BIOGRAPHY

Govert Kittel, better known by his artist name Tierap, has been very active in the music industry and has proved that he got what it takes: the passion to produce great music, that typical Dutch, down-to-earth mindset and most of all; the drive to make it.

He is born and raised in Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel in the Netherlands. His dad used to play dance mixes by Ben Liebrand in his car and at a young age Govert also owned a mixing panel, which is how his love for electronic music and mixing started to grow. Unfortunately for him, his two older brothers got to play with the device first, so he had to be patient and wait for his turn. When his dad finally gifted him the device, he spent hours and hours experimenting with it, which made him even more interested in music production.

At the age of 12 he started saving up for his very own DJ set and bought one the second he had saved up just enough money. The set soon came to use: his first gig found place during that same year at his football trainer’s house. He had everything ready to go and he tied his cables perfectly together with tie-wraps. As you can imagine, being this organized costed a lot of time and his trainer got impatient and shouted: "Hurry up, DJ Tiewrap!". That was the moment the name Tierap was born. That night, he also discovered that the art of DJing was also something very exciting to him and he started to become more confident about his passion and in his dream to build a career in the music industry as a DJ/producer.

When he was 15, he decided to develop even more musical skills, so he took on piano lessons (which he still does) and followed classes in music production. As music production turned out to be his biggest talent and passion, Tierap’s application to the Herman Brood Academy at the age of 18 came as no surprise. During his education at the HBA he was taught even more about music production and also learned how to build a solid career in the music industry.

That last part came in handy for Tierap and he soon managed to arrange his first bookings at several renown clubs in The Netherlands, such as Club Air, Escape and Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, and Maassilo, Factory 010 and Cruise Terminal Hal in Rotterdam. He also played at Lakedance festival, Free Your Mind festival and Extrema Outdoor festival.

The day he got asked to play at Franky Rizardo’s FLOW party during the Amsterdam Dance Event in 2016, was a big milestone for him. As Franky Rizardo is one of his musical heroes, amongst others like Todd Terry,  Dennis Ferrer, Chocolate Puma and Bob Sinclar, this was a huge honour for Tierap. This gig was a promising start for his career as an official DJ/Producer graduate from the Herman Brood Academy at the time. 

His productions also started to enhance and he developed his own sound, which he describes as groovy tech-house with some vocals here and there. Due to his unique style, he has been able to release several records so far. In 2015, he released a catchy, up-tempo record on Falling Apple called ‘Don’t you say you love me’. In the following year, he released a collab with Chris Avex,  ‘Just close your eyes’, which got released on Dubbed Records and after that, he released a track on LTF Records (Franky Rizardo’s label) called ‘You Know You Want This’. That same record company released his 2017 record ‘To The Bassline’.

Tierap aims to release more music this year and fully focus on his creative career. His monthly podcast will drop soon and he’s working on a lot of new music. His long-term goal is to be able to play in foreign countries around the world, as it’s the joy of entertaining people and engaging with them. It is exactly that what keeps him going.