Calvin Harris
(born Adam Wiles [1] on 17 January 1984 in Dumfries, Scotland) [2] is a Scottish electronic musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His gold-selling debut album, I Created Disco
, was released in 2007 and contained the Top 10 singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls". He has written and produced records for other recording artists including Kylie Minogue's X
and his #1 collaboration with British rapper Dizzee Rascal, "Dance Wiv Me". His second studio album Ready for the Weekend
was released on 17 August 2009 and reached #1 in the UK album charts on 23rd August. It contains the #1 single "I'm Not Alone" and his second Top 10 single "Ready for the Weekend", which was released on 10 August.
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CALVIN HARRIS TICKETS
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Music career
Early career (2002–2006)
Harris' earliest success was when he was 21: the songs "Da Bongos" and "Brighter Days" were released as a 12" club single and CD-EP by the Prima Facie label in early 2002 under the name Stouffer.
[3]
Harris signed contracts with
EMI (publishing) and
Sony BMG (recording) in 2006, after his music had been discovered on the
social networking website MySpace. Harris had recently moved back from London to his hometown of
Dumfries because he was unable to find a job.
[4] He had only managed to release one song in 2004 with artist, Ayah. The song appears on The Unabombers' 'Electric Soul 2'.
I Created Disco
(2006–2007)
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His first album
I Created Disco
was released on 29 June 2007. The album contained uptempo
electroclash songs that were influenced by music from the 1980s. To promote
I Created Disco
, Harris embarked on a tour of the UK, supporting
Faithless and
Groove Armada.
[5] [6]
The first release from the album was "
Vegas" on limited edition vinyl and the first charted single released from the album was "
Acceptable in the 80s", a tribute to the style and culture of the decade. The song reached the top ten on the
UK Singles Chart, remaining on the chart for fifteen weeks.
[7] "
The Girls" was the album's second single, it reached the top 5 in the UK singles chart. The fourth release from the album was "
Merrymaking at My Place" which reached #43 in the UK chart. His song "Colours" is featured on the
Kia Motors ad for the
Soul.
In 2007,
Dragonette released their cover of Harris' "The Girls" retitled "The Boys", during which the band alludes directly to him: "I even like those scrawny, Scottish, into pop music but not like sorta like pop dance electro music." It was Dragonette's version of the song, however, that made its way onto Karl Lagerfeld's Spring/Summer 2008 runway show.
Collaborations (2007–2008)
In 2007 Harris recorded with
Kylie Minogue. He had caught Minogue's attention after his recordings had been passed on to her by another record producer.
Harris says that working with Kylie was "surreal, but fun" although he admitted to Mixmag in 2007 to "needing a few drinks before meeting her." Harris co-wrote and produced two songs on Kylies'
X album; 'In My Arms' and 'Heart Beat Rock'.
He was recently credited as being the producer in a remixed version of
The Mitchell Brothers song "Michael Jackson". Harris is also currently working with British
pop-star
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, co-writing some new songs for her upcoming fourth studio album.
In 2008 he collaborated with UK rapper
Dizzee Rascal on Dizzee's song "
Dance Wiv Me". They performed an acoustic version for the BBC as part of the Glastonbury Festival 2008 coverage. The song was released digitally on 30 June 2008 and went straight to number 1 in the UK. On 18 October 2008 he was also featured on Radio 1's Essential Mix with a 2 hour set.
In a BBC Radio 1 interview with
Fearne Cotton, Harris said that he turned down working with
Lady GaGa in 2008 because he disliked the demo given to him and that he did not want to offend her at the time. In later BBC online interview, Harris stated he considers Lady GaGa to be a "good artist". In the same interview Harris also gave acknowledgment to 16 year old British musician Richard Jay.
[8]
Ready for the Weekend
(2009–present)
On 3 April 2008, Harris stated that the only existing copy of his upcoming album work was lost when his laptop was misplaced during the baggage handling problems at the opening of
London Heathrow Terminal 5.
[9] He later stated on the
BBC's
Glastonbury Festival 2008 coverage that he got his baggage back including the album within a few days. Harris recently admitted however that this was an "untruth" as the album was not in his luggage at all, and that he hoped the lie would buy him some more time to finish recording the LP.
[10] Harris' second studio album was released on 17 August 2009 in the United Kingdom.
The first single, "
I'm Not Alone" was exclusively performed in Sydney, on New Year's Eve. The new single debuted on BBC Radio 1 on 23 January 2009, on the Pete Tong radio show and was released in April 2009. It debuted in the UK Singles Chart at #1 on Easter Sunday on downloads alone, then stayed on top for a second week after the physical format had been released. On its release his single "Ready for the Weekend" went to #3 in the UK Singles Chart.
Harris will be touring around the
United Kingdom,
Ireland,
France, the
Netherlands and the
United States promoting his new singles and his new album. His single "
Ready for the Weekend" features singer Mary Pearce. Other tracks included on the album are "Worst Day" featuring
Izza Kizza [11] and "Yeah Yeah Yeah La La La" used in a
Coca-Cola advertisement.
[12] In June 2009,
NME announced that Harris' second album,
Ready for the Weekend
would be released on 17 August 2009.
[13] His songs "Holiday" and "Ready for the Weekend" are listed on radio line-ups. Excerpts from "I'm Not Alone" were used in Madonna's remixed version of "Frozen" in her
Sticky & Sweet Tour.
On 7 June 2009, Harris appeared at the Summertime Ball at the Emirate Stadium and performed "I'm Not Alone", "The Girls" and "Acceptable in the 80s". He then brought on Dizzee Rascal and Chrome and performed "Dance Wiv Me". Harris will make a guest appearance on
Tiësto's song "Century"
[14] on his new album
Kaleidoscope
which will be released on 6 October 2009. On 15 August, Harris made an appearance on the first Soccer AM show of the season.
Discography
- 2007: I Created Disco
- 2009: Ready for the Weekend
Awards and nominations
Year
| Award
| Category
| Title
| Result
|
2007
| BT Digital Music Awards
| Best Electronic Artist or DJ
| –
| Nominated
|
Q Awards
| Best Breakthrough Artist
| –
| Nominated
|
2008
| Xfm New Music Award
| –
| I Created Disco
| Nominated
|
Shortlist Music Prize
| –
| I Created Disco
| Nominated
|
Popjustice £20 Music Prize
| –
| "Dance Wiv Me"
| Nominated
|
2009
| The Music Producers Guild Awards
| Best Remixer
| –
| Won
|
2009 BRIT Awards
| British Single
| "Dance Wiv Me"
| Nominated
|
NME Awards
| Best Dancefloor Filler
| "Dance Wiv Me"
| Won
|
Ivor Novello Awards
| Best Contemporary Song
| "Dance Wiv Me"
| Nominated
|
References
- Calvin Harris: How the non-dancing, foul-mouthed, anti-social Scot became the 'Caledonian Justin Timberlake
- Calvin Harris Biography
- Calvin Harris Biography
- Liam Ronan. "Acceptable In The Noughties - Calvin Harris". gigwise.com. March 26, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
- "Web wonder Calvin wins over Kylie". BBC. 19 February 2007. Retrieved March 12, 2007.
- "Calvin To Support Groove Armada On UK Tour". calvinharris.tv. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
- ""Acceptable in the 80s" World Charts. acharts.us. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
- Calvin Harris BBC Online Interview
- BBC NEWS | Scotland | South of Scotland | DJ loses album in baggage backlog
- Calvin Harris: 'I Lied about losing my new album at Heathrow'
- http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/music/article.html?Want_to_dance_wiv_Calvin_Harris?&in_article_id=6
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/07/coca-cola-ad-calvin-harris
- http://www.nme.com/news/calvin-harris/45305
- http://pitchfork.com/news/36120-sigur-ross-jonsi-bloc-partys-kele-okereke-on-new-tiesto-album/