Scott Hardkiss

Scott Hardkiss figured among the central figures of the San Francisco-based Hardkiss collective and earned notice as a leading house DJ and producer in the West Coast rave circuit spanning the first half of the 1990s. Born in the Bronx, New York, he relocated repeatedly across East Coast cities such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia during his formative years and first connected with music in the early 1980s. He later attended Oxford University in England, where the rising U.K. rave and alternative dance movements of the late 1980s left a strong impression. After coming back to the United States he began staging his own East Coast DJ events and eventually settled in San Francisco. There he joined Gavin Hardkiss, known as Hawke, and Robbie Hardkiss, known as Little Wing, to launch the Hardkiss collective. The three also established a label under the same name, opening its catalog in 1992 with the 12-inch compilation San Francisco: The Magick Sounds of the Underground. One of Scott’s initial productions, “Joy,” appeared on that release under the name Tree of Hearts. He next issued a pair of singles on the God Within alias—“Raincry” in 1993 and “The Phoenix” in 1994—with the latter gaining particular traction. Several of his productions surfaced in 1995 on the full-length Hardkiss anthology Delusions of Grandeur. The commercially released DJ mix Yes arrived in 1996 on the Hardkiss label. The Hardkiss collective dissolved soon after, yet Scott stayed active for the balance of the decade. Entering the 2000s he delivered the mix album United DJs of America, Vol. 17 in 2001 and reworked the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” in 2002 before stepping back. He resurfaced years afterward with the full-length Technicolor Dreamer, issued independently in 2009 on his Brooklyn-based God Within Recordings label, together with the companion You’re the Star EP.