PRETTYHARD

I'm a simple. I'm a freak. You should let me off the leash. All I want to do is party. All I want to be is free. You can lie back and just watch me if that is your type of thing. I'm a sickle. I'm a freak. I'm a sickle. I'm a freak. How's it going, Ready VIPs? It's BBOP here and I am super excited for this Ready VIP live. Joining me here at Dark Hall Coffee is none other than Pretty Hard Music himself. How's it going, Wyatt? >> I'm doing well today. Thank you for having me. You have like a medieval like a kind of dark motif that comes along with pretty hard music. Where does that inspiration come from? So my aesthetic, the Gothic and medieval aesthetic, that is a newfound thing as I've experienced a lot of trauma in the past few years. >> And I was living in solitude, which is why I crowned myself as a king >> um for a long time doing inner work, shadow work. >> Sure. and shedding light on things that I know I need to improve on to be my whole self. Really, I just wanted to share that same mentality with the world. Let my fans know you are kings and queens. Or if you don't want to be a king or queen, you can be whatever character you want. But at the same time, please know that my fantasy is always rooted in reality. >> Awesome. I, you know, I like the aesthetic. I saw your recent visuals for Castle Rave as you were slowly dripping them out um leading up to your album. What was the inspiration behind that? Because, you know, it kind of takes you through a journey. >> Yeah. So, looking at the track list, they're very provocative song titles. Um, I personally because I come from a conservative background, I love shock value and I love being authentic and I love being bold and I encourage everyone to be bold. As long as you're not hurting anyone else, we should coexist. And I will continue to push positivity, sex positivity, and um, multiplicity with my craft. Let's get into the track list. Let's talk about some of those songs because you're right, some of those songs are pretty provocative. Um, it it also takes you through a journey just like your visuals. It starts out Phantom of the Opera style with some piano. Long story short, the album is I classify it as a mythical allegory. >> Okay. >> Um, love that. >> It took me a long time to really put it into words. Um, I had to make sense of it and process it myself. Um it, you know, making music is very cathartic. >> And so my story is about a king who lives in this castle in a far away land called the Shadowlands, which is one of the track titles. He starts, the story starts out, he's playing his piano in Solitude, writing his music in his castle, um along with a small little black cat, Luna, which is actually the name of one of my small little cats. A love that. >> Love cats. >> I have a black cat, too. >> Nice. And so then the story progresses shifting into the perspective of a young girl. She doesn't have a name, which I like to leave open for interpretation. So anyone could feel like they're that character. And so they are exiled from their village. Um the same way as today people are pushed out of their communities for who they are >> and embracing their authentic truth. And they go through the these shadow lands by themselves, these dark forest, the unknown. It's a huge metaphor for for fear essentially. And they learn to stereotypical phrase befriend their demons, befriend their shadows, um make make friends with the dark. So as they progress through this journey, they hear that piano coming from the castle and it the the music speaks to them. And so then they find themselves at the doorstep of this castle. So the door opens and there is the master which is myself. This is a stranger. He welcomes them into his home and they start to see there's other guests inside. It's a party. It is it is a community. It is castle rave. It is a rave and it's just like it used to be paying homage to back in the day. It's these illegal raves that are being held outside of the public eye and it's nothing at the end of the day other than positivity and community. And that is really what the album means to me. >> Awesome. Well, you know, that's a bold statement considering some of the names of the songs are Kink and Submission and Off the Leash, but I can see it as you listen to the album. There's definitely an empowerment that's going on through it. You know, it takes you through this person's journey, but in that all of it, there's a lot of um reclaiming and growing and changing from song to song. Yeah. So, all different BPMs, sorry DJs out there, if you download my song and play it, I appreciate you, but you're in for it because there's a lot of BPM change. >> I challenge myself to not only work with different BPM ranges, but also different genres. Mhm. >> And so I'm very happy with that. I've tried to collaborate with many different people, not only just men. I I really preferred on this project to work with women, um people in the queer commu community, people that identify as um something other than straight, female, male, and I tried to bring that into my work. And I actually succeeded somewhat. Um, however, in the timeline that I was working with, I didn't land nearly as many collabs as I would have liked to, but I learned a lot as an artist in the process. What Castle Rave was to me, the the title track was a melody. So, that the the story behind that track, the melody of the piano is a song that was in my head from the day I was born. It might be hard to believe, but I heard that melody, that haunting but melodic melody from the moment that I started music as a small kid. I was, you can ask my parents. You ask my sister. I walked up to pianos out in public. I sat down. I didn't know how to play a damn piano, but I knew how to play that song. It was some and it's in a weird time signature. It's technically watts. I don't even remember the time signature. It was horribly hard to to track in in my DAW to record it. I it took me a million tapes because to set the metronome perfectly right, I had to research my own time signature. >> And so I I learned through the process and when I got it down, I was just like, this is the start of something big. This is the start of me telling my story, my origin story >> all the way from my youth. And that haunting melody, I I I recorded it and I used a plugin that has these like background noises where it it sounds like the chair is squeaking. It's you can hear the physical press of the keys on the piano. >> And another big part of my album is soundsscape. If you work in film and you have any creative projects that you're working on, please reach out to me. That is a huge goal for Pretty Hard in 2026. I want to score your films. >> I love that. Um, it definitely ties back to your cinematic approach to your music. I love the like chair squeaking. It definitely makes you feel like you're there watching the person play the piano or maybe even sitting in the seat yourself. And you know, in the um intro, we uh debuted a little bit of Off the Leash, which was um one of the songs that we've been talking about potentially doing as a collab. Uh let's talk a little bit about that song cuz it is >> Yeah, it's spicy. >> Okay. Um I actually would like to hear how you perceived it first. >> Well, you know, originally when that album came out was right around Ready VIP episode 14. And uh shout out to Hana O, Crop It Like It's Hot. Shut up. >> Yes. Um, we were doing uh a video for her uh for the promo piece and she's a fashion designer who designed uh Paris Hilton's slitweave outfit for Coachella. And so I wanted it to like have some runway style kind of sexy, you know, music to go with it, but still be in the EDM genre. And at the time I was listening to your album on repeat as I do and that song came on and it instantly clicked. I was like, "Oh, this is a song that needs to be on Hana O's promo." And so I messaged her and I said, "Hey, look, I want you to listen to this song and I'm going to type the lyrics out for you." No way. I didn't know that. >> So that way you know what they say cuz I want your approval to use this song cuz it is a little risque. >> And she was like, "I love it. Full set. >> Thank you." >> Um, but it it was giving runway. It was giving like voguing. It was just like the tempo and the attitude and >> the confidence, >> the confidence and the punctuation just gives, you know, a woman strutting out in her heels or something like I I just love the power behind it. And so that was my first introduction to the song. And I listened to it a thousand times to like perfectly line it up cuz if you look at that promo for anybody who watches the one minute promo videos that I make, it pans to her and she's talking but you don't hear her actual words, but it overlays the audio from the track. Um, I'm a sicko. I'm a freak. You should let me off the leash. And then it pans to all the other things. And so I really liked the attitude in that song. And so for me that's what it screams is just like feminine power and attitude. >> Wow. Thank you so much for that. Um that is one of my very first tracks doing my own vocals on which also sound very feminine. That's why they might sound different from what you >> do those vocals. No way. The whole time I was like that whose voice is that? >> No. So I'm I'm super happy that that's once again how you perceived it. Off the leash to me was about breaking free from social norms. which many of the tracks are also all the way back when I rebranded too hard. >> My my concern prior was boxing myself in as an artist. You hear it in not not only EDM but every other genre artist say I feel so boxed in. My fans expect this one thing. And I almost felt like I expected a like one thing from myself in the past. And so I said, I want to move into duality and multiplicity. And what spoke to me about the name pretty hard is I am a straight male, but I am very feminine, especially a guy that comes from the south. I'm not what you would expect. I was not super feminine growing up. And I think I've only felt comfortable stepping into that as I've gotten older. And it's lovely to have a partner that not only embraces it, but prefers it. She likes that I'm in touch with my emotional side, but I still have that masculine side that can come out and protect anyone that I love and anyone that is in a marginalized community. And so really, this was tapping into the feminine side. And I remember when said and I first met, we were watching um Rupaul's Drag Race a lot. >> Oh wow. >> It took me a second to get into it and understand it because of my upbringing. Not that my parents imposed anything on me, but just a lot of individuals around me and my community were very hateful and and against things like that. And eventually I was like, this is a community. I was like, this is just drag is just like fashion. It's just like the EDM scene. It is a form of raw unfiltered self-expression. If you look at me on stage, what I do, it's drag. It's it's all theatrics. It's an extension of myself, but I don't walk around wearing a leather crown in real life. I may wear my leather jacket like I did here today, but I don't have my leather gloves on. And to me, it's just breaking out of my shell, being confident, and cultiv once again, cultivating that environment for other people to feel confident. >> Absolutely. And the lyrics to Off the Leash to me, what they mean is you can you can sit there and judge me as I'm dancing on the dance floor and having a good time with with my Ray fam, but eventually it's going to rub off and you're going to want to do it, too. You're going to want to feel that positivity. You can harbor all that anger and judgment for so long before you have a transformation. And I I wish the best for those people. >> Absolutely. Cheers to that. >> Yes, of course. Thank you. >> Dungeon Time, man, that song's a banger. I appreciate that. In In my eyes, that has the most mainstream playability, I think. Especially um at festivals. Um DJs, if you're looking for um a rave tool, look into Dungeon Time. It's It's one of my solo tracks, which also makes me very proud of myself. you know, I will say for a lot of people's first artists, first projects, debut albums, EPs, they do tend to deviate from collaborations because they want to really establish that independence in their sound and in their branding. They don't want fans to get confused with other people's sounds. But to be honest, I tried to set my ego aside and my fear aside in that and I said, "Let's let's work together. let me work with artists that um not that I'm just friends with, but that I believe in and our brands align in some ways and our our brains connect in in some ways. And yeah, I I really enjoyed that process. Pretty hard in 2026 looks like really trying to engage more not only with new fans um but also people that are already supporters in my community. Um, so thank you for for watching this and thank you if you have supported me and welcome to my beautiful community if you're new here. Um, I promise you will be rewarded with a lot of bootlegs this year specifically. Um, I'm kind of having to put the manager hat on, take my crown off sometimes so that I can look at things from a business standpoint. And I'm realizing to grow, I need to not only release singles and things that I enjoy, but a lot of people in the community, I don't know how you feel about it, a lot of people love these remixes, flips, bootlegs, edits. It's just something different. And also, it's sharing a gift with other peers in the scene so they can play them in their sets. It's it's more light-hearted and fun. Castle rave. It has a serious theatrical tone to it. So, I want to show that that's not the only side to me as an artist. And what else you can expect from me? Um, I plan to be posting a lot more content. I have a whole note on my phone right now with plenty of ideas for things I want to shoot and release um so that I can, you know, not only promote myself, but express myself, you know, with with other other people in the community. Really show not just who Pretty Heart is, but who Wyatt Harvey is. I'm in a place of rebirth. I've stepped out of my castle. I'm ready to give you bootlegs. I'm ready to to give you uh whimsy. I'm ready to give you content, self-expression. And outside of my personal and my business life, I really want to for myself get into, as I spoke on earlier, um scoring. I I just went and watched a movie with uh my mother-in-law and my beautiful wife, and was the first time in a while. It was it was great. I noticed myself really looking at the credits and If you don't know who 10 tricks point never is, um his his legal name is Daniel Latitin and he is known for his instrumentals. It's it's these crazy sounding synth based instrumentals and he is he's a he's a lovely artist and he he moves people in in films too. >> I love that and I think that's a wonderful note to end our interview on. Um, I definitely have boundaries, but please reach out to me if you want to truly be a part of this community. E and said also call their tribe and I call my submissives. Everyone has a name for their crew, you know, and >> it's it's all love. >> Absolutely. Love to the submissives, love to the tribe, all the ready VIPs out there. Do you want to say our closeout phrase? >> Absolutely. Stay ready, VIPs. Dungeon time. Heat. Heat. Dungeon time. Dungeon heat. Dungeon time. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Danger Heat. Heat. It's heat. Heat. Heat.