Max Graham


Max Graham is a British-Canadian DJ, composer and producer of dance music. Known for fusing progressive house, trance and techno he is most famous for his "Open to Close" DJ Sets, his Cycles CD Series/Radio show as well as his remix of the classic song "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes in 2005. He is also the founder of record labels Re*Brand and Cycles.

Biography

Graham was born in London, England and lived in Spain, New York City and Los Angeles before settling in Ottawa, Canada in 1989. At age 15 in 1986, he began as a hip-hop DJ before discovering dance music in the 90’s. He was the resident at the famed Atomic Nightclub in Ottawa from 97-01. He has been touring globally as a DJ and producing melodic dance music since 2000.

Career

1997-2001: Atomic nightclub, Hope Recordings

Graham was the resident at Atomic Nightclub in Ottawa from 1997 - 2001. After being discovered and signed to Hope Recordings one of his first productions Airtight was noticed by Nick Warren and Paul Oakenfold in 2000. Oakenfold subsequently put two of Graham's tracks on his CD "Another World. Tiesto also put Airtight on his "In Search of Sunrise 2" CD. That same year Airtight was nominated for a Juno Award. He gained immediate acclaim and was voted #23 in the DJMag top 100 DJs for 2001 and chosen to mix the famous "Transport" CD Series that year.

2002-04: ShineMusic and the "sidechain" mixes

Graham created the "Shine" concept in 2002 which included a mix CD a label, and club nights.
2004 Graham signed two singles to Sander Kleinenberg's label "Little Mountain" entitled "Does She Know Yet?" and "Automatic Weapon". His remixes at the time went by the name "Max Graham's Sidechain mix" after the bass pad sound that was heavily sidechained in his tracks.. Included in these remixes was Guy Gerber's Stoppage Time released on John Digweed's Bedrock Label

2005-06: Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Essential Mix

Graham produced a bootleg remix of Yes track "Owner of a Lonely Heart" which was played on Radio 1 and signed by Ministry of Sound and released globally. It reached #9 in the UK giving Graham his first Top Ten UK Hit. During this same period Graham was signed to the Bullitt agency and released music on Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi Recordings, including the single "Crank". 2006 saw him invited for his first Essential Mix.

2008-10: Armada, Cycles and Radio (Artist album)

In 2008 Graham shifted to a more melodic sound and signed with Armada music. He began his CD series Cycles which released 8 compilations in the series featuring a selection of progressive and trance.
In 2010 he release his first artist album Radio. which included collaborations with Jessica Riddle, Neev Kennedy, Ana Criado and Protoculture.

2011-14: Open To Close sets, Trance and The Evil ID

Graham released a new Cycles CD each year as a self proclaimed "snapshot" of his current DJ sound. He also began touring exclusively playing "Open To Close" shows where he focused on a wide variety of genres and a true journey of music Producing under his own name, he made singles "Sun In The Winter" "Nothing Else Matters" and the hit "The Evil ID" which was championed by Armin Van Buuren at Tomorrowland. Graham also performed regularly at A State Of Trance shows. During that period Graham teamed up with Protoculture to release a string of singles and remixes including a remake of Grace "Not Over Yet"

2015-17: Leaving Armada, Moving away from Trance. Changing sound

In 2015 Graham began to move away from trance due to the changing sound that no longer appealed to him and left Armada, closing down his Rebrand label in the process. His sound changed and he started the label Cycles with Blackhole Recordings. This period saw more underground releases like "Redemption" and "One Hundred" and showcased deeper sounds such as the tracks "Argentina" and "Sunrise in Flight". He also collaborated with Estiva on the track "Generation"

2017: The End of Cycles

In late 2017, Graham announced via Facebook that he was ending the weekly Cycles Radio episodes, and taking an extended break from touring and making music.

2019: The Return

In 2019, Graham returned to the scene and announced via social media in August, that he is currently in the studio working on his second artist album, and relaunching Cycles Radio with a new monthly format.

DJ

Graham is known mostly as a DJ for his open to close sets where he typically plays 6-8 hours. He has performed on Above and Beyond's Group Therapy Radio, Pete Tong's Essential Mix, John Digweed's Transitions and Armin's A State of Trance. He's toured to over 75 countries and performed at such festivals as Ultra, Tomorrowland and Dance Valley as well as performed at some of the most famed venues in the world including Ministry of Sound, Pacha Ibiza, Ushuaia ibiza, Twilo New York, Space Terrace Miami and open to close sets at Cielo New York and Output New York

Producer

Graham's production varies in genre and has been at times hard to classify Under his name he makes predominantly Progressive House and Progressive Trance while he also makes Techno under the alias Shelter.

Label Owner

He has owned three record labels, ShineMusic, Rebrand Records and Cycles Music. He also hosted Cycles Radio for 317 episodes until it went on extended hiatus in late 2017. Graham resumed Cycles Radio in August 2019.

Discography

Studio albums