Skinny. Easy going. Often drunk. I sound like a latte, innit?
OK, my music career so far….
I DJed my first party at the age of 13, to a bunch of other 13 year olds, playing exclusively hip hop. However, having little equipment I never got very far with it, and decided to become an MC, entering a few competitions and spitting rhymes at our local under-18s club. I was shit at it, so I gave up. By the age of 16 my music tastes had widened to include heavy rock, and soon I was playing guitar and writing songs for Die Smilin’, the grunge/punk band I formed with a group of mates. We weren’t actually that bad, and we had quite a bit of a local following. At the time we held the attendance record at Southend’s Royal Hotel, now home to Junk and the epicentre of the current Southend scene (The Horrors etc).
Anyway, by 1994 university beckoned, and off I went to Birmingham. I was enjoying myself a bit too much to get any music done, and besides a couple of indie DJ gigs and the odd Die Smilin’ reunion, the only thing that got done was a couple of tracks recorded as The Cow That Liked To Try Different Things (bit of a mouthful I know), a Nine Inch Nails/Ministry inspired collaboration between me and my good buddy Flid.
I left university to a rather dull job for a brokerage firm, and I basically gave up on music as a career. It was still my chief obsession though, and over this period I bought music fanatically, across all genres, and read every music publication and music biography I could get my hands on.
Fortune was to shine on me, however, when in 2001 I was offered voluntary redundancy with a big fat pay cheque. I wrote to the lovely people at Ninja Tune, a label who’s work I much admired, and after a brief interview where they checked out my music tastes and my Adidas shell-toes, they took me on as an unpaid intern, which soon turned into a full-time job. It was around this time that I started getting back into DJing again, and after investing in some 1210s and going on a huge record buying spree in New York, I was asked to play at Ninja’s Xen Solid Steel night at Cargo, warming up for New Flesh, Killa Kela and DJ Vadim.
Another important event in 2001 was hooking up with my old school mate Rob, who I’d lost contact with when I moved up to Birmingham. He’d been DJing and running club nights around Middlesex Uni, and had also been influenced by Ninja and their seminal club nights at the Blue Note, Stealth. Together we hatched a plan to put on our own nights, and in March 2002 we hosted the first Red Alert, at Herbal in Shoreditch. Mixing hip hop, reggae, funk, soul and breakbeat, these nights were an immediate success, selling out the club and attracting big name DJs such as Robin Brunson (Hexstatic), DJ Yoda, Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne, First Rate and Don Letts. After 2 years we were poached for a short-lived stint at the then newly-opened Carling Islington Academy, before moving on to 93 Feet East, where Rob and I took the back room for ourselves every month. By this time my sets had widened to include soul, house, reggae, disco, post-punk and even prog rock!
By then I’d already collaborated with Big Dada’s Will Ashon on the groundbreaking, if poorly attended, GOSH!, one of the country’s first bashment nights, which featured Ty, Roots Manuva and Charlie Dark amongst others, and led to a mention in UK Vogue magazine. I also started the Solid Steel club night at Ruby Lo with Strictly Kev (AKA DJ Food) and DK, where every month we had unannounced special guests including Fourtet, Steinski, DJ Kentaro, Luke Vibert and Eddie Temple-Morris. DJ-wise, I played all over; from the 333 to the Telegraph, from Bristol to Brussels, either as part of the Red Alert Sound System or with the Solid Steel crew.
Towards the end of 2005 I quit Ninja, sold my flat and flew out to Goa, where I spent 5 glorious months enjoying all that paradise has to offer. I also DJed a fair few parties, often putting in 7 hour sets. Since my return I’ve worked at the Big Chill & Green Man festivals in Artist Liaison, and recently went back to Goa to work at the Big Chill festival there. I've also worked on a number of Soundcrash events; DJing, stage managing and generally helping out.
I’m currently:
*Helping Gemma Garmeson put her debut album together
*Getting Bad Hare Records up and running
*Putting together an acoustic music night
*Scouting for more DJ work
*Writing music and lyrics for an as-yet unspecified project
I’m interested in hearing from:
*Independent record labels with A&R, product manager or indeed any other vacancies
*Bands/managers/agents/promoters looking for tour or stage management
*New or unsigned bands, producers, DJs etc for future live projects
*Promoters looking for DJs
Erm and that's all the weather.....
