Ran-D

Ran-D (Randy Wieland from Zeeland, a village in Dutch North Brabant) went from festival attendee to one of hardstyle’s defining modern names, with a cover version that escaped the genre entirely.

Years in the crowd, then the break

Wieland spent years attending hardstyle parties before his own music arrived: the 2006 debut ‘D-Pression’ (with A-Drive), followed by releases that landed him at A2 Records in 2008. His first real break came that New Year’s Eve, when he and B-Front were invited to play Q-dance’s The Qountdown. From there his harder, darker take on hardstyle (later crystallized in Gunz for Hire, his duo with Adaro) made him a fixture of the rawstyle era’s front rank.

Roughstate and ‘Zombie’

In March 2015 Ran-D co-founded Roughstate Music with Frequencerz, Adaro and B-Front, instantly one of the scene’s strongest label rosters. Then came the moment that redefined his career: at Qlimax at the end of 2016 he premiered a hardstyle cover of The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’. The track became a phenomenon: over 150 million YouTube streams and a strong claim to being the most played hardstyle track of all time, reaching audiences far beyond the scene. The 2018 follow-up ‘Hurricane’ proved it was no fluke, winning first place in that year’s Q-dance Top 100.

The sound

Ran-D sits at hardstyle’s centre of gravity: raw enough for the hard stages, melodic and vocal enough for mainstage closing sets, with collaborations spanning from Zatox and Crypsis to Phuture Noize and D-Block & S-te-Fan. His festival CV covers Qlimax, Defqon.1 on three continents, Decibel and Reverze.

Every new Ran-D release lands on the Hardstyle Release Radar on release day. The full tracked catalogue is listed above.