AT9

 "Listening Trance. It's not a crime, it's a privilege."

I was born on the 3th of April in 1989 in Soest which is also the place where I grew up and still live. My DJ name RalfB, funnily enough, comes from the nickname my brother gives me in my daily life. He calls me Ralf in stead of Heijmen, which is my real name, and the B is the first letter of my surname. I thought it sounded good and so the name RalfB was born. Like I said I'm a big Electronic Dance Music addict and I'm trying to be open minded as much as I can, but my biggest preference in that 'big' genre is Trance with all her sub genres under it. I'm a big sucker for progressive, proglifting, melodic bangers, vocals and some wicked tech tracks. I first came in contact with Electronic Dance Music and Trance through my brother in the year 2004/2005 I believe it was. I also have to give credits to a good friend of mine who I know since my childhood. He's a big fan of Trance as well and he has influenced me a lot too. In the years 2004/2005 I was a big fan of Cascada in those years and I played their tracks like crazy. Back then my brother also showed me tracks of Cosmic Gate, Armin van Buuren, Tiësto and many more Trance producers and that started to interest me. It was there where the foundation of my passion for Trance was set. The next important milestone was that In the year 2009 I for the first time visited a Trance event which was Armada Night 2009 in The Escape in Amsterdam. Right there and since then I recognized how beautiful the Trance sound is and since that time I began listening to Armin van Buuren's radioshow 'A State Of Trance'. I have almost listened every ASOT episode since then, with some vacation interruptions here and there. I can definitely say that during that time I became a big ASOT fan/listener, which I still am nowadays. Though I feel the current ASOT sound isn't as good as it was in the years when I began listening to it. Listening ASOT weekly I became intrigued about the mixing and I wanted to do it for myself.

 

I think it was the spring of 2012 when I decided to start my own mix called 'Trance Connected'. At first I didn't have any hardware, but after a couple months of the start I bought my first DJ controller. But I wasn't happy with DJUced, the software that came with it. So I quickly, after I purchased it, sold it to someone else. Ever since / currently I mix with the Pioneer Ergo V Midi controller. Some friends call me 'Octopussy/cat' due to my fast handling during the mixing.

 

In the end of february 2014 I decided to change my DJ name into 'Ralfurious'. That name was invented by a good friend of mine named Blachshma and I directly liked it a lot. It doesn't mean I'm really 'furious' or so but I just thought it's a really cool and catchy new name.

So this is my short story of how I came in contact with Trance and began loving it and why I started mixing/producing.