Music is my passion, period. Other than that, I love to read a good philosophy book, and I love to make philosophical enquiries with others. I recommend "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig, and "The Awakening of Intelligence" by J. Krishnamurti. Any of Krishnamurti's books are highly recommended! I also love motorcycles and I am looking to buy a new one for summer. Luv the outdoors especially camping out, hiking, boating and fishing. There is plenty of that up here in NE Ohio! Here is a little more detail of how I got here:
-ROOTS-
I have been addicted to music since a very, very young age. I blame it on my mother, who was a talented accordian player at a young age (ha!) and an excellent piano player in later years. I blame it on my father who spent his youthful days listening to all the great 70’s rock bands of the time and riding motorcycles with my uncle. (I am going to steal your record collection one day dad! Believe it or not, he has a bigger collection than me!!) I grew up in Cleveland Heights. I spent most of my younger days playing ice hockey for the Heights Tigers and going to St. Louis and Monticello (small world, eh?) I took classical piano lessons then in 7th grade I started playing saxophone. Soon after I picked up a guitar and started jamming because my buds at the time were looking for a guitarist for their band. We were experimenting with jam music throughout high school influenced by our jam hero's like Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Phish, and the Dead. I experimented on guitar, keys, percussion, and other instruments. During this time I was very into the older rock my dad brought me up on but I also got deep into the aformentioned jam bands. I saw Phish every time I could. . We had a couple of scarce gigs but we mostly played for ourselves, trying to expand our musical communication in a predominately freeform jam atmosphere. Coming back early from school, putting in a cassette to record ourselves, turning the PA system with the speakers boxing us in, and jamming away.
-ELECTRONIC-
Around this time I was introduced to the house/trance/drum n bass scene. I say “Uncle” Dave from Chesterland Tavern had a lot to do with this. He played for me for the first time a full electronic dance music mix, DJ Dan’s – Funk The System, while we were cleaning up after a long night of work at the tavern. I was still in my jam band mode at this time, but I liked it! Damn it was funky! Kinda like that discoish 80's music I like! (if you haven't heard this CD, get it) From that opening line of Avalanche’s “Acid Attack” I was hooked. It just took a while for it to cook up in me since I was so busy with my “roots” musical phase, but it was definitely on the back-burner.
-COLLEGE LIFE-
When I departed for college at Virginia Tech, unfortunately all of the band members went different ways. Maneri our drummer, is still playing in a band with his brother and sporting a full head of dreads! Respect! Leon “The Fro” Garber, where are you? Still in New York I presume? I know your doing something crazy... Nevertheless, during freshman year at Tech, my girlfriend at the time took me and a group of friends, including my next door neighbor at the time PR, to our first party… Bad Boy Bill @ The Valley Center in Roanoke, VA… with Suneel and some other DJ’s. I must say, I was definitely hooked from then on out. I came back and immediately started looking at prices on turntables and records. I already saw some of my favorites up for sale online! PR and I ended up splitting an apartment off campus Sophomore year and had some wild times in there. We threw parties occasionally but I mainly focused on making mix CD’s and passing them out around town at parties. The best party I have been to yet was a party me and PR went to called Electric Circus 2 @ Club Exit, NYC. This party was my “full circle” so to say. I got to see DJ Dan, the first DJ I ever heard and loved, for the first time live. Another plus was the drum and bass room was a freaking rawkus all night!! Back to back Decoder, Dieselboy, and Technical Itch sets was some of the loudest, most intense music I had ever experienced!!
-HOOAH SHIT-
Now times are changing for me… I am no longer at VT, out of state tuition has put me in a hole. I am in the Army with the 79th QM Co, Det 2 in Akron. PR is in Afghanistan with the 29th ID out of Christiansburg, VA. The old band members are around but moved on to bigger things, Blacksburg (from what I hear) isn’t the town it used to be, and getting started DJing here in Cleveland is a huge task considering the city is 10 times the size of tiny Blacksburg and from what I see everyone and their brother wants to DJ now! My unit will be disbanded by the end of this year because they are now contracting civilians to do our jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will need to find a new unit, I am leaning toward joining the 256th CSH (Combat Support Hospital) and being retrained in a medical field.
-DJ LIFE-
I have already recorded and released over 30 DJ mixes on CD in my time doing this, and I plan to continue doing this and whoever is interested is welcome to have a copy. I will be posting my newer mixes on the website here. Please feel free to burn them to CD and PLEASE feel free to distribute them especially to people who need DJ’s for a party or clubnight. My current style is pretty eclectic, I like to start with a mellow progressive housey mood then slowly shift it into high gear hard melodic trance. I also do drum and bass! I love it all. If you are in this area and throwing a party of ANY SORT please go to the contact page NOW and email me, I will rock the place!! This music and all music is forever in my blood and I won't be able to shake it in this lifetime...