Darude is known worldwide for his anthemic trance style. He is an electronic dance music producer, DJ and lives in Turku, Finland. He debuted in 1999 with the smash single Sandstorm (#1 hit in numerous charts around the world) and subsequent album Before the Storm. Virtanen started his career as an amateur musician while in high school, making music using his PC's tracker software. As his interest in music production rapidly grew, he moved on to more serious production techniques.