Calvin Harris Tickets

Short Biography
"What I'm into at the moment", says Calvin Harris, "is the idea of stadium dance. Playing football stadiums with massive riffs, big hands-in-the-air rave anthems. The whole ‘minimal' thing has passed, for me."  

A bold ambition, but such boldness is justifiable, coming from a man who ascended from the bedroom to the big time in the blink of an eye. At least, that's how it appeared from the outside, back there in 2007.  
He may have barely turned 23 when he first hit the charts, but Calvin Harris had been making music, legend has it, since the age of 15 on an old Amiga computer in the Scottish town of Dumfries, when he wasn't stacking shelves at the local Marks & Spencer.  

"It seems like I came from nowhere" Harris admits, "but it didn't feel like that for me. I had a successful record after having lots of unsuccessful records..."  

It was when Harris hit upon what would become his trademark sound - irresistibly infectious dance-pop tunes built from juicy staccato synths and squelchy electro basslines - that he caught the public imagination, first with breakthrough anthem "Acceptable In The 80s", then the even bigger follow-up "The

Girls", and then his non-stop houseparty of a debut album, I Created Disco.  

"My second album was supposed to come out in 2008, but I realised I had about a week to do it. So I decided not to do anything." Rather than rush things, Harris locked himself away, "in the dark in a small purple room for the best part of a year and a half. He has, he says, written over 100 songs for the as-yet-untitled successor to I Created Disco. "Not the words - words are not my strongpoint. Music is.

Music comes naturally. And I'm not a natural singer, so I spend a lot of time working out what I can get away with singing over it, without getting into the autotune thing." 

Already, this album has a greater musical range than its predecessor. "There's more of a range of songs to this one. The last album, you heard two or three songs and you'd pretty much heard them all. This one's more varied, and more interesting all round. The first album is almost like a concept album, channelled all in one direction. On this one I've used as many instruments as I can get my hands on."

When pushed for a description of the overall feel and mood, he opts for "Classic dance music in a modern environment". He explains: "The thing I like about dance music is you can borrow from all different genres of music, all different instruments, and turn it into a dance track. In the first place, dance music seemed so varied to me, as opposed to being limited by a band with guitars, like you get with indie and whatever. I'm trying to make dance tunes that don't seem like they are dance tunes, but hopefully work. I'm trying to make something that someone either hasn't heard for ages, or has never heard before.

Hopefully the latter."

"I'm excited for the rest of the album," he adds. "I can't wait for it to come out."  

He's not alone.

In-depth Biography
Favoring a naughty schoolboy look that makes him seem even younger than his already tender years (22 when his first major-label album was released), Scottish artist, producer, and remixer Calvin Harris has a similarly youthful and forward-looking approach to his music. Skipping the usual apprenticeship in the clubs or on indie labels, Harris went from posting his own D.I.Y. electroclash music online through /MySpace and similar sites to signing with the multinational giant EMI almost in a single step.

Born on January 17, 1984, in the southern Scotland city of Dumfries, Harris was first attracted to electronic music in his teens and was recording bedroom demos by 1999. Two of these 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 artist name Stouffer. With that single to his credit, the still teenaged Harris moved from Scotland to London, but as a very small fish in one of the world's largest and most competitive ponds, Harris floundered; only one of his songs was released during his time in London, "Let Me Know" with vocalist Ayah on the Unabombers' 2004 live-mix CD Electric Soul, Vol. 2.

Returning home to Dumfries, Harris began posting homemade solo recordings to his /MySpace page. An A&R representative from EMI liked what he heard and signed Harris to the label in 2006. Following a pair of successful singles, Harris released his debut album, I Created Disco, in the summer of 2007. It featured two Top Ten hits ("Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls"), and climbed high in the album charts. Along with his work as a solo artist, which includes touring in front of a full live band, Harris quickly became an in-demand remixer -- working on singles by Jamiroquai, Groove Armada, All Saints, and CSS. He also wrote and produced songs for Kylie Minogue's 2007 comeback album, and collaborated with Dizzee Rascal on "Dance wiv Me," which reached number one in the U.K. "I'm Not Alone," the first single from his second album, also hit number one upon release in April 2009, as did the album (Ready for the Weekend) when it appeared in August. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi