Leon Clarke aka Zondervan is a Southern Irish trance artist on the rise!

The man from Carlow in Leinster comes from a long line of DJ's, Leon's mother and uncles were all spinning vinyl in the 1980's and early 90's, from disco to the birth of house music and rave. Leon caught the bug himself when being exposed to the late great Tony De Vit sound. He was introduced to Tony's now iconic early hard house by his uncle and this kind of high energy music captured the youngsters keen ears. He pursued the path of hard house into the evolution of hard dance.

While DJing at home and waiting to come of age to get involved in the Irish club scene, Leon would practise daily
until at 18 years old he entered and won a Godskitchen DJ competition judged by Lisa Lashes. This proud victory opened up the floodgates to clubland, bookings came rolling in, including DJ residencies in Carlow at The Temple and The Music Factory.
The young talent was living his dream as a DJ with countless gigs over the next decade at clubs and events around the country. During this time Leon was invited to play for heavyweight brands such as Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, Cream, Goodgreef, Planetlove, 2fm Sessions Tour and Joy Fest.

Then came the point when times were changing in clubland, the explosion of the digital music landscape ment that producing became almost vital to get bookings. Leon made the transition, putting countless hours into the studio and learning the craft. After about a year of trial and error he was releasing on the majority of the top hard dance labels, most of which were based in England. Under the wing of hard dance stars such as Scott Attril, BK and The Organ Donors, signing to labels such as Riot, Traffic, Audio Surgery and many more, Leon Clarke was now the leading name in Ireland for hard dance. The Irish daily star crowned Leon 'Ireland's King Of Hard Dance' in a double page spread by Irish club scene innovator, DJ/Producer and media legend Mark Kavannagh. Hard dance chart number 1's soon followed as well as track of the month features in Mixmag. Regular support was coming in from Alex Kidd, Kutski, Lisa Lashes, Anne Savage, Scott Attril, BK, Organ Donors, Kidd Kaos, Fausto, Acti, Mr Spring, Fausto and many more.

Then what seemed like overnight, the hard house and hard dance sound faded away from the limelight,
various factors within the scene and sound were responsible and Leon was somewhat left in the cold. He wasn't going to let this
stop his dream in its tracks so inspired by Scot Project, he adapted to a more hard trance sound. This then led him into the mainstream trance scene which was becoming a more driving and hard sound. With many Dutch moving to a more big room EDM sound, the Irish had become the new trend setters within trance and Leon found himself in the exact right place at the right time.

Fast forward to 2015, Leon decided it was time to launch a new alias and Zondervan was born.

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