Brooks (DJ)

Thijs Westbroek aka Brooks

Brooks (born April 14, 1995 , bourgeois Thijs Westbroek ) is a Dutch DJ and music producer who is mainly active in the fields of future house and future bounce. Between 2017 and 2018 he gained through his work with the also Dutch producer Martin Garrix in songs such as Byte , Boomerang and Like I Do notoriety.

Career

Westbroek came to music through familiar paths. His cousin owned several music players as well as various CDs and vinyls that they grappled with during family celebrations. After they decided at some point to try producing a song, they downloaded a program and found great interest in it. Stylistically, he found himself in the field of hard style .

Through several contacts in the neighborhood and family, he was later able to establish a connection to the music management and label "2-Dutch Music Group". It was here that the Dutch DJ duo Showtek became aware of him in 2013 and gave him his first remix contracts. It all started with a reinterpretation of their song Booyah , which was released on " Spinnin 'Records " and had its first release. A remix for Cannonball and Sun Goes Down , both by Showtek, followed. At the same time, he also became known beyond the borders. This is how he came into contact with the Swiss producer duo DJ Antoine vs. Mad Mark as well as with the Israeli EDM group The Young Professionals.

In the summer of 2014 the Dutch DJ and producer Hardwell became aware of Brooks and presented the demo version of the song Get Down , which was sent to him and which was created in collaboration with Multiplayers, on his radio show " Hardwell On Air ". The song was signed by Deal Records and released as a single in April of the following year. At the same time he worked with the Dutch EDM duo Bassjackers . The result was the track Alamo , which was released in May 2015 via Showtek's “Skink Records”. The song became a festival success and was played by David Guetta , KSHMR and Martin Garrix at their live performances, among others . In an interview with the dance music portal "Tbhe Banging Beats" he said that the moment when he was part of the audience of the Flying Dutch Festival while Martin Garrix introduced the song Alamo was one of the most unforgettable moments of his career .

Later in 2015, Brooks signed a contract with the international music platform FutureHouseMusic, which secured the promotion and publication of the songs Pinball and If Only I Could . After Pinball had already given him reach with half a million views on YouTube, the successor was able to record around two million views and put him in the Beatport Top 100 for a second time after Alamo . Both songs were stylistically very different from his previous releases. While he was previously influenced by the big room genre, from now on he oriented himself towards a mixture of future house and future bounce.

After his contract with “FutureHouseMusic” expired in spring 2016, another solo release with Make Your Move was released on “2 Dutch Records” and the single Take Me Away, a collaboration with the Norwegian EDM producer Jonas Aden on Don Diablos Record label "Hexagon". With the Bassjackers he also produced a follow-up to the song Alamo . The result was the song Joyride , which was released in the spring of 2017 and made it to number one on the Beatport genre charts.

Also at the beginning of 2017 he tried to contact Martin Garrix via email. He sent a remix of the song Scared to Be Lonely by Garrix and singer Dua Lipa to 20 different email addresses that he could find on the Internet. Shortly thereafter, Garrix played this in one of his sets and contacted Brooks about a release of the remix on the Remix EP. At the same time as the release, the two producers met in the course of establishing Garrix's own record label “STMPD RCRDS” last year. Brooks signed a record deal and confirmed to be part of Martin Garrix's upcoming tour.

The song On our Own followed on March 31, 2017 , a collaboration with the Showtek brothers, who supported him significantly in his career. Westbroek said that he had been working on the song for a while and that Wouter, part of the duo, happened to hear him doing his studio work. He then contacted singer Natalie Major and produced Showtek and Brooks On our Own together . The single describes both his and Showtek's first production in the future bass genre.

After signing the record deal on Garrix 'label, the first collaboration between the two producers followed on April 7, 2017. This is called Byte and consists of two solo productions that the musicians have started. The song brought Brooks to the US dance charts for the first time and increased its popularity abruptly, especially on social media. Byte formed the intro of Garrix's sets until the following year .

Brooks live at the World Club Dome Winter Edition 2017

In September 2017 Brooks presented another future house single. This is called Jetlag and was created in collaboration with the Dutch future bounce producer Mike Williams . The title reached the top of the Beatport genre chart. The two musicians, who can be seen as pilots, also shot a music video. His second collaboration with Martin Garrix followed just a month later. This is called Boomerang and is based on an original collaboration with the EDM project Breathe Carolina and producer Pillface that was never released.

With the track Like I Do , the third collaboration with Martin Garrix followed on February 2, 2018. The French DJ and producer David Guetta , who produced the demo solo and saved it on his laptop, also worked here. In addition to a large team of songwriters, the Norwegian producer trio Stargate also contributed to the vocals. The track became a commercial success and reached a position in many music charts worldwide.

On May 25, 2017 Brooks presented the solo title Lynx , which was previously presented as a mash-up with titanium by David Guetta, among others . After the success of Like I Do , he took part in the track Blame It on Love , which was found on David Guetta's seventh studio album 7 . The vocals were contributed by the American singer Madison Beer . Limbo with Zoë Moss was released in a similar style on November 16, 2018

On February 8, 2019, Brooks released the song Better When You're Gone . Here he worked a third time with David Guetta. The US pop duo Loote was also used here. The result was premiered for the first time in a slightly different version together at Tomorrowland 2018.

Discography

Singles

Chart placements

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
year	Title album	DE	AT	CH	UK	Dance	NL	Remarks
2018	Like I Do 7	DE23 gold (18 weeks)DE	AT20th gold (13 weeks)AT	CH22 (15 weeks) CH	UK29 silver (15 weeks)UK	Dance8 (20 weeks) Dance	NL13 (13 weeks) NL	First published: February 22nd, 2018 with David Guetta and Martin Garrix
2019	Better When You're Gone	DE59 (3 weeks) DE	AT70 (1 week) AT	CH51 (1 week) CH	-	Dance25 (16 weeks) Dance	-	First published: February 7, 2019 with David Guetta and Loote

2015:

Get Down (with multiplayers )
Alamo (with bassjackers )
Pinball

2016:

Make your move
If only I could
Hold It Down ( feat.Micah Martin )
Take Me Away (with Jonas Aden )

2017:

Joyride (with Bassjackers )
On Our Own (with Showtek feat. Natalie Major )
Byte (with Martin Garrix )
Jetlag (with Mike Williams )
Boomerang (with GRX )

2018:

Lynx
Limbo (feat.Zoe Moss)

2019:

Riot (with Jonas Aden)
Waiting for Love (feat. Alida )

2020:

Say a Little Prayer (feat.Gia Koka)
Voices with KSHMR (feat.TZAR)
Long Time (with Mesto)

Remixes

2013: Showtek feat. We Are Loud & Sonny Wilson - Booyah
2013: DJ Antoine vs. Mad Mark - Crazy World
2014: Showtek & Justin Prime feat. Matthew Koma - Cannonball (Earthquake)
2014: The Young Professionals feat. Eva Simons - Let's Do It Right
2015: Gigo'n'Migo - Stand by You
2015: David Guetta & Showtek feat. MAGIC! & Sonny Wilson - Sun Goes Down
2016: Morgan Page feat. Angelika Vee - Safe Till Tomorrow
2016: IZECOLD feat. Molly Ann - Close
2017: Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared to Be Lonely
2017: Gryffin & Illenium feat. Daya - Feel Good
2017: Zayn feat. Sia - Dusk Till Dawn
2018: Martin Garrix feat. Mike Yung - Dreamer
2019: Estelle feat. Kanye West - American Boy

Awards for music sales

Golden record

Denmark Denmark
- 2018: for the single Like I Do
France France
- 2018: for the single Like I Do

Paltin formwork panel

Italy Italy
- 2019: for the single Like I Do
Canada Canada
- 2019: for the single Like I Do
Poland Poland
- 2019: for the single Like I Do

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Denmark (IFPI)	0! S.-	gold1	0! P-	45,000	ifpi.dk
Germany (BVMI)	0! S.-	gold1	0! P-	200,000	musikindustrie.de
France (SNEP)	0! S.-	gold1	0! P-	100,000	snepmusique.com
Italy (FIMI)	0! S.-	0! G-	platinum1	70,000	fimi.it
Canada (MC)	0! S.-	0! G-	platinum1	80,000	musiccanada.com
Austria (IFPI)	0! S.-	gold1	0! P-	15,000	ifpi.at
Poland (ZPAV)	0! S.-	0! G-	platinum1	20,000	bestsellery.zpav.pl
United Kingdom (BPI)	silver1	0! G-	0! P-	200,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	silver1	4 × gold4th	3 × platinum3

Web links

supporting documents

↑ Danouschka de Haas: Brooks is klaar om zichzelf aan de wereld te laten zien on "This Is Our House"
↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/EDM/comments/836nsk/this_is_brooks_ama/
↑ musicbybrooks: Signing some stuff? on " Instagram "
↑ https://www.billboard.com/music/brooks
↑ Rajrishi murthi: Interview With Brooks! on "The Banging Beat"
↑ ^a ^b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US NL

personal data
SURNAME	Brooks
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Westbroek, Thijs (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch DJ and music producer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 14, 1995

[1] Danouschka de Haas: Brooks is klaar om zichzelf aan de wereld te laten zien on "This Is Our House"

[2] ttps://www.reddit.com/r/EDM/comments/836nsk/this_is_brooks_ama/

[3] usicbybrooks: Signing some stuff? on " Instagram "

[4] ttps://www.billboard.com/music/brooks

[5] Rajrishi murthi: Interview With Brooks! on "The Banging Beat"

[charts-6] Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US NL