By Etienne van Bart
Byron van Byron
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Byron van Byron (born 8 June 1975) is a trance producer from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Since the 1990s he has consistently released a string of highly successful albums under various aliases. His productions and remixes have received extensive radio and Internet play, and they almost invariably do well in the dance music charts, often reaching the top. His music is played in clubs and concerts around the world.
1985 – 1995: Early Years
Growing up, Byron van Byron was influenced by pioneering electronic music acts like Kraftwerk as well as the German Krautrock scene. He has also spoken of the impact of 1960s and early 1970s rock on his music outlook. For his fourteenth birthday his parents bought him a guitar, thanks to which he became interested in making music. In high school he was attracted to the sounds of the emerging electronic dance music and decided to try his hand at producing. Together with school friend Bernard Rijsdick he would experiment with electronic sounds on whatever equipment the two could get their hands on. Throughout his school years van Byron had been skilled in mathematics and decided to study it further after school.
1995 – 2011: Underground
While enrolled in a mathematics degree at the University of Rotterdam van Byron began making dance music in his university room using Opus, an electronic music program he downloaded off the Internet, thus joining the army of ‘bedroom DJs’ springing up across Europe. According to friend Sander Hansen, at the time of finishing his degree in 1999, van Byron “had not left his room in three years,” having spent most this time working feverishly and in secret on his music making while still doing enough to pass his subjects. It was during this period of intense creative isolation that van Byron begun developing the DJ aliases he would eventually become famous for. After completing his degree, van Byron travelled extensively in Europe for four years, embarking on what he would later term an “I am David” pilgrimage, tracing on foot the journey of his childhood literary hero David from Eastern Europe to Denmark while leading ‘the simplest of lives, going wherever my feet took me, hitchhiking, sleeping under the stars, even begging if I had to. And always making music.” During this time van Byron kept only a bag with essentials and equipment for producing music, which he has said he would make everywhere, even in the foothills of the Alps. This music he would then send off to four Dutch DJs to be played and released on their albums without taking credit for any of it and therefore remaining unknown. Reaching Copenhagen in 2003, he settled down in an Apartment and continued producing unaccredited music for the next seven years. During this time he met his future wife Anna Ponti.
2011: Rise to Prominence.
In their April 1 2011 edition, popular DJ Magazine Mixmag carried an article alleging that four of the most popular DJs in the world were in fact stage names of one man called Byron van Byron. The story broke after German Professor of music Lewig Shwietters wrote to Mixmag, claiming that four leading Dutch DJs’ seemingly different musical styles were actually just “superbly camouflaged reflections, enlargements, and rotations, to use the Cartesian terms, of the same fundamental sound – style.” He asserted that in fact such complementary styles could only be the work of one man. When asked about this claim by Mixmag, Armin van Buuren and DJ Tiesto, two of the implicated DJs, confirmed that it was true, admitting that Byron van Byron made all their music for them. The two other DJs, Ferry Corsten and Paul van Dyk soon confirmed this as well. Mixmag then ran the article. Byron van Byron has stated he is glad someone finally noticed.
