oliver heldens #1

Oliver Heldens: The Boy Wonder

I first stumbled across Oliver Heldens on Soundcloud late last year. Unfortunately, my discover led to me using up a full month of phone data on the bus ride home, so my joy was short-lived. Although I guess using 2GB of data is a testament as to how talented this 19 year old really is.

Heldens burst onto the scene in 2013, gaining worldwide acclaim for the chart-topping Gecko, which went No.1 in the UK. Since then, Heldens has given us Koala, Can’t Stop, Pikachu and collaborated with the likes of Disclosure, Coldplay and Zeds Dead. After delivering his debut BBC Essential Mix, Pete Tong named Heldens as the “one of the finest producers of 2014.” Considering Pete Tong is the Gandalf of Radio One Announcers – and this is a MONSTER bit of praise.

Heldens’ music seems to be the result of throwing deep house, electro house, progressive, future house and EDM into a gold-plated blender. The result is a unique and original sound that has all eyes in the industry fixated upon him. When asked about whether he feels any pressure to keep creating new genres through his music, Heldens responded, “Not really, because I have so many new tracks and am willing to work with anyone or try anything.”

Last year Heldens launched his new radio show, Heldeep. Coming in weekly instalments, Heldeep is a solid hour of music similar to, or that influenced his own. He even supplies an email address where new artists can send their music to potentially get a shout out. Heldeep receives around 150,000 plays on Soundcloud a week (which is huge for a radio program) so be sure to check it out.

It’s certainly been a swift ascension for Oliver Heldens. I could almost conduct a thesis on how far his talent stretches, but I won’t. Set to enter the next level of stardom in 2015, make sure to be watching him when he does.