Calvin Harris was born in 1984 in Dumfries, to English parents who were a biochemist and housewife. He has an older sister and brother.
Wiles attended Calside Primary School then Dumfries High School. After leaving school, he worked stocking shelves in supermarkets and in a local fish processing factory to buy DJ gear. He became attracted to electronic music in his teens and started recording bedroom demos in 1999.
At 18, Calvin Harris released two songs, “Da Bongos” and “Brighter Days.” Both were released as 12-inch club singles and CD-EPs by the label Prima Facie in early 2002 under the name “Stouffer.” Harris then moved from Scotland to London, hoping to learn from the local music scene.
Harris returned to Dumfries and started posting homemade solo recordings to his Myspace page because there were no job opportunities or money. However, his popularity on the social media website prompted Mark Gillespie, who had recently founded his own talent booker for the dance-festival firm Global Gathering, to approach him about performing.
Calvin chose his stage name because he thought it sounded racially ambiguous and people might not know if he was black or not.