Blake Jarrell

Aged just 23, Blake Jarrell has had a rollercoaster of a ride to date. Tipped by John Digweed as “definitely someone to look out for in the future," Blake carved himself a niche in the underground dance music scene in his hometown of New Orleans. At 16, he started to DJ and became a resident at local clubs like Ampersand, 735, and the House of Blues where he crafted his progressive housesound. Not satisfied with only DJing, Blake soon began to produce, releasing singles and remixes on various progressive labels co-produced with the late Adam "Starkid" Spears.

But in August 2005, disaster struck – Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on New Orleans, turning Blake’s life upside down. Packing his car with whatever he could, Blake wound up in Chicago where he fell in love with the booming house, techno and trance scene, which further helped shape his sound. It also brought a chance meeting with Armin van Buuren, who Blake passed along a CD of his productions. "It’s bittersweet that I had to lose my hometown to Hurricane Katrina to find such a musically nurturing city as Chicago," says Blake who claims the storm as "simultaneously the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me."

Armin soon contacted Blake and invited him on tour as an opener. Now, following a slew of successful gigs, production work, and remixes (winning him fans in the form of Tiesto, Pete Tong, and Gabriel & Dresden among others) Blake has compiled this debut mix CD for Armada. “It’s a CD that you can listen to in the car or at home – it’s laid back enough to relax on the couch with but still has its pumping moments to listen to on the way out to the club,” says Blake. “It comprises of tracks of producers I’ve loved and labels I’ve been into over the past year shaped into 2 CDs that both progress and intensify in their own unique way."

As well as Blake’s worldwide DJing schedule, you can also catch a slew of his new productionwork out this year on Armada. But for now, kick back with what Blake feels is his own "personal time capsule of the sound I’m into at the moment and programming that is an allegorical snapshot of how my personal and professional life has grown over the pastfew years.”

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Blake took John’s remarks seriously and made sure those words would ring true. With talent, determination, and sheer will through even the most testing of times, Blake has become a fully emerged and world reknown producer and DJ. At the age of 22, he’s achieved more than most others do in their entire career, but Blake still takes on every day with the same yearning and determination of his first.

Blake’s love for electronic dance music began in New Orleans. At the age of 15, he would sneak into the cities freshest clubs to see such influencing acts as Sasha, Armin Van Buuren, and Sander Kleinenberg. Almost immediately, Blake started making his own contributions to the underground dance music world, firstly in the form of a floaty progressive breakbeat single "Apricot" with former production partner, the late Starkid. From here he helped define the atmospheric and progressive breakbeat movement at the time with singles such as "Destin Beach" and "Okoboji". His production efforts not only got him acclaim in the dance music community, but academically as well, having received a full scholarship to Loyola University New Orleans College of Music Business.

Just as Blake began to get comfortable, tragedy struck. On August 29th, 2005, Blake’s hometown of New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, leaving his life totally uprooted. This disaster prompted a move to Chicago where Blake quickly immersed himself in the booming house, techno, and trance scenes of the historic city. With this new influence, Blake began to develop his current sound that is undefinable. You can’t call it house. You can’t call it techno. You can’t call it trance. One thing is for sure though, you can count on every major DJ from all areas of electronic dance music to praise and hammer Blake’s work. Armin Van Buuren and Gabriel & Dresden listed Blake as their "Hope for 2007" in DJ Magazine’s Top 100 Poll. Tiesto even stuck Blake in his personal voting ballot. Blake is also getting repeated plays and support by the likes of Pete Tong, Matthew Dekay, Sandra Collins, Paul Oakenfold, Markus Schulz, and many others all across the board for tracks like his remixes of Snow Patrol’s "Chasing Cars" (w/ Topher Jones), Anna Nalick’s "Breathe", the Pink Floyd classic "Comfortably Numb", Blake’s own "Glitter Gun", and Blake’s Dane Cook sampling "Dood I Just Wanna Dance".

Now in 2007 Blake is continuing to prove the prophecies of dance music’s elite DJ’s and producers true. He is flying across the globe and back playing such locations as Manama, Dubai, Marrakech, Los Angeles, Port of Spain, as well as an Ibiza residency at Amnesia. He’s also continuously putting out new original music and remix work on the acclaimed Armada music label as well as set to release his first mixed compilation in fall ’07.

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