As the 17th of January passes, Tijs Michiel Verwest, best known under his DJ-name: Tiësto, celebrates his 50th birthday. And it has been quite a few years since I last acknowledged this man for being a huge influence on my life, and dancemusic in general. But with Tiësto walking the earth for half a century now, it probably is the right time to pay a little tribute to this man, who formed the base of the DJ and producer I am today.
It must have been almost 25 years ago, when I sat down behind my first cassette recorder, listening to the local radio and pressing the record-button whenever I heard something nice. I remember having an early preference for electronic music, mainly Eurodance, as that was the electronic music hitting the charts in those days. I cannot exactly recall why it was that way, but I know now that my father especially, enjoyed a lot of synthesizer music, from Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre to Mike Oldfield. Maybe I inherited some of his taste.
As the BPM's sped up in the years after, I automatically got dragged into Rave and Happy Hardcore music. But I developed a taste for slower tracks besides that. Tracks like Chicane - Offshore and Future Breeze - Why Don't You Dance With Me caught my attention and legendary tunes like Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar and Niels van Gogh - Pulverturm made me aware of a club-scene, where DJ's played all night and where new music could be discovered. That was 1998.
Shortly after that, a local guy from the Dutch city of Breda was invited to play his biggest gig yet as a DJ. On February 20th 1999, Tiësto closed the mainstage of the very first Innercity party, a massive get-together for approximately 10.000 people in Amsterdam. It was the performance that changed his life, and mine in a way as well.
As I was too young to witness it live, I cannot tell a wonderful story where everything felt into place, I bursted out in tears, and knew I found my destiny, right there in the middle of the dancefloor, while Tiësto pumped his energetic trance through the massive hall of the Amsterdam RAI. But, as always with destiny, it finds you somehow. Back then I made a usual weekly visit to the local 'Musicstore', to scour the newly released CD's, and spend the main part of my earnings as a paperboy. A few weeks after this (to me still unknown) event, it was no different.
As I was standing at the counter, listening to some of the new releases, the recordshop owner (his name was René) handed me a CD as recommendation to listen to. The sleeve was black and blue, and a large silver icon decorated the middle. 'DJ Tiësto Live At Innercity' it read. As 'DJ' printed on a CD-sleeve meanwhile was enough reason for me to listen to a record, I asked him to put it on. And somehow, on that day, in the middle of a local recordstore, I felt something I never felt before. It was something tearing my heart to pieces, making me gasp for air, made me feel the tears burning behind my eyelids, sending shivers and goosebumps all over my body! It was joy, beauty, sadness, excitement all in one. It was an unexplainable emotion that took over, right then, right there...
That day I discovered Trance. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before. I didn't know any of the tracks, I didn't know who Tiësto was, but I knew I found something of which I didn't know I had missed it. And despite playing that CD daily, for the next few months, I had an incredible hunger to discover more. And as most of those tracks released on vinyl, shortly after that I made the switch to the mighty 12 inch, and bought myself some crappy turntables.
The influence of Tiësto in the early days of my DJ-career was huge. I discovered he ran his own label Black Hole Recordings, and especially the In Trance We Trust sub-label was something I bought releases from instantly. I searched credits for T. Verwest, and discovered a lot of his side-projects and remixes that way too. Because of that I eventually found Communication by Armin, and as Armin Van Buuren became somewhat of a role model for me in the years after, I have to credit Tiësto here as well. I probably wouldn't have discovered Armin that early without Tiësto's music, and it wouldn't have shaped me the way it did now, as a producer and DJ. But I save that one for another story...
In recent years, Tiësto has been discredited very often. Despite the man has been a world number one DJ three times in a row, has several global hits, and still spins at the biggest clubs and events everywhere. And I admit, I had a hard time with his step away from trance as well. Despite he did it very slowly. Up 'til his Kaleidoscope album, his music still was highly trance influenced. Eventually, 'A Town Called Paradise', released in 2014, was the first Tiësto-album I did not buy, and I never enjoyed any of his releases ever since. But I could hardly blame him. He often told in interviews that he wanted something else, and in trance, the guy had reached anything imaginable, including a DJ-set at the Summer Olympics. He felt it was time for a change. Not one I wanted to see, but one good for him.
Tiësto, to me, will always have a legendary status. The man delivered some of the best livesets I have ever witnessed, including his first 'Tiësto In Concert'. The memories to that are incredible. And his trancemusic isn't gone. I still enjoy the tracks and compilations from his trance past. Oh yes, I know the stories of him being ghost-produced. Well, maybe I enjoy the tracks from his trancey ghost-producer than. But it doesn't change the fact that Tiësto was the DJ who made me discover it, made me dig through crates of vinyl in an Amsterdam recordstore basement and made me long for a career as a Trance DJ and producer myself.
Maybe one day he has enough of all the commercial EDM-stuff. Maybe one day love comes again for the sound that made him big. I don't count on it, but it would be an incredible gift. But even if that day never comes, I will never forget what his influence has been on my musical life. And probably on a lot of others who don't talk about it anymore, as well. Let's be a bit more careful before anyone decides to burn down someone with such an incredible career. Myself included.
Tijs, I hope you will be part of the electronic music scene for a long time to come, and in good health. You are a legend, and you always will be...
If you want to hear what influence Tiësto and the classic trancesound has on my own productions, check them out here: https://choon.co/artists/marcosvarda
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/6197-DJ-Tiësto
Innercity (Dutch): https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innercity
Spotify Live At Innercity album: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Q5zfrA9QpDNhLZykls1ls
