Adam Beyer
A teenage drummer who went to his first rave in 1991 and founded Drumcode five years later: Adam Beyer’s labels, records and three decades of Swedish techno.
- Swedish techno DJ and producer, born in Stockholm on 15 May 1976.
- Founded Drumcode Records in 1996; also runs Truesoul.
- Hosts the weekly Drumcode Radio show, launched in 2010.
Adam Beyer is the man behind Drumcode, the Swedish techno label he founded in 1996. He came out of the Stockholm scene of the mid-1990s alongside Cari Lekebusch and Jesper Dahlbäck, and has spent three decades turning a local label into an international one.
A Stockholm teenager at the rave
Beyer was born in Stockholm in 1976. He played drums as a teenager, then bought his first mixer and started making techno and acid tracks. He went to his first rave in 1991, at fifteen, on a night when Laurent Garnier was playing. By the mid-1990s he was part of a small group of Swedish producers, with Lekebusch and Dahlbäck, releasing hard, loop-based techno.
Drumcode and the first albums
He founded Drumcode Records in 1996. The same year he released his debut album, Decoded, and the single “Pump 1”. Recoded followed in 1997, Protechtion in 1999 and Ignition Key in 2002. Over time he added sister labels: Truesoul, Code Red and Mad Eye Recordings.
Drumcode began by releasing Swedish producers only. It later signed artists from everywhere whose sound fitted the label: Amelie Lens, Joseph Capriati, Pan-Pot, Nicole Moudaber, Marco Carola and Joey Beltram among them.
Truesoul, Prydz and Ibiza
Beyer met Eric Prydz in Stockholm in 2002 and released Prydz’s first track, “Deep Inside”, under the Cirez D alias on Truesoul. He first went to Ibiza in 2001; in 2003 he returned to play the main room at Amnesia for Cocoon. That year he entered the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs at No. 65. In 2005 he mixed Fabric 22 for the club’s CD series.
The link with Prydz still runs. In 2023 Beyer held a Monday residency at Hï Ibiza within Eric Prydz presents HOLO, playing sets he likes to stretch to three hours or more.
Drumcode Radio and later records
In 2010 he launched Drumcode Radio, a weekly show reported to reach around 11 million listeners. His own releases kept coming: “London” (2009), “No Rain” (2011), “Unanswered Question” with Ida Engberg (2013) and “Teach Me” (2014). Later collaborations include “Space Date” (2018) and “Data Point” (2019) with Layton Giordani and Green Velvet, and “Your Mind” (2018) with Bart Skils. He was back in the DJ Mag Top 100 at No. 48 in 2019 and 2020.
His records are made for big techno rooms: driving drums, rolling percussion, long loops that build slowly. For more from that side of techno, read about Len Faki and Marcel Dettmann.
FAQ
When did Adam Beyer start Drumcode?
Drumcode Records was founded in 1996 in Sweden. Beyer still runs it; its roster has included Amelie Lens, Joseph Capriati and Pan-Pot.
Did Adam Beyer release Eric Prydz’s first track?
Yes. The two met in Stockholm in 2002, and Beyer released “Deep Inside”, credited to Cirez D, on his Truesoul label.
What is Drumcode Radio?
Beyer’s weekly radio show and podcast, launched in 2010 and now known as Drumcode Radio Live.
