Larsen was born in Oslo, Norway. His father was a professional musician and his mother a singer. Growing up in a musical family, he was exposed to instruments, drum machines, keyboards and turntables from an early age. At the age of 6 he started playing the drums in the school band. He later moved on to study drums and percussion at the Norwegian Academy of Music at the age of 10.
DJ & artist career
At age 14, Larsen started touring and competing in several DJ competitions under the aka Nasty kutt, among them the DMC National DJ Championships which he won 2005 and 2006, to go on to represent Norway in the World finals. In 2004, Larsen joined music-collective and record labelPass It Records, where he released the official mixtape Homework the same year. During his time at Pass It Records he would DJ for several of the Norway's more prominent urban acts. In 2005 retired from DJing and went on to focus on music production. In 2011, IDAP Music in collaboration with Universal Music, launched the single Min Ting at VG-lista Topp 20. The single featured rappers like Norwegian Vinni from Paperboys, Yosef from Madcon, Lars Vaular og OnklP, and Swedish rappersTimbuktu & Promoe.
In 2008, Larsen and his longtime business partner and manager Julian Alexander, launched the production and publishing company IDAP Music and started taking on more international projects. In the years to come, Larsen worked in the Scandinavian music industry as an urban/pop producer with 21 IFPI Certifications, 5 of them being multi-platinum. In 2009, he had his first major US placement with the song City Lights featuring Bun B from Method Man and Redman's album Blackout 2. The Def Jam/Universal release debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The same year Larsen started his collaboration with Envy. In 2013 Larsen relocated to Los Angeles and signed a worldwide Joint Venture deal with IDAP Music & BMG Chrysalis.
Bands and artists
The collaboration between Larsen and Nico & Vinz started in 2009. Their first single One Song,produced and co written by Larsen, became their breakthrough in Norway, and charted at #19 on the Norwegian billboard and received massive airplay. The music video for the song also won a Norwegian Grammy for video of the year. Larsen and Nico & Vinz reconnected in 2011, and together with Larsen they created the sound for the follow-up album Black Star Elephant. Including "Am I Wrong", and topped the iTunes charts in over 40 countries. The album was recorded in Oslo, Botswana and Los Angeles. Larsen produced and co wrote 10 songs on their international album Blackstar Elephant. Train Larsen produced/co wrote 6 songs on Train 's 10th album A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat working closely with singer Patrick Monahan including platinum single Play That Song . The songs were written and recorded in Los Angeles and Seattle Florida Georgia Line Larsen co wrote the bands 4x platinum single H.O.L.Y. alongside songwriters Busbee and Nate Cyphert, winning BMI Country song of the year among other certifications. Kygo Larsen produced and co wrote Kygo's hit singleStay along with dj Kygo and singer Maty Noyes, landing them 5 gold and 1 double platinum certification. The song also charted as one of the most streamed 100 songs on Spotify in 2016. He also co wrote and produced Noyes debut single In My Mind on Republic Records.
