Christian Burns: “The Album Almost Tells a Story Without Me Planning It That Way”

Long before becoming a familiar presence in trance and progressive circles, this Liverpool-born artist first rose to international fame as a member of BBMak, the British pop trio whose early-2000s hit “Back Here” helped the group sell more than three million albums worldwide and break into both the UK Top 40 and the US Billboard charts. But while that chapter introduced Christian Burns to global audiences, it also laid the foundation for a songwriting approach that would define his career: melody first, emotion always.

After BBMak disbanded, Burns began experimenting with a more electronic-leaning sound, blending synth-driven production with the melodic instincts he had honed writing on acoustic guitar. That evolution soon led him into the world of dance music, where a chance discovery of his music online by Tiësto opened the door to a new creative path. Their collaboration on “In The Dark” became a global trance anthem and marked the beginning of Burns’ second act as one of the genre’s most recognizable voices.

Over the years, Burns has continued to bring his signature emotional depth to collaborations with artists such as Armin van Buuren, BT, Cosmic Gate, Benny Benassi and Paul van Dyk, delivering timeless vocal performances on tracks like “This Light Between Us.” Now, with a new album, Waking Up in a Northern Town, on the horizon, Burns is once again reflecting on the personal and musical journey that has shaped his sound — from writing songs alone in northern England to crafting music that continues to resonate across dancefloors around the world.

Q: Your breakthrough happened in the late ’90s with BBMak. When you think back to those early days — the first tours, the first big crowds, the first hits — which moments really shaped you as an artist and songwriter? And do those early experiences still influence the way you make music today?

A: Honestly, those early days with BBMAK were a bit of a whirlwind. One minute we were writing songs in Liverpool and the next we were touring the world and playing to thousands of people every night. I think the moment it really hit me was hearing a crowd singing one of our songs back to us for the first time. That feeling of realizing something you wrote in a room with a guitar had connected with people in such a big way was incredible.

Those years taught me a lot about songwriting. Back then, everything started with an acoustic guitar and a melody. If a song didn’t make you feel something with just a vocal and a guitar, it probably wasn’t going to work. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career.

Even now, working in electronic music with producers and big synth productions, I still approach writing in the same way. At the core, it’s always about the song — the melody, the lyrics, and the feeling behind it. If those elements are strong, the production can go anywhere and the track will still connect with people.

Q: After BBMak’s pop success, your journey took you into the electronic world, where you became one of the most recognizable voices in trance music. How did that transition happen, and what are some of the memories or collaborations from that time that really stand out to you?

A: After BBMAK, I started working on a new sound. I was incorporating a lot more synthesizers into my rock productions at the time. I was listening to a lot of early Killers records and I really loved the way they fused synths with rock music.

I ended up writing a bunch of songs in that style and putting them on MySpace. As the story goes, Tiësto actually discovered those tracks on my MySpace page. His management reached out to me — Arny Bink from Black Hole Recordings — and asked if I’d be interested in doing a song together.

“In The Dark” really became the doorway into the electronic world for me. Once I started collaborating with producers, I realized how naturally my songwriting fit with that sound. The emotion and the melody were still at the centre of everything, just wrapped in these huge electronic productions, and that’s something I’ve loved exploring ever since.

Q: You’ve written and sung some deeply emotional tracks like “In The Dark” and “This Light Between Us.” When you start writing a song, how does that process usually unfold? Is it about capturing a feeling in the moment, or do you sometimes think about creating something that might resonate with listeners for years to come?

A: “In The Dark” and “This Light Between Us” were two massive tracks for me. “In The Dark” was actually my first song in the electronic music world and it ended up becoming a huge trance record around the globe. Then I wrote “This Light Between Us” with Armin and that was another really pivotal track in my career.
When I start writing a song, especially in the trance world, it usually begins with a feeling rather than a lyric or even a melody. A producer might send me a chord progression or an instrumental idea, and I’ll just sit with it and see what emotion it brings out. From there, the melody tends to come quite naturally, and the lyrics grow out of that emotion.

With those kinds of tracks, a lot of the feeling is already living inside the music. It’s not just about the lyrics or the vocal line; it’s also about the chord progressions and the way the production lifts the song. Armin van Buuren and Tiësto are kind of the gods of trance in that sense. They’re incredible at capturing emotion in their productions and creating those moments where everything just lifts.

By the time I was writing those songs, I was in my thirties and I’d experienced a lot more life. I’d been through more ups and downs, and I think that naturally started to shape what I was writing about. One thing I’ve always been drawn to is writing about hope.

It’s easy for a happy song to sound cheesy, but if the emotion is genuine you can still give people a powerful feeling. A lot of my lyrics lean into that sense of hope, because I truly believe that without hope there really isn’t any happiness.

Q: We heard your third solo album is on the way and we’re really excited about it. Can you tell us the story of how this album began — when the first ideas appeared and how the project slowly came to life?

A: The album is called Waking Up in a Northern Town, and it really captures a transitional moment in my life.

I started writing the album during a time when I was living alone in Wigan and going through a pretty reflective period. A lot of the early songs came from that place. They were about searching, about trying to find your way again, and digging yourself out of a bit of a hole emotionally.

Then something amazing happened while I was making the record. I met my wife in 2022 and we got married in 2024. That completely changed the emotional landscape of the album.

So you’ve got this really interesting split across the record. The first half was written before I met her, when I was in a very different place in life, and the second half was written after we met.

Because of that, the album almost tells a story without me planning it that way. It moves from a place of searching and uncertainty to a place of hope and arriving somewhere emotionally.

That’s really where the title comes from. The idea of Waking Up in a Northern Town is a bit of a metaphor. I started writing these songs in the north of England when I was on my own, and by the time the album was coming together, my life had completely changed. It became a record about finding light again and realizing that sometimes the best chapters of your life arrive when you least expect them.

Q: Every album tends to capture a certain chapter in an artist’s life. What kind of mood or musical world does this new record live in, and are there any collaborations that helped shape its sound?

A: The album is really a continuation of the journey I started with my previous record, Love Songs From Suburbia. That was the album where I first began experimenting with a slightly different sound. I didn’t completely leave the trance world that I’d started my electronic career in, but I found myself drawn to slower BPM music and deeper house records. That deeper, more atmospheric sound really resonated with me.

After the success of Love Songs From Suburbia, I wanted to take that direction and elevate it somewhere new. The idea with this album was to keep exploring that deeper sound while gradually reintroducing some of the trance elements that started it all for me. So you’ve got those deeper grooves and textures, but also the emotional melodies and lifts that people associate with my earlier records.

Collaborations with producers like Cosmic Gate, Paul Thomas, Pretty Pink, Littlefoot, Mark Novas and Banaati really helped bring that vision to life. Each of them brought something unique to the project, but they all understood the emotional direction I was aiming for.

Q: One of the songs fans will hear soon is “Let Me Love You.” Can you tell us the story behind that track and what it means to you?

A: “Let Me Love You” is one of my favourite songs on the album, and it was actually one of the first tracks I finished with Mark Novas, who’s an incredible writer and producer based in Lithuania.

I discovered his music completely by accident while I was browsing Spotify looking for something new to listen to, and I came across his track Sweet Mistake. I instantly fell in love with it — not just the song itself, but the feeling it gave me and the production. It really stayed with me.

We ended up connecting on social media and started talking about writing together. A lot of this album was written with me sitting at the piano and building songs from there, but this one was different because Mark sent me a piece of music to work with.

It ended up being one of those songs that came together really quickly. I had an abundance of ideas for it, to the point where the challenge was actually stripping things back because there were so many directions it could have gone in.

Those are always the best moments as a songwriter — when it doesn’t feel like you’re forcing anything. It almost feels like the song already exists somewhere and you’re just tapping into it and bringing it to life.

Q: Looking ahead, besides this album, what’s next for you? What can fans expect from the next chapter in the Christian Burns story?

A: Right now the main focus is on getting this album out into the world and letting people experience the story behind it. I’m really proud of this record because it captures a very real chapter of my life, and I’m excited for fans to hear how the sound has evolved.

Beyond that, I’m always writing and collaborating. One of the things I love most about electronic music is how open it is to creativity. You can work with artists from all over the world and explore so many different sounds, so there will definitely be more collaborations and new music on the way.

I’m also really looking forward to performing more again and connecting with people through the songs. That’s always been the most rewarding part of making music for me — seeing how a song you wrote in a quiet moment ends up meaning something to people in completely different places.

I think the next chapter is really about continuing to evolve musically while staying true to the emotional core of what I do. If there’s one thing fans can expect, it’s that the music will always come from a very honest place.

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