Armand Van Helden was born in Boston in 1970.
Massively prolific house music producer, Van Helden was first noticed for his numerous productions on Strictly Rhythm produced under various aliases. His first big underground hit was scored late 1994 with "Witch Doktor", a mysterious, dark and hypnotic composition. His first EP followed, giving a glimpse of his talents and imagination. In 1995, he re-edited "The Bomb" by Bucketheads, The and started to remix other artists. From the big names of Eurodance (Real McCoy, Rednex) to popular pop acts (Bananarama, Ace Of Base, Blondie), the 'Van Helden' touch started to impose itself.
After a couple of succesful remixes for Kim English and Daft Punk among others, he unintentionally kickstarted the genre known as "speed garage" with his remixes of 'Sugar Is Sweeter' by CJ Bolland (strongly inspired by 'Get Up' by Krimp), 'Professional Widow' by Tori Amos, 'Runaway' by Nuyorican Soul and 'Spin Spin Sugar' by the Sneaker Pimps.
To prove he was not just only a remix act, he came back with one of his own productions 'The Funk Phenomena' in 1996. It became an international dance hit and made Van Helden the most requested DJ of the time.
Further albums and singles continued his success story: 'You Don't Know Me' (1999), with Duane Harden on vocals, sampled Carrie Lucas to great effect, just like 'My My My' did with Gary Wright (2004).
He Has also dabbled occasionally in hip hop productions: the album 'Sampleslaya' (1997) is a good example.