Alan Walker

Asked in 2016 what inspired "Faded," Walker went straight to the source: "'Faded' is mainly built on my old track 'Fade,' which was inspired by Ahrix's track 'Nova.'" Nova, put out in 2013 by the Dutch producer through the free-music channel NoCopyrightSounds, gave a teenage Walker something to take apart in his bedroom — its vaporous synth builds and slow-motion drop are the template "Fade" borrowed wholesale, years before Walker had a label, a vocalist, or a mask.

listen: upstream & heresource: The Knockturnal — Alan Walker Talks 'Faded' and More! (backs the Ahrix and K-391 influence claims) ↗share

2013

NovaAhrix

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2015

FadedAlan Walker

listen forPlay Ahrix's "Nova" against "Faded" and the inheritance is direct: both spend nearly a minute on a hushed, filtered pad before resolving into the same weightless, tempo-slowed drop — the 90-bpm feel that became Walker's signature is Nova's blueprint, just dressed later in a vocal and a piano. The debt was still live in 2020, when Walker, K-391 and Ahrix rebuilt "Nova" together as "End of Time," which K-391 described simply as a way "to pay respect to all the music and producers that came before us."

Asked in 2016 to name his producer idols, Walker didn't hedge: "I would say that my producer idol is K-391, who has been a big inspiration and a part of creating my sound." Kenneth Nilsen, the Norwegian producer behind K-391, was more than a name Walker admired from a distance — by 2017 the two were collaborating directly, and when their first joint single dropped, Walker announced it himself on Twitter: ".@K391 is a huge inspiration and influence for me. I am so excited that 'Ignite' is now released!" The idolizing came first; the credit followed.

listen: upstream & heresource: The Knockturnal — Alan Walker Talks 'Faded' and More! (backs the Ahrix and K-391 influence claims) ↗share

2013

Dream of Something SweetK-391

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2017

IgniteAlan Walker

listen forCue K-391's 2013 "Dream of Something Sweet" beside "Ignite," the pair's first official collaboration, released in 2017: both ride a bright, major-key synth hook laid over a steady four-on-the-floor pulse, built to peak in one wide, triumphant drop rather than stacking melody after melody. It's the same architecture Walker was describing when he named K-391 his producer idol — an idol who, by the time "Ignite" topped Norway's charts, had become a co-writer on Walker's own records.

Walker has never dressed up the debt: "Since I was 9-years-old, Tiësto was obviously everywhere," he told Rolling Stone India in 2019. "He has always been a big inspiration and influence, and he has always been able to renew himself in the music industry." The admiration became mutual in 2015, when Tiësto — already electronic music's biggest crossover star — picked up the teenage newcomer's "Faded" and remixed it for his own tour, the kind of endorsement that told the rest of the EDM world to pay attention.

listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone India — Alan Walker ↗share

2005

Adagio for StringsTiësto

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2017

The SpectreAlan Walker

listen forNo single Tiësto track is on record as "Faded"'s direct blueprint, but the family resemblance is audible elsewhere: set "Adagio for Strings" beside "The Spectre" and both spend their first minute on a slow string-and-pad build before releasing into one wide, arms-up melodic peak — the main-stage architecture Tiësto pioneered in the 2000s and Walker inherited wholesale, trading Tiësto's orchestral sample for a synth lead of his own.