Armin van Buuren • Groovetrackers Archive

Armin as a person
Armin was born on December 25th 1976 in Leiden, Holland. As long as he remembers he's been fascinated by music. This has a lot to do with his father who listened to lots of different music styles. Besides his love for music, Armin slowly started to gain more interest in technology and computers. At the age of 14 he bought his first sampler, confiscated his father's synthesizer and started to make music.
During puberty he cycled to school with his headphones almost glued to his ears, listening to music from Jean Michel Jarre and Ben Liebrand's minimixes. Having a great deal of respect for Ben Liebrand, he sent him a demo that was received enthusiastically. As a result, Ben taught Armin a lot about producing and mixing the following year.

Armin's passion for mixing progressed. He started working as a DJ in a local club called Nexus, finished high school in 1995 and went on to university to study law. Meanwhile he moved his studio equipment from his bedroom to a 'real' studio. The first tracks he produced in his new studio were, amongst others, hits like "Touch Me" and "Communication". Lots of tracks followed, all with a different feel to it. Armin doesn't like to be limited to a particular style by labelling his music. A phrase he often uses is: 'don't be prisoner of your own style'. Armin likes to describe his musical style as euphoric, uplifting, melodic and energetic.
Due to the fact that Armin is very ambitious he's been doing a lot of things at the same time: studying, producing and being a DJ. He truly believes that the only way to be able to do so is by enjoying what you do. Armin wants to fulfil his dream, which is 'doing what he loves most and have as much fun as possible doing it'.
Lately Armin has been working hard on his DJ career, performing at an average of more than two gigs per weekend. According to him "the fans and the public are the most important thing for a DJ". Because he strongly believes in the importance of his fans he signs his autograph on virtually anything: vinyls, flyers, t-shirts, body parts and (the one he likes most) mobile phones.

Armin as a producer
One of the most remarkable things about Armin is that he always had his own studio and works by himself most of the time. He's never used an engineer since that can influence the music.
Since 1995 Armin released a lot of tracks on different labels with increasing success. His first big success was 'Blue Fear' on Cyber Records. This 'Euro Trance blueprint' made it into the UK Chart. 'Communication' was released on the same label, causing serious damage on Ibiza in the summer of 1999. After being signed to AM: PM, this track entered the UK Chart at #18 in 2000!
In the beginning of 1999 Armin 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.

When the third Armind release Gimmick - "Free" was signed to R&S Records, it became clear that Armin had managed to put his label on the map in no time. Under the surname Gaia he released
"4 Elements" on Captivating Sounds, a sub-label of Warner. Teaming up with DJ Tiësto, two new projects were born; Major League -"Wonder Where You Are?" was released on Blackhole and Alibi- "Eternity" was released on Armind. Eternity received a lot of club and chart success and was signed to Paul van Dijk's imprint Vandit Records. Another major collaboration followed; together with Ferry Corsten, Armin recorded a riff-classic titled 'Exhale' for the System F. album. Released as a single, this track reached gold in less than a month!

In 2000 Armin starts his own AVB compilation series. He manages to find the perfect balance between progressive, techno and trance. AVB 001- Basic Instinct sold more than 10000 copies and contains Armin's well known remix of Moogwai - Viola.
Perpetuous Dreamer - 'The Sound Of Goodbye' was first featured on AVB002. This track entered the Dutch charts in june 2001 at #26. Armin van Buuren 003 - In Motion was released August 6th 2001. This album contains the real trance sound and is very popular in the US.

Armin remixed a lot of huge tracks like Wamdue Project - 'King Of My Castle', Madison Avenue - 'Don't Call Me Baby' and Gouryella - 'Walhalla' (all in 1999 and 2000). His recent remixes are Solid Sessions-'Janeiro' and Shane-'Too Late To Turn'. Due to the success of these mixes there's a high demand on his remixes but he has recently turned a lot of request down due to the fact that he's focusing on his own artist album.
Armin already finished six tracks for his new album that will contain collaborations with people like Ferry Corsten, Airwave and Ray Wilson.

In March 2001 Armin started his own radio show on ID&T Radio. In this weekly two-hours show, 'A State of Trance' he only plays the latest tracks. The fact that Armin always puts the names and artists of the tracks on his website, makes this show unique and very popular amongst people who DJ themselves (check the chat room if you want: www.arminvanbuuren.tk).
Every week the show becomes more popular, mostly through the internet. People from Canada, USA, Australia, Holland and England join the chat board to talk about the tracks Armin is playing in his show.
At the age of 16 Armin already hosted his own radio show on a local station and he's very happy to have his own radio show again since this enables him to play whatever he likes and to be distinctive from others.

Armin as a performer
Armin started his DJ career at the club Nexus (Leiden). That's where he learned to play long dj sets: regularly six to seven hours. During school holidays he played more than 4 times a week, but he never stopped loving it. It is a real thrill to see how the crowd reacts on different tracks and he finds it very exciting when he's able to fill up the dance floor. In 1999 he met Dave Lewis who introduced him as a DJ in England and the US. That's when his DJ career really took of, entering the DJ magazine top 100 in November 2001 at number 27! At this moment he has played in more then 25 different countries and according to his fans he's known for his intelligent but uplifting music. Often you can find him on the main stage at big summer festivals. Recently he played a record-breaking nine hour set for <O> Dancetheater in The Hague (Holland). In the UK you can see him perform regularly at Passion (resident 2002), Godskitchen, Gatecrasher (4 hours sets), Slinky, Peach and Golden.
Recently Armin did a Gatecrasher tour through New Zealand and Australia. In the US he has a residency at Glow in Washington and played in Boston, Denver and New York. This summer he's a resident at Godskitchen on Ibiza.