Being Renowned in Pop, EDM, and Trance

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Like every field, music and performing arts also demand quite a lot of practice and polishing before you can claim to be a connoisseur, even at one of the genres. The success story of Chris Burke, a young musician hailing from Scotland, is filled with moments that truly challenged him and pushed him to the limits and even made him take some hard decisions. You may now recognize Chris as an EDM and Trance sensation, but he has come a long way to reach here.

Graduating North East Scotland College, Fraserburgh, with a degree in mechanical engineering, Chris decided to start his own technical and recruitment agency. The business was going well as he was a state-of-the-art engineer. He knew all the technical stuff and was also pretty good at dealing with people. It made him at home with his job, providing people with employees and technical solutions for their businesses and firms. Even before this, he had a solid technical background as he did PR work at The Garage in Aberdeen when he was in high school; that was his first job. Anyway, life was going well with all its shebang, but there was this emptiness inside his heart that he could not fill unless he opted for music as a full-time profession.

This passion for music was not an overnight fever for Chris. Right from his childhood, he had some exquisite taste in music. He listened to Eminem, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Biffy Clyro. All those legends were also becoming popular in the online music scene at that time. The early 2000s were when both, the music scene and the dot com scene, were being revolutionized. Chris used to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana on loop those days. He went to his first concert with his father in 2007, where Foo Fighters were performing.

To actualize all his musical inspirations, he found no better way than to start his band. So, he and a few of his homies sat down one afternoon and found Cold California, a band still remembered for its symphonious pop and country tunes. The boys decided to keep it all simple and focus on quality instead of quantity. Hence, during the first few years, they were merely experimenting, refining their skills, and finding an innovative way to express their inspirations. All the components, including the lyrics, the beat, the tune, and whatnot, were developed in-house. Eventually came the time when they became so good at this that they started making some fat stacks. Their name was on the tongue of every pop and country music enthusiast in Scotland. It was back in 2017. Chris also collaborated with David Chappell for a single pop-rock ambient album under the name of Tenaya.

Chris got into the EDM scene through Calvin Harris. He had not met Calvin at that time. He just found his music on Bebo, a social networking site, and found it to be quite touching. EDM, when produced right, can make the crowd dance on your fingertips. It can be the plus point of a DJ as well as his worst nightmare. With so many options and effects available, sometimes it becomes quite overwhelming for you to decide what to do. Chris handled dilemmas like these quite smartly and released his first two singles, Space and Time and Dreamers, in 2019, and both of them went blockbuster. Among his next track, Never Really Liked You, was also featured on Club Life, a weekly radio show by Tiesto.

Listening to Gareth Emery at a concert in Orlando, Florida, while Chris was on vacation, was how he jumped into trance music. That day, Gareth's performance amazed him quite a lot, and he decided why not give it a shot, and the rest is history. His collaboration, The Night, with Eximinds, released on Suanda Records in March 2020, was a BIG HIT! It further increased his confidence that he was working in the right direction and that people appreciated his music. It's the reason that nowadays he is working day and night to complete his new project, Hey Child, on time, that he is going to release on Tribal Trap.

Venturing through different genres of art and music is not a bad thing. As some purists may call it not being true to the roots, I call it becoming the jack of all trades. You should be at the pinnacle of your field. Within the first year of his career, Chris has generated more than 3.5 million streams on Spotify. Much like Bukowski said, go all the way or do not even try! Let us see what this young mind is up to more?

Instagram: @chrisburke