Bart Claessen

Bart Claessen, also known by the alias Barthezz, was born on 22 January 1980 in the Netherlands. He began music very young and took his first piano lessons at age seven. Impressed by electronic music in the late 1990s, he saved during secondary school to buy his first studio gear — a synthesizer, a sampler, an Atari computer and a small mixer — and converted the attic of his family home into a studio.

After high school he studied music technology at the Utrecht School Of Arts. In 2001 his very first release, On The Move, made an impact on the dance scene: supported by major DJs and released on labels such as Positiva, Superstar, Avex and Ultra, it reached the Top 10 in more than ten countries, was nominated for two Dutch TMF Awards and sold nearly 150,000 copies in Germany alone. The follow-up single, Infected, achieved almost the same success.

Numerous international DJ sets (Trance Energy and Impulz in the Netherlands, Innercity in New Zealand, as well as appearances in Tokyo, Barcelona, Moscow, Beirut, Warsaw and Vancouver) propelled him to the top of the dance scene. After a long break he began releasing under his real name, Bart Claessen: Persona Non Grata was the first release under that name and also the inaugural release of Yakuza, the label founded by United Recordings.

His major breakthrough came with Playmo in the summer of 2005, supported by almost every trance and techno DJ and included on many compilations. 2006 brought the long-awaited When Morning Comes, numerous remixes and the sought-after mashup As Playmo Comes; DJMag named him a promising artist in 2007.

In early 2008 he released First Light, and in April 2008 Playmo was reissued as a single with a video, this time with vocals as Catch Me (Playmo) featuring Denise River.

After his Barthezz and StereoShaker projects (the latter released Rock 'n Roll in 2003), Bart Claessen became a key member at Yakuza and later at Anjunabeats. After Fantomah in 2011 and a significant break, he moved away from trance with singles on Big & Dirty, shifting toward dubstep and electro house. In 2014 he founded his own label, Playmo Sounds, and his successes also led him to Mainstage Music. In 2017 he unexpectedly decided to retire from music production and social media.