My Name: How Maxim Schunk's 2018 Rework Took Over the Spotify Charts

Every DJ has a record that splits the timeline in two: everything before it, and everything after. For German DJ Maxim Schunk, that record has a name of its own. In February 2018, the Maxim Schunk My Name rework — built alongside Raven & Kreyn and BISHØP — landed on the Spotify charts and turned a producer who had been sharpening his craft since his teens into an artist people actually searched for by name. This is the story of how that track came together, why it connected, and how it quietly set the blueprint for everything Maxim Schunk released next.

From Ratingen to the Spotify Charts

Maxim Schunk grew up in Ratingen, just north of Düsseldorf in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia — a region with a deep club culture but no guarantees for anyone trying to break out of it. He was not a late convert to music. He started piano at the age of six, inspired by his mother, and the discipline of learning an instrument young shaped how he would later hear melody and arrangement. At fourteen he moved into digital music production, and in 2010 he attended a music school in Wuppertal, trading bedroom experiments for a more structured understanding of how records are actually built.

That background matters, because "My Name" was not a beginner's fluke. By the time it arrived in early 2018, Maxim Schunk had years of ear training and production hours behind him. The rework did not sound like a first attempt — it sounded like someone who finally had the right song, the right collaborators, and the right moment all lining up at once. Ratingen and the wider Düsseldorf area gave him proximity to a serious German dance-music scene, but proximity alone breaks nobody. What turned local promise into a charting record was the patience to keep refining until the idea was undeniable.

The Rework That Changed Everything

The Maxim Schunk My Name rework was a collaboration in the truest sense: Maxim Schunk, Raven & Kreyn and BISHØP each pulling the record toward its best version. A rework is a specific discipline — you are not writing from a blank page, and you are not simply remixing a finished club track. You are taking existing material and rebuilding it into something that stands on its own while keeping whatever made the original memorable in the first place.

What made this one work was restraint. The vocal hook stayed front and centre, easy to latch onto after a single listen. The energy was engineered for the way people actually consume dance music now — not just a peak-time festival drop, but a track that reads instantly in a playlist, on headphones, on the commute. That is the difference between a record DJs respect and a record that travels. "My Name" did both, and the Spotify charts reflected it.

If you want the deeper mechanics of turning an existing song into a genre-crossing club record, the same instincts show up in this breakdown of how to remix a song into Progressive House — arrangement choices, energy management, and knowing exactly what to leave untouched.

Why "My Name" Connected When It Did

Timing is not luck; it is reading the room. In early 2018 the streaming ecosystem was rewarding melodic, playlist-friendly dance music, and editorial and algorithmic playlists were becoming the front door to discovery. A track that could survive a cold listen — no context, no crowd, no lights — had a real shot. "My Name" was engineered for exactly that environment.

A few things separated it from the noise:

• A hook that survives the skip test. Streaming listeners decide fast. The vocal centrepiece gave people a reason to stay past the first fifteen seconds.
• Collaborative credibility. Pairing Maxim Schunk with Raven & Kreyn and BISHØP meant three complementary audiences and three sets of instincts sharpening the same record.
• Playlist-native energy. The arrangement was tuned to sit naturally inside a flow of other tracks rather than fighting them — a subtle but decisive advantage in the streaming era.

The result was a record that behaved less like a one-off release and more like a proof of concept. It showed Maxim Schunk exactly what his lane could be: melodic, precise, built for repeat plays rather than a single festival weekend. For a DJ, that distinction is everything — a set-filler comes and goes, but a track that lives in listeners' personal playlists keeps working long after the release week is over, quietly building the audience that shows up for whatever you do next.

The Blueprint for What Came Next

What makes "My Name" a genuine flagship moment is not just that it charted — it is that it defined a method Maxim Schunk would return to again and again. Take a strong, recognisable idea, respect what makes it work, and rebuild it with modern Progressive House and Big Room production values. That approach is the through-line of his entire catalogue.

You can trace it directly. In 2021 came the comeback "Lost In You" with Harris & Ford, which passed 12 million streams and dominated Spotify's Mainstage cover. Then came the record that would define him commercially: a reworked cover of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love On Me," reimagined as Progressive House, which has surpassed 115 million streams and stands as one of Germany's most-streamed EDM tracks. We broke that one down in full in our feature on "Lay All Your Love On Me" by Maxim Schunk.

The same instinct runs through his remix of "Sing It Back" with GoingDeeper, which cleared 15 million streams, and releases like "Light Up" on Embassy One. None of it happens the same way without "My Name" first proving the formula worked. It is the record where the strategy became visible.

The Craft Behind Reworking a Track

Reworking or covering a well-known song is not just a creative decision — it is a legal and logistical one, and getting it wrong can stop a release before it ever reaches a playlist. Clearing rights, crediting original writers correctly, and choosing the right label route all sit underneath every successful rework, including the ones that go on to earn hundreds of millions of streams. If you are curious about that side of the process, our guide to how to legally release a cover or remix song covers the groundwork most listeners never see.

It is worth remembering the level of company "My Name" put Maxim Schunk in. Over a career now past 250 million total Spotify streams and 2 million monthly listeners, his music has been supported and played by names like Avicii, Tiësto, Don Diablo, Fedde Le Grand and Blasterjaxx, with releases through labels including Spinnin', Universal, SOAVE, BeatDealer and Embassy One. That trajectory has a clear starting gun, and it fired in February 2018.

Listen and Follow

"My Name" is where the Maxim Schunk story stops being potential and starts being results. It is the record that taught him — and everyone watching — what a Maxim Schunk track is supposed to feel like: melodic, deliberate, and built to last longer than a single night. Everything from "Lost In You" to "Lay All Your Love On Me" grows out of the lesson this rework taught first.

You can hear the full catalogue on the Maxim Schunk Spotify artist page, and follow the journey and new releases over on Instagram @maximschunk.