M.I.K.E.

Mike aka Dirk Dierickx started to DJ at the age of 16. He used the name DJ Mike, which is why, after he also produced under this name, he decided to change his real name from Dirk to Mike in 2001.

Mike is releasing under several project names like Solar Factor, Plastic Boy, Return of the Native, The Blackmaster and of course Push. His style of DJing is very similar to the music he makes, on a hard-edged tech-progressive trance tip. M.I.K.E is at the forefront of Europe’s new sound, regularly topping charts in several leading countries.

The story began when an 11 year old boy discovered the potential of samplers and keyboards… At the age of 18, Mike handed his first demo tape to the Antwerp based record company, ‘USA Import’. Shortly after, his first record, ‘Vision Act’ was released on the Atom label in 1992. Mike released a series of successful records before he signed up with Lightning in 1996. This gave him the opportunity to team up with Yves Deruyter, as his producer. Mike was behind YDR hits, ‘To The Rhythm’,'The Rebel” and more recently, ‘Back To Earth’ and ‘Spiritual Feelings’. Pole positions in the worldwide dance charts were soon putting the Belgian dance scene firmly on the map.

M.I.K.E’s reputation shot through the roof, and although a commercial crossover had never been anticipated, in 1998 ‘Universal Nation’ by Push took the world by storm, winning several dance awards, and undoubtedly being recognized as one of the classic records of the trance era. His Push follow up single, ‘Strange World’, destroyed hundreds of clubs across Europe, in the same vein as ‘Universal Nation’. This was followed by yet another blockbuster, ‘The Legacy’ once again topping all dance charts across Europe and entering the British National charts at #21. Over the years Mike received several music awards including best club singles and best dance-producer, and entered six times the national top 40 in the UK.

M.I.K.E. also teamed up and produced remixes for Sinead ‘O Connor, Moby, Mauro Piccoto, Bom Funk Mc’s, Oliver Lie and Ian Van Dahl. This kind of success did not go unnoticed, as M.I.K.E. was asked to DJ at some of the best venues in the world, including: ‘Gatecrasher’ and ‘Godskitchen’in the UK, ‘Fura’ and ‘Vel Farre’ in Japan, ‘Massive and ‘Trance Energy’ in Holland, ‘Limelight’ U.S. and the ‘Berlin Love Parade’ are a few to mention.

M.I.K.E. has started three labels; Scanner Records (later changed to Scanner Digital to welcome the digital era), Club Elite and Syndrome Recordings, which promotes the best Belgian musicians.

In early 2008, M.I.K.E.’s radio show ‘Club Elite Sessions’ became a weekly one-hour show. Being that the halfway mark to the 100th episode has been reached, plans are being made to celebrate the 100th episode milestone! ‘Club Elite Sessions’ is broadcast in Costa Rica, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, New York and in the UK!

M.I.K.E. decided to make the comeback of his legendary guise ‘Push’ by creating his ‘Universal Voices E.P’ for his own label Club Elite. With Armin supporting all of the tracks of this EP it was only natural that Push took the challenge to remix Armins brand new single “In And Out Of Love”. The result is a banging interpretation, made to strike the dancefloors! During the last two years M.I.K.E. has focused on his brand new album ‘Absolute – Horizons’, which is a bundle with new and older tracks like ‘Dream Odessey’ , ‘Now & Never’ and the exclusive track ‘Drum Drift’.

M.I.K.E. has already toured in Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, New York, Russia and the UK so keep look out for him in a city near you!

URL: http://www.mike.be