Funkerman – born Ardie van Beek in Breda, Netherlands in 1975 – is a Dutch house DJ, producer, and record label owner. He’s been on the scene since 1990, and he started building his now incredibly prolific discography in 2002.
Funkerman got started in music thanks to his love of American hip hop. He was one of the original diggers during the first waves of house music in the United States, obsessively searching for disco, funk, and soul to mix into his sets. His purpose in life is to find and make exciting new music for the world.
He started his production and remixing career while he was spinning at Club Spock in Breda during the mid 1990s. At the same time, he was working in a record store, surrounded by new and interesting music from the burgeoning Dutch house scene. He knew he couldn’t stay on the sidelines. He needed to really be a part of making music happen, so he started working as an A&R manager.
In ’04, van Beek, Raf Jansen, and fellow DJ and producer Fedde le Grand founded Flamingo Records. The label blew up almost immediately, putting out some of the biggest tracks of the ‘00s. In that time, Funkerman put out his biggest hit to date on Flamingo, “Speed It Up”.
“Speed It Up” blew up so hard that it got featured on an the Xbox360 karaoke game “Lips” and eventually got signed by UK label Defected Records. At the same time, Funkerman was going heavy into remixes for the likes of Guru Josh, Ida Corr, and the Sugababes.
Since then, with backing from Sony/ATV and his own label, Funkerman has continued to produce and remix at a phenomenal rate. Not only is he an incredibly prolific musician, he’s also almost always on a world tour.
