Early life
Garrix learned to play guitar at age 8. In 2004, he expressed interest in becoming a DJ after seeing Tiësto perform at the
Olympic games in Athens. He took particular inspiration from the track " Traffic ", prompting him to download specialist
software, FL Studio , and enabling him to start composing. In 2013, [4] he graduated from the Herman Brood Academy, [5] a production school in Utrecht . Garrix ghost writes tracks for other artists, and despite this, only one in fifty of his tracks have made it out to the public. [6] In an interview when asked about his social class, Garrix said middle-class. [7] He also said his 'dream mentor' was Calvin Harris. [7]
Career
2012–2014
Releases on Spinnin' Records
Martin Garrix's logo, 2012-15
Garrix was discovered by Tiësto, whom he described as inspirational, humble and legendary. [8] He had his beginnings with the songs "BFAM" (with Julian Jordan) and "Just Some Loops", a collaboration with TV Noise that appeared on the compilation album Loop Masters Essential, Volume 2. He signed to Spinnin' Records in 2012, releasing "Error 404" through the label. [9]
In 2013 Garrix co-released "Torrent" with Sidney Samson on Tiësto's Musical Freedom label. [10] He gained fame through his own solo release " Animals " [11] released on 16 June 2013 on Dutch record label Spinnin' Records, becoming a hit in a great number of charts in Europe, and became the youngest person to reach the No. 1 spot on Beatport . [12][13] The track appears on Hardwell's album Hardwell presents 'Revealed Volume 4' . On 30 September 2013, Garrix released a remix of "Project T" by Sander Van Doorn and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike which quickly hit No. 1 on the Beatport charts. [14] He appeared on DJ Magazine's top 100 DJs list in 2013 as a new entry at number 40. In 2014, he appeared on DJ Magazine 's top 100 DJs list at number 4. [15]
Deal with Scooter Braun Projects
In November 2013 Garrix signed a deal with Scooter Braun 's Scooter Braun Projects (later School Boy Records ). [16] In December 2013, he released " Wizard " with Jay Hardway, the song has peaked to number 6 in Belgium and number 17 in the Netherlands . His collaboration with Firebeatz, "Helicopter", placed No. 1 on the Beatport Top 100 charts for 2 weeks. He performed at Ultra Music Festival 2014, where he debuted several new and unreleased tracks, including collaborations with Dillon Francis , Hardwell and Afrojack .
In 2014 Garrix released " Proxy " as a free download. He released a song with MOTi with the title " Virus (How About Now) " which was later in the year as well as his collaboration with Afrojack releasing " Turn Up the Speakers " which Afrojack and Garrix both premiered at Ultra Music Festival . [17]
2015
"Forbidden Voices", "Don't Look Down" and collaborations
Martin Garrix's logo since February 2015
In 2015 Garrix experimented with progressive house and started producing progressive style apart from his signature big room sound. On 6 February 2015, he released the track " Forbidden Voices" as a gift for 10 million likes on his Facebook page. [18] In February 2015, he released the single " Don't Look Down " featuring Usher . He also released two video versions for it on Vevo , "Towel Boy" and "Towel Girl." The track was written by Garrix, James 'JHart' Abrahart and
Busbee . It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs .
In an interview with DigitalSpy in early 2015, Garrix noted that Usher is a "humble" artist and a great collaborator to whom he can direct input. [19] He also worked with multi-Grammy winner Ed Sheeran on a track called "Rewind Repeat It" which he played at Ultra Music Festival in Miami in March 2015. On 4 May 2015, he released a track with Tiësto, called " The Only Way Is Up". On 22 May 2015, Avicii released a lyric video of the song " Waiting for Love " co-produced by Garrix. On 6 July 2015, Garrix released the Break Through The Silence EP with Russian DJs Matisse and Sadko . Later, on 31 October 2015, he released a track titled " Poison" as a promotional single.
"+x" has been publicized as Martin Garrix's signature image.
Termination of agreements with Spinnin' Records
On 26 August 2015, Garrix announced that he had left
Spinnin' Records and MusicAllStars Management, due to a conflict over the ownership of his music. [20] A point of contention was the release of "Animals," which appeared when Garrix was 17 years old. [21] He also announced that he had filed a lawsuit against his then-manager Eelko van Kooten. [21] In November 2015, Garrix announced that he would create his own record label. [22]
On 2 December 2015, Garrix has reportedly settled with Spinnin' Records in their ongoing legal dispute over the ownership rights of his music, he released a statement confirming that he had withdrawn the summary proceedings after his former record label transferred him the ownership rights to his music in exchange that exclusive licence of all his tracks released before August 2015 are retained by Spinnin' for an undisclosed period. [20] However, Garrix also stated that their other outstanding disagreements will likely be the subject of further legal proceedings. [20]
On 31 December 2015, Garrix released " Bouncybob ", his final track of the year, for free, which he had co-produced with Justin Mylo and Mesto .
2016
