"I want to change something in someone": Wistariaz on euphoric hardstyle, and the long way in

Wistariaz did not come to hardstyle through a club. He came to it through a playlist of background music he kept on while gaming, about five years ago, when he was in his first year of junior high.

"I don't remember the details, but the first time I heard it was probably five years ago. I used to listen to work and study BGM while gaming, and two of those tracks were NIVIRO's 'Diamond' and Elektronomia's 'Heaven.' The tempo was fast, and it felt exhilarating. I only realised the genre was called hardstyle when I downloaded those two from the NCS site."

The pull to make his own music arrived around the same time, from a different direction. He had fallen for Yellow Magic Orchestra, and he wanted to know what the instruments were.

"I was really into YMO, and I kept wondering what the keyboards they played were. I found out they were synthesizers, the name sounded cool, and the more I looked into it the more I got interested in the idea that you could make sounds yourself."

The rest was a teenager's logic, and it stuck.

"I figured you needed software to produce, and out of all the DAWs, I bought FL Studio purely because Avicii used it. That was the start."

How he describes his sound

Wistariaz makes euphoric hardstyle and rawstyle, and he describes the two in almost opposite terms.

"Euphoric hardstyle, I'd call very melodic, emotional melodies. Rawstyle I describe as rough."

He is honest that it is not an easy first listen, and that he wishes more of the people near him shared it.

"For someone hearing it for the first time, the tempo is fast and the sounds are strange, so it doesn't come to you easily. I wish there were more people around me who loved hardstyle."

The one track he points to

Ask him where to start with his own music, and he does not hesitate.

"It would be 'Reach This Feelings,' from an album called 'RE:Forge' that I made with my friend Asune. A lot changed in how I compose with that track. I still go back and listen to my old songs sometimes, and every time I feel my production really stepped up from this one."

Then, the part he calls embarrassing.

"Honestly, I wrote it thinking about the girlfriend I was seeing at the time."

His first time on stage

His first event appearance was a back-to-back set with CH1LL, the Osaka organizer, at Flow of Euphoria. He was, by his own account, nervous the whole way through.

"It was my first time performing at an event, so I was full of nerves. I kept thinking about whether I could connect the tracks without any mistakes. In the end, I stopped a track once."

And then the part that made it worth it. Almost nobody around him listens to this music, so a room that did was something new.

"Nobody close to me really listens to hardstyle, so the moments when people were singing their hearts out were pure happiness."

How he makes a track

Ask him how a track begins, and the answer is simple. It starts the same way starting a game does, with an idea that just comes to him.

"I start with the same feeling as starting a game. The start of a project is just a sudden idea."

From there, he builds it in order, and slowly.

"How you make a track depends on the person, but I usually build the intro first, until I'm happy with it, then the build-up, and go from there. Making one track usually takes me under 30 hours. I still feel it's not there yet, but I don't think the time you put in is everything."

The last stage, mastering, is the one he keeps coming back to.

"Mastering takes a lot of time too. Because I adjust it little by little, by the end it can feel like nothing's changing. It's a producer thing, but when you come back to a mastered file later, it can sound bad. It really is a classic."

What he is building now

He is working on an EP, with no release date he is willing to promise, and a clear idea of why he keeps going.

"Right now I'm making an EP. I don't know when I'll be able to put it out, but I'm giving it everything."

"I have an ideal when I make music. I hope that through a track, I can change something in someone. Music is the reason I decided to produce in the first place, so I'd be happy if someone started something of their own the same way."

Where to find him

His music is out there for anyone to listen to, mostly on SoundCloud. He also has a duo.

"I mainly upload my music on SoundCloud, so please take a look. I also have a duo with PV1N, under the name Synthrazes. There aren't many tracks yet, but more are coming. Wistariaz will keep releasing music for free, and I'd be grateful for your support."

Start with "Reach This Feelings", the track he named above.

It comes full circle: Wistariaz returns to a Flow of Euphoria lineup on November 7, 2026, the same series where he played his first-ever set.