“His name is Vato Gonzalez … and he comes at Dutch house from a hip hop perspective” – PETE TONG
Widely recognized as the originator of the ‘Dirty House’ movement, Vato Gonzalez (Björn Franken) is no stranger to groundbreaking club music. He’s the producer behind UK Top 10 hit ‘Badman Riddim’, UK Top 20 hit ‘Not A Saint’, and the recent Beatport smash ‘Sushi Riddim’. He collaborated with Diplo on ‘Rasclat Riddim’ and there’s a hot collaboration with Afrojack on the horizon, which was premiered at Ultra Music Festival 2014. He has officially remixed acts like Major Lazer, Taio Cruz, DJ Fresh, Rizzle Kicks & Chuckie and has won thousands of fans over the last few years with his immensely energetic stage presence, rebellious attitude and by generally doing things his way.
“Vato Gonzalez is a force to be reckoned with in the dance music world.” – ELEKTRO
Vato Gonzalez’ big break came in 2007, when he unleashed the first ‘Dirty House’ mixtape to the public. The fast-paced mixing proved to be an instant hit with the crowd and spread like wildfire all over the internet, resulting in more than 150.000 downloads. Quickly after the launch of the first mixtape, Vato started with ‘Dirty House’ events and as the brand/movement grew, he sold out clubs with his ‘Dirty House’ concept, hosted ‘Dirty House’ arenas at massive events throughout Europe and became one of the main festival attractions in Holland. As the poster boy for DIY artists, Vato also set up his own booking agency ‘010 Bookings’ and ‘Dirty House’ record label to become completely independent. As demand grew for ‘Dirty House’, he rolled out six additional mixtapes over the years, amassing well over 1.5 million downloads.
Vato’s international breakthrough came in 2011, when his single ‘Badman Riddim’ quickly developed into one of the biggest summer anthems of the year and entered the Official UK Chart at no. 7. He followed up on that success in 2013, when his single ‘Not A Saint’ featuring Lethal Bizzle & Donae’o entered the Official UK Chart as one of the highest new entries at no. 20. In between releases, he teased the crowd with the underground track ‘Digital Lies’ on Norman Cook’s Southern Fried Records and launched the first ‘user-generated’ mixtape, ‘Army Of Bastards’, via his online community; the mixtape introduced talents like Martin Garrix and Oliver Heldens to the world.
“Vato Gonzalez…he is a big deal.” – DIPLO ON BBC RADIO 1
Quickly after charting with ‘Not A Saint’, Vato drops a massive club banger, ‘Cats Are Evil’, on Mad Decent and follows that release with an underground gem, ‘$100 Infinite Kung Fu Vixens’, with Sinden through Sweat it Out. Later that year, he gets an early promo copy of a new record out to some of his DJ friends; ‘Sushi Riddim’ quickly starts picking up support by David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Bingo Players, Hardwell, Diplo, W&W, Pete Tong & Martin Solveig. As a result, the record gets picked up by Cr2 Records and enters the Beatport Top 10 soon after. Early 2014, he follows up that success with ‘Triplets Riddim’ and ‘Bio Riddim’ through Sander van Doorn’s DOORN Records; both releases storm the Beatport charts and peak in the Top 15. In between, he releases ‘Volfied Riddim’ through Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records, which sets the blogosphere a light. His momentum keeps growing stronger, as he continues to feed the clubs in 2014 with ‘B52 Riddim’ through Ultra Music and ‘Monkey Riddim’ through Dim Mak. Now, Vato returns to Ministry of Sound to unleash his next big single. Vato plays over 250 DJ shows per year around the globe and as DJZ.com states “…is all about the riddim.”
“A new dance music movement is rumbling its way across the Atlantic … with Vato destined to shake the hearts and bodies of countless ravers at next year’s festivals.” – VIBE.COM