Optical

Born in London in 1972, I grew up in Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush. I left school in 1989 and ran away with the circus that was the 'free party' scene. I began DJ'ing at age 16 at the beginning of the acid house explosion and by 1990 I was living on the road and DJ'ing for Spiral Tribe and the Techno Travellers sound system. I played at all the biggest free festivals of the time including the now legendary 'castlemorton' and 'lechlade'. I had my first ever vinyl release in 1991 in conjunction with the Techno Travellers label and got my first job in a recording studio as a tea-boy/runner at Great Asset distribution in Clarkenwell, London. Whilst working there I was given the oportunity to work my way up to assistant engineer and then finally full-time sound engineer, and by 1992 I was working with many of the early dance scene's biggest names, including Adamski, Bam Bam, Phantasy to name a few. In 1993, I went to work full-time as a Producer/Engineer for the Pirate Club, based at RollerExpress in Lea Valley trading estate and moonlighting as lighting engineer at Lazerdrome in Peckham. Soon I was made studio manager at RollerExpress and the club became THE rave venue in London, hosting Junglefever, Pirate Club, Jungleclash etc. It was at this time that I began to work on the emerging Jungle/DnB scene and worked as producer on the years biggest track, 'Leviticus' by Jumping Jack Frost. I took another job as a producer for Stage One studios in east London in 1994 where I worked on many genres of dance music and with many artists and singers. This is where I began my own artist career in earnest, with many releases of my own finally settling on Optical as a pseudonym, and forming a techno label called Blame Technology, and a drum and bass label called Celluloid. 1996 was the first Optical single, released on Bear Necessities and in the following 12 months I met up with Grooverider, Goldie and also hooked up with Ed Rush for the first time. Singles on Metalheadz, Prototype, Moving Shadow and 31 records followed in 1997 and it was around this time that Ed and myself began working together on music, deciding that we should form Virus Recordings as a way to express the more(at the time) leftfield ideas we were having. 1998 was a very busy year with working on the MOBO award winning 'Mysteries of Funk', Grooveriders first solo album, and also starting production of 'Wormhole'. I was doing 8 hours a day on Grooverider's album then going and doing another 8 hours with Ed on 'Wormhole' for nearly 12 months and still keeping up a healthy remix schedule too but it was a pioneering time in the scene where drum and bass finally went global and began to be taken more seriously by the press and music buyers. Over the next 10 years I have been lucky enough to work with and for many of my favourite artists, as a producer and remixer, and travel the world as a DJ .A few highlights are remixing 'Fool's Gold' by the Stone Roses, and 'Rockit' by Herbie Hancock, DJ'ing at Glastonbury, Exit Festival and a Peurto Rican cave system in a rainforest where I met my wife Lisa and the continued journey through sound I have been having with Ed Rush.