Headhunterz

Willem Rebergen from Veenendaal, the Netherlands, fell in love with hard dance music as a visitor at Qlimax in 2003. Two years later he signed to Scantraxx, took the name Headhunterz, and went on to become the face of hardstyle for a generation, the producer more responsible than anyone for carrying the genre from Dutch club halls to festival mainstages worldwide.

From Qlimax visitor to hardstyle figurehead

The first alias wasn’t Headhunterz at all: with studio partner Bobby van Putten he won the Defqon.1 DJ contest in 2004 as Nasty D-Tuners, and when a label dispute forced that name’s retirement, Headhunterz was born. He signed to Scantraxx in late 2005 and soon ran his own imprint under the label, Scantraxx Reloaded. The breakthrough years came fast: ‘The Sacrifice’ (2006), ‘Rock Civilization’ (2007) and the Defqon.1 2009 anthem ‘Scrap Attack’ made him the genre’s defining voice. In 2008 he teamed up with Wildstylez as Project One, whose debut album remains one of the most celebrated records hardstyle has produced, and ‘Tonight’ (made with Wildstylez and Noisecontrollers) was later voted #2 in Q-dance’s all-time Top 1000. By 2012 he had climbed to #11 in the DJ Mag Top 100, the highest placement any hardstyle DJ had reached.

The EDM years and the Defqon.1 comeback

In 2013 Headhunterz signed with Ultra Music and spent the following years exploring big-room EDM, working with Krewella, W&W and KSHMR. The experiment made him a global name but left many hardstyle fans waiting. The wait ended at the Defqon.1 2017 closing ceremony, where he announced his return with the words “I’m done fighting, done running… there is only one thing left for me to do: surrender - to who I really am.” The comeback single ‘Destiny’ and the 2018 album ‘The Return of Headhunterz’ followed.

Art of Creation and the Project One revival

In February 2018 Headhunterz and Wildstylez founded Art of Creation, a label built around melodic, song-driven hardstyle. He announced a break from touring in 2023, but returned in late 2025, and with him came Project One: the duo reunited for shows in early 2026 and new music, including ‘The Upside Down’ (2025). His sound today is what it always was at its best: euphoric hardstyle with real songwriting at its core, built for the mainstages of Defqon.1 and Qlimax.

Every new Headhunterz release lands on the Hardstyle Release Radar the day it drops. The full catalogue we track is listed above.