Alan Walker (music producer)
Alan Olav Walker (born August 24, 1997 in Northampton , Northamptonshire , England ) is a British - Norwegian EDM DJ and music producer who became known in late 2015 for the single Faded and also produces under the pseudonym DJ Walkzz . In addition to his work in the studio, he has also been a DJ since 2016 and started his first world tour in the same year.
Career
Until 2014: musical beginnings & NCS
The son of a British and a Norwegian woman moved with his family from Great Britain to Norway at the age of two and now lives in the Bergen district of Fana . Walker started producing music and remixes in July 2012 as DJ Walkzz and Alan Walker . He himself offered these pieces of music for streaming on Soundcloud , YouTube & Spotify . Releases did not follow due to a lack of a record deal, among other things. At that time he was still active in the areas of trance , hardstyle and hands-up music. With the song Something new… , which he uploaded to SoundCloud on May 20, 2014, he released a production that was stylistically realigned. The tempo of the song was reduced to below 100 bpm and the entire sound design acted differently. The tracks X and Chill , which were released between May and July 2014, followed on from this style. On August 17, 2014, he released the song Fade on SoundCloud and YouTube. To this end, he let it be noted that his style was based on the producers K-391 and Ahrix, who were under contract with the record label NoCopyrightSounds .
A few months after the release of Fade , the label NoCopyrightSounds, which legalized the free use of the following productions, but still made single releases on online music services , noticed Walker and signed him. It also ensured that the track was released on several streaming platforms. The instrumental piece quickly developed into a great success. It had several million streams on Spotify and several million clicks on YouTube. With Fade he showed a new style that had stronger influences from progressive and electro house. The follow-ups Force and Specter were able to build on the success in various streaming portals and showed a much faster pace than their predecessor.
2015: Contract with Sony & Faded
In August 2015 he gave his first concert. In mid-2015, due to the tremendous success of Fade , Walker signed a deal with Sony Music for a more popular single release. For the planned vocal version , he brought the Norwegian singer Iselin Solheim into the studio. This style of music, a slow type of electro house , was from the newspaper Verdens Gang with that of Kygo compared.
On November 25, 2015, the reproduction of the song Fade was released under the title Faded . The song was in the Norwegian and Swedish and 2016 in the Finnish , Austrian , Swiss and German single charts number one reach. In Germany, Faded set a new record with 3.69 million streaming views within a week at the end of February 2016. In addition, Faded achieved the status of the most successful single from Norway in April 2016.
2016: Ongoing success with Sing Me to Sleep & Alone
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On June 3, 2016, Walker released the single Sing Me to Sleep . Even with Sing Me to Sleep Solheim contributed the vocals. Before the single was released, a promotion was started in which parts of the song were played backwards and uploaded to YouTube. In the first week, the song made it into the German, Norwegian and British single charts.
With the release of the deluxe version of her album This Is Acting on October 21, 2016, Walker also released a remix of Sia's song Move Your Body . He emphasized in an interview that he was trying to do something different with his own personal sound, and for the first time in a long time he was producing at a speed of over 120 BPM.
The instrumental piece Routine was released on November 30, 2016 . This was created together with David Whistle, with whom he had already worked as DJ Walkzz & DJ Ness. The second track of the single was a "Gamers Mix", which is a one-hour loop. In addition, its title is designed as r0ut1n3 in the Leetspeak style. After the production initially received very little attention, it was released again as a free track on December 26, 2016.
On December 1, 2016, he released the single Alone . This promised another commercial success with over 10 million views on YouTube within three days. The song entered the charts of several download platforms within a very short time and was able to advance into the top 100 in the first week in Sweden and Germany, among others. In terms of style, Alone follows on from its predecessors, but was the first Alan Walker track to be sung not by Iselin Solheim, but by the Swedish singer-songwriter Noonie Bao , who is known for her Aviciis and Nicky Romero's I Could Be the One . By January 2017, the song moved into the top 5 in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, among others, and up to number one in Austria, Finland and Norway.
2017: single releases
Together with singer and actress Sofia Carson he produced the song Back to Beautiful , which was released as a single on January 27, 2017. In this he is not named as an artist, but he was specified as a remix artist in advance. In retrospect, he was listed as a featuring artist on YouTube, among other places. At the same time, Walker released a remix of the song After the Afterparty by Charli XCX and Lil Yachty .
During the spring, Walker's YouTube channel reached 4.5 million subscribers and 1.3 billion views, making him the most clicked as well as the most subscribed Norwegian YouTuber . On March 30, 2017, Faded reached a billion clicks on YouTube.
On April 10, 2017, Alan Walker released the instrumental version of the song Ignite . This was developed in cooperation with K-391. The title acts as a promotional song for Sony and its new product, the Sony Xperia XZs . The promotion campaign was carried out accordingly from their side. So the listeners were asked to find codes in the published teasers. The song's drop is based on the K-391 single Godzilla .
On April 29, 2017, a trailer for his documentary series "Unmasked" was released. The first part of the documentary was released on May 27, 2017. In this series, Walker wants to show his musical path from the beginning and share it with his fans.
On May 5, 2017, a remix for Issues by Julia Michaels was released by Walker .
Two weeks later the track Tired was released . The song is sung by the Irish musician Gavin James . With the exception of Norway, the song could not match the success of its predecessors and only moved to the bottom of the German and Swiss single charts, among others. In the airplay, however, the song received more attention. Kygo released a remix for the song.
Future Music Magazine uploaded a video on their YouTube channel at the end of May 2017, in which you can see them accompanying Alan Walker during a studio session. Walker explains how he and his co-producer Mood Melodies produced the song Alone . Walker seems very insecure in the video and conveys a lack of plan or helplessness, whereas Melodies was able to convey the production process in great detail. As a result, there was a shitstorm-like appearance of criticism, in which he received accusations from fans, forums and online magazines that he would not produce his songs himself. Other voices disproved these statements on the grounds that Walker said in previous FAQs that he would produce with FL Studio , while in the video the production is carried out with the Cubase program . Both programs are fundamentally different from each other.
Another instrumental song was released on June 6, 2017. With the title Sky , the collaboration with Alex Skrindo formed part of a compilation album of the label "Insomniac Records". The song could be heard in advance at several live performances.
On September 13, 2017, Walker uploaded a trailer for World of Walker on his YouTube channel. What exactly is behind it is still unclear. The trailer is accompanied by the original vocal version of the instrumental version of Ignite released in April 2017 .
On September 15, 2017, Walker released the long-awaited song The Specter . This embodies a reproduction of his song Specter from 2015. The reproduction differs on the one hand through numerous changes to the instrumental as well as added vocals by Jesper Borgen . A teaser was published the day before. The official music video had a million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours.
The second episode of his documentary series Unmasked was released on September 23, 2017 .
On October 23, 2017, he released a trailer for his new single All Falls Down , which was released on October 27, 2017. It is a cooperation with Noah Cyrus and Digital Farm Animals . It forms Walker's fourth number one hit in Norway and his sixth place in the German singles charts.
On October 31, 2017, Riot Games released the Alan Walker Remix for their League of Legends World Championship anthem Legends Never Die , which formed a cooperation with Against the Current . Together with their front singer Chrissy Costanza , he presented the track at the League of Legends World Championship 2017 in the Beijing National Stadium and at Coachella 2018.
His remix for Aviciis and Rita Ora's song Lonely Together was released on November 17th . Two weeks later, the remix was followed to Strongest of Ina Wroldsen .
2018: Single releases and debut album Different World
In 2018, Walker became the top YouTuber in Norway with 17 million subscribers. On January 16, 2018, in an interview with "Fuse", Walker revealed that he wanted to release a studio album at the end of the year. He also announced that the work was “still in full swing”. He could "not say much about the collaborations yet", but he would be really "excited to present them".
In 2018 he went on tour with Kygo and Blackbear, among others .
On May 11, 2018, Walker and Norwegian music producer K-391 released the vocal version of the previous year's instrumental piece Ignite . The voices are from the Norwegian singer Julie Bergan and the South Korean singer Seungri . The music video was released on May 12, 2018 on the YouTube channel by lead artist K-391 and is currently around 200 million views. The single was able to bring Walker to the top of the Norwegian singles charts for a fifth time and reached double platinum status with 20,000 units sold.
On July 27, 2018, Walker released the song Darkside , which was performed in collaboration with Ibiza-born Au / Ra and Norwegian singer Tomine Harket , daughter of a-ha front man Morten Harket . After Ignite , this song also reached number one in his home country. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland he also entered the top 100.
On August 30, 2018, Alan Walker released a re-lift version of the track Sheep by singer Lay, a member of the Korean-Chinese boy group Exo .
On September 28, 2018, the song Diamond Heart followed , sung by the Swedish singer Sophia Somajo . While the single in Germany and Austria, like its predecessor, placed in the lower half, in Switzerland it moved up to 12th place. In Norway, the single reached the top as the fourth release.
On November 16, 2018, Walker broadcast a live stream on his YouTube channel in which he called on viewers to click on three links. On the following website you were presented with a series of puzzles that you had to solve in order to unlock an announcement. When all links were completed and 100% achieved, a video was shown in which he announced that he would do his Different World Tour in America in 2019 . On November 30, 2018, his single Different World was released , which was created in collaboration with Sofia Carson and K-391, with whom he has already collaborated several times.
His first studio album, Different World , was released on December 14, 2018 , which includes the songs that led to his breakthrough as well as a number of new songs, including collaborations with Steve Aoki and Trevor Guthrie .
2019: Cooperation with PUBG Mobile
On March 21, 2019, Walker released the song On My Way , which is a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter and Farruko . The track served as the soundtrack of the sixth season of the US battle royale mobile game PUBG Mobile and could be selected as background music in the so-called lobby of the game. He and the duo presented a remix by the Norwegian hardstyle duo Da Tweekaz at various festivals.
Live Fast (PUBGM) followed on June 25, 2019 with rapper A $ AP Rocky as a feature track of the eighth season of the game. As a result of the cooperation, Alan Walker performed live at the PMCO Spring Split Global Finals in Berlin. The tracks On My Way and Live Fast (PUBGM) can also be heard in the game after the end of the respective season. Skins and clothing with the Alan Walker logo were also added during the seasons .
On August 17, 2019, Alan Walker announced that he would publish a remake of the title Eurodancer by the Swedish DJ and producer DJ Mangoo from 2000 together with K-391 and Martin Tungevaag . On August 30, 2019, the song Play was released as the final result. On the website p74y.com you could then download the audio files of the song and produce your own version of the song. K-391, Tungevaag and Alan Walker each selected an interpretation from the results, revised it and released it as part of an official remix EP.
His Aviation Tour began on October 27, 2019, where he appeared for the first time with a band.
On November 2, 2019, the song Avem ( Latin for bird ) followed, which Alan Walker dedicated to his Aviation Tour and his mobile phone game Alan Walker-The Aviation Game . Five days after the release of Avem , Walker took part in the single Ghost by singer Au / Ra, which was inspired by the video game Death Stranding: Timefall .
On December 18, 2019, the Norwegian started the project The Walker Excavations on his website . A game full of puzzles and Easter Eggs with teasers on new upcoming music and content. On December 27, 2019, he released the single Alone, Pt. II , which was a collaboration with the American singer Ava Max . Thematically, the track does not follow on from his song Alone , as the title suggests , but on On My Way . At the live premiere at 9 a.m. (CET), 30,000 spectators were present at the same time.
2020: End of Time
On March 6, 2020, Walker released End of Time, another collaboration with K-391. Furthermore, the Dutch producer Ahrix participated in the creation. On April 1st, 2020 he released the song Heading Home , which is sung by the Norwegian singer Ruben Markussen . On May 15, 2020, he and Hans Zimmer released a new version of his instrumental piece Time , which Zimmer composed and produced in 2010 for the soundtrack of the film Inception . His remix of Selfish by Madison Beer was released on May 28th . The following day he appeared as a guest at the virtual Golden Hour Festival , where Kygo presented his album, which was released on the same day.
Public appearance
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When performing, Alan Walker always wears a scarf that covers his face from nose down. Furthermore, he always wears a hoodie with the hood pulled over his face. Besides him there are often a lot of other people in the same look on stage, often with their backs turned towards the audience. The Walker logo is shown on this. Both the scarf and the hoodie became the musician's trademarks. He himself said in an interview with "It's All About The Music":
“Well, it [anonymity] isn't the most important thing in the world to me. I just think it's really cool to be covered and have some kind of artist image because that's all you need. "
However, the masking does not act to the same extent as in the case of Marshmello or Cro , who attach great importance to fundamentally remaining undetected. Walker regularly posts pictures in social networks on which he can be seen without a cloth, conducts interviews without masking and can also be fully recognized in numerous photo sessions.
Furthermore, he declares to be a fan of the computer game , as well as the hacking and anonymous scene. He reflects this on the one hand in his music videos and on the other hand on his website. In particular, the visual design of the official YouTube upload of the song Routine alludes to these issues. In the music video for Alone , a website through which the “Walkers” communicate plays a major role. This website can actually be found at “W41k3r.com”, the spelling of which is inspired by Leetspeak .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
Dance
|
 NO
|
 SE
|
|||
| 2018 | Different world |
DE39 (5 weeks) DE |
AT59 (4 weeks) AT |
CH15 (26 weeks) CH |
- |
US-  |
Dance2 (... weeks) Dance |
NO1  × 3
(… Where.)NO |
SE15 (... weeks) SE |
First published: December 14, 2018
Sales: + 730,000 |
Awards
| year | Award | category | plant | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Gullsnutten | Music of the year | Alan Walker | Won |
| MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Norwegian Act | Alan Walker | Won | |
| P3 Gull | Newcomer of the year | Alan Walker | Nominated | |
| Song of the year | Faded | Nominated | ||
| Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity | Entertainment for Music: Silver | Faded | Won | |
|
EBBA Awards (from Eurosonic Noorderslag ) |
European Border Breakers Award | Alan Walker | Won | |
| 2017 | Public Choice Award | Alan Walker | Won | |
| Spellemann prizes | Song of the year 2016 | Faded | Won | |
| Brit Awards | British single of the year | Nominated | ||
| KKBox Music Awards | Artist of the year | Alan Walker | Won | |
| Song of the year | Faded | Won | ||
| 2019 | Spellemann prizes | Spellemann of the year 2018 |
swell
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Best Songs We Heard This Week: Jeremih, The 1975, Alan Walker + More. In: Popcrush.com. Retrieved December 21, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c Er Alan Walker den nye Kygo? In: Vg.no. Verdens Gang , accessed December 21, 2015 (Norwegian).
- ↑ Fanas nye Kygo he splits 17 million ganger. In: Nrk.no. Norsk rikskringkasting , accessed December 21, 2015 (Norwegian).
- ↑ Alan Walker etta på Spotify. In: Mynewsdesk.com. Mynewsdesk, accessed December 21, 2015 (Swedish).
- ↑ Top 20 Single uke 51, 2015 ( Memento from September 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Alan Walker. In: Swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien , accessed December 21, 2015 .
- ↑ Alan Walker's "Faded" overtakes Adele's "Hello" with 3.69 million streams in one week ( memento of the original from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Martina Gabric, Musikmarkt, March 2, 2016
- ↑ a b Arian: Alan Walker in an IAATM exclusive telephone interview
- ↑ SofiaCarsonVEVO: Sofia Carson - Back to Beautiful (Official Video) ft. Alan Walker on "YouTube"
- ↑ ALAN WALKER'S FADED JUST REACHED ONE BILLION YOUTUBE VIEWS on "EDM Sauce"
- ↑ Timo Büschleb: 'Sony Xperia XZ promotional song': Alan Walker feat. K-391 - Ignite on " Dance Charts "
- ↑ Future Music Magazine: The Track: Alan Walker & Mood Melodies on creating Alone on "YouTube"
- ↑ Patrick Butz: Own goal: Alan Walker: Shitstorm due to ghost production on " Dance Charts "
- ↑ Reddit Users Call Alan Walker Out for Using a Ghost Producer on "EDM Sauce"
- ↑ LoL Esports. Retrieved August 17, 2018 (American English).
- ↑ Alan Walker x A $ AP Rocky - Live Fast (PUBGM) | Lyric video. Retrieved August 8, 2019 .
- ↑ PMCO Global Finals Day 1 | Vivo | PUBG MOBILE CLUB OPEN. Retrieved August 8, 2019 .
- ^ Alan Walker - On My Way & Live Fast (Live at #PUBGMobile # PMCO2019 in Berlin). Retrieved August 8, 2019 .
- ↑ p74y.com - Eurodancer: Alan Walker, K-391, Tungevaag & Mangoo. Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Alan Walker, K-391, Tungevaag, Mangoo - PLAY (Tungevaag x Anklebreaker, B2A Remix). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Alan Walker, K-391, Tungevaag, Mangoo - PLAY (Alan Walker's Video). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Alan Walker, K-391, Tungevaag, Mangoo - PLAY (Alan Walker x Niya Remix). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ↑ K-391, Alan Walker, Tungevaag, Mangoo - PLAY (K-391 x NORDA Remix). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Alan Walker: Aviation Tour (Trailer # 1). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ^ Alan Walker-The Aviation Game. Retrieved December 27, 2019 (American English).
- ^ Alan Walker - The Aviation Game (trailer). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Alan Walker - Avem (The Aviation Theme). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ^ Au / Ra, Alan Walker - Ghost (Official Video). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ^ The Walker Excavations. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
- ^ The Walker Excavations (new online experience). Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
- ^ Alan Walker & Ava Max - Alone, Pt. II. Accessed December 27, 2019 (German).
Web links
- Official website
- Alan Walker's channel on YouTube
- Alan Walker at SoundCloud
- Alan Walker in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Alan Walker on Spotify
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Walker, Alan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Walker, Alan Olav (full name); DJ Walkzz (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Norwegian music producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 24, 1997 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Northampton , Northamptonshire , England , UK |