Pie Star

I was born and raised in Taiwan, and my cousin is half Taiwanese and half Swedish. During the summer holidays around 2006 or 2007, he flew back to Taiwan with an iPod Classic and showed us electronic dance music from Europe — hardstyle, hardcore and trance.

That was the very first time I came into contact with hardstyle.

I really started producing in 2019. I had tried it before COVID, but I began taking it much more seriously in 2020. Since I wasn’t organising events during that period, I had much more time to learn how to produce.

The name Pie Star was inspired by Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants.

In Mandarin, Patrick Star is called “Pie Big Star” — 派大星 — so I shortened it to Pie Star. In Asia, people already associate me with the Mandarin name for Patrick Star, which makes it very easy for people to remember and call me by the name.

Part of my visual identity is also inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. It isn’t just for fun; it also connects directly to my artist name.

When I started making music, my goal was to release it on a proper label.

Lies was actually the first track I ever produced.

I already had good connections with Dirty Workz from buying records and merchandise back in the day, as well as booking their artists to perform in Taiwan. They were the first label I decided to send a demo to.

I was lucky that the label liked my music and was willing to release it. I became the first Taiwanese artist to have a solo release on DWX.

I was also proud of myself because, as a DJ, I finally had my own music to play on stage.

Yes, absolutely!

Releasing my music through Q-dance was a dream come true for me. It also felt like an important milestone for Asian hardstyle artists — showing the world a hardstyle sound coming from Taiwan.

I’ve tried producing many different styles within the harder styles, and I eventually decided to pitch different demos to labels that suited each particular sound.

I met The Purge, the owner of Savage Squad, at Defqon.1 in 2022. Concentrate had a more experimental and darker sound, and I felt it really suited his label. So I decided to send him the demo and got in contact with his team about releasing it.

Big Thing was a collaboration with ABTEQ. He visited Taiwan in 2024 and really liked our country. We decided to flip the iconic Taiwanese rap song 幹大事 into uptempo hardcore and release it through Darkside Retox, the label he was signed to.

Dreaming is a melodic UK hardcore track released through Electric Fox Music. I discovered a really emotional vocal and built a dreamy, euphoric melody around it. Eventually, I realised it sounded better at a faster BPM, so I turned it into UK hardcore.

Since I already had contacts at Dirty Workz, I decided to pitch it to their UK/happy hardcore label Electric Fox, and that became the release.

First, I made a bootleg of Shout and sent the demo to Q-dance. They really liked the concept and decided to help me improve the track by teaming me up with Primeshock, since we already knew each other.

They elevated the track from my original demo using their signature sound and different sound-design ideas.

We also hired a vocalist to recreate the original vocals so the track could be released legally.

It was a lot of fun having studio sessions with them in Rotterdam back in 2023.

Formosa is a Portuguese word meaning “beautiful”.

The name dates back to the 16th century, when Portuguese sailors discovered the island of Taiwan and called it Formosa.

Since Formosa is my debut EP, I wanted to give it a name connected to the beautiful historic name of my country.

The EP brings several different sounds together.

There is the melodic side, the old-school sound of Feel It, the mainstream party sound of Good Time, and the hardcore sound of The Code.

To me, it reflects hard music culture in Taiwan, where many different harder styles exist together.

It also shows how I personally represent many different sides of the harder styles.

We had already been friends for a while.

When I was in the Netherlands, I stayed at my friend’s place in Helmond. Crypton lives in Boxtel, so we weren’t very far away from each other.

One day, we decided to hang out and visit his studio just to make something without any particular plan. That eventually turned into the collaboration.

During the session, we decided to FaceTime Levenkhan and ask him to do the vocals for us. We came up with the idea for the lyrics and finished everything together.

When I submitted the tracks for the EP to LNY TNZ, he really liked the demo of Good Time.

He decided to team up with me to finish the track together and elevate it to the next level.

Yes. I’m always trying to keep moving forward, but I’m also still grinding hard to see how far I can take the project.

I started Hardstyle Taiwan as a Facebook group called Taiwan Hardstyle Hardcore Music Club.

The idea was that people could easily find us online simply by searching for Taiwan and hard music together.

The scene was very small at the beginning, with around 200 people in the online group. It was basically me and a bunch of internet friends sharing every kind of harder styles music we could find online.

We kept discovering new people and adding new friends to the group, and the community gradually grew from there.

When I’m DJing or producing as Pie Star, my focus is more international. I want to deliver different harder styles to different audiences.

As an event organiser, the focus is more on bringing different harder styles artists to perform in Taiwan.

We want our audience to have the opportunity to see those artists without having to leave Taiwan, while also giving local talent opportunities to showcase their own sound.

At the same time, we’re building the scene in our country and introducing international guests to Taiwan.

It’s never easy to find a date when both the artist and the venue are available at the same time.

When we book international artists from Europe or Australia to perform in Asia, they usually need two or three free days around the event just for the trip.

The biggest challenge, though, is estimating attendance and deciding the event budget around that.

Depending on the artist or lineup, we can sometimes see a difference of 30–50% in attendance, which makes planning difficult.

Our audience is extremely dedicated.

Some people travel five hours by bus just to attend our events, and many others drive for more than two hours from different cities to be there.

Fans also make their own support gear or merchandise for international artists who are coming to perform and give it to them as gifts.

We also love treating our international guests well by introducing them to Taiwanese food and local cultural experiences.

There have been a lot of ups and downs during these 13 years.

There used to be larger audiences attending some events. At the same time, the number of people listening to harder styles continues to increase.

The unfortunate part is that not everyone wants to party in clubs nowadays.

It isn’t easy to connect with people outside our country because Taiwan is an island.

I met most of my international hardstyle friends either at festivals around the world or through social media, rather than in Taiwan itself.

There are also many people in Asia who don’t speak much English. Language barriers and cultural differences are challenges we face and areas where we still need to improve.

We’re always trying to grow the scene in Asia.

Japan is doing a really great job by bringing in many international artists.

Hard techno also has a very big scene in Malaysia right now, and promoters there are starting to combine it with harder styles acts. They recently held the Kodex festival, focusing on hardstyle and hardcore, with more than 2,000 visitors.

We’ll keep working hard to expand the scene because we genuinely love hard music.

I would love to see more collaborations between European and Asian producers.

And one day, I’d like to see an event in Asia that is special enough that European ravers actually want to travel here for it.

Over the years, I’ve kept learning and improving my sound.

Right now, I focus more on a mainstream party sound while also learning from what is currently trending.

It’s similar to the way hardstyle itself continues evolving into what it sounds like today.

Normally, I start with the vocal.

From there, I either build a melody around it or find the kicks that suit the idea.

Sometimes, yes.

Crowds nowadays really enjoy music that sounds harder and more raw. That has influenced me to make my kicks harder than before, while still trying to keep everything balanced.

It’s also part of the way hardstyle itself keeps evolving.

More new music with my signature sound — and a new collaboration with Cyndi.

I hope the hardstyle audience here can continue growing to the point where we’re able to invite an international guest every month, with enough attendance for the events to remain financially sustainable.

Thank you guys for listening to my music, attending our events, and actually following along and reading this entire interview.

I hope to see you at one of my shows in the future, or maybe at one of our Hardstyle Taiwan events.

And we definitely need to catch up for a drink!