David Forbes

David Forbes is a Glaswegian DJ and producer whose trance career runs through more than a quarter-century of UK club history. He started at age 17 spinning records at Glasgow's Mayfair before becoming a resident at Hanger 13, the legendary Scottish hardcore venue, in the mid-1990s — where he released over twenty hardcore and gabba records as "Davie Forbes". His first commercial output came via Combined Forces in Holland and Noom Records in Germany in 1993, with subsequent Limbo-label releases as Propulsion and Tecra catching the attention of Nick Warren, Christopher Lawrence and John "00" Fleming. The transition to trance crystallised at the turn of the millennium. As Hal Stucker he released "The World Is Flat" on Telica in 1999, and as one third of Public Domain he co-wrote "Operation Blade (Bass In The Place...)" — the 2000 Xtrahard single that licensed into the Wesley Snipes Blade film and sold over 250,000 copies. His own solo trance breakthrough arrived the same year with "Questions (Must Be Asked)" on Eve Records, a record that still surfaces in retrospective canon lists. He runs Aria Digital, his own imprint covering up-tempo, uplifting and tech trance, and has been the creative force behind it for over a decade. Since 2010 Forbes has been signed exclusively to Armin van Buuren's Armada Music group, releasing across Armada and its sub-labels — most recently "Diskotek" on Who's Afraid Of 138?! (10 May 2026, WAO138447), which Armin selected for the Energy mix of the A State of Trance 2026 compilation. He played Area Two at the ASOT 2026 Festival at Ahoy Rotterdam on 28 February 2026, more than twenty-five years after his first trance release. Black Hole has been a regular remix outlet — his 2023 rework of Ciaran McAuley & Audrey Gallagher's "Armour" appeared there — and the catalogue sits between the Subculture / Outburst tech-trance lane and the harder uplifting register John O'Callaghan and Mark Sherry continue to define.