A little story about me, I always hate this sort of thing. My real name is Bastiaan Klene, I dj under the name of Sebastian Hawkes. I was born in Naarden, near my hometown Almere on a November morning in 1985. I grew up with my older brother and mother and father in a city named Almere which is located in the middle of the Netherlands just 20 miles east of Amsterdam.
During the last years of primary school I became obsessed with music, especially Trance and house music. For some reason I was always fascinated with the DJ life. When I got to secondary school I listened to the big names in the business and back then the likes of Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Cygnus X, Rank 1, Svenson & Gielen were dj’s who drew my attention. During my secondary school period I had a few years I listened to all sorts of music which included a lot of indie-rock bands, but my hearth had always been with the house and trance scene. As soon as I got to college I visited a lot of Trance festivals and a lot of house and trance nights across the Netherlands to see my heroes perform.
From that point I decided to save money to buy my own decks and that took a very long time. When I first started playing I played house, techno, and trance music. I did some small venues around Amsterdam and after a few years I did my first real gig in Almere with a lineup which was fantastic for me, Dj Jay van Bremen (aka Jake Westfield), Dj Tensity and Rank 1. A few months later I felt my hearth was more with the Techno and House scene and from that day I began to work on my sets a lot more and a lot better, I started my monthly promo’s under the name Hypertensive and I still record my sets under that name, although I have a weekly podcast on http://sebastianhawkes.podomatic.com which is still called Hypertensive. A month after I switched to house and techno I had my first real techno gig in a neighbour city Lelystad called Extase. That night convinced me to keep playing techno with a lineup with the likes of Shinagl, Vexar, and Ille Bitch a well respected dj nowadays.
in 2009 I did become resident for the Dublin D-Underground organization run by Ireland’s well respected Paddy Sheridan
A few months later I went to Dublin as I wanted to go to college there, after some very unpleasent months I was forced to go back to Holland, I did meet very nice people in Dublin and very nearly got a gig there. When I got back to Holland it became very hard to find some gigs and in 2009 I did become resident for the Dublin D-Underground organization run by Ireland’s well respected Paddy Sheridan. I visited Dublin a few times after I got back to see Paddy Sheridan.
2009 has become a very nice year in the end as I entered a Pioneer Pro DJ Contest which ironically is held in my own hometown. It is a house and techno contest where I’m still cometing in, Saturday the 22nd of August is the Grand final of the contest and the winner deserves a spot on the Infinity Festival held also in Almere.
That’s my life so far.
Sebastian Hawkes.
