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Starting at the age of 12, Dan J aka Powdermonkey has been writing tunes for over 16 years. Starting off on Octamed on the Amiga (remember that?), he explored funky house sounds and old skool stabs. DJing soon followed and now he had the chance to mix all that lovely old skool he'd been buying buy never using. In 1995 University beckoned in Canterbury to study Drama, and here he found a new sound was emerging - Drum and Bass. It was Platinum Breakz 1 (most notably Dillinja's 'Armoured D') that transfixed Dan into that heavy heavy sound. Jungle had never greatly appealed, and suddenly this had all the intelligence and sounds of the old skool vibe, coupled with complex programming and composition. Drum and Bass was soon to take over on both the decks and the studio, and he became resident at The Venue, playing with the likes of Goldie, Andy C, Mickey Finn, Randall and Matrix (almost fainting when he heard 'Gasmask' for the first time!)

After Uni, Dan wanted to persue a career in comedy writing, but was finding it a hard struggle. Working as a secretary, the last thing he wanted to do when he got home was to type. And then a new music package came onto the scene - Reason - and this was to make a big change. Completely teaching himself how to use it (a big struggle at times), Dan was soon banging out tunes of a good quality - maybe not sonically, but always in concept and structure. Over 100 tunes had been written on Reason in around 3 years, including such monsters as "48k", "Suck Satan's Cock" and "I'm the Daddy" .

Releases have never been a primary concern, and ironically it was a non-DnB project that got Dan his first release on a compilation CD called "Enter". Deep, dark and dirty, this was a lo-fi atmospheric track called
"In From the Cold", and it can be heard on www.unschooled.com (or even bought - there's some great tunes on the album). He also won a Drum and Bass Arena Form tune writing competition with "Anihalate".

Dan is now teaching for music college "Access to Music", but continually writing tunes, both DnB and more experimental downbeat works under the name "Wishbone". Now working on Cubase SX3 with a Virus Powercore module, he is producing dance floor tracks with an intelligent edge, most recently "Colin and Susan", "Badman" and "Reality / Doubt".

You can check more of Powder's older tracks at www.powderland.co.uk

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