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. 

Inspired by a trip to Ibiza 

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.

What is No Art? 

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 revealed 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. 

From soccer to music

Boymans is fully committed to his new life and says he doesn’t really miss his days as a professional soccer player. “I don’t play anymore. I still follow it, but differently. Two years ago, I played in Mark van der Maarel’s farewell match. He was my friend at Utrecht and asked me to play. I mentioned yes, really enjoyed it, and I even scored!” 

His sport career, however, was not without its difficult moments. During his time in Dubai, Boymans suffered a serious head injury after an opposing goalkeeper hit him with an elbow. “I completely lost consciousness and blacked out. I even swallowed my tongue, but the doctor was perfect, and everything went well. However, I had fluid in my brain and I had to stop playing for six weeks.”

Now, the full focus is on No Art, SONA and a new project, the No Art Foundation.

“I travel a lot but we also have other ideas. For example, we just launched the No Art Foundation, with the idea of giving back to the community. We recently collected more than $30,000, and we want to help people who suffer in Amsterdam, for who is living below the poverty level. It’s something that we believe can actually help people, and we commit a lot into it, especially when it comes to kids”. 

The 2026 World Cup also offered a remarkable reunion between Boymans’ two worlds. “Talk to You” had already become a global hit in the music scene, but the song crossed over into soccer when John Stones went viral for his trademark “shoulder dance” in the England dressing room alongside his teammates and manager Thomas Tuchel. And the connection went one step further. When Inter unveiled the English defender’s arrival at the Nerazzurri as a free agent this summer, the club used the same song and the same dance to unveil him. 

So, the next time you spot Ruud Boymans alongside his friends in the DJ booth at an ANOTR show, you’ll know there is a much bigger story behind it. It’s a journey that began on a pitch and led him into the heart of a global music movement. From Amsterdam to Ibiza, New York to Milan, and wherever the No Art sound takes them next.