Gary Richards

This weekend, the electronic music concert promotion firm HARD is celebrating its 10th anniversary with its annual HARD Summer concert, a two-day music extravaganza featuring over 100 artists, including a headline performance by Snoop Dogg, who'll do his classic Doggystyle album in its entirety. Gary Richards, who launched HARD and its series of festivals and events, has also fashioned his own DJ career as DESTRUCTO. Here, he reflects on HARD and EDM's exponential growth, as well as how he balances his concert promotion empire and his own DJ lifestyle.

Congratulations on HARD's 10th year anniversary. Are you surprised at how big HARD and EDM in general has grown over the past decade?

It's definitely surprising to see how big it has grown. I didn't picture it in the beginning, but now I can see where we can go and what we can do. It's been a wild and crazy ride that I didn't envision at first, but I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Another surprise for me was just the openness of the fans and how they are the ones who go to these shows and are very open to new scenes. These people want to follow new acts and not always the biggest names. I'm fortunate in that they trust me to point them in the right direction when it comes to new music and DJs.

Do you have a favorite HARD Summer or Day of the Dead?

Each one has been special and unique in its own way. Obviously, the first one is always pretty special, in my case just because it was so chaotic to get off the ground. The first Haunted Mansion was the first time I felt that we arrived, because that show went from 5,000 to 15,000 people. Some great moments happened there with deadmau5 and DJ AM and things like that; it was altogether awesome.

What makes one festival stand out above the rest - the performances of the artists or the reactions of the crowd to the entire scene?

It's a combination of the two because they feed off each other. I pick artists and music that brings out certain type of fans, and all those people are interconnected through the music. They're super-hyped for the music and generate feedback for the artists, who return that energy back to the fans. It creates some crazy, awesome performances that fans might not normally get at other festivals.

Getting Snoop Dog to recreate Doggystyle in its entirety live this year is quite a coup. How did you pull that off?

I've always tried to get Snoop, and let's face it, Doggystyle is one of the greatest rap records ever. I tried to get him last year, but he couldn't do it. When I finally got him in a room with his team and he asked what I'd really want, I asked if he could do Doggystyle live - and they agreed. I told them, "Let me give you more money; bring all the people you want to make it special, so you can do it right." That's what they've been working on now. It's definitely going to be one for the books.

When you have over 100 artists performing, choosing them and setting up the lineups for each stage must be a Herculean task...

I learned that after the first one I did. I just booked a bunch of bands who I thought looked cool on a poster, then I had to figure out where and when they should play. And I didn't have enough space for everybody I booked. Now when I book artists, I have already figured out which stage and time they're going to play. I also stagger the performances of artists who share the same audiences. If I know a lot of the same people who like Migos also like Snoop, for instance, I'm not going to have them perform at the same time. Sometimes you can't help having two similar artists performing at the same time, but for the most part I've become pretty good at scheduling DJs and artists. My job as a promoter is having the ability to mix and match. I've become pretty organized on how to do it now. But that first show....

You also have built a formidable career as a DJ, DESTRUCTO. Are you satisfied with how well you've done so far?

I'm really happy with the way my work as DESTRUCTO is going. Granted, it's a little tough because I also have a real job as well, but I love going in the studio to make tunes and I love performing as a DJ. I have a residency in Vegas at Drai's, which is one of the best clubs on the Strip. On my recent EP RENEGADE, I was able to work with people like Ty Dolla $ign, iLoveMakonnen, E-40, Too $hort and Problem, plus I've got a record coming out with Snoop soon. I'm elated to be getting to that next level. People now know who I am and want to work with me. I just wish I had more time in the day to work on more new music. My goal is to keep pushing, doing more of the same every day. At least one person sends me a tweet or a Facebook message every day, saying they just found out about my music. It's really a big world out there and to get people to focus on your music when there are hundreds of thousands of DJs and mixers making music, it's incredibly difficult to stand out.

Has it been tough to balance your concert promotion and artist careers?

Actually, they go hand in hand. The fact that I'm able to play fests and clubs around the world and be in studios with other musicians and artists, that makes me a better concert promoter. My head is always in the game. I'm not sitting in an ivory tower, reading the trades on who's selling concert tickets. Musically I'm living the lifestyle; I'm seeing firsthand who's creating the new music and how the kids are reacting to it. That helps me know what's going on.

The music industry at large has been buffeted by a bumpy transition to a streaming economy. How has the growth of streaming impacted EDM?

It hasn't changed the way I do business or make music, but it has enabled me to connect with my fans. If I was doing this with no digital or streaming access, it would be next to impossible for me or any electronic music-related artist to succeed. I doubt anybody in radio would play my music right off the bat, but now my music has generated 50 million streams. I don't know how the hell that would be possible without so many about kids hearing me on Spotify or seeing me mix on YouTube. They didn't need radio or anyone else to tell them what was going on.

Now that I've put out a record by myself, I'm starting to see some money come around. The whole reason I started HARD in the first place was the fact that I wasn't able to put out music and make money anymore. Even though I didn't start HARD to make a lot of money, I switched to concert promotion so I could give people a place to see and hear this kind of music. Now that Spotify is becoming the endgame to get money for streams, I at least can make enough to pay for artwork, tours, videos and releasing more music.

So what do you see in the future for HARD, DESTRUCTO and EDM? Maybe a standalone radio format?

I believe radio should have a dedicated radio format 1,000 %. Other than BPM, Electric Area and Chill on SiriusXM, there are no big EDM or dance radio stations. I commend those who are doing different types of electronic programming on the radio, but that doesn't truly reflect how massively successful the music is - and no one pays attention. One of these days, people in the business are going to realize that EDM is not a trend but an established genre, one that is here to stay, no matter who is making the music.

On top of the HARD and DESTRUCTO careers, I also have a label to release music, but that's definitely not my main focus. I just wanted to create a nice outlet for people to get their EDM music out there. A lot of times, when you deal with labels, the timelines of who is working what record and when results in records getting lost in the shuffle. To me, it's good to be able to put out a record when you want to, and get it on Spotify, iTunes, BPM and different places whenever you can. You obviously can't automatically do that when you're on a Sony or Warner Bros. label. Not every artist needs a major-label push; some artists just need to a platform and a bit of marketing, and they're good to go.