Willem Rebergen (born 12 September 1985), better known by his stage name Headhunterz, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. Rebergen is also a voice actor. He has done dubbing for several films and TV series. He started his career in 2005 working on hardstyle music.
Headhunterz has performed at Qlimax, Defqon.1, Q-Base, In Qontrol, Decibel, Hard Bass, Electric Daisy Carnival and Tomorrowland.
He released his work on Scantraxx through his own sub-label, Scantraxx Reloaded, but in 2013 he started his own record label, HARD with STYLE. He signed with the North American electronic dance label Ultra Music in 2013 and left his own label in 2015. Since June 2017, he officially returned to the hardstyle community at the closing ceremony of Defqon.1 Weekend Festival 2017.
In 2018, Headhunterz and fellow DJ Wildstylez started a new hardstyle label called Art of Creation. At the end of 2023, Headhunterz announced he would be taking an indefinite break from performing live. He has since returned to performing live in a limited capacity as of late 2025.
Biography Early life and career Willem Rebergen was born on 12 September 1985 in Veenendaal, Netherlands. From an early age Rebergen had an interest in music. Having struggled with bullying at school, Rebergen looked for a distraction to make himself happy and so joined a local kid's choir. Here he had his first exposure to a professional studio, recording Christmas albums with the choir. This experience left Rebergen interested and inspired by the process of creating music from the other side of the studio. In 2003, while working at a clothing store he was offered tickets to Qlimax from friends who could not attend. This was his first exposure to hardstyle music. This experience gave him the impetus to forge a music career and in his own words from then on he was "devoted to hardstyle and from that point interested in how to make the music. I wanted to make that kind of music."
He purchased some turntables and connected them to his mixer practicing his DJing, while simultaneously making music in FL Studio, a digital audio workstation. Rebergen began sending demos out to labels under the alias Nasty D-Tuners, a duo project he formed with close friend Bobby van Putten. In 2004, Nasty D-Tuners entered and won the Defqon.1 DJ contest, winning a spot on that year's lineup.
Rebergen and van Putten heard of a new hard dance music label, Hardcontrol, that was opening in Veenendaal. In 2005, a year and a half after their performance at Defqon 2004, Nasty D-Tuners were signed to Hardcontrol Records having two successful releases, with their work being played by then major hardstyle producers/DJs. Also in 2005, Rebergen and van Putten began attending a DJ class at the Rock Academy in the Netherlands. Rebergen found his time at the academy frustrating, due to a lack of encouragement towards producing hardstyle and negative responses to the genre as a whole. Alienated by his experience at the academy, Rebergen continued to send out Nasty D-Tuners demos to respective labels, one eventually reaching Scantraxx founder, Dov Elkabas (The Prophet). Seeing promise in the young duo, having heard of their performance at Defqon.1, Nasty D-Tuners were signed to Scantraxx in late 2005. Unable to keep the alias Nasty D-Tuners due to disagreements with the former label, the name Headhunterz was chosen. By the end of 2005, Rebergen and van Putten had performed at major hardstyle events including Defqon.1, Q-Base and The Prophet's X-Qlusive, all of which increased their profile within the hardstyle scene.
2006-2007: Scantraxx and the beginning of Headhunterz
The year 2006 saw the first Headhunterz release "Aiming for Your Brain/ Left Some Answers", on Scantraxx Special. Their debut release was followed by "The Sacrifice/D-Tuned", again on Scantraxx Special. "The Sacrifice" was the duo's most successful hit to date, Rebergen since stating his fond memories of the positive reception that The Prophet gave him the first time he heard it. Problems soon began to emerge when Rebergen came to the conclusion that he would be unable to perform and record for Scantraxx while simultaneously completing his course at the Rock Academy. Rebergen told van Putten of his decision to leave the academy and hoped he would join and commit himself to Headhunterz and Scantraxx. van Putten then made the difficult decision to leave Rebergen, Scantraxx and Headhunterz and continue with his musical studies at the Rock Academy. Rebergen's first solo performance as Headhunterz was the 2006 edition of the Q-Dance event, Defqon.1. Following the final release of van Putten credited Headhunterz work, Scantraxx gave Rebergen his own sub label Scantraxx Reloaded which he would administer. Headhunterz' first release on Scantraxx Reloaded was the three track vinyl EP Victim of My Rage released in late 2006. The Prophet continued to nurture the young talent, inviting Headhunterz to perform alongside him at the popular annual Q-Dance event, Qlimax.
The year 2007 proved to be a successful year for Headhunterz. He had his first collaborations with fellow Scantraxx artists The Prophet and Abject (DJ Frontliner). Along with the collaborations, Headhunterz also released several successful solo tracks such as "Forever Az One" and "Rock Civilization" which is his most popular track on the streaming service Spotify. Headhunterz then performed at the 2007 editions of Q-Base and Qlimax. He then created his first major anthem for the 2007 edition of Qlimax, "The Power of the Mind". Headhunterz then had his first solo performance at Qlimax and played alongside DJs who he admired, Technoboy and The Prophet.
2008: Headhunterz & Wildstylez Presents: Project One
In 2008, Headhunterz had his first collaboration with fellow Scantraxx artist Wildstylez. Their first song "Blame It on the Music / Project 1" was released in March and proved a success. It also provided the impetus for the launch of a new project and debut album for the pair, Project One. Finishing in under three months, producing an average of one track a week, Headhunterz and Wildstylez completed their 13-track debut album, Headhunterz & Wildstylez Present: Project One. The album was planned to debut at In Qontrol in a special one-hour set, showcasing the album. This performance was cancelled when Headhunterz suffered appendicitis. The album debuted at Defqon.1 2008, and was officially released shortly after on both CD and digital formats on 25 July with Dutch graphical designer Ruud van Eijk providing the artwork. Project One contained tracks such as "Life Beyond Earth", "The Art of Creation", "The Story Unfolds", "Best of Both Worlds" and "Fantasy or Reality" all proving to be successes on the dance floor. The album was a defining influence on the direction hardstyle would take in the years to come, with its emphasis on synth based trance influenced melodies and heavy use of pitched kicks. A Project One Tour followed along with 6 full-length album samplers and 1 remix sampler, all released on Scantraxx Reloaded. Along with Project One, Headhunterz had three solo releases that included the tracks "Just Say My Name", "Subsonic" and "Reloaded Part 2" all on Scantraxx Reloaded, along with a collaboration with Italian hardstyle DJ Tatanka, "Call It Music".
2009-2011: Studio Sessions, HARDwithSTYLE 2009 saw Headhunterz release seven new singles/EPs. Amongst these releases was the 2009 Defqon.1 Anthem, "Scrap Attack". This opportunity to create the anthem, saw Headhunterz close the Mainstage of Defqon.1 for the first time. Speaking about the moment, Headhunterz stated that he achieved one of his long-term goals within Hardstyle that night and felt "complete happiness". Along with the anthem, 2009 was a notable year in regards to collaborations for Headhunterz. He again teamed up with Wildstylez and along with Noisecontrollers created the incredibly popular anthem "Tonight". In the Q-Dance harder styles top 1000 poll held in late 2013, "Tonight" was voted into second place. "The Summer of Hardstyle", made with The Prophet, proved to be an instant hit at events. Gaining inspiration from older Hardstyle DJ, Zenith, the track was a break from recent Headhunterz work with its emphasis on Reverse bass and simple scratching sounds from vinyl. The Project One Tour reached its finale with a first time visit to Australia. The duo making multiple appearances at the final editions of "Transmission", a popular music event that was held in Sydney and Brisbane.
2010 reflected Headhunterz and Hardstyle's growing popularity around the world, in his own words 2010 was "a year where my international bookings overtook my national ones." At the beginning of 2010, Headhunterz was offered the chance to host his own X-Qlusive. Held on 30 January at the Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, X-Qlusive:Headhunterz featured Wildstylez, The Prophet, Noisecontrollers and Brennan Heart joining Headhunterz on the main stage. Headhunterz described X-Qlusive as the highlight of 2010 as "It was an amazing night - a milestone in my career and personal life. I could have never imagined getting so far." In the buildup to X-Qlusive, Headhunterz revealed he was planning the release of his first studio album, Studio Sessions. Released on 8 March, Studio Sessions was a 15 track album containing a mixture of new unreleased tracks, collaborations, edits of older Headhunterz tracks and remixes done by Headhunterz and others. The Album release was followed by a world tour visiting The United States, Australia, Russia, Canada and many performances across the Netherlands. For the second year in a row, Headhunterz was asked to make a Defqon.1 Anthem, this time for the Australian edition, "Save Your Scrap for Victory". Along with the anthem, Headhunterz' other releases in 2010 was the "psychedelic" EP, which featured the popular title track along with "Dreamcatcher" and "Emptiness" and an EP with Noisecontrollers. 2010 also saw Headhunterz make his first appearance in DJ Mag's yearly top 100 DJ list, coming in at 36th, the highest Hardstyle DJ in the list. It was the first year Hardstyle artists were featured on the top 100 with Noisecontrollers, D-Block & S-te-Fan and Showtek all ranking in the top 100 alongside Headhunterz.