[divider]Musical Influences[/divider]
Heldens had an early start into the electronic music scene. When he was twelve years old, today’s top DJs— who were still undiscovered at the time— used to throw big parties in the gymnasium of his school. Fedde Le Grande was the headliner and Hardwell supported him alongside Chuckie and Sydney Sampson. “Back then Hardwell wasn’t playing internationally,” Heldens explained. “He only played in Holland and free gigs on the weekends around The Netherlands.”
So it’s no surprise that it’s some of those DJs he cites as influences in his musical career. Fedde Le Grande, Chocolate Puma and Sander Van Doorn got him into house music, as did the Bingo Players and Hardwell. Oliver Heldens’ music has a distinct deep house sound, for which he credits the new U.K. bass like Disclosure. But ask him about “future house” and genres and he’ll tell you that they don’t mean a lot.
I don’t really care about genres. People label me as Deep House, especially in The States. I don’t think genres are really important. For some reason people put their favorite artists in a box.
If Oliver Heldens is already in the deep house box, his next goal to is take himself slightly outside of it. “I try to develop my sound a lot and make different stuff.” He recently worked with Sander Van Doorn, Chocolate Puma, and Zeds Dead to work on techno, Dutch house, and garage house respectively. He also did a melodic-sounding remix with Tiesto. And as for his solo sound, he’s also been leaning towards songs with strings and a long classical melody.
[divider]Looking Ahead[/divider]
And if that’s not enough, Oliver Heldens has even more in store including a vocal version of Koala, and a possible album in the near future. With his three recent track releases all on the Top 20 Beatport list, and being named an Artist of the Future, Heldens is doing pretty well for himself. “I feel pretty good about all of that because it’s not like all the usual EDM stuff, but it still has all the big exposure like the big EDM stuff,” he said. “That’s something which I am really proud of.”
Oliver Heldens will be in Seattle for FreakNight on Friday, October 31st playing from 6:45 – 7:45 pm. Be sure to catch his set if you’re attending!
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