Martin Garrix: Biography, Discography and More | EDM Encyclopedia

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Introduction

Martijn Gerard Garritsen, known professionally as Martin Garrix, is a Dutch DJ and record producer from the Netherlands. Operating under additional stage names including Ytram and GRX, he has maintained an active release schedule spanning from his first confirmed output in 2014 through at least 2022.

Garrix has achieved repeated recognition from industry publications, securing the number one position on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list on five separate occasions: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2024. This consistent placement reflects his commercial standing within electronic dance music over nearly a decade of activity.

Beyond his solo releases, Garrix founded the STMPD RCRDS label, which serves as a platform for his own productions alongside affiliated artists. The label has released multiple compilation albums documenting his curatorial vision and the intersection of his work with broader electronic music trends.

His catalog encompasses full-length albums, extended plays, and standalone singles that have achieved significant commercial visibility across streaming platforms and radio formats. Garrix maintains an active international touring schedule, with performances at major electronic music festivals and venues worldwide.

The Dutch producer’s career has encompassed both underground club settings and mainstream crossover success, with his work appearing in diverse performance contexts. His production approach has evolved across multiple release formats and years, adapting to shifts in electronic music while maintaining identifiable sonic characteristics that distinguish his output.

Garrix’s influence extends beyond his own releases through his label work and collaborations with other artists in the electronic music space. His dual role as performer and label operator provides perspectives on both the commercial and creative aspects of contemporary house music production and distribution. The Netherlands’ electronic music tradition has provided context for his development as an artist working within international club and festival circuits.

Genre and Style

Martin Garrix operates primarily within house music, with his production approach emphasizing melodic construction and accessible arrangements designed for large-scale live performance environments. His sound centers on clear, memorable hooks and structured builds that translate effectively to festival stages and arena venues.

The house Sound

His approach to house incorporates elements from progressive and big room subgenres, characterized by extended breakdowns that create tension before rhythmic drops. This style prioritizes crowd engagement through deliberate dynamic shifts between stripped-back melodic sections and full-energy rhythmic passages.

Garrix’s production techniques involve layered synthesizer arrangements with prominent lead melodies supported by rhythmic bass patterns and programmed percussion. His tracks frequently feature vocal collaborations that add accessible melodic hooks to electronic foundations, balancing instrumental complexity with pop-leaning elements that broaden his commercial reach beyond traditional club audiences.

His sound has evolved across his active years, with earlier work adhering closely to big room house conventions while subsequent releases incorporated more diverse influences and production approaches. This progression is documented across his album catalog, which spans multiple years and release formats, showing movement from straightforward festival anthems toward more varied production styles.

The STMPD RCRDS compilations reflect his curatorial approach to electronic music, showcasing both his personal production style and artists who share similar aesthetic sensibilities. These compilations capture the intersection of his individual evolution with broader trends in commercial house artists music.

Through his multiple aliases, Garrix explores stylistic territory beyond his primary festival-oriented sound, allowing for experimentation with different tempos, textures, and production philosophies while maintaining his core identity as a house music producer. Each alias serves a distinct creative purpose within his overall output, separating his commercial releases from more experimental or underground-oriented productions.

Key Releases

Garrix’s discography spans multiple formats, documenting his production output across several years of activity. His confirmed album releases include The Martin Garrix Collection (2017), The Martin Garrix Experience (2019), Martin Garrix presents STMPD RCRDS Vol. 001 (2020), Sentio (2022), and Martin Garrix presents STMPD RCRDS Vol. 006 (2022).

  • The Martin Garrix Collection
  • The Martin Garrix Experience
  • Martin Garrix presents STMPD RCRDS Vol. 001
  • Sentio
  • Martin Garrix presents STMPD RCRDS Vol. 006

Discography Highlights

His extended play releases include Gold Skies EP (2014) and Break Through the Silence (2015), both arriving during the initial phase of his documented output period. These releases preceded his full-length album work by several years, establishing his sound in the EP format before transitioning to longer projects.

Garrix’s most recognized singles include “Animals”, “In the Name of Love”, and “Scared to Be Lonely”, new EDM tracks that contributed significantly to his visibility in both club environments and mainstream commercial markets. These releases helped establish his presence on streaming platforms and radio formats internationally.

The two STMPD RCRDS compilation albums represent Garrix’s label curatorial work alongside his solo productions. These compilations document the roster and aesthetic direction of his imprint across different periods of its operation, with volumes arriving in consecutive years.

Sentio stands as his most recent confirmed full-length album of original material, closing out his documented output period with new productions rather than compilation or retrospective formats. The album arrived during the same year as his second label compilation, marking a productive period in his release schedule.

His album catalog includes a mix of original productions, retrospectives, and label compilations. The collection and experience format releases function as retrospective projects, while the STMPD RCRDS volumes focus on label showcases featuring multiple artists from the roster alongside Garrix’s own contributions.

Famous Tracks

Martin Garrix, born Martijn Gerard Garritsen, constructed his catalog around melodic, vocal-driven house music. Three singles anchor his commercial presence: Animals, a hard-hitting instrumental that became a staple of European festival sets; In the Name of Love, a pop-oriented vocal track; and Scared to Be Lonely, which charted across multiple countries. Each release captures a distinct phase: the raw, big-room energy of his early productions, the radio-friendly crossover style he moved toward, and the more emotionally layered vocal house he developed across subsequent years.

The Gold Skies EP (2014) arrived while Garritsen was still a teenager. It demonstrated his approach to building tension into euphoric drops, a structure that appeared across mainstream EDM throughout the mid-2010s. The EP landed during a period when big-room house dominated the European festival circuit, and Garrix’s productions stood out for their melodic clarity and punchy synth arrangements.

Sentio (2022) served as his first full-length studio album. The project leaned into progressive house and future bounce influences, featuring collaborations with vocalists from outside the traditional EDM sphere. Where his earlier work prioritized peak-time festival energy, Sentio explored slower tempos and more introspective melodies. The album demonstrated a willingness to move beyond the formula that had defined his early career, even at the risk of alienating listeners who associated his name exclusively with high-energy club tracks.

Live Performances

Garrix headlined major festivals across Europe, Asia, and North America throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s. His standing in the industry is reflected in his DJ Mag Top 100 DJs results: he placed number one in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2024. Five appearances at the top of a publicly voted poll indicates sustained visibility as both a recording artist and a touring DJ.

Notable Shows

His label STMPD RCRDS shaped his live repertoire. Martin Garrix presents STMPD RCRDS Vol. 001 (2020) compiled label material into a continuous mix, presenting both his own tracks and contributions from signed artists. The compilation functioned as a snapshot of his DJ sets during that period. Martin Garrix presents STMPD RCRDS Vol. 006 (2022) followed two years later, updating the series with newer signings and reflecting how the label’s sound had evolved toward deeper textures.

Main-stage festival sets under the Martin Garrix name favor high-energy, compressed sets designed for crowds numbering in the tens of thousands. His production choices in these contexts prioritize big synth leads, vocal hooks, and rapid transitions between tracks, a format suited to the visual spectacle of large-scale electronic music festivals where he held recurring headlining slots throughout the 2010s and 2020s.

Why They Matter

Martin Garrix occupies a specific position in electronic music: a Dutch DJ and record producer who moved from teenage novelty to sustained commercial presence across more than a decade. He achieved chart success before turning 20, a timeline that influenced how labels and promoters approached young electronic artists throughout the 2010s.

Impact on big room house

His catalog spans multiple release formats. The Break Through the Silence EP (2015) bridged the gap between his early singles and his longer-form projects. The Martin Garrix Collection (2017) and The Martin Garrix Experience (2019) compiled his existing singles and remixes into curated packages, making his scattered releases accessible in single volumes. These collections documented the shift in his sound from purely instrumental big-room tracks to vocal-driven electronic pop.

Garrix also operated under two aliases: Ytram and GRX. The Ytram project allowed him to release deeper, more underground-leaning house music without the commercial expectations attached to his primary name. The GRX alias appeared on earlier collaborative works. Both projects demonstrated an awareness of how artist branding shapes audience expectations, and how working under alternative names creates space for stylistic experimentation beyond the constraints of a single public identity.

The founding of STMPD RCRDS gave Garrix a platform to sign and develop artists whose sounds aligned with his own evolving tastes. His ability to function as both a pop-facing producer reaching international charts and a club-oriented DJ releasing underground-leaning material under Ytram illustrates one model for longevity in electronic music, a genre that frequently cycles through artists quickly.

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