The Macdaddy
Ben McAvoy's (Ben Mac) love of music evolved in his early years, listening to Bob Marley tapes on his Walkman. While spending most of his teenage years living in Holland surrounded by a wave of European electronica, Ben Mac's taste for dance music only really took hold after moving back to Perth for six months in 94. It was then when some good friends passed on a mix tape of Sasha, when his lust for electronic beats was permanently cemented.
After moving back to Holland Ben bought his first pair of decks in 1996 from an ad on a supermarket notice board and with no real idea how but with plenty of passion taught himself to mix. It was a grueling and frustrating trial and error method but after a few months the discipline started to pay off. In the early days, Ben would bring his records to any party he could just so he could build his experience playing in front of people. His early styles at that time ranged from Trance,Techno, Deep house and Hard house.
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In 1998, Ben moved back to Perth and started to make things happen.
Perth has always been known as having a strong pub-rock-band culture, but during the 90s Perths underground dance music scene was starting to thrive as more and more band sets at bars were replaced with DJ sets. By 2001, he had regular bookings at Players, Up-Bar, Geisha, The Factory, Cottesloe Hotel, Mustang Bar, Marble Bar and Red Sea. At about this time, Ben started getting his first few sets at Ambar, which is also when Ben started getting into breakbeat, and has since established himself as one of Perths premier DJs.
Ben Mac's club DJ sets these days tend to incorporate a deep tribal house feel with some chunky funky breakbeat. Always keeping it fresh and never restricting himself to one style his sets flow in and out of Hip Hop, Mid Tempo Breaks, House , Party Breaks and Tec /Tribal House.
Ben was voted best house DJ in the Perth Dance Music Awards 2007 and in the In The Mix Top 50 DJ Poll Ben ranked 6th Best DJ WA 2007.has been a resident DJ at Ambar since 2001, appearing at the regular club nights Japan 4,BAA as part of the 3 man Breakaholics team, Habitat and Bootleg, a night Ben and fellow Bootleg Brother Kapital P host at Ambar. Ben has supported many of the big touring acts through Ambar and promoter Boomtick, including Plump DJs, Lee Coombs, Crystal Method, Meat Katie, DJ Sneak, Hyper, Aquasky , Chris Lum, Paul Arnold, Soul of Man and Krafty Kuts. Ben also has regular stints at the Velvet Lounge’s Beat Suite ,The Deen, Soda and random weekly spots all over town and beyond.p
In 2002 Ben joined live-house ensemble Lazuli, which features a live percussionist, sax player, female vocalist and Ben Mac on the decks. Lazuli's style can be described as Sisters of Mercy come Massive Attack with energetic vocals and beats. With the band, Ben was able to diversify his musical passion while being creative as a team.
To add to that, Ben has also been actively involved with a number of local radio stations where he has co-hosted some successful underground programs, in particular 2Hours For The People (Liquid FM), The Push (BaseFM) and current gig on Full Frequency (RTRFM).
In a Nutshell, Ben describes his sound as deep funky with house music at the top of his list of preferred styles.
Currently Ben is trying his hand at production and looks to release his own music in the future
Tune in Mondays from 3 5 on RTR FM 92.1 for 2 hours of quality music and shananagins with Ben Mac and Micah.
