Armand van Helden

Armand van Helden

Armand van Helden is a house and electronic music artist and remixer from Boston and Manhattan. Born in 1970, he begins DJing as a teenager and builds a career that spans club records, remix work and collaborative projects across dance music. His work is associated with house, bassline, club, dance, deep house, disco, drum and bass and trance.

Early life and start in music

Van Helden is born in Boston to a Dutch-Indonesian father and a French-Lebanese mother. As a child, he travels widely because his father serves in the US Air Force, spending time in the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy before returning to Boston in 1988. He buys a drum machine at 13 and starts DJing two years later. He also studies at Boston University and works in legal review before leaving that job in 1989 to focus on remixing and production.

Early remixes and club releases

His early work includes remixing and re-editing records for Mega-Mixx Productions DJ Remix Service, including Shawn Christopher’s “Another Sleepless Night”. He also works at The Loft, a leading nightclub in Boston. After Mega-Mixx ends in early 1991, he, Neil Petricone and Tony Zeoli launch X-Mix Productions later that year.

In 1992 he releases his first official single, “Stay On My Mind”, under the name Deep Creed on Nervous Records. That same year he releases “Move It to the Left” as Sultans of Swing on Strictly Rhythm, which becomes a moderate club hit. His first track to enter the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart is “Witch Doktor”, which reaches the top five in 1994.

Remix work and breakthrough

The success of “Witch Doktor” leads to remix work for a wide range of artists, including The Real McCoy, New Order, Blondie, Cappella, Lightning Seeds, Deep Forest, Jimmy Somerville, Deee-Lite and Faithless. He also remixes The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Puff Daddy, Daft Punk and the Sneaker Pimps. His remix of Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow” reaches the top of the UK singles chart and becomes the release that establishes his wider profile.

Van Helden is also widely credited with helping bring UK speed garage into the US club scene through a series of remixes with deep bass, long breaks and heavy beats. Examples named in his catalogue include Jimmy Somerville’s “Heartbeat”, CJ Bolland’s “Sugar Is Sweeter”, Faithless’s “Insomnia”, Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow”, Apollo 440’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Dub” and Sneaker Pimps’ “Spin, Spin, Sugar”.

Albums and chart singles

His first album, Old School Junkies, appears in 1996 and includes the dance hits “Cha Cha” and “The Funk Phenomena”. A greatest hits album follows the next year, and later in 1997 he releases a breakbeat album.

“You Don’t Know Me”, a collaboration with vocalist Duane Harden from the album 2 Futur 4 U, becomes one of his biggest singles. It reaches number one in the UK, number two on the Billboard dance chart and the top 20 in Australia and Canada. Van Helden later describes it as combining the beats from Jaydee’s “Plastic Dreams” with a disco loop from Carrie Lucas.

He releases Killing Puritans in 2000, which includes “Koochy”, and “Why Can’t You Spend Some Time” reaches number 34 in the UK in 2001. His 2004 album New York: A Mix Odyssey produces “Hear My Name” and “My My My”. “Hear My Name” reaches number seven on the Billboard dance chart and number 34 in the UK, while “My My My” reaches number four on the world internet charts, number five in Belgium and the Netherlands, number six in Australia and number 15 in the UK.

Collaborations and side projects

In 2010 he forms Duck Sauce with A-Trak. The duo has an international hit with “Barbra Streisand”, which uses a sample from Boney M. He is also associated with the projects Klobber, Moonwalkers, Subspecies, Da Mongoloids and Sahara, and releases on Armed Records.