Tijs Michiel Verwest was born in Breda, Netherlands on 17 January 1969.

In 1994, he began releasing material on Noculan Records' sub-labels Chemo and Coolman. During these years, he produced hardcore/gabber tracks under such aliases as Da Joker and DJ Limited. Tiësto was later discovered by the general manager of Rotterdam-based Basic Beat Recordings.

In late 1994, Tiësto signed to Basic Beat where he met Arny Bink. From 1995-96 he released four extended plays on Bonzai Jumps and XTC, sub-labels of Lightning Records. In 1997, he joined his friend Yves Vandichel on his sub-label, DJ Yves, a division of the now defunct Human Resource label XSV Music. In 1997, Bink and Tiësto decided to leave Basic Beat and create their own label, Black Hole Recordings, Trashcan was discontinued and Guardian Angel continued releasing music until 2002. Through Black Hole, Tiësto released the Magik series and also created two major sub-labels in 1998; In Trance We Trust and SongBird.

From 1998-99, he released music on Planetary Consciousness where he met A&R Hardy Heller and invited him to release some records on Black Hole. Tiësto later included the In Search of Sunrise series on SongBird. In 1999, Tiësto joined forces with fellow Dutch deejay Ferry Corsten to create the trance based duo of Gouryella. He collaborated with Benno de Goeij from 1998-2000 under the name Kamaya Painters. Since November 1999, he performed monthly in Sheffield, and played a 12-hour set, his longest, in Amsterdam.

Late in 2000, Tiësto decided to concentrate on his personal work and left Corsten to write and produce Gouryella's next single with John Ewbank. Tiësto introduced Armin van Buuren and Johan Gielen to mainstream audiences with his first compilations and the In Trance We Trust series. Summer breeze became Tiësto's debut DJ mix album in the US. Summer breeze featured his remix of Delerium's "Silence", which spent four weeks in the UK's Top Ten chart and reached number three in the Billboard dance chart.[12] In Search of Sunrise 2 was released in 2000. Tiësto created a new sub-label, Magik Muzik.

Tiësto (Official)