I was very much looking forward to speaking with Australian Progressive House artist Hook N Sling this past weekend at Nocturnal Wonderland. His music is very impressive, and he's collaborated with the likes of NERVO and Axwell. Although we didn't have much time, I was still able to get right to what matters, and had a good interview right before his set on Saturday. I walked into his trailer to see him doing last minute preparations on his laptop, but he was still very cordial and eager to talk. It's always awesome to catch artists while they're on the rise in the dance music scene, because that's when they have the most interesting things to say...

DB: What are your pre-set/pre-festival routines? I see you have Ableton open on your laptop.

HNS: Right now man, I'm just going through my set. I always try and do as much preparation I can before the set because when I get up there, I know that if I have as many records as possible ready to go then I feel prepared and more confident. But that's just me being like obsessive, it's probably not even necessary, I know that I've probably got a great set here but I'm just trying to do other sh** you know?

DB: Well that's a quality of a great musician. We've been following you a lot since you released Tokyo By Night with Axwell, so how's it like working with him and releasing music on Axtone Records?

HNS: Really good, it obviously took a long time with him, [Axwell] is very much a perfectionist. A lot of changes, I would say there's about 50-70 versions of that record. So we had a lot of back and forth, a lot of changes, but it was all in the name of getting it right. That was the only goal for that record, to make it as amazing as possible. At the end of the day, I can wait 6 months to release a song if it's gonna sound way better.

DB: Is there anything unique you like to do at every festival or performance? Do you throw in different twists, or stuff like that?

HNS: Lucky underwear or anything like that? Nah haha but I always like to play some older stuff. I always like to mix up different styles, I'm not one of those DJ's that plays one style. I kind of like to throw around a few different vibes, it just keeps the atmosphere interesting. Also, I want to stay interested and have fun, I don't want to get bored out there so I'm keeping myself entertained as well as everybody else...

So do you want to know what's happening this year, like new releases?

DB: Yes, of course!

HNS: So there's a new record coming out on Sander Van Doorn's label in November that I'm gonna test out tonight for the second time, I played it the first time at EZOO last week, and today I'm playing it again and looking forward to it. Apart from that, the Lana Del Rey remix I finished is coming out in 3 weeks on Armada Music, and the Tokyo By Night Original Mix is coming out too.

DB: That's great! Look forward to your new releases as well as your performance tonight. Hope you do awesome!

After that he had to rush over to the stage, since his set was in less than half an hour. He went on to have an amazing set, and since it was at 8PM they got to use all of the beautiful lights and pyrotechnics to get the night going. Check out more music from Hook N Sling on his SoundCloud!