Its been a hectic 12 years for CJ Allen from 3 moves half way across the world but as he's met new people, left the ones loved, left great projects and began new ones one thing has always remained constant, his undying love for music. 1996 was the year he began buying records simply just to play on his parent’s old JVC turntable as at 12 years old he couldn't afford to buy the decks he craved but after a few months he found some friends with decks and began learning how to mix and scratch. Inspired by Jamie Kennedy, the resident at teeny bopper raves at The Bassment in Bangor, Northern Ireland he knew music is where his heart belonged.
Fast forward 4 years to the year 2000 where he met Jarod Morgan (Jayrod), Dave Houle (FX Logik), Jason C, Jeff Grindley (Providence), and Frankie Bernstein (Metaphase) all people unified by the same love for music, technology, and partying. All around the same age and pushing mixtapes to promoters to no avail they set it upon themselves to form a collective under the name SounDBwoy Engineers. "We would all get together everyday at my house spinning records to the early hours learning new techniques of each other and thinking of ways to be heard." Just a matter of months later an opportunity was brought forward to host a night at a local bar in Las Vegas. "We hopped on that right away, made flyers and spread the word to all our friends." Fusion was born, and every Wednesday night all 6 members would play alongside weekly guests. "After the third week things got so insane we would have to turn people away, the room was rammed wall to wall. We had a great atmosphere and vibe and know we were definitely on to something." Next on the agenda was larger scale raves and Jump! was put into action at The Cheyenne Events Center. Always daring to be different Jump! incorporated a break dancing exhibition and competition (notably organized and run by one of the members of Supacrew, finalists in MTV's America's Best Dance Crew), an MC battle, 3 rooms of sound, an art gallery, spoken word poetry, and even a bouncy castle. Over 1200 attended and Vegas was put on the map. "After that we pretty much cemented our names in Vegas dance culture and DJ bookings came flooding in. Jayrod and I were more into the DJing side of things while the other members focused on production, in 2003 we were playing anywhere from 4-7 nights a week at various clubs, raves, and events." In March 2003 Drai's offered CJ Allen a Thursday night residency which gave him the leap from the underground scene into the more glitzy and prominent club scene. "It was great because I was starting to get a lot of recognization from Vegas' heavy hitters such as David Christian and DJ Hollywood." From the success of both Fusion and Jump! we started planning Axis, an even bigger event with a much bigger budget. "We used the same formula as before, bringing together a big cross section of culture together under one roof for one night of madness. Benimar of Supacrew brought down b-boys from all over the USA to compete and on the music front we brought back a lot of old skool favorites such as Dig Dug and Pengo. " Once again, Axis was a huge success and was listed as the best event in Vegas history by many attendee's.
In December 2003 CJ Allen made a move back to the UK where he focused more just on DJing instead of events and club nights. He held a residency at Fifteen as well as numerous guest spots at the world famous Boom Boom Room, Cafe Ceol, Nixx, Crilli, and played live sets on FM radio on a regular basis. “In the 4 years I spent back in the UK I really feel I found myself on both a personal and musical level, somewhat like a relationship I felt I found my soul mate in life, music has always been the constant in my ever changing life.†October 2007 brought CJ Allen back to Las Vegas to conquer the west coast scene again and so far, so good. “It’s great that I am still remembered in Las Vegas dance culture and still get a lot of gigs based on reputation alone. Promoters know that I just don’t show up, records in tow, but each gig I get booked for I aggressively promote it so more people can hear me, my sound, and what I am all about.†August 2008 has seen the emergence of neOn, a collaboration with J. Paul. For more info, add neOn.
TWO SAD, SHORT, AND SWEET VIDEOS FROM MY LAST GIG AT EMPIRE BEFORE IT SHUT
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