Chris Burke (born 30 May 1995) is a Scottish electronic dance music DJ, record producer, songwriter, and remixer.
Early life and beginnings []
Christopher Paul Burke was born on 30 May 1995 in Aberdeen, Scotland. His parents, Martin Burke, an engineer, and Margaret Teresa Burke (nee McNamara), married in Edinburgh before moving to Aberdeen in 1991. Burke attended St. Josephs RC Primary School then Robert Gordon's College from the age of 10 onwards, and, after leaving school, he studied mechanical engineering at North East Scotland College in Fraserburgh.
The first music album that Burke bought was the 2002 Eminem album, The Eminem Show. However, it would not be until the age of 11 that Burke developed a deeper interest in music after finding a Sony Walkman on his walk home from school with the Foo Fighters track "Best of You" playing on repeat. Burke began researching Foo Fighters and subsequently Nirvana to which he credits Smells Like Teen Spirit for making him want to learn to play guitar. The first concert he attended was Foo Fighters in 2007 at the AECC with his father.
Playing in a band named Cold California from the age of 16, Burke began to write original material which was influenced by acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, and Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro. From 2017, Burke used the Cold California moniker as a solo project to produce and release pop, rock and most notably country music.
Burke became interested in electronic dance music in his teenage years after being exposed to the music of Scottish DJ and record producer, Calvin Harris, through the social networking platform Bebo.
Music career []
In 2019, on his 24th birthday, Chris Burke decided to shift focus from producing country and pop music to working on electronic dance music. Burke wrote and produced his first two compositions, "Space and Time" and "Dreamers" within the first week of turning 24. His fifth single, "Never Really Liked You" gained attention after being featured on Dutch DJ Tiesto's Club Life weekly radio show.
His first dozen singles were within the confides of EDM, progressive house, and dance-pop music. In September 2019 while on vacation in Orlando, Florida, Burke and two friends attended a performance from British trance music producer Gareth Emery. He cites that Emery's show made him fall in love with trance music and in the subsequent months Burke would discover more about the genre and take influence from artists such as Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren.
Burke's first label release would come on Suanda Records in March 2020 with "The Night", a collaborative single with Russian trance producer Eximinds. The following week would see the release of "Hey Child" on Netherlands based label, Tribal Trap.
A collaborative trance track titled "Don't Wanna Go Home" with renowned vocalist Christina Novelli was released in February 2021 on Black Hole Recordings. This single received support from many trance DJ's including Andrew Rayel and MaRLo.
The next major release for Chris Burke was "Feel so High" with Australian producer Highup and vocalist Cammie Robinson on the Swedish independent label, Loudkult. "Feel so High" is Burke's most streamed song to date with 820,000 streams on Spotify.
In the following months Chris Burke would produce official remixes for both MaRLo and Highup respectively. His remix of MaRLo and HALIENE's song "Whisper" would receive much praise in the trance scene and was supported by Giuseppe Ottaviani during his set at Creamfields 2021.
After signing with new management, Burke had the opportunity to produce a track with Jeffrey Jey, the Grammy award nominated vocalist of Eiffel 65, and Italian production duo Mastik Lickers. Together they released the track "Just an Illusion" - a cover version of a 1982 song by British trio Imagination.
In March of 2021, Chris Burke began hosting In The Mix, a weekly radio show featuring one hour of the latest dance hits and fan submitted songs. The show has seen success throughout the world and most notably topped the podcast charts in Hungary in August of 2021.
Trivia []
Chris Burke is an avid supporter of Aberdeen Football Club.
Prior to producing music full-time, Burke owned and operated the engineering recruitment agency, MechRec.
Before attending college in 2013, he worked doing PR for The Garage, Aberdeen.
He has an HND in Mechanical Engineering from North East Scotland College and studied online at Berklee College of Music.
In 2016, Burke released a post-rock/ambient album titled "Wanderlust" with Scottish composer David Chappell under the name Tenaya.