Ran-D

Ran-D
Ran-D at a Dutch festival 'De Boeskool is Lös'
Background information
Born	Randy Wieland (1981-05-18) 18 May 1981
Origin	Zeeland, Netherlands
Genres	Hardstyle
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Special Records, A2 Records, Roughstate Music
Website	ran-d.com

Randy Wieland (born 18 May 1981), known professionally as Ran-D, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. He is known for making hardstyle music, and is half of the duo Gunz for Hire, alongside long-time collaborator, Adaro.¹

Ran-D has several collaborations with other prominent hardstyle artists, including Alpha2, Zatox, Zany, B-Front, Phuture Noize, Crypsis, Digital Punk and D-Block & S-Te-Fan.

He performed at several hardstyle events, including Qlimax, Hard Bass, Defqon.1 Festival (in Australia, Netherlands and in Chile), Daydream Mexico, Decibel Outdoor Festival, Reverze, Knockout Outdoor, Q-BASE and The Qontinent.

Career & History

In interviews, Ran-D claims he has been attending hardstyle events since 2001, including Qlimax² and Defqon.1. He has also spoken about the loss of his father and how the friendships he made in the hardstyle scene greatly supported his mental wellbeing through difficult life events.³ Ran-D has been actively making hardstyle music since 2006, when he released his first track "D-Pression" (with A-Drive) on Special Records. After his debut release, Ran-D dropped another two tracks, "Bomb this Place" and "Rage" on Droppin' Beats in 2007.⁴

Following these early releases, Ran-D moved on to release music on A2 Records in 2008. A2 Records was a sub-label of Scantraxx, founded by Alpha², and dedicated to promoting rawer hardstyle sounds.⁵ On New Years Eve of the same year, Alpha² invited Ran-D and B-Front to play at Q-Dance's The Qountdown event. Many years later, Ran-D attributes the feeling he got playing at this event as his first big break, after years of going to hardstyle parties an attendee.⁶

Ran-D released several singles during his time on A2, including "River of Sound", part of his first release on the label, and "My Name is Hardstyle", one of his earliest collaborations with Adaro.⁴ His breakout track, "Living for the Moment", as well as his collaborative Rebirth Anthem (with B-Front) for the festival's 2011 edition were also released during his time at A2.⁴ Ran-D continued to release music on A2 Records and parent label Scantraxx for seven years.

After much speculation from journalists and industry insiders,⁷ in March 2015, alongside Frequencerz, Adaro and B-Front, Ran-D founded the hardstyle record label Roughstate Music. Alongside the four founding artists, the label also committed to releasing music from collaborative acts between its members, including B-Freqz (B-Front & Frequencerz) and Gunz For Hire (Ran-D and Adaro).⁸

Continuing his eventful start to the year, Ran-D debuted the new anthem for the 2015 edition of Defqon.1 Festival at Qapital in April.⁹ The following month, "No Guts, No Glory" (featuring vocals from dutch hip-hip artist Skits Vicious) was released on Q-Dance's own record label, in order to promote the event.¹⁰

In January 2017, Ran-D was invited to host an X-Qlusive Event¹¹ in collaboration with Q-Dance. It was held in the AFAS Live in Amsterdam¹² (formerly known as the Heineken Music Hall). In an interview with HardstyleMag, he claimed the process for preparing for the event was demanding, as he is a self-described perfectionist, but he also said of the event:

"It felt like the crown on my work, and a celebration of my career together with all my friends. The crowd was just amazing and the energy in the AFAS was that night was really unique. All these moments – I had goosebumps all over my body. I’m truly proud of this night!"¹³

At the end of 2016, Ran-D first played a cover version of "Zombie" by The Cranberries¹⁴ during a surprise performance at Qlimax. According to the event promoters, he was still in the studio finishing the track mere hours before the set.¹⁵ This song amassed traction amongst hardstyle crowds and later, mainstream EDM fans, with it's "striking lyrics". The song was being played by mainstream acts such as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Armin Van Buuren and Hardwell, in front of more broader-appeal audiences. Many report the song as being their introduction to the hardstyle genre.¹⁶ The song was originally released on Roughstate in 2017, but later was re-released by Armada Music. Ran-D's version of Zombie has amassed in excess of 150 million streams on Spotify,¹⁷ and another 150 million streams on Youtube (combined music video and music streaming).¹⁸ In 2020, to celebrate the end of the decade, Q-Dance held a voting competition and music event known as "Dediqated", where fans voted for their favourite hardstyle tracks of all time. "Zombie" finished in 11th place.¹⁹ It is regarded as the most listened to hardstyle track of all time.¹⁷ Prior to this, one of Ran-D's most popular songs was titled "FCK EDM".³

In 2018, following the success of Zombie, Ran-D released "Hurricane,"²⁰ which, at time of writing, has nearly 70 million streams on Youtube¹⁸. Hurricane was awarded 1st place in the 2018 Q-Dance Top-100 Hardstyle Songs voting competition.²¹ To date, it is the only time he has won the annual competition.

At Ran-D's X-Qlusive event in early 2017, he played a live set titled We Rule The Night,¹³ featuring collaborations: "Victorious" (with Clockartz), "Drugs" (with Act of Rage) and "Suicidal Superstar" (with Phuture Noize). Following the event, he began talking about his debut album of the same name as the live set, with some speculating on the tracklist, expecting the inclusion of unreleased music.²² Later the same year, in a Facebook Q&A session, Ran-D admitted that none of the tracks for the album were completed, attributing this to his busy touring schedule. He remained adamant, however, that progress on the album was continuing.²³

New information on the album was scarce throughout 2018 and the majority of 2019. In October 2019, Ran-D announced that We Rule The Night was available for pre-order, dropping a trailer which contained a short speech highlighting his passion for the project and the journey he undertook in creating the album:²⁴

"It has been quite a journey to create an album that truly reflects who I am as a Hardstyle lover, a producer and a person. I’ve played all over the world and it has been a huge source of inspiration to meet all you dedicated Hardstyle lovers, your passion and love for Hardstyle has given me so much energy."

Towards the end of 2019, on D-Block & S-Te-Fan's podcast, Ran-D hinted at a We Rule The Night event in March 2020, with the event potentially touring afterwards. At this stage, no release date had been announced for the album.²⁵ Once March 2020 had rolled around, no event had gone on sale, and there was still no announcement of an album release date. Due to the lack of progress on the album, which he once again attributed to touring, Ran-D apologised and offered the album to everyone who pre-ordered for free.²⁶

During the Covid-19 Lockdowns in early/mid 2020 resulting in the suspension of all hardstyle events and subsequently the touring schedules of all artists, Ran-D took the opportunity to spend more time in the recording studio. We Rule The Night was officially released on the 1st of May, 2020,²⁷ over 3 years after the concept initially debuted.

In early 2020, Q-Dance approached Ran-D to produce the anthem for the next edition of Qlimax. Ran-D recalls playing the melody the night he was approached by Q-Dance, with the final track itself taking over 6 weeks to perfect in the studio.²⁸ While lockdowns and public health measures stopped Qlimax from taking place in 2020, the anthem's associated event took place in its regular calendar position at the end of 2021. The anthem featured vocals from compatriot metal singer Charlotte Wessels. "The Reawakening" was released in October 2021, with Qlimax taking place a month later.²⁹ While it was his first opportunity to produce the Qlimax anthem as a solo act, he previously produced the 2013 anthem as Gunz for Hire.³⁰

In 2022, Ran-D finally had the opportunity to perform his previously promised We Rule The Night event, hosted at the Turbinehalle Oberhausen³¹. Following this one-off event, he began to work towards his second studio album, Illuminate. Inspired by similar themes to We Rule The Night, Illuminate broadened Ran-D's production to create a more versatile sound. The album included euphoric tracks, the raw hardstyle he had become synonymous with, as well as a track heavily inspired by hardcore.³² In 2023, he performed several Illuminate themed live-shows, including the concept's public debut at Rebirth Festival.³³ Illuminate was released in November of 2023.³⁴

In 2024, Ran-D started performing Untamed, his newest live act.³² He opened Defqon.1 Mainstage in the same year, and released his second collaboration with Galactixx (who officially joined Ran-D's Roughstate in 2023 after being a recruit for 7 years³⁵). As of writing, "Untamed" (the title track for the aforementioned live act) is his last original release on Roughstate Music. Since 2024, he's released music on Scantraxx (separate collaborations with D-Block & S-Te-Fan and KELTEK), Smash The House (a remix of Tom O'Dell's 2012 hit, Another Love, with Mark with a K), Q-Dance Records (a remix of Gotye & Kimbra's Somebody That I Used to Know with Devin Wild) and the Decibel Outdoor Anthem (with Unresolved).⁴ In 2025, alongside starting his new live act Resonance³⁶, he released "King Kong" on a brand new label: Rave Era.

In 2026, Ran-D released "Resonate" on Rave Era,⁴ and changed the name of his Resonance live act to match the new song. While nothing has been publicly announced about Rave Era or an official split from Roughstate Music, he is no long mentioned as a solo-act on their website,³⁷ and both new releases have youtube metadata claiming to be provided by Toffmusic BVBA, the parent label of hardstyle record label Dirty Workz.³⁸

Gunz For Hire

In 2011, Ran-D and frequent collaborator Adaro began producing music and playing as a hardstyle duo in their live-act Gunz For Hire.¹ The name "Guns for Hire" was chosen because of its combination of "classical mob" and "futuristic hitman" styles, the Z added for hardstyle branding (other hardstyle acts such as Headhunterz, Wildstylez, and Sound Rusherz ended with a Z) and web domain availability.³⁹ Both artists have also talked about their love for horror aesthetics as being a deciding factor in how they present themselves.⁴⁰

They are known for playing in formal attire, wearing masks to hide their faces (to distinguish the group from their individual careers), and having a stage presence which extends beyond "a guy behind a laptop". When Gunz For Hire began playing, hardstyle was still primarily dominated by euphoric, melodic and 'nustyle' sounds. The combined live act intended to present fans a darker hardstyle aesthetic.⁴⁰

In 2013, the duo finished 63rd in the annual DJMag Top-100 DJs voting competition.⁴¹ Since their inception, Gunz For Hire have released songs including "Bella Ciao,"⁴² "Sorrow," "Bolivia," "Plata O Plomo," "No Mercy", "Armed & Dangerous", "Firestone", "Hard Knock Life" and "The Devil's Hour".⁴³

While Ran-D's solo career is no longer affiliated with Roughstate Music, Gunz For Hire releases are still on the record label.³⁷ In 2026, the duo celebrated 15 years together, and announced a touring series of live shows in celebration.⁴⁴ They have also announced an anniversary show at the end of 2026, including guests from Roughstate, previous collaborators from Ran-D's career (including Alpha²), and a new B2B concept with hardcore artist Angerfist.⁴⁵