Armand van Helden

Armand van Helden (born February 16, 1970) is an American DJ, record producer, remixer and songwriter from Boston.

He is considered one of house music's most revered figures, with a career spanning three decades.

Van Helden's best-known singles are "You Don't Know Me", "I Want Your Soul", "My My My" featuring Tara McDonald, and "Bonkers" featuring Dizzee Rascal, all of which became #1 on the UK Dance Chart and reached as high as #2 on the Billboard Dance Chart.

From circa 1986–1988, van Helden was in a rap group named "Define" because they considered themselves "de finest around" and accordingly "defined" rap music.

His name was DJ AVH, along with fellow crew members: Sir Beat, and Lopoka.

They performed across Europe and helped hone his DJ skills.

Van Helden returned to Boston in 1988, moonlighting as a DJ in Boston clubs.

He attended college in Boston.

Although much of his chart success has been in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, van Helden has been closely linked to the electronic music scene of New York since the early-mid 1990s where he was considered one of the best remixers in the business and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording in 1998.

Van Helden often remixes and uses samples of funk, soul, R&B and hip hop.

He also uses filters and dub progressions, as in NYC beat, dancehall and reggae samples.

Among his greatest remixes have been the remix of the song "Spin Spin Sugar" by Sneaker Pimps, The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) by The Bucketheads, Sugar Is Sweeter by C. J. Bolland and "Professional Widow" by Tori Amos.

Van Helden is widely regarded as the pioneer of the speed garage genre and has continued remixing various artists such as Katy Perry, Van Halen, Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, David Guetta, Sam Smith, Bloc Party, Janet Jackson, Juliet Roberts and KRS-One among others with this musical style.

He quit his legal-review job in 1991 to work as a remixer under the management of Neil Petricone and X-Mix.

He took up a DJ residency at the Loft, a top Boston nightclub at the time.

He released his first official single, a mix of Deep Creed's "Stay On My Mind" through Nervous Records.

Van Helden released "Move It To the Left" (credited to Sultans of Swing) in 1992 on the Strictly Rhythm label, which became a moderate club hit and led to a string of singles released under several monikers for that label.

His first track to make the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart was "Witch Doktor", which made the top 5 in 1994, and led to opportunities to remix acts such as New Order, Deep Forest, Jimmy Somerville, Deee-Lite, and Faithless.

However, it was the "Professional Widow" remix that established van Helden and became a dance hit around the world and as a number-one hit in the United Kingdom.

Van Helden stated of his compensation for the remix: "it was like $10,000, and that was a little below what I was making back then for a remix, but I had the time."

However, it led to work remixing the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Puff Daddy, Daft Punk and Sneaker Pimps, adding to his reputation as one of the world's top house-music musicians.

In 1996, van Helden collaborated with Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, Van Helden and Junior Sanchez as Da Mongoloids, releasing "Spark da Meth" on the Strictly Rhythm label.

"Cha Cha" was another top-ten dance hit from van Helden's first album, Old School Junkies: The Album, which was released in 1996, along with "The Funk Phenomena".

A year later van Helden's track "Ten Minutes of Funk" was featured on the Daft Punk live album Alive 1997.

A greatest hits album appeared the next year, followed by a breakbeat album later in 1997.

"You Don't Know Me" was a number two hit on the Billboard dance chart, a number one hit in the United Kingdom, and a top 20 single on the pop charts in Australia and Canada.

The song was the breakout track from his 2Future4U album, which was released stateside on Armand's own label, Armed Records.

Van Helden released the Killing Puritans album in 2000 (also on Armed Records), which contained the hit "Koochy".

The track was based around Gary Numan's five times UK chart hit, "Cars".

His single "Why Can't You Free Some Time" made it to number 34 in the UK in 2001.

His New York: A Mix Odyssey album released in March 2004 produced two hits: "Hear My Name", a collaboration with Spalding Rockwell that reached number 7 on the Billboard dance chart, number 34 in the UK, and the top 40 in Australia; and "My My My" featuring Tara McDonald, which reached number 4 on the world internet charts, number 5 in the Belgian and Dutch charts, number 6 in Australia, number 15 in the UK, and top 30 in the world dance charts.

In April 2004, he provided a mix for BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix show.

In 2005, van Helden released the album Nympho, featuring the singles "Into Your Eyes", "My My My", "Hear My Name", and "When the Lights Go Down".

The album reached the top 30 in Australia, and number 48 in the UK.

In 2009, van Helden formed the DJ duo Duck Sauce with Canadian DJ A-Trak, receiving a nomination at the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording for their song "Barbra Streisand" which topped the charts in 12 countries.

The duo also released the singles "Anyway" which reached No. 1 the UK Dance Chart, "Big Bad Wolf' and "NRG".

Recent releases include the singles "I Need a Painkiller" and "Wings" produced in 2018 and 2016 respectively.

Van Helden was born to an Indo (Dutch and Indonesian descent) father and a mother of French and Lebanese ancestry.

He moved around the world as a child, spending time in the Netherlands, Latvia, Turkey, and Italy as his father was a member of the U.S. Air Force.

At the age of 13, he bought a drum machine and started DJing two years later.