Dear Urge,
Thank you for a great question!
It is important to note that DJ Tiesto has recently changed his name,
and dropped the "DJ". Now he's just Tiesto.
Tiesto certainly had changed his repertoire as well as his career
throughout the years, from Dutch pop remixes at the very beginning,
"In the beginning of his carrier as DJ he mostly played new beat and
acid house, sometimes some Madonna" (SOURCE: TranceSite, "Here's The
Scoop", <http://trance_site.tripod.com/trance_Djs/id3.html>); "A blend
of house beats and bass-heavy grooves that were distinctly different
from the tunes of most Dutch DJs of the era." (SOURCE: B-Lux, "DJ
TIESTO", The Bassline Cartel",
<http://www.beat-junkies.net/article43.html>).
Soon he moved to progressive style, and to what could be described as
"Waves of melodic, techno-trance gradually build in volume and pitch,
creating a sense of euphoria as the speakers detonate with a searing
bassline." (SOURCE: Maximum Rotation, "DJ Tiesto",
<http://www.maximumrotation.com/artist/bio.php?ID=87>).
Tiesto has today a very rich repertoire, including remixes or
interpretations to classics, rock (Dave Matthews' Band), and pop
(Sarah McLachlan).
His approach is thus very verstile, and includes, for example,
recordings such as the Outside and the Inside - stadium music and
quiet one - in two different albums which are one. He himself says "I
always try to throw in some new tunes, and a variety of styles, into
my set." (SOURCE: B-Lux, "DJ TIESTO", The Bassline Cartel",
<http://www.beat-junkies.net/article43.html>). MTV Asia write that
Tiesto Obsession "best epitomizes Tiesto's forte in dance floor
anthems built around a minimalist approach." (SOURCE: MTV Asia, Review
of In My Memory, <http://www.mtvasia.com/Review/CD/C2003011401.html>).
This is experssed not only in recording, but also in his live
preformance and production career, which is very colourful and full of
synchronisation of different styles into one, under his wand. Not only
that, but his performance includes VJing (visual DJing) and is very
nicely described at Maximum Rotation's description of his performance:
"With deft dexterity, he calibrates the attributes of each sound with
lightning speed before unleashing it on the house. The resulting
symphony brings people to tears." (ibid).
He himself says, in an interview: "I'm trying to take my own musical
direction, and indeed try to keep on pushing musical boundaries. I
always think that music is always in development, either it is trance
, or progressive or whatever. " (SOURCE: Sharon B., "Talking to a
Legend - Interview with the world's Number 1 DJ - Ti?sto",
HarderFaster, <http://www.harderfaster.net/text/features/10678>).
Specifically regarding production, he added that " From a
collaboration I always try to combine the best of the styles with my
co-producer in order to get a good product. And if you combine 2
styles it always has a remarkable result. Sometimes good, sometimes
bad, but always different as when you produce on your own." (SOURCE:
ibid). Regarding performace, he told AskMen that "I love to produce a
track and then play it for the crowd, that's the biggest kick for me!"
(SOURCE: AskMen, "Dj Tiesto Trancemaster"
<http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview/11_dj_tiesto_interview.html>).
He is also a varstile composer, integrating sounds and motives from
different styles into his own unique, anthemic, style. In general, it
seems that his approach, in each of his activities, is to create crowd
pleasing, varstile, pieces.
Here is a piece from his own site, where he describes his experiences
from Athens, combining all elements of his work: production (for
himsef), composing and performing:
"When Athoc (Athens Olympic Committee) asked me in October 2003 to
play at the opening ceremony, I couldn?t believe it. [...] I was so
honored and thrilled by the idea that I could play my music for 15.000
athletes, 70.000 people in the stadiums, hundreds of presidents from
all over the world and over 4 billion people at home, that I didn?t
have to think twice. [...] I flew to Athens in January 2004 to have a
creative meeting with the people from Athoc. The reason why they asked
me was because they saw the DVD ?Ti?sto in Concert? and liked the
opening tune ?Adagio for strings? a lot. They wanted me to write a few
tracks which would fit the Olympic spirit and combine the classical
with the modern age. I couldn?t use vocals because that could be
wrongly interpretated by some countries. The last request they had was
that I could only play my own produced music. It was so difficult for
me to keep this big secret quiet because I wasn?t allowed to tell it
to anyone. [...]
The first rehearsal was on Saturday 7th august for an empty stadium.
That was pretty boring, the only excitement I had that night was when
I walked into the stadium the first time. I can imagine that if you
are an athlete, and you have trained for four years to get here you
must have an amazing feeling when you walk into the stadium the first
time.
The second rehearsal was on Sunday 8th august with 35.000 volunteers
in the stadium who all helped to make these Olympics happen. At that
night I already felt the excitement in the stadium when I was playing.
A lot of people recognized tracks like ?Traffic? and ?Adagio? and
there was a great atmosphere.
The last rehearsal with almost 60000 people in the stadium was on
Tuesday the 10th of august. That night I noticed a lot of mistakes, my
mixer broke down, the monitors dropped out a couple of times and also
the music in the stadium wasn?t continuously on the right volume.
Everybody was still very happy though because all the things that went
wrong were hardly noticeable for the audience and would be solved for
the big show on Friday.
Then the big day arrived, Friday the 13th, normally not a lucky day
for people who believe in that but for me it was. You can rehearse as
much as you like but when the real thing is on, it?s a totally
different vibe. I wasn?t really nervous but had some tension in my
body. I was more really excited. When I went on, I was so impressed by
the whole vibe of the stadium and by everything that happened around
me that I almost forgot to mix the second track in! It was amazing to
see all those countries with athletes passing my booth. For me it was
like a trip around the world in one night. Every country that passed
me and where I?ve been brought back great memories. The athletes were
waving, dancing, shooting pictures and filming so I had quit an
interaction with them which made it easier for me to play. [...] For
me, to be there playing right under the Olympic flame, uniting the
world with my music, is an experience I will never forget." (SOURCE:
Tiesto Homepage <http://website.tiesto.com/index1.html>).
Releases (according to official website):
========================================
Magik one/two/three/four/five/six/seven mix
In Search Of Sunrice one/two/three mix
Summerbreeze mix
Nyana mix
Ti?sto - All releases
Ti?sto - In My Memory artist album
Delerium - Silence/Innocente mix
Moby - We're all made of stars remix
Moby - Extreme ways remix
Dave Matthews Band - The space between remix
Kosheen - Hungry remix
Kane - Rain down on me remix
Skin - Faithfullness remix
You can listen to much of his music on his site, and also to his
productions from 1995 onwards!
Sites
=====
Saveall did not write this biography, but copied it, and since
copyrighted material might be deteletd from the site, you might want
to know about a possible source for this passage:
DJ Tiesto - Magik - First Flight
<http://www.xs4all.nl/~venkman/7f592375.html> (probably copied there
from DJ Magazine; also quoted in
<http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDCASS70312291458253056&sql=Bh2kmikpjbbc9>
and many other sites).
More biographies:
Maximum Rotation
<http://www.maximumrotation.com/artist/bio.php?ID=87>
Trance Site
<http://trance_site.tripod.com/trance_Djs/id3.html>
Dance Star USA
<http://www.dancestar.com/usa/features/tiesto.shtml>
AskMen
<http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview/11_dj_tiesto_interview.html> -
bio and interview, but pretty thin on both.
Sharon B., "Talking to a Legend - Interview with the world's Number 1
DJ - Ti?sto", HarderFaster,
<http://www.harderfaster.net/text/features/10678> - another interview,
pertty good one.
Famous DJs
<http://www.famousdjs.com/biographies/tiesto.htm>
Another good source is DJ Tiesto's official site:
Tiesto.com
<http://www.tiesto.com/>
I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it. Search terms:
"Tiesto", biography, discography, production, style, repertoire,
composition. |
