Bio

1991-Present:

At 14, and at the height of the rave music era (and the release of the Prodigy Experience), some good old friends and I began by going around to a local social club and blaring out rave tunes that we bought. We spent a lot of time blowing speakers and amps, playing pool, pissing about on the music department's Yamaha PSS range of keyboards, and listening to pirate radio stations whenever we could. I also went around buying amps, turntables, speakers and complete systems from car boot sales, occasionally tearing out the bits I wanted and encasing them in Lego. The shop owners of Libra Records (Randolph & Doby) used to sell us some top tracks and is where I got the now elusive 'horn track' by Tim Taylor and many other classics, (including some from a local label called 'Labello Blanco'). Along with this, I owned an Amstrad with which I played things like 'Roland in the caves, Roland on the ropes and Roland ahoy!', but I was strangely hooked on this program called 'drumkit' which was a very basic sounding rythm creation tool.

As time moved on, I found myself getting amazed, (and quite jealous), by Viewfinder's Atari ST, followed by his Amiga as he began to work on music. About 6 months after I got an A500+, and armed with the knowledge of a nifty little tracker called MED, I set out to make electronic noises in a certain order along with Viewfinder & Bones (and blowing speakers and amps with those instead). I focused particularly on writing rave tracks, but we released several cassettes of our stuff for free to anyone who wanted them. They were written purely for comedy value but some of our classics began to emerge, Bones had his 'Dance like Devereaux' label, whist Viewfinder dropped in a few releases from his collection of 'PC Big twatter & the cream horns' series. I did a track using samples of our maths teacher giving me a bollocking, other comedy, a few remix attempts and other ravey stuff which I occasionally dished out on tapes.

By 1996, the Rave scene was clearly evolving and flourishing into it's many sub-genres by which time I got the bug for Jungle and Drum & Bass, and continued to work on tracks destined for break chopping and heavy B-lines. After actually buying a decent amp and having far too many speakers wired to it, I was moved from my nan's narrow hallway to a 16'x8' shed in our back garden, and worked away on tracks where I couldn't disturb, or be disturbed (unless my mates popped over for a schmoke :). Over time in the shed I got into MIDI sequencing, MED became OctaMED, Libra Records became 'Sounds Solid', and by the time I was 18 I had realised that music was a big part of my life. And not just music, but all the culture that came with it, and a lot of new friends and changes in my lifestyle emerged. I then spent a the next 5 years of my time doing the stuff ravers do nearly every weekend, and exploring other genres of music. I also got a pair of soundlab DLP-3R's and a naff mixer which I still own and have only recently been put out of action by my new 1200 MK5's, but not once did I replace any component of them (even the needles, 14 years old and still going strong)!

After what became one of my hangouts, music school, and where I occasionally took my Amiga to write on tracks with a guy called Jakey, Sounds Solid had to close. I spent quite a while mixing & writing trance & techno, but cut-up samples and the ever-evolving low frequencies always drew me back, and I regularly bought Drum & Bass tracks from record fairs and the occasional visits to 'Just a Groove', but was never really satisfied, and just spent a lot of time listening to mix tapes. The likes of Alex Reece, Omni Trio, LTJ Bukem, Hype, Randall and far to many others to mention furthered my wanting to create and mix music on a par with the main players out there. So after things got a bit too hairy I quit my insaneley repetetive job and moved 25 miles up the road to live in the brothership of King Furious, Viewfinder and The Man with no Pseudonym (all of which wrote tunes). It was here I wrote the Moodswings trilogy in 2000, on my Amiga and my MIDI kit, in a tiny 6'x6' room, with a raised area where I had the kit set up.

Two years on, and I got tired of my second job (which ended up being just as dull), MWNP and King Furious were moving on, and so I moved back to my hometown to live in a crowded house of about 8 people for about 6 months. During this time, I heard about this Jamaican club called the Cabana, owned by a top chap called Mr C. It was here I made both my DJ'ing and live performance debuts, and I was amazed at how I had never known of this place before, or how the crowd were so mad for it. What was always more amusing were the daytime 60+ year old regulars who continued to play dominoes whilst we were all playing the meanest tracks we could, I think they liked the bass. I also got a job entailing technically vital roles in theatre, concerts, AV editing, and plenty of DIY which I still enjoy now. Anyway, the Cabana held the only good underground scene that people in the area wanted, which held regular drum & bass nights with the likes of Kano (Sinuous Records), Kyx (Heavy Duty), and a plethora of other guests who blew me away with the stuff I was hearing. I suddenly realised I was quite out of touch with some of the good music that was available, and it was here I began to get involved, and learn more about the scene then ever, (and have some really good times).

Eventually, I was encouraged by a good man called Alfie to have a go at mixing one night, and even holding some nights of my own as I knew of artists in the area, and ones who were willing to travel from Nottingham. So, starting my first set (at which I was so nervous I could hardly put the needle on the tune due to shaking), my first track played was 'Kings' which luckily went down well, (and lo, the bass was sweet). The nerves went, and the set went smoothly, people danced and I wanted more of it. I ended up playing regularly, got into a relationship, and held three nights of my own called The Hard Edge, which offered a mix of genres and live sets including me vs Viewfinder, and a visit from the infamous Tzanda crew. We managed to also get a couple of gigs called 'the monthly Drum & Bass jams' too, where I met a chap called Berner, the owner of a new vinyl shop in town and to which I am now becoming a regular. Alas, as with all good clubs, trouble came and the Cabana was under pressure to close, Mr C was also eager to retire and so the place shut for good.

In the meantime, I began to pay more visits to Viewfinder and the Nottingham scene, and was introduced to club called Blueprint, which has turned out to be a home from home for me (and I still play out there today). I also paid with a visit to Milan where I played at an eye-opening VJ festival called Contact Europe, ran by another old school friend. This got me into the world of visual performing which I am still exploring, and have performed on a few occasions, although I'm not taking it too seriously for now.

So, from about four years ago up until now, I have kind of pottered along with my music and have considered it as more of a learning stage. As I moved away from the limitations of OctaMED, I have grown to learn & enjoy using a PC based tracker called Renoise, which has opened up the world of VST software whilst still being able to track using MIDI, and samples (all of which Renoise handles extremely well). And so here I am today at quite a turning point for me, living on my own for the first time with things set up how I want them (like they were in my shed), and not a great deal from stopping me focusing on my music. My friends have come through for me at a tough time, and in Nottingham, Viewfinder & co.'s collective called Wibble, are getting a following with their fundraisers & free parties with which I hope to get involved in, whatever way I can. I've also put some words out in my hometown after not really playing here a great deal recently (locally anyway). So with some of these (hopefully) productive manouvers, I can only try, and hope that what I do from now will continue please others like it has continued to pleasure me.

In-Fluence

Friends - see all 30

Discography - see all 3

• 

  Prior to being

• 

  Moodswings Trilogy

• 

  Recent stuff

Stats

plays today - 0

all-time plays - 745

profile views - 5458

Links

Myspace
View -|- Finder
Wibble
Renoise
What u sayin'?
Don't stay in"
Wimp

Kitlist

2x Technics SL1200 MK5
Allen & Heath Xone32
Sennheiser HD215
AKG acoustics K240 studio
Behringer MX2642A
2x Behringer B2031A
M-Audio Delta 1010 *
Yamaha A3000 fully expanded with SCSI link to PC, Amiga & storage devices *
Yamaha TG300 *
Yamaha REV100 *
Alesis S4 Plus Quadrasynth *
16 way patch bay *
Core2Duo custom build at 3.5GHz
Asus C90s Laptop with E6700 at 3GHz (gigging)
Amiga A1200T (custom conversion to tower & still going strong)
2x AG Neovo 17" flatpanels
Korg Kontrol 49
Roland PC180A
2x Soundlab DLP-3R
Stageline MPX-4 SC
Pioneer VSX804RDS
Technics SL-PG490
Pioneer CTW-606DR
2x Technics SB-F920
2x Pioneer CS775

Entire system is wired with balanced cabling.
* inside a wheelable server cabinet.

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