From soccer to No Art: The story of former Dutch pro Ruud Boymans and ANOTR's global music hits

We're used to seeing former soccer players become managers, sporting directors, agents or, occasionally, club owners. But a former professional striker behind a global music label? That's a different story. Ruud Boymans is one of the co-founders of No Art, the Amsterdam-based label established in 2017 that has grown into a global music phenomenon, powered in part by the success of its DJ duo, ANOTR. You may have heard their global hits "Talk to You" or "Relax Your Eyes." Or perhaps you've seen the viral clip of John Stones dancing in the England dressing room, moving his shoulders while his teammates joke with manager Thomas Tuchel. The soundtrack? ANOTR.

John Stones 🕺😂 The energy in the changing room last night 🔥 pic.twitter.com/mKqId1pnyJ

However, this story didn't start this summer; it has a long history of hard work and vision. It started more than a decade ago when a former professional soccer player turned his passion into a job. Ruud Boymans is one of those stories that need to be told. Boymans talked about his journey from professional football to becoming a driving force behind No Art and the global rise of ANOTR.

Boymans is a former Dutch professional striker who played for Fortuna Sittard, VVV-Venlo, AZ Alkmaar, NEC Nijmegen, Willem II, FC Utrecht and Al Shabab in Dubai. At Willem II, he scored 27 goals during the 2013–14 season before moving to FC Utrecht (where he also played under former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag), managing to help his club get promoted back to the Eredivisie.

First of all, how can a soccer player move from sport to the music and club scenes, and end up founding one of the most successful and interesting projects in the world? It's not how you would expect.

"It all started when I was 25 and I went to Ibiza for the first time in my life. That trip changed something inside me. I've just made my move to Utrecht and it was my first real experience with electronic music. I wanted to do something with it. I even spoke with my mother because I was even considering quitting playing at that time for a moment, but I had to think carefully on how to manage it. She told me I had to focus on my job, yes, but also enjoying my life, and that's what I did. While I was playing, over the weekends and after the games, I went out and discovered the Dutch clubbing scene and I made so many connections that later became crucial for my current job."

Boymans wasn't just having fun after the games, but was already thinking about making something about it after retiring from the sport, a recurring question for many footballers.

"The clubbing scene also changed the person I was before. I understood more about the club culture, as before I was more attracted about lifestyle, design and fashion. This is when I slowly started to think I could do something related to it in my life. I played in Dubai my last two years before retiring and then when I came back to the Netherlands I called Bora Güney, who I met before, and we started speaking, and later we started working together".

Through Bora, Boymans was introduced to his brother, Oguzhan Güney, a young DJ who teamed up with Jesse van der Heijden to form the duo ANOTR. In 2017, the two DJs founded the music label No Art and were joined by Bora Güney, Ruud Boymans and Omid Kahali one year later. Nearly a decade later, what began as a shared passion for music has evolved into a global phenomenon, with ANOTR regarded as one of the most exciting and influential acts in the electronic music scene.

No Art is an independent music label and event organizer that kicked off in 2017 in a completely different musical background, built around clubs, labels and underground communities. ANOTR were part of it, developing a groove-heavy tech house sound while also experimenting with different styles and influences. Over the years, both the duo and the scene around them drastically changed. The 2019 Covid-outbreak and pandemic completely changed the nature of the music scene.

Before 2020 DJs, clubs, labels, promoters, SoundCloud, YouTube were still crucial to building credibility. Today, those channels coexist with TikTok, Instagram, streaming playlists and other algorithm-driven forms of discovery. According to The Guardian , electronic music has also become significantly more visible outside traditional club culture and for instance TikTok reported more than 13 billion views for posts using #ElectronicMusic in 2024, while dance/electronic streaming has continued to grow.

The pandemic was a challenging moment for the music scene and most of DJ's, musicians and workers had to find a way to get through it. Social media became a key part of their job, but also new sounds emerged in the electronic music scene. For ANOTR, it all resulted in The Reset , their debut album released in 2022, where they moved in a new direction that merged their house foundations with disco, funk, jazz and psychedelic influences. Since then, everything has changed for both ANOTR and No Art, making them one of the most appealing names in the world of music, reaching millions of people every day.

After hosting their first major event in Amsterdam in 2021, No Art began taking its concept beyond the Netherlands, organizing events in cities around the world, bringing their music and community directly into the heart of major cities and transforming unexpected spaces into dancefloors. Across more than 15 countries and with more than 350,000 tickets sold per year, it has become a global phenomenon and one of the most sought-after live music experiences in the world.

Alongside No Art, Boymans, Bora and Omid also founded SONA (Sound Of New Audience), a broader event organization focused on bringing major international concepts and headline artists to the Netherlands and beyond. Its portfolio includes large-scale events such as Circoloco at Amsterdam's NDSM Wharf, Keinemusik at Tuinen van West and Pawsa at Taets, Hemkade.

Boymans is fully committed to his new...

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