Timmy Trumpet, an Australian DJ and instrumentalist, produces energetic progressive house tracks that regularly feature his own trumpet accents. Across the 2010s he delivered a consistent run of intense, club-oriented singles, chief among them the multi-platinum 2014 release “Freaks.” After several earlier club tracks, he issued his debut full-length album, Mad World, in 2020. In 2022 the single “Narcos,” a joint effort with Blasterjaxx, entered the Top 20 of the dance charts once Major League Baseball players adopted it as walk-out music. He has stayed a regular presence at clubs and festivals, reflected in Tomorrowland 2022: Timmy Trumpet at Mainstage, Weekend 1 and the 2023 release “Good Morning” with Alle Farben.
Born Timothy Jude Smith in Sydney in 1982, he took up the trumpet at age four and initially enrolled at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for classical studies. Expelled after a prank, he switched to a public high school and grew more immersed in jazz. Though his trumpet proficiency pointed toward a performance career, dance music ultimately eclipsed jazz as his main pursuit. Around 2001, performing as Timmy Trumpet, he began fusing his DJ and trumpet skills, a combination that drew attention in EDM centers such as Ibiza and London.
He subsequently recorded for PACHA, Ministry of Sound, and One Love, and shared stages with electronic acts including the Stafford Brothers, Swedish House Mafia, and Armin van Buuren. Several of his singles reached the Top Ten of the ARIA Club Chart; the 2011 track “Horny,” a collaboration with DJ Tenzin, peaked at number five. In 2014 “Freaks” featuring Savage topped the New Zealand singles chart and later earned six-times platinum certification in Australia plus triple platinum status in New Zealand. Throughout the rest of the decade he continued releasing singles that charted, among them 2015’s “Hipsta,” 2016’s “Party Till We Die,” 2017’s “Deja-Vu,” and 2019’s “World at Our Feet.” Also in 2019 he became the first trumpet player to perform in zero gravity during World Club Dome “Zero Gravity 2.0,” a project linking the European Space Agency with German promoter BigCityBeats. Additional partnerships during this period included work with Andrew W.K., Hardwell, Steve Aoki, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.
After more than ten years in the scene, Smith released his first album, Mad World, in 2020; it featured the singles “911” with R3HAB, “Up & Down” with Vengaboys, and a cover of “Mad World” that included vocals from Gabry Ponte. The next year he started a YouTube vlog channel chronicling his daily life and touring, while also launching the SINPHONY radio show and video stream devoted to his own material and other EDM tracks. In 2021 he issued “Anita,” a collaboration with Armin van Buuren. A year later he put out the live recording Tomorrowland 2022: Timmy Trumpet at Mainstage, Weekend 1. The 2022 track “Narcos,” originally issued in 2017 with Blasterjaxx, reached number 18 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart after New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz and Atlanta Braves catcher William Contreras used it as walk-out music. The standalone single “Good Morning” with Alle Farben followed in June 2023.