Darude and Mashd N Kutcher interview discuss HYPE, their new collaborative single on Vibing Out, and how it became the anthem of the Storm 25 World Tour.

Darude and Mashd N Kutcher have joined forces for ‘HYPE’, a high energy collaboration that brings together two artists known for creating unforgettable dancefloor moments. Blending Darude’s iconic high energy sound with Mashd N Kutcher’s fresh production style, the track quickly became a standout crowd favourite during Darude’s Storm 25 anniversary live tour, calling for an official release.

In this exclusive back to back interview, both artists discuss how ‘HYPE’ came together, the creative process behind the collaboration, their live shows, and what the future holds as they head into the second half of 2026.

Darude, welcome! ‘HYPE’ became the closing moment of your STORM 25 World Tour. At what point did you realise this was not just another track, but something fans emotionally tied to the live experience?

“Well, with the name ‘HYPE’ and the chanty rap vocals that I can’t help but mumble along with every time, it very early on the tour just naturally became the track that I once more in the set hyped the crowd with and went to meet them on the dancefloor.

That shared experience and synchronised movement definitely made me feel things, and I hope the crowd did, too.

It wasn’t exactly meticulously planned like that before the tour, but as it was the last track of the set and we decided to release ‘HYPE’ as the next single, it also became the natural bridge between the remembrance of the anniversary year and tour and the next phase.”

Mashd N Kutcher come from a very different musical background and energy. What surprised or inspired you most about the way they approached your original stems?

“I sent Matt a set of stems of a track as a collaboration suggestion, and he came back to me with such deliciously mangled sounds of mine, plus critically good additions and changes. It was almost unrecognisable, but also in the very same vein, purposely nodding back and being a timeless dancefloor mover. I dug it on the first listen.

Matt has a very straightforward way of thinking and doing, and what I liked a lot was this no frills production that just worked and took over with undeniable energy! There was still enough space for me to add some melodic stuff and tweak a thing or two and then we were done!”

Tell us more about the HYPE Tour! After last year’s live show run, you’re back behind the decks. How does it feel?

“I LOVED circling back to my beginnings with the Storm 25 live tour last year, for which I remixed 25 tracks of mine and performed them live from an Ableton Live stem and live tracks project. I started my performance career with hardware sequencer, sampler, synth and effect unit back in the day, did that for a few years and then started being booked as a DJ also, which turned into over 20 years of DJ sets all over the place.

After a year of Storm 25 live sets with bespoke visuals and certain unique and programmed aspects of it each night, jumping back to DJing feels nice and fresh again! Both are great and both have their benefits. An artist live show the way I did it needs to be more planned and as such is sort of more limited for the performer. You can’t go left and right at any given moment like you can when you’re DJing and have all the tracks in the world to choose from, not just your own.

When DJing there’s a bit more freedom to read the crowd and course correct if need be, whereas playing an artist set is more like “This is what I’m presenting you, like it or not.” Though I had planned my live set as best as I could to work like my DJ set style and flow wise, I definitely didn’t have multiple options as far as track selection goes.

I don’t have a superlative marketing phrase to give you here, as HYPE Tour will not be reinventing the wheel, but it’ll be more of me playing great music. I’ll be present and interactive as I always am, and the dancing crowds will leave the joint sweaty and smiling!”

An exciting date in the diary for you is 29th August, when the second edition of the Sandstorm Run will take place in your home city of Helsinki, Finland. We’d love to know more about what this entails.

“The concept of the Sandstorm Run is a 7K fun run in Helsinki through some of the most memorable Sandstorm music video locations. You can run as fast as you can, or take it as chilled as you want, and you’re encouraged to dress up in the style of the music video, or anything else fun and comfortable. Anything goes really!

Building on last year’s debut run event, for 2026 we now have an outdoor park concert afterwards as well. Think about it as ‘Darude & Friends’, and in this context it means all the runners and their undoubtedly amazing costumes AND a few of my great DJ friends who are helping me not let the adrenaline and dopamine release end quite so early!”

You have one of the most instantly recognisable catalogues in dance music history. Which up and coming producers are you looking to now, and seeing great potential for future stars of the scene?

“Oh boy, that’s always the valid million dollar question, right?

I always want to plug my Finnish brothers and sisters like Orion, Rony Rex, Yotto, SØNIN, Kajis, Junkkataxi, Detmex, DJ Hapan Korppu, LUMI and Tempo Giusto. Some of them have already had great success, some are quite new.

I usually first and foremost listen to a track and automatically think if it’s something I’ll play or not. Sometimes you hear one track by someone and never anything more, so you can have a tried and tested dancefloor destroyer, but not even know who’s behind it. That’s the beauty of especially dance music, but the other side is that I really appreciate people who have longevity, be it planned and business driven, or passionate artistic stuff that eventually has to break out to the mainstream ears, too.

And hey, my Aussie brothers MNK are not newbies anymore, but I can only see them taking off higher and higher!”

Over to you Matt, from Mashd N Kutcher. Darude is one of the defining names of global dance music. What was your honest first reaction when he sent over the stems for ‘HYPE’?

“I was super excited to jump in. With this collab I didn’t find myself making creative decisions in real time or on the spot, I let the music guide me and took more of the role of the operator as such. For me, when I open a blank project and start a song from scratch these days, I’m asking myself a million questions on the fly, should it be this, could it be that, should I do this etc. With a collab like this he’d sent me over a sketch, if you will, which is a collection of ideas and sounds, so I took a bit more of a backseat and more so facilitated the songwriting itself, if that makes sense, and let my personality and lived experiences collide with his to get what you hear now as the final track.”

The rap topline that you introduced adds a very different personality to the record. Did you approach it more like writing for a club anthem or a live crowd interaction moment?

“To be honest, the vocal came last. I approached the collab from the start as only being an instrumental record. I think mostly because I’ve always personally admired that attribute about Sandstorm from Darude. Such a powerful record, and one that has resonated with people for many decades, and for it to not have a vocal or a lyric is really special. It’s solely reliant on the music to connect with people, which it does. So from the start I’d had that in mind as a goal with the record, to see if it was possible to create something awesome together as an instrumental. That being said, once the idea had taken shape, it was actually just getting me “HYPE” haha! It was as simple as that. Whilst I was working on things and the track was looping, I just found myself saying “HYPE” every two bars, and as most writers will attest to, if something is happening in your head when you’re writing a song for long enough, you end up putting it in the track. So I recorded the vocal with voice notes, pitched it down for some Method Man flavour, and here we are.”

The track is clearly engineered for festival finales and big crowd moments. When you are producing, do you literally visualise how people will react in real time?

“Honestly no, it’s a very in the moment process for me where I’m solely thinking about the song itself and making the best piece of music that I can at the time. What crowds or environments or people do with it after that is totally a different story. I guess I just trust the process and hope they like it!”

Australia has produced a huge number of globally successful dance acts in recent years. Why do you think that scene keeps creating artists with crossover appeal?

“There’s probably a mixed bag of reasons for this. I think part of it comes down to Aussies, culturally and personality wise, brewing a bit of a perfect storm for an electronic artist these days. We’re fun, loose, loud people who experience a taste of different cultures from other countries in our daily lives through people, music, movies etc here in Australia, and the curious amongst us seek out more of that as we explore the wider world. I guess the top percentage of creatives in electronic music who really grind it out to make it to the top from here exhibit all those features, and it stands out amongst the crowd when we’re overseas? I don’t know, it’s a theory.”

What are you most excited for in the second half of 2026?

“More music, more shows, more collaborating and enjoying the ride. Bring it on.”

Darude x Mashd N Kutcher ‘HYPE’ is out now on Vibing Out. Listen here.