Armin van Buuren

            Armin van Buuren (born December 25, 1976) is a trance producer and DJ. He was born in Leiden, Netherlands, but grew up in Koudekerk aan den Rijn. In 2007 and 2008, he was voted number one DJ in DJ Mag's annual Top 100 vote.

Armin van Buuren pursued his career as a professional musician despite the promise of a career in law in his native country, where he completed his law degree in 2004. Armin started working as a DJ in a local night club called Nexus, finished high school in 1995 and went on to university to study law.^[2] Meanwhile, he moved his studio equipment from his bedroom to a 'real' studio.^[2] The first tracks he produced in his new studio were, among others, tracks like "Touch Me" and "Communication".^[2] Armin van Buuren has been quoted as saying, "Don't be a prisoner of your own style."^[2] He has described his musical style as "liberating, euphoric, uplifting, melodic and energetic."

He hosts a weekly radio show A State of Trance, which mostly consist of trance and other genres. The show completed its 350th episode in May 2008, running for over 7 years.

In October 2002, van Buuren was voted Number 5 in the DJ Magazine 100 top DJs. The following year, he jumped up to the #3 spot, and held 3rd place for the next 3 years. His work left him at the #2 spot, just below Paul van Dyk in the 2006 polls, and in 2007 Armin reached Number 1, heading the 2007 DJ Mag Top 100. He was voted number 1 again in 2008.

[edit]As a producer

Van Buuren has always had his own studio and works alone the majority of the time. He has never employed an engineer, claiming he does not want the music to be altered by one.^[2]

Since 1995, van Buuren has released many tracks on different labels with increasing success. His first big success was "Blue Fear" on Cyber Records at the age of 19. This 'Euro Trance blueprint' made it into the UK Chart. "Communication" was released on the same label, and had a huge impact on Ibiza, Spain in the summer of 1999. After being signed to AM PM Records, this track entered the UK Chart at #18 in 2000. As of September 29, 2008, Armin has won the DJ Award for "Best Trance DJ" at Ibiza along with other nominees that of Tiesto, Ferry Corsten and Paul van Dyk.

In the beginning of 1999, van Buuren started his label Armind together with United Recordings. The first release, Gig - "One", was well received. The second release "Touch Me", under the name Rising Star was signed to Ministry Of Sound in the UK, before the record was released.

By the time of his third release, Gimmick - "Free" was signed to R&S Records, van Buuren had managed to make his label popular very quickly. Under the surname Gaia he released "4 Elements" on Captivating Sounds, a sub-label of Warner Brothers. Teaming up with DJ Tiësto, two new projects were born: Major League - "Wonder Where You Are?" was released onBlack Hole Recordings and Alibi - "Eternity" was released on Armind. "Eternity" received club and chart success and was signed to Paul van Dyk's imprint Vandit Records. Another major collaboration followed this. Together with Ferry Corsten, van Buuren recorded a riff-classic titled "Exhale" for the System F. album. Released as a single, this track reached gold status in less than a month.

In 2000 van Buuren started his own AVB compilation series. He managed to find a balance between progressive, techno and trance music styles. AVB001 - "A State of Trance" (not to be confused with his weekly ASOT radio shows) sold more than 10,000 copies and contains van Buuren's well known remix of Moogwai - "Viola." AVB002 "Basic Instinct" featured a new track: Perpetuous Dreamer - "The Sound Of Goodbye". This track entered the Dutch charts in June 2001 at number 26. Later in the year the track hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Playchart. AVB003 - "In Motion" was released August 6, 2001. This album contained the real trance sound and was very popular in the US. AVB004 - "Transparence" followed in 2002.

In March 2001 van Buuren started his own radio show on ID&T Radio. In this weekly two-hour show, entitled 'A State of Trance', he plays the latest popular trance music tracks. His show and the artists he features are popularized by publishing the artists and track titles on his website. This radio-show/website combination has proven popular internationally. When ID&T Radio changed genres in 2004, van Buuren left and took A State of Trance with him. The show then moved to Fresh FM, a Dutch radio station. It is now a weekly feature on SLAM!FM, another Dutch radio station, DI.FM, an online radio station, and on XM Satellite Radio channel 82 in the United States and Canada. A complete list of stations that broadcast ASOT can be found at the ASOT section of Armin's website. Also in 2004, van Buuren remixed the 24 Theme into a trance hit. In June 2005, the 200th episode was celebrated in Amsterdam and subsequently aired on radio. The 250th (8 hour) anniversary episode was celebrated in Club Asta in The Hague, The Netherlands, featuring van Buuren, Jonas Steur, M.I.K.E., John Askew,Rank 1 and Menno De Jong.

On May 17, 2007, van Buuren began broadcasting the first of a two part series of what would become his 300th episode of A State of Trance.

He has also worked on remix projects involving tracks by Japanese superstar Ayumi Hamasak.

DJ TIESTO

                                                        

Tiësto (pronounced /tiɛsto/; born Tijs Verwest (pronounced /tɛɪs vɛɹʋɛst/) on January 17, 1969)^[2] is a Grammy-nominated Dutch trance DJand record producer. He has become one of the world's most famous people in the trance and electronic dance music scenes.^[3] Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto.^[4] On his latest productions, however, he has dropped the "DJ" label and is now known simply as "Tiësto", an alias which is a twist on his childhood nickname.^[5]

As his popularity rose in the early 2000s he became the first DJ to perform to a large crowd without any other DJs or opening acts. He is also noted for being the first DJ to play live on stage at an Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Athens. In addition to receiving numerous awards for his work he was crowned "World’s No.1 DJ" 3 consecutive times by DJ Magazine from 2002 through 2004^[6] and received a nomination for a Grammy Award in 2008, for his album Elements of Life.^[7]

He has also made a number of charitable contributions. In April 2006, Tiësto was named the official worldwide ambassador for theDance4Life foundation,^[8] fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, for which he recorded the track "Dance4life." In December 2007, Tiësto andGiorgio Armani collaborated together on a limited edition Tiësto T-shirt available at Armani Exchange stores. His single "Sweet Things" includes the shirt with the proceeds from the sale of this T-shirt benefiting the Mercy Corps.

Tijs Verwest had an interest for music since the age of twelve.^[9] When he was twenty he decided to dedicate more time to it and began DJing professionally at school parties and then moved on to become a resident DJ between 1985 and 1994 at several clubs in the Netherlands after his manager and friend Wilfred encouraged him.^[10][11] During these years, he producedhardcore/gabber tracks under aliases such as Da Joker and DJ Limited.^[12] However, it was at The Spock, a small club in Breda, where he was able to fine-tune his own style by playing in a separate room from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. on weekends.^[13] In the beginning of his career as DJ he mostly played new beat and acid house, and many Madonna songs because her music shows that she likes to dance. Before the release of her album there were already dancemixes like "Vogue" which was one of the songs of Spock.^[9] He was discovered by the general manager of Rotterdam-based Basic Beat Recordings. Tiësto released his first of five mix CDs as a part of the label's Forbidden Paradise series.^[14]

Tiësto (left) and Ferry Corstentogether in 1999 as Gouryella

In the mid-1990s, he started to produce trance,^[12] which led to his breakthrough in 1995 when he started building mixed compilations, something nobody else did at that time. Tiësto describes his Magik series as part of his breakthrough, but since the labels only want their own songs in the deejay mixes,^[15] in 1997 he and Arny Bink co-founded Black Hole Recordings to support his work releasing a series of singles under various aliases.^[16] Black Hole Recordings and its sub-label Magik Muzik continue to sign Tiësto's vision of trance – producing musicians and DJs such as Cor Fijneman, Ton TB,Mark Norman and Joe Cheang.^[17] During this period, DJ Tiësto had been releasing the Magik series, which has had seven instalments starting in 1997 and ending in 2001, after this Tiësto began releasing the In Search of Sunrise series, that is a compilation of Tiësto's mixes with tracks from other DJs. In 1999, Tiësto joined forces with fellow Dutch deejay Ferry Corsten to create the trance based duo of Gouryella.^[18] To highlight the importance in the expansion of the trance environment at the time, there were 20 different CD releases of the 4 Gouryella tracks from 9 different labels. Since November 1999 he performed monthly as a resident in Gatecrasher at Leeds, one of the most popular clubs in England.^[9] In 1999 he also played in a 12-hour set, being his longest lasting concert in Amsterdam.

Philanthropy and other activities

On January 6, 2005 Tiësto performed in an outdoor fundraiser in De Dam, Amsterdam, the event was free and many famous Dutch artists like Dinand Woesthoff, Bløf, Acda & De Munnik,Di-rect, Berget Lewis, Xander de Buisonjé and Trijntje Oosterhuis were involved in it to provide financial aid to the people who suffered from the tsunami in Asia. All profits made of all TV commercials and live broadcast were given to the organisations collecting the relief funds.^[69][70]

Tiësto at Dance4Life event in 2006 Toronto, Canada

During 2005 he also made a small cameo appearance in the award-winning film It's All Gone Pete Tong as himself.^[71] He also contributed the song "Goldrush" to the PlayStation Portable futuristic racing game Wipeout Pure.^[72] In September 2006 Tiësto was admitted to hospital after experiencing pain in his chest. He was diagnosed with pericarditis and subsequently he had to cancel a number of shows.^[73] With the diagnosis, he was invited to support Dance4Life to help teens who are not aware of the risks ofHIV/AIDS. In April 2006 Tiësto was named the official worldwide ambassador for the Dance4Life foundation promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS, as the foundation's ambassador he has helped the organisation with fundraising along with recording the track "Dance4life" that he recorded with Maxi Jazz from Faithless. The foundation consists on a better way of living with safe sex in exchange of entertainment to the young crowd.^[8] The song charted #1 twice in the Bulgarian Singles Chart and #3 in the Dutch Top 40. The song was a huge success, peaking for five weeks in #3 and eleven consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Dutch Singles Chart, it also reached #5 in Belgium, #6 in Finland and also charting in the UK and Germany. With the successful release ofElements of Life, Tiësto and fashion designer Giorgio Armani collaborated together on a limited edition Tiësto T-shirt available at Armani Exchange stores. His single "Sweet Things" comes with the shirt including an exclusive "A|X Remix" by Tom Cloud which shows the great influence Tiësto has in fashion culture.^[74] The charity raised over US$300,000.^[66]

Tiësto opened a new club-restaurant acquisition with Chinese cuisine, dance music and live entertainment on June 7, 2007 called Cineac.^[75] Tiësto inaugurated with his new Cineac Anthem called "Happy People". Guests are welcome to see various modern styles of music mixed by some known top DJs.^[76] It was later renamed "The Mansion".^[77] Tiësto and Reebokintroduced the new 'Tiësto shoe' in November 2007. The shoebox comes with a special limited-edition Tiësto & Reebok CD, containing the Elements of Life album and the bonus disc. Only 1000 pair units were available for sale in Netherlands. Previously Tiësto & Reebok had released "Run the DJ Tiësto", which consisted of another shoe release with Tiësto as one of the designers.^[78] He now owns a line of Reebok RBK shoes and was recently tapped by Microsoft to launch its new Vista operating system for the Dutch market, placing him on par withRobbie Williams, who performed a similar duty in the United Kingdom. The partnership includes a Vista application built especially for Tiësto, which had more than a thousand downloads from his website a day during its first week of availability. It has a Tiësto toolbar for sorting, a plug-in application which allows fans to be informed with the DJ in real-time and get live alerts on gigs, appearances and new music. Tiësto introduced the application at the Jan. 29 Vista launch event in Amsterdam.^[40]

Due to the past 2008 Olympic Games in August, New York’s Ultra Records announced on Friday it is a partner in Coca-Cola’s upcoming WE8 bottle campaign, a promotion that celebrates Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the Olympic Games in Beijing as well as art and music.^[79] Eight musicians and eight artists were chosen, including Tiësto, to create tracks inspired by some specially designed Coke bottles.^[80] Tiësto produced a song inspired on "Global Harmony" and on Xiao Xue's design of the Coke bottle which is titled Global Harmony; This is not his first time to be involved with the Olympic Games or Coca-Cola, previously Tiësto participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics and also produced a song for Coca-Cola titled "Searching" which was used on a television commercial.^[81] "Corona and Lime", a song by Shwayze includes Tiësto's name in the lyrics, "Bump techno by DJ Tiësto".^[82]

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Tiësto - The Making Of In Search of Sunrise 7 Asia