Armand Van Helden

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Armand Van Helden on April 16, 2004 in the Forum in Trier

Armand Van Helden (* 16th February 1970 in Boston ) is an American House - DJ and - producer .

life and career

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
2 Future 4 U EP
  UK 92 12/12/1998 (1 week)
2 Future 4 U
  UK 22nd 
silver
silver
04/10/1999 (7 weeks)
Killing Puritans
  UK 38 06/10/2000 (2 weeks)
You Don't Know Me: The Best of
  UK 41 04/10/2008 (2 weeks)
Singles
The Funk Phenomena
  DE 51 01/20/1997 (13 weeks)
  UK 38 03/08/1997 (3 weeks)
Witch doctor
  UK 79 08/23/1997 (1 week)
Ultrafunkula
  UK 46 11/08/1997 (2 weeks)
You Don't Know Me (feat. Duane Harden )
  DE 40 03/15/1999 (9 weeks)
  CH 16 02/28/1999 (13 weeks)
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 
gold
gold
02/06/1999 (16 weeks)
Flowerz (feat. Roland Clark )
  UK 18th 02/13/1999 (6 weeks)
Koochy
  UK 4th 05/20/2000 (9 weeks)
Why Can't You Free Some Time for Me
  UK 34 11/03/2001 (2 weeks)
You Can't Change Me ( Roger Sanchez feat. Armand Van Helden & N'Dea Davenport )
  CH 86 12/09/2001 (2 weeks)
Hear My Name ( feat.Spalding Rockwell )
  DE 84 06/28/2004 (5 weeks)
  UK 34 05/01/2004 (9 weeks)
My My My
  UK 12 
gold
gold
09/11/2004 (47 weeks)
Into Your Eyes
  UK 48 07/02/2005 (3 weeks)
When the lights go down
  UK 70 10/01/2005 (1 week)
NYC beat
  UK 22nd 05/12/2007 (18 weeks)
I want your soul
  UK 19th 09/01/2007 (13 weeks)
Bonkers (with Dizzee Rascal )
  DE 58 07/03/2009 (7 weeks)
  AT 26th 07/03/2009 (18 weeks)
  CH 88 07/05/2009 (1 week)
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 
platinum
platinum
05/30/2009 (37 weeks)

Armand Van Helden is of multinational descent: his father was Dutch of Indonesian descent, his mother is of French and Lebanese descent. Since his father was with the US Air Force , Van Helden traveled around the world as a child, spending a lot of time in the Netherlands , Turkey and Italy . At the age of 13 he bought a drum computer and two years later he made his first steps as a DJ.

In 1988 he returned to Boston and performed part-time in various clubs. After three years he devoted himself entirely to music. As a remixer he had a job in the Loft , a leading Boston club. A mix of Deep Creed's Stay on My Mind became its first release. In 1992 the record Move It to the Left was released on the Strictly Rhythm label under the name Sultans of Swing . It became a club hit.

Armand Van Helden made his worldwide breakthrough in 1994 with the track Witch Doctor . It reached number 5 on the US dance charts.

In the following years he received remix orders from famous artists such as New Order , Jimmy Somerville and Faithless . His rendition of Tori Amos ' song Professional Widow met with great success and became a number one hit in the UK. As a result, he was also hired by the Rolling Stones and Janet Jackson .

Armand Van Helden also runs the hip-hop project AV8 . The name AV8 is derived from Armand Van Helden's initials, eight stands for the eighth letter in the alphabet (H), but can also be pronounced in English as aviate (verb for aviation) “take off”.

In 1996 the first album Old School Junkies was released . With the released single The Funk Phenomena (based on a sample of the song How High by the hip-hop duo Method Man & Redman ) he had worldwide success. At the end of January 1999 Armand Van Helden again reached number one on the British charts with his single You Don't Know Me , a co-production with dance vocalist Duane Harden .

In 2007 Armand Van Helden released his album Ghettoblaster , from which the singles NYC Beat and I Want Your Soul were released. Both songs made it into the top 20 of the British charts. The song I Want Your Soul contains an audio sample of the single Do You Want Right Now by the American R&B singer Siedah Garrett , which was released in 1985. In addition, the song I Want Your Soul contains a musical excerpt from the single Everything Counts by the synth-pop group Depeche Mode, which was released in 1983.

Together with Dizzee Rascal , he had his third hit at the top of the UK charts with the title Bonkers in 2009 .

Since 2009 he has also been running the joint music project Duck Sauce together with the DJ and producer A-Trak . It was founded in New York in 2009.

They had their first hit in 2009 with aNYway , which became a top 40 hit in several European countries. In 2010, the piece named after the American singer Barbra Streisand followed . It uses the song Gotta Go Home by Boney M. as a sample , which in turn is based on the song Hallo Bimmelbahn by Nighttrain . The hookline was composed by Heinz Huth from Berlin . The Boney-M version was produced by German producer and singer Frank Farian and the night train version by Michael Holm . Duck Sauce thus achieved first place in Austria , Switzerland and Belgium ( Flanders and Wallonia ) and third place in Great Britain and Germany . The duo is also successful in Australia and New Zealand .

Production method

Armand Van Helden can neither read notes properly nor can he master a classical instrument. He took his first steps as a producer with a Roland W-30 workstation .

His preferred tools are virtual effects such as Guitar Rig from Native Instruments and AmpliTube from IK Multimedia . Both VST plugins simulate the basic characteristics of guitar amplifiers. For bass figures he uses a bass guitar from the Fender company , the sounds of which he records step by step and processes them with the help of software and hardware. Armand Van Helden uses Pro Tools .

Discography

Albums

  • 1996: Old School Junkies: The Album
  • 1997: Da Club Phenomena
  • 1997: Live from Ya Mother's House
  • 1997: Enter the Meatmarket
  • 1998: Sampleslaya
  • 1999: 2Future4U
  • 2000: Killing Puritans
  • 2002: Egyptian Magician
  • 2002: Gandhi Khan
  • 2004: New York: A Mix Odyssey
  • 2005: Nympho
  • 2007: boom box
  • 2008: New York: A Mix Odyssey 2
  • 2016: Extra Dimensional

Singles

  • 1994: The Witch Doctor
  • 1995: Mecca toast
  • 1995: Break from the 80's
  • 1995: Work me gaddamit
  • 1996: The Funk Phenomena
  • 1998: You Don't Know Me
  • 2000: Full moon
  • 2000: Koochy
  • 2000: Little black spiders
  • 2001: Why can't U free sometimes
  • 2001: You Can't Change Me
  • 2005: Hear My Name
  • 2005: My My My
  • 2005: Into Your Eyes
  • 2006: When the Lights Go Down in Your Town
  • 2007: I Want Your Soul
  • 2007: NYC Beat
  • 2008: Je t'aime
  • 2008: Shake That Ass
  • 2009: Bonkers ( feat.Dizzee Rascal )
  • 2009: The Funk Phenomena 2009
  • 2009: aNYway (as " Duck Sauce " with A-Trak )
  • 2010: ADD SUV Uffie & Pharrell Williams (Remix)
  • 2010: Barbra Streisand (as "Duck Sauce" with A-Trak)
  • 2010: Brrrat! (feat. Steve Aoki )
  • 2014: Old School Junkies
  • 2016: Wings
  • 2017: Fried Chicken (with Komes)
  • 2020: Give Me Your Loving (feat.Lorne)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK1 UK2 UK3
  2. ↑ a b Music Sales Awards: UK
  3. ↑ a b Interview at Remixmag.com ( Memento from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Interview at dancemusic.com ( Memento from April 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Duck sauce
Studio albums

Quack (2014)

Extended plays

Greatest Hits (2010)

Singles

aNYway (2009) • Barbra Streisand (2010) • Big Bad Wolf (2011) • It's You (2013)

personal data
SURNAME Van Helden, Armand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American DJ and record producer
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts , USA