Jiar Garmiani, commonly known by his stage name Garmiani, is a Swedish electronic dance music producer and DJ.
Early life
Garmiani is of Kurdish descent and moved to Sweden at the age of 6 as a result of the Iran–Iraq War. Having a musician father and cultivating a passion for music from a very young age led him to buy his first instrument that year. At the age of 12, he saved his allowance for 6 months and bought his first DJ mixer. At the age of 13 he started rapping. He studied music in high school and later graduated from the Audio Engineering program at SAE Institute. He has mentioned 2Pac, Dr. Dre, The Prodigy and Armand Van Helden as early musical influencers.
Music career
2001–2011
After rapping and producing underground Hip hop between 2001–2007, he moved on to producing a hybrid of Hiphop/Dancehall/Electro under the alias Al Azif between 2007–2011. Thzif remix of Crossfire’s ”Lady” gained a #1 spot on the Swedish radio station The Voice’s top chart in 2008. In 2009, a Spanish version of the same remix stayed #1 on the Billboard single chart in Chile for 8 weeks, keeping Black Eyed Peas's ”I Gotta Feeling" and Lady Gaga's ”Bad Romance” off the top position. in 2011 he released the last Al Azif single ”Sick In Head” on Sony Music Entertainment Sweden. After that, he retired the Al Azif project.
2012—present
In 2012, he started his new dance music project, this time using his last name Garmiani as his stage name. His first collaboration "The City Is Mine" with childhood friendSalvatore Ganacci was released on Tiesto-founded Magik Muzik. The vocals on ”The City Is Mine” were performed by Garmiani himself. He signed to Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Records in 2013 and released ”Rumble EP”. The title track ”Rumble” gained a top 10 position on the Beatport electronica chart and was featured in the video game ”Need for Speed Rivals". The 2014 follow-up single ”Nomad” was the first Garmiani single to reach 1 million streams on Spotify. The track was used in a video clip with a dancing baby that went viral on Vine, Instagram and Facebook. In July 2014 Garmiani hit #1 on USA's Billboard Next Big Sound chart and his single ”Zaza" was featured in the American TV show ”Stitchers”. In August 2015 he released ”Jump & Sweat”, an Electro/Dancehall fusion featuring vocals from high school classmate and friend Sanjin. Jump & Sweat stayed on the Beatport Electro House chart for 3 months and reached the #1 spot on the Beatport Big Room Pulse chart in November 2015. 2016 started off with the release of Garmiani’s remix of Lil Jon’s ”Get Loose” and was followed by his single ”Bomb A Drop” which reached the top 10 of Beatport’s Electro House chart. "Bomb A Drop” ended up being the best selling Dim Mak records release on Beatport in 2016 and the most played track of Tomorrowland 2016. Just in time for Miami Music Week 2016, Garmiani and Steve Aoki released their first collaboration, the remix of Aoki’s single “Youth Dem” with Snoop Dogg. In Aug 2017, Garmiani released ”Fogo". A Brazilian inspired track with Portuguese vocals from Julimar Santos. Fogo was released on Spinnin' Records and became #1 on the Beatport Electro House chart and #5 on the main Beatport chart. Garmiani's music has been featured in the DJ sets of David Guetta, Tiesto, Hardwell, Afrojack, Avicii, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Major Lazer, Nicky Romero, Jauz and Steve Aoki among others. He has remixed Steve Aoki, Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon, Arash & Sean Paul and Deorro. DJ:ing on a weekly basis since the age of 16, Garmiani is known for his fast-paced mixing and high-energy DJ sets. He is a global touring DJ, playing clubs like Pacha Ibiza and festivals like Tomorrowland. He has also toured the USA along with Steve Aoki, Borgore, Waka Flocka Flame and Pharrell Williams.
