Garrix's passion for music started at the age of 4 through learning to play guitar. By the age of 8 (in 2004) he had expressed interest in becoming a DJ after seeing DJ Tiesto playing at the Olympic games in Athens. Garritsen took particular inspiration from the track "Traffic", prompting him to download specialist software and enabling him to start composing. Garritsen currently attends the Herman Brood Academy, a production school in Utrecht.