Hernán became a DJ after being inspired by a collection of Chicago house records brought back from America by a friend, featuring artists such as Frankie Knuckles and Inner City. This music played a role in the music he now plays. Hernan describes the music he plays as deep, progressive, funky and tribal house.

In 1996, he won the residency at Clubland Pacha in Buenos Aires. His performances were a great success and led to Cattaneo being invited to DJ at clubs around Latin America. Clubland eventually attracted big-name DJs, such as Sasha, John Digweed, Dave Seaman and Paul Oakenfold who played alongside Hernan. Oakenfold was impressed and signed Hernan Cattaneo to his Perfecto Records label and they toured together in Europe and the United States from 1997 to 1999.

By 2000, Cattaneo was a major name on the world club circuit. Underground releases entitled Clubland Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 created an underground buzz. Also, a DJ magazine released one of his mixes called Funky, Deep & Tribal in 2001. In 2002 he produced the international hit "Deep Funk", released his first mix compilation entitled "Perfecto Presents South America" on Paul Oakenfold's label, and won the "Best Newcomer DJ" at the Pacha Ibiza Awards. Since releasing his first compilation, he has played about 200 shows a year on every continent around the world. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.