Tiesto & Junkie XL — Obsession. Brief story behind the track

Junkie XL talked about how he recorded Obsession with Tiësto. He didn’t say much, so I’ll remind you of the context. Tom Junkie XL (the one who made A little less conversation) was already an accomplished musician by the early noughties, with his own style and albums. His tracks were licensed for video games, and he himself helped with the sound of heavy rock bands. Tiësto (the one who made Traffic and Adagio for strings) was only promising in the early noughties. Yes, he had a solid DJ career in his native Netherlands, and there was a breakthrough remix of Delerium, but in terms of his own music, Tijs wasn’t doing great at all; his solo works sounded dull as ditchwater.

Tiësto’s brilliant talent as a composer was revealed by the young Dennis Reijers, who the future great Dutchman met in 1998 through mutual friends in a music shop. In collaboration with Dennis, Tiësto “wrote” all his best tracks, albums and remixes up to and including the Elements of Life period. After that, there was already a whole bunch of ghostwriters on behalf of the Planet’s Number One DJ.