Aubrey Richards is a true and die hard DJ. A master of his own identity, his stubbornness has been his greatest asset, which has allowed him to resist the tide of dance music conformity. In a city with a burgeoning dance music scene, Aubrey has commanded a niche outside of the establishment and has now firmly positioned himself as an original with a loyal and explosive following. The irony is that he only ever set out to do what he loved with or without the recognition he deserved.
Toronto has quickly become an important centre for dance music with numerous fantastic venues vying for the world´s best house, trance, drum&bass, and jungle DJ´s. In this context, Aubrey came on the scene spinning a sound not familiar to the main stream. The newly formed event and promotion company, project.orange, embraced Aubrey, his talent and his passion as representative of the uplifting and sophisticated ideals behind the company´s approach to dance events.
With Aubrey as the resident DJ, project.orange began a Friday night called Tang at the Guvernment in the spring of 1998. For the first time, Toronto was about to have a homegrown tribal DJ with wide appeal. Aubrey brought the latest in the New York sound, the dark tribal beats layered with piercing organs building to drum rolls and laced with uplifting vocals. A fierce fusion of house, trance and pop which left the crowd on the dance floor both mesmerised and screaming with their hands in the air. By the summer of 1998, Tang was jammed with the city´s only truly mixed crowd. The club kids, the ravers, the beautiful and the buffed as well as the curious.
A music very familiar to the city´s well travelled and in-the-know gay community, Tang became notorious for providing what was coined as the "mini circuit party". Aubrey having now established a network with suppliers and labels in NYC, was spinning the latest tracks long before it would be heard commercially. Tang quickly gained an international reputation attracting crowds and acts from other cities. At the same time, Tangs influence was widespread as the concept and the music Aubrey made popular spurned numerous other nights at other venues.
Intent on spreading it´s gospel, project.orange ended Tang a year later and with Aubrey as its main attraction began a larger monthly Saturday night at the Guvernment called x.periment. A massive main stream crowd was now exposed to another spectrum of dance music that was to ultimately shift Aubrey´s popularity from the strictly underground to the masses. The success of x.periment led to the now immensely popular Sunday night at Fluid called the Manhattan Project.
Aubrey had now undeniably altered the dance music scene in Toronto introducing the cutting edge NYC "Arena" sound to a heavily UK influenced familiarity. Against all odds, Aubrey was unrelenting in his faith in the music to move people and the wide mix of loyal crowds he attracts is testament to his faith.
Often the calibre of a DJ´s talent and popularity is reflected by the talents with whom he headlines, and so far in his career Aubrey has spun along side the likes of Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, Peter Rauhofer, Victor Calderone, Paul Van Dyk, DJ Boris, Felix Da Housecat, Cedric Gervais, Saeed Younan, John Creamer, Boy George, , Eddie X, David Morales, James Andersen , Honey Dijon, Sasha and Digweed, Angel Moraes, and Deep Dish.
Grammy Award winning DJ/Producer Peter Rauhofer signed Aubrey's 2003 Club Hit "Who's Your Papi?" to his legendary NYC record label Star 69 Records. "Who's you Papi?" was released on 12" Vinyl and Live @ Roxy CD. The international success of "Who's Your Papi?" has lead Aubrey onto numerous other studio productions which will be realesed in the near future.
Check out www.star69records.com
If one is to measure what Aubrey Richards has accomplished in his career so far, one would have to liken him to a prodigy. What would take others years to acquire-confidence, consistency, mass appeal, technical expertise and innovation-Aubrey has done in his career´s infancy. One can only imagine the heights to which he will take us at the pinnacle of his career.
Played in international venues such as:
Club Algora Nicosia, Cyprus
Universe San Francisco, USA
The Palace- Mexico City, Mexico
WMC 2000 Official DJ Party - Miami, USA
The World Vancouver, Canada
Former Residencies:
Government Saturdays (Monthly Main Room Theme Partys) and Fridays (Orange Room) Tang
Fluid (Sunday Night Industry Party) Manhattan Project
Inside (Friday Underground NYC)
Lucid (Saturday Night Main Room) RESONATE!
