Who is this DON DIABLO dude that everybody seems to be talking about? Well, for starters he is a producer, musician, imaginary friend, DJ, singer, writer, part-time streaker, visualist, record label boss, invisible hooligan and someone who just despises boring long form artist biographies with an abundance of irrelevant info. Therefore, here are sixteen basic in-your-face facts you just have to know about uncrowned King of hooligan house!
1. DON’s new album, ‘Life is a festival’, is due for release early 2009 through Sony Music Entertainment and partners - it will be released in over 20 territories. His first album, ‘2Faced’, was released in 2004 through Universal Music…
2. DON was announced as the ‘Most Googled Dutchman of the Year’ in 2008, according to conducted research on behalf of popular Dutch station Radio 538…
3. DON has released over 75 singles, starting at the age of 15; including 8 Top 100 chart hits in Holland, supported by some bad ass music videos. He is much determined to get the same results in the rest of the world now that he has signed a worldwide deal with Sony Music Entertainment…
4. DON always plays with 4 decks when he DJ's, even though he only has two hands. You can check out streaming live sets at www.dondiablo.com/livesets. As a producer, DON always works alone in the studio, because he has a very strange way of making music and likes to work in the nude...
5. DON's hectic tour schedule takes him from Hong Kong to London and from Miami to Sydney. He has recently returned from the successful Stereosonic Music Festival Tour in Australia, where he toured with the likes of Midnight Juggernauts, DJ Hell, Carl Cox and Booka Shade....
6. DON has remixed such diverse artists as Public Enemy, The BPA (ft. Iggy Pop), Kraak & Smaak, Kaz James (ft. Macy Gray), Newton Faulkner, Walter Meego and Laidback Luke, with whom he also collaborated in 2008 under the guise ‘Imaginary Friends’ on Art&Craft…
7. DON hosted a monthly Saturday night radio show on Radio 3FM (The Dutch equivalent to BBC Radio 1 in the UK)…
8. DON has received several nominations and awards in the last 18 months including: Nominee for ‘Best Music Video’ (TMF Awards); voted ‘Best Dressed Man of the Year’ (Esquire Magazine) and he was named ‘Most Popular Dutch DJ’ (GKA Awards)…
9. DON had founded his own record label and event brand ‘Sellout Sessions’ by the end of 2005. His profile began to increase rapidly, helped by the success of hits such as ‘Blow’, which received a tasty remix by Sébastien Léger and was licensed to over 10 territories…
10. DON has proved his ability as an A&R by discovering, signing and then licensing the UK top 3 chart hit Exceeder by Mason through his own sub-label ‘Middle of the road music’…
11. DON's last 4 singles were used for TV campaigns to promote several Hollywood movies such as ‘Snakes on a Plane’, ‘Hoodwinked’ and ‘Shoot’em Up’…
12. DON is currently producing part of UK rapper Example’s forthcoming album together with other producers such as Hervé and Chase & Status. His most recent remix for Example already appeared on the 2009 Ministry of Sound Annual…
13. DON recorded the title song for a major independent Dutch movie called ‘Radeloos’ in 2008, which debuted at number one at the Box Office…
14. DON likes to drink milk during his DJ-sets, sings on all of his own records, has never done drugs, doesn’t have nearly as many girlfriends as media reports, and eats desserts three times a day...
15. DON is an ambassador for Dance4Life; an international UN-supported action campaign to fight back against HIV and AIDS. MTV Networks shot an intense documentary of DON’s visit to several Dance4Life affiliated projects in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa...
16. DON's mother is very proud of him, as is his father, who is more into Frank Zappa though...
So there you go, now you know the basics, which should do the trick if you ever have to take a pop quiz or if you try to impress your so-called “cool” friends! If you want to dig deeper, just go to http://www.dondiablo.com/