Her previous name was Carol (she still goes by this name when producing her deep house tracks). She began working for Sony Music at 18 years old in their A&R department in London after finishing studying at The University of Westminster in East London. She left Sony to pursue a solo-career in music. Her career started off as an intern and ended up becoming an A&R manager for well-known artists like Eric Prydz, Armand Van Helden, Axwell, ATB etc… During this time, she built up strong relationships with various labels such as Ministry Of Sound, Positiva, Hooj Choons etc… These connections enabled her to release her first track. She is still a singer and has featured on tracks from Tiesto, Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren amongst many other artists.
Basic Information:
Carol Klein is a very well-known trance DJ who is best known for her song, “Anahera” which features vocals from Welsh singer, Mark Powell. She also has another song out called “Airflow”, which was released on Tiesto’s label; Musical Freedom. Since then, she has gained support from other big names such as Armin van Buuren and Above & Beyond. Her career really started off with an unreleased track called ‘Sparkles’ that had circulated online for some time before its deletion (the track can be found here). It wasn’t until late 2011 that she received huge amounts of attention with the release of ‘Anahera’. Just 2 years later in 2013, she has already gained support from some of the biggest names in trance music.
Main Genre:
Her main genre is trance music but she also dabbles in deep house as well as pop-dance genres such as progressive/electro house and trancecore (trance + dubstep). She has only released 2 trance songs that would be considered mainstream; ‘Anahera’ and ‘Airflow’. Both tracks have been huge successes with the help of vocalist Mark Powell who she has worked closely with on previous projects before collaborating together for these big hits.
Musical background:
Carol grew up in London, England. She’s mixed race with white / African descent from her Mother’s side and Jewish descent from her father’s side which is mainly why she calls herself the ‘Lover of All Genres’. Growing up she was always interested in music because both of her parents were musicians back in the day (they are not anymore). Although, Carol’s mother did professionally sing opera while her father played piano at home to help his children learn how to read sheet-music. Furthermore, Carol used to take singing lessons when she was young but stopped for a few years before picking it up again after working with Tiesto on their track “Obsession” which was released in 2006.
Musical Influences:
Carol Klein has mentioned in numerous interviews that her main influences are Jacques Brel, Billie Holiday, David Bowie etc… She’s also stated that she loves the record label “Decca” where they sign artists with unique voices such as Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. Another big influence on her would be the trance legend Goa Gil who is known for his deep rumbling voice (rare to find male singers like this). Furthermore, Carol is a huge fan of Nicole Scherzinger from The Pussycat Dolls because of her very distinct vocal tone and vibrato. Whilst growing up she took singing lessons but only started getting into music production when she was 20 after hearing the track “Blue Monday” by New Order.
Awards & Nominations:
None yet but I’m sure this will change in the very near future (fingers crossed). ‘Anahera’ has been nominated for various awards including; “Best Vocal Trance Track Of 2012” by Trancefix, “Best Break-Through Artist Of 2012” by Tune Land, and won an award for best vocal trance track at the UKMVA in 2012. I could go on forever with all of her nominations because there are so many.
Conclusion
Carol “Klaas” Klein has been around since the early 2000’s with minimal releases but now is her time to shine as a solo artist under the name “ARES”. She is no longer an A&R manager at a record label and actually enjoys doing music full-time which is great news for all of us Trance addicts. After listening to some of her demos, I can say that there are going to be many more hits coming from this talented vocalist / trance pioneer in the near future. ‘Anahera’ was just a start of what this beauty can do and she will definitely make you fall in love with not only trance again but perhaps pop music as well. We’ll have to wait & see.
