Alan Walker
photo: maximilian wild · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Alan Olav Walker was born in Northampton, England, in 1997 and raised in Bergen, Norway, where he taught himself music production as a teenager using free software and online tutorials rather than any formal training. He broke through in 2015 with 'Faded,' a melancholy, anthemic slice of melodic EDM whose masked-DJ visual identity and streaming ubiquity made it one of the defining electronic hits of the decade. Since then he has built a catalog of emotionally direct, cinematic dance-pop singles that pair simple, hummable lead melodies with big festival-scaled drops.
Walker has repeatedly named Avicii as a central influence, calling him after his 2018 death 'an idol and inspiration to both myself and countless others'; the debt shows up in Walker's taste for pop-structured, emotionally forthright melodic house built around a single big, singable lead rather than DJ-tool grooves.
listen forThrow on Avicii's 'Wake Me Up' and then Walker's 'The Spectre' — both ride a slow, hopeful chord build into a wide, uplifting lead melody that lands like a chorus, trading the drum machine for something closer to a stadium singalong.
Walker has cited fellow Norwegian producer Kygo among the artists who inspired him, and the two share a signature move: building the drop not around a bass or a beat but around a bright, plucked mallet-style lead that carries the melody where a vocal would.
listen forPlay Kygo's 'Firestone' and then Walker's 'Sing Me to Sleep' — listen for how each 'drop' hands the hook to a crisp, plucky melodic riff rather than a heavy bass, keeping the emotional, sing-along mood running straight through the beat.
Walker has often spoken about the influence of Tiësto, and you can hear it in his fondness for big, trance-descended supersaw leads and the slow-building, main-stage emotional arc that Tiësto helped codify for festival dance music.
listen forCue Tiësto's 'Adagio for Strings' beside Walker's 'Alone' — both take a long, patient run-up and then unleash a soaring, saw-toothed lead melody designed to fill an arena and pull the whole crowd's hands up at once.