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Mike Williams (real name — Mike Willemsen; born 27 November 1996, the Netherlands) is a Dutch DJ, music producer and pianist, and a representative of the modern European EDM scene. His name is most closely associated with future house, future bounce, melodic EDM and progressive house.
In the mid-2010s, Williams became part of a new generation of Dutch producers that brought a strong melodic focus back into festival house music. His recognisable approach is built around piano chords, short synthesizer melodies, energetic drops and emotional vocal parts. In the artist’s professional biography, the piano remains more than just an element of his early musical education: his booking agency notes that Williams still begins work on a significant part of his music at the piano.
By the mid-2020s, his catalogue had surpassed one billion streams on Spotify, while Mike himself had repeatedly appeared in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. In the 2025 ranking, he placed No. 72.
Childhood and first steps in music
Music entered Mike Williams’ life long before electronic music did.
According to the official biography from his booking agency, he first sat down at a piano at around four years old. Later he studied the instrument more seriously, although creating his own melodies interested him much more than the traditional process of learning existing pieces.
At the age of twelve, Mike spent his savings on his first DJ equipment. Around the same time, he began experimenting with electronic music and his own production. DJ Mag also notes that he was already DJing by the age of twelve.
From the very beginning, piano and electronic production therefore developed in parallel. This combination later became one of the defining characteristics of his music: even Williams’ most festival-oriented tracks usually have a clearly recognisable melodic foundation.
First remixes
Before his first major official releases, Williams distributed his own bootlegs and unofficial remixes of well-known pop and dance tracks through SoundCloud and other online platforms.
Apple Music highlights among his early work unofficial reworks of songs by Calvin Harris and Carly Rae Jepsen around 2014. These tracks helped the producer attract an audience even before he began working with major EDM labels.
During this period, versions of Blame, Outside, I Really Like You and other bootlegs appeared, typical of the young future-house scene of the mid-2010s.
Konnichiwa and the first original releases
One of the first independent singles released under the Mike Williams name was Konnichiwa, issued in January 2015.
That same year, he worked with Dastic on Candy and also used the shortened alias WLLMS on the collaboration Battlefield with Robby East.
These releases appeared during the rapid growth of future house — a genre that, following the first international breakthroughs of Oliver Heldens and other Dutch producers, began to split into several more melodic and more festival-oriented directions.
It was within this environment that the sound later known as future bounce gradually took shape. Apple Music directly identifies Mike Williams as one of the early notable representatives of this style.
Future bounce
Calling Mike Williams one of the “creators of future house” would be historically inaccurate: future house existed before his international breakthrough.
However, his name is genuinely closely associated with future bounce — a more melodic and festival-oriented branch of future house that became widely popular during the second half of the 2010s. Alongside Williams, Brooks and Mesto are especially often mentioned in connection with this wave.
Future bounce is typically characterised by:
- a bright, instantly memorable lead melody;
- piano- and chord-based harmony;
- a bouncy bass-driven drop;
- a combination of pop vocals with festival structure;
- a more emotional presentation compared with minimalist club-oriented future house.
This formula became the basis of many of Mike Williams’ best-known tracks.
Sweet & Sour and Tiësto
The real professional turning point came in early 2016 with the track Sweet & Sour.
Initially, the producer’s identity was kept secret as part of an ID campaign. The track quickly gained support from Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Hardwell, Oliver Heldens, Afrojack, Axwell, Dillon Francis and other DJs. The support of Tiësto proved especially important, as he signed the track to his label Musical Freedom.
The official release of Sweet & Sour took place on 29 February 2016.
Williams later told Spinnin' Records that while creating the track he changed his usual workflow: instead of beginning with the breakdown, he created the drop first and built the rest of the arrangement around it.
The track became the first major confirmation that Williams’ melodic style could work not only online but also in the sets of leading festival DJs.
Tiësto & Mike Williams — I Want You
The collaboration with Tiësto continued.
In August 2016, the pair released I Want You. DJ Mag later included it among the tracks for which Mike Williams is best known.
For a young producer, working with an artist of Tiësto’s stature became an important career accelerator and gave Williams additional visibility within Musical Freedom and the international EDM scene.
In 2016, he also released Groovy George with Justin Mylo and the solo single Take Me Down.
Feel Good — the first major radio breakthrough
If Sweet & Sour gave Mike Williams recognition within the EDM industry, his broader radio and streaming breakthrough came with Feel Good, recorded with German producer Felix Jaehn.
The single was released on 4 August 2017.
Williams’ booking agency specifically identifies Feel Good as his main breakthrough release of 2017. The agency’s current biography lists more than 160 million Spotify streams for the track.
The song combined Williams’ characteristic melodic future-bounce production with Felix Jaehn’s more pop-oriented approach and demonstrated that his music could work equally well in EDM playlists and radio formats.
Don't Hurt
The original biography contained a specific factual error here.
Don't Hurt is not a collaboration between Mike Williams and Felix Jaehn.
The track was released in 2017 with vocals by Brēzy. Felix Jaehn collaborated with Williams on Feel Good.
During the same prolific year, Mike also released:
- Bambini
- Another Night with Matluck
- Let's Go with Lucas & Steve and Curbi
- Feel Good with Felix Jaehn
- Jetlag with Brooks
- You & I with Dastic
- Melody (Tip of My Tongue).
This period firmly established Williams as one of the recognisable representatives of the new melodic/future-bounce generation of the Dutch scene.
Mike Williams On Track
In January 2017, Williams also launched his own radio project, Mike Williams On Track.
Through the show, Williams presents his own releases, new house and EDM tracks, and music by young producers. Over time, the programme became a permanent part of his brand.
In the artist’s current biography, the show is described as monthly and available through Spotify and SoundCloud.
Lullaby with R3HAB
On 26 January 2018, Mike Williams and R3HAB released Lullaby.
The track became one of the biggest releases in Williams’ catalogue. His current agency biography lists more than 230 million Spotify streams for Lullaby.
Musically, the track represents one of the artist’s most characteristic sides: a pop-oriented vocal breakdown transitions into a melodic but still powerful festival drop.
DJ Mag continued to list Lullaby in both 2024 and 2025 among the tracks for which Williams is best known to a wider audience.
The Beat
In 2018, Williams released The Beat.
The track gained additional recognition through the Hardwell Extended Edit, released on Revealed Recordings.
The song became another example of Williams combining a melodic house foundation with a larger-scale mainstage production style.
According to his booking biography, The Beat accumulated tens of millions of Spotify streams.
Wait Another Day with Mesto
At the end of 2018, Mike Williams teamed up with Mesto for Wait Another Day.
This collaboration is especially representative of future bounce: both producers emerged from the same Dutch melodic-EDM wave, while maintaining clearly distinguishable personal styles.
Wait Another Day became one of Williams’ best-known recordings and remains among the tracks DJ Mag uses to characterise his career.
I'm Not Sorry with Hardwell
In 2019, Mike Williams released I'm Not Sorry together with Hardwell.
The track was released through Revealed Recordings and became another example of how closely Williams had become connected with the leading figures of the Dutch EDM scene.
The same year also brought Wait for You, Kylie with Dastic and a collaboration with Nicky Romero on Dynamite.
Day or Night
In the original biography, Day or Night was incorrectly dated to 2021.
In fact, the track was released on 30 August 2019, while the official video material appeared in September.
The track shows a more club-oriented side of Mike Williams while retaining the melodic structure characteristic of most of his catalogue.
The 2020–2021 period
In 2020, Williams continued releasing music despite the shutdown of the international live music industry.
Releases from this period included:
- Make You Mine
- Take Me There with Curbi
- Fallin' In
- You're the Future with SWACQ
- Face Up to the Sun with Justin Mylo and Sara Sangfelt.
In 2021, he followed with I Hope You Know with Jonas Aden, Get Dirty, AIR, Harmony with Xillions and Without You with Felix Jaehn and Jordan Shaw.
This period broadened his sound beyond the early future-bounce formula: some records became softer and closer to pop/dance, while others returned to a more club-oriented direction.
Storylines
In 2022, Mike Williams brought part of his new material together in the project Storylines.
The eight-track release appeared on 21 October 2022 via Spinnin' Records.
Williams himself presented it as an EP whose title referred to the personal stories, experiences and events that shape a person. He described music as the foundation of his own story.
The project included, among others:
- Pretty Little Words
- Best Part Missing
- Supernova with RetroVision
- Ambush with Robbie Mendez
- When the Sun Is Gone with RYVM.
Storylines is also important because its title later developed into a separate event brand and music label.
Pretty Little Words
One of the notable songs from this period was Pretty Little Words, featuring vocals by Zack Hall.
The single was released on 25 March 2022 via Spinnin' Records.
The track demonstrates Williams’ songwriting side particularly well: the piano melody and vocal song structure are just as important as the EDM drop itself.
A new wave of collaborations in 2023
2023 became another highly active year.
Williams collaborated with Afrojack on Alone and also recorded Down the River with The Him and Travie's Nightmare. DJ Mag specifically highlighted these tracks in its coverage of his season.
During the same period, he also released Dreams Come True with Tungevaag, Paris to Berlin, Living on Video, The Blonde One with Tim Hox, Let Me Be Your Fantasy with Quintino, Womp with Firebeatz and Blessed (Lost & Found) with Robbie Mendez.
Storylines as his own label
In 2024, Storylines moved to the next level.
Mike Williams began releasing music under Storylines as his own imprint, with the first catalogue release being Alice with Joe Jury — STRYL0001, released on 26 July 2024.
DJ Mag called the launch of his own label one of the major milestones of his 2024 season.
The brand itself had originally emerged earlier as a series of Williams events in Amsterdam, so transforming Storylines into a label became a development of an already established live concept. In 2026, the official Storylines website continues to expand the project in this direction.
One billion Spotify streams
In February 2024, Mike Williams’ combined catalogue surpassed one billion Spotify streams.
For an artist whose core discography is built primarily around singles and collaborations rather than a series of full-length albums, this result is particularly illustrative of the scale of his streaming audience.
Could It Be Love and The Alarm
Among his 2024 releases, DJ Mag highlighted Could It Be Love and The Alarm, both released through Spinnin' Records.
That same year, Williams recorded I Want It All (Euphoria) with MERYLL for Rave Culture — the label founded by W&W. The track showed a heavier and darker side of his contemporary festival sound.
The return of emotional melodic EDM
In 2025, DJ Mag noted the return of large emotional melodies to festival EDM — a direction particularly natural for Mike Williams.
The artist himself said that he was happy to see this sound returning to dancefloors.
One representative release was Drop the Pressure with Brooks. The collaboration between the two producers directly returned to the future-bounce aesthetic with which both had been associated since the 2010s.
It's Okay with Audien
On 22 August 2025, It's Okay was released, created by Mike Williams together with American progressive-house producer Audien and vocalist RYVM.
Armada Music describes the track as a combination of Williams and Audien’s uplifting production with RYVM’s emotional vocals. The track had been played in sets for a long time before its official release.
For Williams, the song logically connects two major directions in his career — future bounce and the classic emotional aesthetic of progressive house.
DJ Mag Top 100 DJs
Mike Williams first entered the international DJ Mag ranking in the late 2010s and subsequently returned to the list multiple times.
In 2023, he ranked No. 66, in 2024 No. 73, and in the 2025 ranking he moved up to No. 72.
In 2025, DJ Mag described his style simply as future house and listed It's Okay, Wait Another Day and Lullaby among his best-known tracks.
Mike Williams in 2026
In 2026, Williams continues to develop both his own music and Storylines.
In July, he released the new solo track The System on Storylines.
His appearance at Tomorrowland 2026 also attracted particular attention, where Williams presented a dedicated throwback set focused on the melodic/future-house legacy of the previous decade. Both Tomorrowland’s official channel and the artist’s own channel published the performance.
This format reflects the changing relationship of the electronic scene with 2010s future house: music that only recently was considered contemporary festival mainstream is gradually becoming a distinct nostalgic era of EDM.
Storylines ADE 2026
On 23 October 2026, another edition of Mike Williams presents Storylines is scheduled as part of Amsterdam Dance Event.
According to the official ADE programme, this will already be the eighth edition of the event.
Storylines is therefore now best understood in several roles at once:
- a series of Mike Williams’ own shows;
- the title of his 2022 project;
- a music label;
- an independent part of the artist’s broader brand.
Piano in live performances
Despite the electronic nature of his music, the piano has remained a constant part of Williams’ creative process.
In 2025, he began using a live piano directly in selected performances, bringing one of the central instruments of his studio workflow onto the stage.
This distinguishes him from many EDM producers for whom instrumental training remains exclusively part of the studio process.
In the Studio with Mike Williams
Another area of his work is the educational series In the Studio with Mike Williams.
In the videos, he demonstrates his process of creating tracks, working with melodies, arrangement and software production. His official booking biography highlights the project as a way of sharing production techniques with aspiring producers.
Mike Grilliams
Williams also has a less obvious side to his public image — an interest in cooking.
He created the video format Mike Grilliams, in which he cooks dishes for YouTube and TikTok. The concept later moved beyond social media and began to appear at events.
For example, the Storylines ADE 2026 programme includes a separate dinner experience in which Williams personally takes part in preparing and serving food before the main show.
Musical style
Defining Mike Williams exclusively as a progressive-house artist or only as a future-house producer would be too narrow.
The main directions in his music include:
- future house
- future bounce
- melodic EDM
- progressive house
- festival house
- electro house
- vocal dance-pop.
Over the years, DJ Mag has described his music as future house, EDM and melodic big-room EDM.
Melody
The main constant in his music is melody.
Even heavier festival tracks are usually built around several easily recognisable chords or a lead motif.
Piano
Williams regularly begins compositions on the piano before transferring the harmony into electronic production.
Future bounce
His early hits are built around bouncy synthesizer drops and relatively short melodic hooks.
Progressive house
Later tracks, including It's Okay, place more emphasis on emotional breakdowns, vocals and uplifting progression. Armada directly positions this collaboration within the progressive-house space.
Festivals and touring
Throughout his international career, Mike Williams has performed at Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, Parookaville, World Club Dome, Mysteryland and other major electronic music festivals.
His touring geography includes Europe, North America and Asia. In 2025, DJ Mag specifically noted his tours across Asia, Europe and North America.
Williams’ current performances usually combine his own melodic tracks, heavier festival material, unreleased IDs and music from other future/progressive-house artists.
Main discography
EP / major projects
- Storylines — 2022.
Selected early releases
- Konnichiwa — 2015
- Candy — with Dastic, 2015
- Sweet & Sour — 2016
- Groovy George — with Justin Mylo, 2016
- I Want You — with Tiësto, 2016
- Take Me Down — 2016
- Bambini — 2017
- Another Night — with Matluck, 2017
- Don't Hurt — with Brēzy, 2017
- Feel Good — with Felix Jaehn, 2017
- Jetlag — with Brooks, 2017.
2018–2021
- Lullaby — with R3HAB
- Give It Up
- The Beat
- Wait Another Day — with Mesto
- I'm Not Sorry — with Hardwell
- Wait for You
- Day or Night
- Dynamite — with Nicky Romero
- Make You Mine
- Take Me There
- I Hope You Know
- Without You
- Harmony.
2022–2026
- Pretty Little Words
- Best Part Missing
- Supernova
- When the Sun Is Gone
- Dreams Come True
- Alone — with Afrojack
- Down the River
- Let Me Be Your Fantasy
- Could It Be Love
- The Alarm
- Alice
- I Want It All (Euphoria)
- Drop the Pressure — with Brooks
- It's Okay — with Audien and RYVM
- The System.
Significance
Mike Williams belongs to the generation of producers that emerged after the first major explosion of Dutch EDM.
He was not one of the pioneers of house or future house and did not create the festival EDM model of the 2010s — by the time of his breakthrough, that model was already established. His real place in the history of electronic music is primarily connected with the development of future bounce and the melodic branch of festival house.
Sweet & Sour brought him support from Tiësto and other leading festival artists, Feel Good expanded his radio and streaming audience, while Lullaby, Wait Another Day and later releases consolidated his recognisable melodic formula.
At the same time, Williams did not remain an artist tied to a single wave. After future house lost some of its commercial dominance, he continued working with progressive house, vocal EDM and heavier mainstage material, and later benefited from the renewed interest in emotional festival music during the mid-2020s.
The launch of Storylines, one billion Spotify streams, continued appearances in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs and a sustained international festival schedule demonstrate how the project evolved from a “young Tiësto talent” of the mid-2010s into an independent long-term brand.
At the same time, one characteristic of Mike Williams has remained almost unchanged since the early years: he builds electronic dance music primarily around melody. This is what connects his early future bounce, radio hits, progressive-house experiments and the contemporary Storylines sound.
