Alan Walker | |
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Walker during an interview in Germany
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Background information | |
Birth name | Alan Olav Walker |
Also known as |
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Born |
Northampton, England |
24 August 1997
Origin | Bergen, Norway |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | |
Instruments | |
Years active | 2012–present |
Labels | |
Website | www |
Nationality | |
Citizenship |
Norway United Kingdom |
Alan Olav Walker (born 24 August 1997), occasionally known as DJ Walkzz, is a Norwegian record producer and DJ.
He is best known for the 2015 single "Faded", which received platinum certifications in over 10 different countries. He was ranked 55th on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list of 2016.
Walker is the son of Hilde Omdal Walker, a Norwegian, and Philip Alan Walker, an Englishman. By birth, he was granted dual citizenship on the basis of his parental origin. At the age of two, he moved to Bergen, Norway with his parents and sister. Walker grew up with two siblings, an older sister, Camilla Joy, born in England, and a younger brother, Andreas, born in Norway after the family moved from the United Kingdom.
Growing up in the digital era, Walker found an early interest in computers, which later turned into a fascination for programming and graphic design. He initially had no musical background; however, he later taught himself by watching tutorials on YouTube based on music production.
In 2012, he was listening to a song by David Whistle (formerly known as DJ Ness), and reached out to the Italian DJ to find out how he produced his music. He was inspired by EDM producers K-391 and Ahrix, and is also influenced by film composers like Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky. He started all his music on his laptop with FL Studio. In July 2012, with the help and feedback from his fans online, he began pursuing his music production career and slowly began posting his music to YouTube and SoundCloud.
Walker released the drumstep track "Fade" on 17 August 2014. The track gained attention after its re-release via the well-known record label NoCopyrightSounds on 19 November. Walker stated that the creation of the track was inspired by K-391 and Ahrix, whose tracks were also picked up by the record label. The track has over 220 million views on YouTube, 50 million plays on Spotify, and 20 million streams on SoundCloud. It has become the most popular track on the channel, and is widely-used by YouTubers in their videos. The tracks "Spectre" and "Force" followed in 2015.