After releasing his firing edit of Blasterjaxx‘s ‘Fifteen’, Dutch phenomenon Hardwell quickly turned around an exhilarating new original in collaboration with the Los Angeles-based rising star, MAKJ. Ever since ‘Countdown’ was dropped during his critically acclaimed set at Ultra Music Festival 2013, Hardwell had established the song as a peak-time secret weapon in his performances all summer, thus becoming one of his most highly anticipated tracks. This banger celebrated it’s anniversary on the 7th of October.

A superstar Dutch DJ who helped shape the EDM explosion of 2012-2013, Robbert van de Corput became Hardwell when he began DJ’ing at the age of 13. Watching the massive dance parties broadcast on MTV encouraged the teen to learn how to mix, and he soon became interested in remixing and working on his own productions.

Although MAKJ has spent his career collaborating with some of the most talented artists of today, few of his peers can claim to have entered that world after a successful stint abroad as a race car driver. Growing up on California’s Central Coast before moving to China as a teenager to race professionally for eighteen months, MAKJ (Mackenzie Johnson) played at many of the largest and most prestigious music festivals in the world (e.g. Coachella, Creamfields, EDC Las Vegas, Electric Zoo, Parookaville, Tomorrowland, and Ultra Music Festival), all the while making waves as a producer collaborating with leading figures such as Deorro, Hardwell, Lil Jon, O.T. Genesis, Quintino, Showtek, Steve Aoki and Timmy Trumpet.

Stream this single and many more 2013 EDM Essentials below – follow here.