Artists

Born in 1970 in Vlaardingen, a 'suburb' of Rotterdam in The Netherlands, he can’t imagine a time in his life he wasn’t involved in music. At a young age, he started 'mixing' with tapes for various local radio stations and started two drive-in shows, which entertained school parties, soccer club gatherings, weddings and birthday parties.

Not long after that, he discovered hip-hop, became an aficionado of Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing sound and started to play as a resident hip hop DJ in a small club in the vicinity of Rotterdam.

After hearing the legendary Frankie Knuckles track 'Tears' back in 1991 on a radio show, he got totally infected with the house virus, put aside his scratching skills and started playing early house music, garage and hip house on various parties and clubs.

In 1993, he met his soon-to-be production partner Frank van Rooijen when he was working in one of the infamous Mid-Town Records stores. They discovered a mutual passion for delivered productions under many various a.k.a.’s of which the Lock ‘n Load guise proved to be the most successful. After being promoted from assistant shop manager to the Head of the A&R department at Mid-Town Records where he worked for nine years, he started his own record company Selekted Music in March 2008.

The Lock ‘n Load moniker achieved global success when their debut release “Blow Ya Mind” was released. It quickly became a record which landed on the # 1 spot of dance charts all over Europe. Through no. 1 positions in both the UK Club and UK Dance Chart, it had an amazing entry at 6 in the UK Single Charts. After 4 weeks of being firmly in the top 10, “Blow ya mind” reached the silver status as the record sold over 250.000 copies in the UK only. In Scandinavia, “Blow Ya Mind” even reached the gold status.

The follow up “House Some More” proved it wasn’t a lucky shot, as it had an entry on the 18th place in the UK Single Charts. Both records were to be found on millions of compilations worldwide. In 2007, Frank left Lock ‘n Load and Dutch mega talent Gabriel Vezzola took his place to become the new Lock ‘n Load producer.

After these global hits, Lock ‘n Load changed musical directions into a more tech / electro sound by releasing the single “Who Else Could It Be”, a release which received global recognition from both press and DJ’s. “Who Else Could It Be” got rewarded with 5-star reviews in leading magazines as IDJ Magazine - where it became “TopTune” -, Mixmag and DJ Mag. Lock ‘n Load also remixed for the likes of Jochen Miller (High Contrast Recordings), Cor Fijneman (Black Hole Recordings) and UK’s star producer Ali Wilson.

Marco V - Rock The Boat (Pleasure Island 2011 Theme)