I hated music until I found Jungle back in 94 after sharing someone’s earphone at the back of the class room, he had the Jungle Mania compilation it was like nothing I’ve ever herd before, that was it I was hooked.
I got a copy the next day, nicked my sisters walkman & listened to The Burial [Lovers Rock Mix] (Leviticus feat. Yolanda), Warning [Powder Mix] (Firefox & 4-Tree) & Style (M-Beat) over & over. It was the days before rewind buttons were standard you had to turn the tape over & fast forward. (who remembers doing that?)
I got by with copied tapes because of lack of funds until in 95 when a friend of the family donated me a hi-fi unit complete with a turntable on top.
After setting it up & fiddling around with the tuner & aerial I found a station that was playing jungle/drum n bass (Elite 98.3FM) just what I needed a huge supply of free music. I spent every spare minute listening, I would ring up & request Pulp Fiction (Alex Reece) & Cause N Effect (Concept 2) they were my favorites at the time.
I started buying the odd record when I could afford to with paper round money, one of the first being X-Files (DJ Creation) he used to play on Elite 98.3FM.
I wanted to mix my records as I’ve heard day in day out on pirates so I hooked up my parent’s hi-fi next to mine no mixer simply using the volume controls on each hi-fi (we've all been there). It wasn't until I left school in 97 & got a job I could finally afford decks, with my first ever pay cheque I bought a set of belt drives, citronic mixer & went about teaching myself to mix.
Oct 98 I went to my first rave One Nation The Back2Back Payback 3 @ Bagley’s. I can remember walking into the main arena like it was yesterday, Jumping Jack Frost was mixing Warhead (Steppa Mix) [DJ Krust] into Watching Windows [DJ Die Gnarly Instrumental Mix] (Roni Size & Reprazent ) & the smell, I’ll never forget it. I went to numerous One Nations, Dreamscapes & Slammin Vinyl’s two or three a month in the following years. Also making the trip to Pure Science @ Atomics Maidstone, I’ve had some of the best nights of my life down there it was like a second home. Such a wicked club, line up, atmosphere and sound engineer the bass was always thumping & mics never too loud I never once herd feedback.
Aug 99 after listening to pirate stations for so long over the years and developing an understanding of drum & bass me & two mates decided to try and set up our own pirate radio station "Heat FM" to get our mix tapes herd across the air.
All weekends were spent, climbing trees, blowing up transmitters, and charging batteries with next to no djing time but it was all worth it when I finally got to hear my mix tapes being played over the airwaves over 20 miles away in Kent.
This carried on for a year or so, with a handful of live weekends along the way until Heat FM came to merge with another station in the summer of 2001 to produce a new station Shade FM!
Although this still meant more time wasted setting up equipment than mixing itself which was all I was ever interested in doing.
A further year had passed and due to differences between management and the loss of the studios the station was then forced to go off air.
Dec 2002 me & a mate received a call from Charge FM asking us if we wanted to cover a show we took the chance played & this lead onto a regular weekly show wrapping up the weekend 10-12 Sunday evenings & legendary all night sessions.
Along the way I formed friendships with DJ Snear & Mc Ninja, this lead to being introduced to SubliminalMuzik.com an internet station where I claimed a weekly mid-week set for a year until it unfortunately shut down.
Dec 2003 I received my first booking to play out on Boxing Day, a night called Hektic with Mc Fearless providing his lyrical talent over the set, this was a dream come true. I went on to play at the charge FM’s 6th birthday event @ Zinc (Southend) and the follow up event months later. I felt that Charge Fm was becoming a risky business after a lot of attention from the authorities, the thought of loosing records I had spent years buying with memories attached to each vinyl, persuaded me to call it a day.
I then meet up with DJ Snear who had set up his own internet station FutureDrumz.com I played twice a week to the world for well over a year until summer 2005 when I took some time out, still listening to drum and bass & going out but not Djing so much.
Winter 2006 with Djing still on the back burner I have been getting to grips with the production side of things with some help from NotioN. I am loving production as it gives me the freedom to really express myself. I should have a track from me up on my player real soon.
