Martijn was inspired to create music from a very early age. Born on 14th May 1996 in the outskirts of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, if wasn’t long before he started guitar lessons. However, his first major inspiration came aged just eight when he watched the opening ceremony of 2004 Olympic Games on television. This event featured a set by DJ Tiësto, an experience which transformed the way Martijn thought about music.

Given his artistic nature, Martijn was drawn to study fine art, but he always returned to music, which he knew was more than a hobby to him. Aged just 14 he enrolled with the Herman Brood Academie music production school to work on his artistic and technical ability, and to make personal contacts. He became a “ghost producer” creating work for other artists while remaining anonymous. Then his fist big break came in 2012 when he was signed by Spinnin’ Records. Martijn became Martin Garrix.

Trawling through his music library on this PC, Martin Garrix came across a song he thought had great potential for a remix. He got to work on the track that was to become “Animals”, and the label loved the result. Spinnin’ Records wanted to build a bottom-up buzz, so sent Animals to selected clubs without revealing the name of the producer. It worked, and on 16th June 2013 the track was released and became an instant international hit. Even generalist radio stations played it, when normally they avoid electronic dance music without lyrics.

After a mad summer of 2013, Martin Garrix signed a contract with Scooter Braun (the manager of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande) to promote him outside Europe. Martin was named in DJ Magazine’s Top 100 in 2014, and played several big festivals including the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Lollapallooza in Chicago and the Amsterdam Music Festival.

Another massive year for Martin Garrix’s career followed in 2015, with him releasing several of his own tunes as well as working on high-profile collaborations such as “Don’t Look...