Alan Olav Walker, better known as Alan Walker, also called #0, is a famous DJ and music producer.
Career[]
2012–2016: Career beginnings and breakthrough[]
In 2012, Walker was listening to a song by Italian DJ David Whistle (also known as DJ Ness) and reached out to him to find out how he produced his music. He was inspired by EDM producers K-391 and Ahrix, and by film composers like Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky. He started producing his music on his laptop using FL Studio. In July 2012, with the help and feedback from his fans online, he began pursuing his music production career and slowly began posting his music to YouTube and SoundCloud. Starting as a bedroom producer, he was better known as DJ Walkzz before signing a record deal and releasing his debut single in 2014.
Walker released the track "Fade" on 17 August 2014. The track gained attention after its re-release via the record label NoCopyrightSounds on 19 November 2014, it was quickest to reach 1 million views on NoCopyrightSounds. Walker stated that the creation of the track was inspired by K-391 and Ahrix, whose tracks were also picked up by the record label. The track has over 400 million views on YouTube, 115 million plays on Spotify, and 41 million streams on SoundCloud. The tracks "Spectre" and "Force" followed in 2015.
Walker signed with MER Musikk under Sony Music Sweden and released his next single, "Faded", a remastered vocal version of "Fade". It was released on 8 December 2015 and featured uncredited Naustdal pop singer Iselin Solheim. The single topped the year-end charts in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, iTunes charts in 33 countries, as well as entering top 10 in Spotify Global Chart. The music video on YouTube has over 3.4 billion views and 26 million likes, placing it among the top 10 most-liked YouTube videos. It has over 1.7 billion plays on Spotify, and is also one of the Top 10 Most Shazamed tracks of 2016. The single also received official remixes from Tiësto, Dash Berlin, and Hardwell. He later released an acoustic "restrung" version of the song, with all the EDM elements taken out. Walker performing at the Stavernfestivalen in 2016. Walker quit high school in January to pursue his music career. On 27 February, Walker made his performance debut at the Winter X Games in Oslo, where he performed 15 tracks including the song "Faded" together with Iselin Solheim. By March, Walker had produced 30 to 40 songs in total, but "Faded" marks his first single with Sony Music Sweden, and the first to achieve such global success. On 7 April, Walker teamed up with Zara Larsson at the Echo Awards in Germany. Together they performed each other's songs "Faded" and "Never Forget You". Four weeks previously, he achieved the first place on NRJ Euro Hot 30 for the first time, which only has been achieved by one other Norwegian artist, Kygo.
The single "Sing Me to Sleep" was released on 3 June, featuring female vocalist Iselin Solheim, the same vocalist as in "Faded". The song topped iTunes charts in 7 countries. Its music video on YouTube has over 570 million views, and it also reached 250 million plays on Spotify. Another single titled "Alone" was also released on 2 December of that same year, incoperating uncredited Swedish singer Noonie Bao. The music video on YouTube has over 1 billion views, the track also gained over 390 million plays on Spotify. The song was described as "the final piece of a trilogy consisting of 'Faded', 'Sing Me To Sleep' and 'Alone'" by Gunnar Greeve, Walker's manager and co-writer for the single.
On 21 and 22 December, Walker held the concert "Alan Walker is Heading Home" in his hometown Bergen at USF Verftet, where he performed 16 songs and tracks together with Angelina Jordan, Marius Samuelsen, Alexandra Rotan, Yosef Wolde-Mariam, and Tove Styrke as singers. The concert was officially live-streamed on YouTube. He premiered several unreleased tracks, including a restrung version of "Sing Me to Sleep", as well as "Heading Home", the latter of which was first performed during his debut at Winter X Games. The song "The Spectre", a remastered version of his earlier track "Spectre", was also performed during the concert.
On 23 December, Walker released the video for the single "Routine", which premiered on his concert in Bergen two days earlier and on some concerts on the "Walker Tour". The track was made in collaboration with David Whistle. Its music video on YouTube has over 58 million views, and 47 million plays on Spotify.
2017–present: Different World, World of Walker and other projects[]
At the beginning of 2017, Walker's YouTube channel became the most subscribed channel registered in Norway, after passing about 4.5 million subscribers, and had the most views among Norwegian YouTubers at around 7.7 billion views as of 25 January 2020. Between February and April, he toured around America including attending the Euphoria Festival in Texas. In 2019, Alan's music video Diamond Heart received a nomination for Best Cinematography at the Berlin Music Video Awards. His music video for Heading Home featuring Ruben appears on the festival's 2021 Silver Screenings selection list.
On 26 November 2021, Alan Walker released his second studio album titled "World of Walker", which consists of 15 tracks, primarily made in electropop and EDM. In 2022, he announced his new Walkerverse world tour, alongside his upcoming album of the same name that will be released in two parts. The first part was released on June 17, 2022, which consists of five tracks: a remix of "Adventure Time", originally written and produced by Philter, "Somebody Like U" with Au/Ra, "Blue" with Ina Wroldsen, and previously-released songs "The Drum" featuring uncredited vocals by Kristin Carpenter and "Hello World" with Torine. The second part, "Walkerverse, Pt. 2" as of yet contains five songs: "Extremes" with Trevor Daniel, "Shut Up" with UPSAHL, "Catch me if you can" with Sorana, "Lovesick" with Sophie Simmons, and "Ritual".
In late 2021, Walker's contract with NoCopyrightSounds expired, meaning that his releases on the label (namely Fade, Spectre and Force) were taken off of NoCopyrightSounds' catalogue and from streaming platforms. The songs would then be redistributed in July of 2022, as part of his deal with Corite.
In 2022, Walker signed with the Swedish crowdfunding website Corite, which allows fans to invest in a music project. Walker has raised over $100,000 from fans for his next musical products, the first being a compilation EP called "Origins", while the second was a collaboration with his online community of fans known as The Walkers, called "Unity".
Role in World of Walker[]
The Leader[]
Alan Walker known to most walkers as #0. Worked together with his companion Lily aka #28300, he founded a secret online community network called The Modern Walker Network. Here thousands of people from all over the world came together.
In 2015, #28300 found evidence of an advanced lost civilization that lived thousands of years ago.
The Walkers worked collectively to decrypt and understand advanced archaeological objects. #0 was a central force and invaluable when the Walkers succeeded in deciphering the time capsule’s horrifying message; the Earth was headed toward an apocalypse. #0 organized Walkers all over the world to prepare us as best as they could against the impending destruction of the solar storm. A hugely complicated global action that had to be conducted in secret. With the ultimate goal of building a future city for Walkers after the destruction of the solar storm had passed.
#0 also played a key role in the drone war between The Unity Force and Red Nexus (2090). A battle that would ultimately save the world from apocalypse after the ravages of the solar storm.
Awards[]
2016[]
- Årets Musikk (Music of the Year)
- Best Norwegian Act
- The Cannes Lions Award
- Best International Hit
- Årets Norske Låt (Norwegian Song of the Year)
- European Border Breakers Award
2017[]
- Årets Låt (Song of the Year)
- Best Western Artist of the Year
- Best Western Single of the Year
- Best New Talent
- Årets Musikk (Music of the Year)
- Best International Hit
- Eksportprisen '16 (The Export Prize '16)
- Best Norwegian Act
2018[]
- Best Breakthrough Artist
- Best Norwegian Act
2019[]
- Årets Spellemann (Spellemann of the Year)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- He was only 17 years old when he released Fade on NCS.
- Alan has a dog named Happy.
- Alan won the MTV music awards for Best Norwegian Act in 2016.
- Alan's style seems to be inspired by Watch Dogs.
- His favorite drinks are Coca-Cola, Urge and Redbull.
- His favorite foods are pizza, tacos, and hamburgers.
- Alan has a sister, Camilla Joy Walker, and a brother, Andreas Walker.
- Alan's birthday is on August 24.