. Click here.
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