DJ Encore

by Alex HendersonBased in Copenhagen, Denmark, DJ Encore is a Danish producer, engineer, songwriter, and mix master who is known for his partnership with vocalist Engelina (who is also Danish). Encore, who was born Andreas Hemmeth in Copenhagen in 1979, specializes in a high-tech, club-friendly style of dance-pop that is unmistakably European. Growing up in Scandinavia, Encore was exposed to a great deal of music and his music-minded parents can take some of the credit. Encore's mother is a music teacher, while his father is a classical musician and a music consultant. Encore was only a child when his parents encouraged him to study piano and guitar; he also learned to mix music on a computer at a very young age. The Scandinavian artist continued to study music as a teenager, and when he reached early adulthood, Encore got into producing, engineering, and DJing. Encore was in his late teens when he became a regular DJ in three of Copenhagen's dance clubs, where he was admired and respected for his mixing skills. As a club jock, the Dane was flexible and broad-minded. He could get into abstract, rave-friendly forms of electronic dance music -- trance and techno, for example -- but he could also spin and mix more accessible and melodic dance-pop and Euro-dance recordings. Encore was serving as an engineer at a studio session for the dance-oriented Funkstar de Lux when he met a representative for Sony Music Publishing; that person asked to hear a demo of Encore's songs, and the Sony employee felt that he would work well with the Copenhagen-based singer Engelina. Encore and Engelina had different musical backgrounds; he was spinning various styles of dance music in Copenhagen's clubs, while Engelina had a history of singing jazz and R&B. Nonetheless, Encore and Engelina hit it off musically and, at the suggestion of the Sony rep, formed a partnership. Recording as the duo DJ Encore featuring Engelina, they provided their first single, "I Can See Right Through to You," which was a major hit in Denmark and other European countries and became the theme for the Danish television show Big Brother. Scandinavians who heard that single and other melodic Encore/Engelina material realized that the Copenhagen residents did not get into the more bubblegum styles of European dance-pop. Their songs tend to be haunting, dreamy, and intoxicating instead of cutesy, sugary, or bubblegum. Like so many Scandinavian artists, Encore and Engelina write in English exclusively; although they grew up in a country in which Danish, not English, is the primary language, both of them fluently speak English. In 2001, DJ Encore featuring Engelina recorded their debut album, Intuition, which MCA released in the United States in January 2002. "Walking on the Sky" was released as the album's second single in North America, as well as in Europe. Remix work, production jobs, and live gigs kept the DJ busy until 2007, when he returned with the album Unique.