Credits Country: Netherlands Genres: house, progressive Homepage: www.sanderkleinenberg.com

Sander Kleinenberg knows how dancefloors work. He has made people move from Belfast to Beijing and has become undoubtedly successful in what he does best: shaking things up.

Sander’s success is not coincidental. He has been at it since he was a teenager in the ‘80s, living in the provincial eastern Netherlands. Sander tuned in religiously to late night radio shows that played the most obscure r&b, electro and hip hop tracks directly from places like New York City and London. Imagine yourself a teenager, sitting in your bedroom in a small town far away from the big city, listening to weird yet somehow mesmerizing tracks from DJs all the way from New York City. Now imagine yourself fifteen years later, rocking the house in a club in the city that once represented that impossible farfetched dream.

This is Sander Kleinenberg.

Sander picked up his headphones when he was fifteen, and hasn’t put them down since. Already understanding he would have to play anything to please the crowds, he moved up quickly in the club scene. He was snatched away by a different club every year, going from crowds of 300 to crowds of 3000. He learned what it is like to DJ for a crowd of several thousands at a young age, when he spinned at one of the big German clubs, right across the Dutch border when he was only twenty years old. Still far away from that New York dream, he knew that this club would by no means be his final destination.

This is what happened.

The year was 1990, and the echoes of the Summer of Love reached Sander’s world.
It didn’t take more than a jiffy for Sander to give up his regular DJ’ing job and focus solely on making and playing EDM (electronic dance music). As little as two years later, he released his first tracks through legendary labels Superstition and Wonka Beats.

He decided to move to the Hague, which in retrospective turned out to be the big accelerator in his career. Being in ‘the big city’ and therefore closer to urban nightlife, resulted in gigs at the now legendary clubs like Roxy in Amsterdam, Rex in Paris and festivals such as Dance Valley. He released a string of hit tracks on Deal Records in the late ‘90s, kickstarting the Dutch DJ vibe that would soon conquer the world. Worthy of note is the club slamming hit “Y.D.W. (You Do Me Wrong)”, by S’n’S.

In 1999, Sander’s final breakthrough came with the release of his “Four Seasons” EPs, featuring (among others) the all time classics “My Lexicon” and “Sacred”. As a confirmation of this newfound glory, Sander was the first European DJ to ever mix Global Underground’s Nubreed series.
Sasha, fan, friend and partner in crime, signed him to his elite-only booking agency Excession and gradually, Sander became the role model he had once been inspired by himself.

This is a star in the rising.

Having become that rising star, what does he do? Settling down? Living the high life?
Everything BUT, hence the pioneering work he’s doing as the world’s first DVD-DJ, incorporating sound and vision in one medium. And who can forget the award winning remix he has made for Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Ur Body”, or the other stars he worked with like Janet, Usher, N.E.R.D. and the Eurythmics as well the monsterhitremix he has recently done for Mylo’s “Muscle Car”. Or the way he is steadily expanding his horizon, with residencies in Ibiza’s Pacha, London’s Ministry of Sound and that big city he could once only dream of: Crobar in New York. His Everybody brand has taken the world by storm, validating his status as a superstar DJ.
And last, but certainly not least, there is his labour of love, Little Mountain Recordings.
Workaholic? No. Fulfilling a lifelong dream? You bet.
And if these facts of the past are a prelude of what’s in store for the future, then one thing is certain:

This is only the beginning.

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Reviews:

CD: Sander Kleinenberg & Lee Burridge - This is Everybody! On Tour

on Ultra Records (31st Oct 05)

News:

This Is... Sander Kleinenberg (19th Jul 07)

Everybody On Tour - tracklisting (02nd Oct 05)

Sander Kleinenberg’s new video (20th Dec 04)