With his new album Kontinuum, STOIK dives deep into the roots of his Hardstyle past while forging a fresh identity that’s all his own. In this exclusive interview for UFO Network, the Austrian producer opens up about his evolution from D-Mon to STOIK, the creative process behind Kontinuum, his long-standing bond with The Funky Cat, and why embracing genre-crossing sounds is his new artistic mission.
UFO Network: With Kontinuum, you deliberately brought more Hardstyle elements back into your music while maintaining the signature STOIK sound. How did you find this balance, and what inspired you to reintroduce these influences?
STOIK: Hardstyle has always been a huge part of my musical journey as a listener. And for many years it was all I did as a musician, too. But at some point, I felt the strong urge to experiment with different genres. So I basically started STOIK as a means to explore and do different things.
Over time I’ve often considered how to bring more Hardstyle back into the STOIK sound. And now in Kontinuum I think I’ve found a nice new way of reintroducing some of the Hardstyle-specific elements that I love most, and that in my opinion make it stand out against other genres.
In contrast, what has over time become the signature STOIK sound is not something I do intentionally. It’s the decisions I make unconsciously. It’s what I want my music to feel like, and I guess it is what my artistic vision boils down to when I let it flow.
You used to produce Hardstyle exclusively as D-Mon and still release music as Hardstyle Buamz. How does your background in Hardstyle influence your work as STOIK today, and where do you draw the creative line between your different projects?
There were times in my STOIK years, when I really wanted to make music that belonged to one specific genre. And it was a real effort to not give in to my tendency for doing Hardstyle stuff, which is just naturally there. I now do not want to spend that effort anymore, but rather embrace the tendency, and embrace the cross-genre stuff that comes out of it.
Now Hardstyle Buamz serves a very different purpose for me. It’s extremely fun and transports Austrian culture in a new way. I think there is a very broad line between STOIK and Hardstyle Buamz, and I love that I get to do both. Shout out to my Buamz Paulistos and High Level!
The name Kontinuum suggests something flowing and infinite. What’s the deeper meaning behind this concept? Does a specific theme run throughout the entire album?
Two answers to this question:
On a meta-level, the Kontinuum sound is a natural continuation of everything I did previously with my music. It’s a combination of the influences and styles I explored over time. I decided to let creativity and inspiration flow, and this album is the result.
On a technical level, most of the album tracks were actually created based on other, already finished, album tracks. Ceci n’est pas du Hardstyle was the first one to be pretty much finished. I copied the project file, and created It’s Time out of it. Then I copied that project and created Sheela out of it. It’s a continuum of tracks originating out of other tracks, which is surely a big part of the albums coherent flow and sound.
The album consists exclusively of solo tracks. Why did you consciously decide against collaborations, and what was most important to you when selecting the tracks for this project?
I’ve never done a lot of collaborations with STOIK, and I think it has to do with the very time-consuming way my music is created. Usually, I’ll tweak a track for months until I think it’s perfect enough to be released.
And in the case of Kontinuum, I specifically wanted to follow my own artistic vision for it, and create this new sound for myself. However, I now have a much clearer vision of the music I want to make in the near future, and am looking forward to teaming up a bit again soon. Specific collab-plans are already made.
You’ve been releasing music on The Funky Cat for seven years now. How has this label influenced your musical development, and why is it the perfect home for Kontinuum?
I love the Funky Cat. I joined it at a time when I just started STOIK and had no idea where I wanted to go with my music. I was able to experiment and find my path there, while learning a lot from the other artists regarding producing and DJing. I feel like it’s a sanctuary of highly professional musical free-thinkers and has the nicest community around it you could imagine.
And in case you have never been to one of the Funky Cat parties, let me take this chance to say that you should absolutely go the next chance you get. It’s just the best vibe and might just open a new musical world for you, as it did for me.
The Kontinuum cover artwork was created by Erika Novakova. How did this collaboration come about, and how does the painting reflect the music and emotions of the album?
I’ve known Erika many years now, through The Funky Cat and Geck-o. She has done lots of artworks for the label and I’ve always loved her style and artistic approach. And two previous STOIK release-covers already came out of her studio: Remix Reversal with Geck-o and Man on the Moon.
Erika was the first one to come to my mind when thinking about the cover design and I was happy that she was stoked about the collaboration right away. She had complete artistic freedom in the matter and I think the design she came up with perfectly captures the Kontinuum feeling.
Also, I love to have the design as an actual physical painting hanging in my home now.
You played at many major Hardstyle events in the past, what are some 2025 bookings you can share with us & what can we expect from a Kontinuum live experience?
I played the official Kontinuum album presentation at The Funky Cat party on March 8th, which was great.
And it was just announced that I’ll be playing Defqon.1 Festival again this year, which I’m very much looking forward to now. Expect to hear lots of Kontinuum-style music as well as some STOIK-style surprises. Orange stage on Friday is the place to be.
You can also see me play some Vienna clubs during the summer, for which you best keep an eye on my socials. And if you’re a Buamz-fan, follow our socials there because we have some nice festival gigs lined up again.
Listen to “Kontinuum” by STOIK now:
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