We are thrilled to introduce you to Mike Hardiek a long time Crossmen impacting the organization in many ways.
Here is his bio https://www.crossmen.org/program-staff/michael-hardiek
You have worn many hats at the Crossmen—as drill designer, as the Member Experience Director, and on the Board of Directors. How have you navigated these various roles?
I’m grateful for all the roles that I’ve had at the Crossmen. I was honored to serve the members as their drill designer from 2014 to 2016. When that 3-year contract came to an end, I left the organization for a while but planned to return in 2020. Then COVID hit, and all drum corps took a year off. Because of my unique experience serving on nonprofit boards, I was asked by the Board of Directors to come in and help bridge the two seasons. Then I volunteered to be the Director of Member Experience to ensure that members always have a voice as decisions are made.
Now you are in a new position, as the Design Coordinator for the 2026 Crossmen. How did this come about?
Last summer, we knew that the organization needed to go through some structural changes. We came up with a new construct. Traditionally, the Crossmen had one person who oversaw not only the design (what’s going to show up on the field) but also the educational program (how it’s taught). Someone who is really good at one of those roles might not be good at the other, so we proposed that we separate those two positions. Our educational coordinator Ryan Alm is absolutely fantastic. He’s going to do great things with the members. When I wrote a job description for the Design Coordinator position and sent it out, everyone said: You just wrote YOU. I was a little skeptical at first but then realized I can do this. I then submitted my interest to the corps and went through the process. So that’s how I got to where I am now, and I’m honored to serve once again.
How do you facilitate the design team’s ideas and organize its work?
I have been a designer for decades, so I know how the creative process works. When you bring a good team together, there are lots of different personalities. You want some disagreement, and you want some collaboration. My major responsibility is to make sure all the designers are collaborating with each other and to make sure that we hit the deadlines for deliverables.
Does your role continue through the summer tour?
I will be attending all the camps and will be on the majority of the tour. I don’t want to step away and hope for the best. I want to be there to make the best happen.
What can you tell us about this year’s show?
We went in search of the best designers in the country, and I was very happy that people who have been doing this at the highest levels for a long time really wanted to be part of the Crossmen. We ended up with a design team that’s perfect for the 2026 Crossmen. Then ideas started to flow.
All great art starts as a singular inspiration that takes a journey to the final destination. We started by studying the artwork of Neil Fujita, the famous graphic artist who designed iconic book covers such as The Godfather and record album covers such as Dave Brubeck’s Take 5 and others when jazz really hit its stride. We started down that road, focusing on the artwork that encased the vinyl and also the culture of listening to records. You would visit someone’s home on a Friday night, and you might bring 3 albums that they had never heard before and introduced them to that music. When you left, you took 3 albums that you hadn’t heard before. We would trade art in the form of vinyl. People bonded through this tactile experience of sitting in front of a stereo on shag carpet with albums all over the floor.
The design team used this experience to dive further into the differences between the “A” side and “B” side of an album. The “A” side traditionally featured the music the artist thought would be commercially successful. Many times the music was polished but lacked inspiration. Conversely the “B” side became the artist’s creative playground. This space served as a window into the true soul of the record.
So, our show is about how we share art, how the drum corps activity brings new music into our lives as we open ourselves to new experiences. We will allow ourselves to venture away from the comfort and predictability of the “A” side. We will be bold enough to turn over the album and experience the “B” side.
I grew up with those record album traditions you described. In today’s vinyl culture, younger listeners are collecting old LPs and adding them to a stack of new artists who release on vinyl. That curated mix creates an exciting intergenerational musical conversation. How will old and new be represented in the musical selections of the 2026 show?
When the audience watches the Crossmen enter the stadium, there will be no doubt who we are and what we came to do.
Our production begins with a nod to the Crossmen members who began the legacy and brought us to where we are today. There are artists and music that immediately connect fans to memories of the Crossmen. Our “A” side begins with “Baroque Samba” by New York Voices, a song the Crossmen performed in 1990. This immediately beacons clear memories of our early identity. We will dwell in an atmosphere of lush orchestrations created by some of the activity’s best designers and performers. Just when the audience becomes comfortable in the environment we have created, we flip the album over to the “B” side. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy propels us into the freedom and expression not allowed on the “A” side. We let ourselves venture away from the expected. Echoes of the past are heard but are now part of something bolder. Yes, the traditional artists that we are known for can be heard. The difference is that they are now intertwined with contemporary artists like Lawrence and Daisy the Great. Visually the cover art of the album comes to life as we transform from our proud history and reveal our future. Unapologetically the Crossmen doing Crossmen things.
How might that show up on the field?
It’s going to start with the album artwork and extend through the costuming and the musical arrangements. Audiences will see the attitude and the swagger that the members display. Any young adult who wears the Crossmen uniform is going to be part of something that is forward-moving and pushes new ideas, and that also may make people feel uncomfortable and take them out of the usual boundaries.
One word that so many fans associate with the Crossmen of the early 1990s is “groove,” a term that alludes to the physical form of a record album. Will the 2026 show groove?
We’re definitely going to groove! We had a discussion about the word groove. There definitely will be plenty of opportunities to snap your fingers and leave the stadium with a song embedded in your head that you’re not going to be able to get out for days.
The drum corps activity today faces major financial pressures. How are the Crossmen rising to meet the challenge?
The Crossmen are smart enough to know that if we don’t fix it now, there’s not going to be a “then.” We’re committed to coming up with a 3-year plan, just like any good business, and then basing our decisions around it. The largest hurdle for drum corps is financing. The activity as a whole needs to get used to spending only the money that we have, instead of money we think we’re going to have. The Crossmen Board of Directors is committed to our legacy. If we must make any unpopular decisions, it is to ensure that legacy. We owe that to the alumni and to the future members of the corps.
How do you define a successful season?
If the members at the end of the season believe that they are unstoppable—in every endeavor that they take on later—then we’ve succeeded. The one thing that we have total control over is the member experience. After, say, 10 years, when those alumni look back … they’re going to remember the life skills they learned by sleeping on a gym floor, by riding on an uncomfortable bus, and by persevering through the heat of the Southern swing of the tour. We’re trying to teach our members the confidence to go out in the world and do great things.
In addition to great drum corps, you’ve worked with very successful high school band programs. What advice would you give to a student thinking about DCI as their next step?
Make the leap! Drum corps is the perfect preparation for success in life. If you outwork the people around you, even if they’re more talented, you’re going to end up in front of them.
Hit your dot or dress the form?
Dress the form.
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Mike Hardiek was interviewed by Scott Cummings on November 21, 2025. The conversation had been edited for length and clarity.