During my high school years, I discovered electronic music, such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. My buddies would grill me on why I was always listening to "that fucking space music". After college, I worked at a local Sam Goody music store for 3 years, which solidified a lifelong love affair with dance and electronic music.
In the mid 90's, I fell in love with a girl that eventually moved to San Francisco. I followed her to the Bay Area. Even though, things didn't work out between us, I did discover a plethora of dance music, imported from Europe that blew me away. Oakenfold's "Cream Live 2" set forever convinced me that I had to be a DJ.
After putting myself into debt buying turntables, mixers and a shitload of records, I made my first mixed cassette in 1997. It was pretty bad. However, after some more practice tapes and sharing my potential with friends and family, a buddy of mine thought I needed a DJ name--DJ Ovaltine. I'm not kidding. I later changed my name to Saint (an anagram of Santi) and then to Saint Santiago.
The Metreon opened in San Francisco in 1999 and there I met a hot raver chick named Yoon Joo. We dated for a while and she used to borrow my tapes and take them to the Sony store and play them for tourists. I had an instant publicity manager. I cut my first release, Blue Love in 2000, followed up with my live birthday set, a short stint at the Voodoo Lounge and the Blind Tiger...all thanks to her. We parted ways in 2001 but I still have that untitled cassette that we played at the Metreon. It will forever be known as the Yoon Joo Mix.
My wild youth brought more gigs, house and block parties. After the dot-com crash and 9/11, all my friends disappeared or moved away. I fought a hard, 2-year dry spell with no gigs, no albums and working 2 jobs just to make ends meet. Even though I was starting to get interested in more abstract music, I was sad, lonely and depressed. It was a dark time, topped off with a $2800 car accident in 2002.
Around the same time, I hopped into a Tower Records and discovered Boards of Canada's "Music Has The Right To Children". I never heard music that sounded that rich, complex and introspective. The music was so inspiring, the I got back on the turntables again and create a new mix, "Art of Becoming."
After Art of Becoming, I got back on the DJ track, compiling more house mixes and marketing myself again. I played gigs in San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas, LA and New York City. I was a finalist in a DJ contest held by 92.7FM in San Francisco and played at Ten15, one of the largest clubs in San Francisco--a huge dream fulfilled! As my tasted in house music began to wane, my appetite for abstract electronic music grew ravenously. I discovered more music from labels such as Warp, Skam, Matador, K7, Musik Aus Strom, Om, Guidance and others. 2004 brought a rediscovery of hip-hop with the album "The Manifesto Techincs" and my riskiest, most experimental work, "The Inverse Seventh", which I consider to be a personal landmark.
I cut my final official house mix, the live album "Moai Micronaut" in 2005. I have since retired as a club DJ. As I now enter the second act of my DJ career, I am striving to bring abstract turntablism as an art to the masses. The Sanctuary Mix (2006-2008) was my first program on iTunes that brought my music to a worldwide audience.
I hope my future projects are as successful as the ones that came before. It is the appreciation of the sublime that keeps me inspired to create greater mixes. I also feel privileged to be able to serve you, the fans, with music unlike any other. I truly believe that God speaks through music--all variances from the original sound of all creation.
Thanks for reading and be saintly.
Santiago