About Me
Todd's career in music and sound production began at the age of 15, with an analog synthesizer, a drum machine and a four-track cassette recorder. Armed with a self-taught knowledge of how to play and program the equipment, tapes of unique electronic body music began to pile up. In 1990 Todd and long-time friend and musical collaborator Dom Paterson did their first studio session as ADSR. They realized quickly that they could just as easily achieve the quality of studio recordings themselves, without having to worry about rushing through expensive studio time. The pair began to purchase more analog keyboards, digital samplers, drum machines, effects processors and mixers. Out of this mess of wires, circuits and patch cords Floorshaker Productions was born in Ottawa, Canada. The next four years saw the release of two albums, numerous 12 inch singles and placement on several German compilation CDs alongside the likes of Moby, The Prodigy, Alec Empire and CJ Bolland. Critical praise drew comparisons of ADSR to luminaries such as Orbital and Leftfield. During this time Todd also maintained an extensive nightclub, rave and radio DJing schedule, making regular trips to Europe to unearth the developing sounds of techno, trance, trip hop and drum and bass not readily available back in Canada, and expose them to a hungry audience. In addition, he completed a degree in Communications from the University of Ottawa. Needing a change of scenery, Todd moved to San Francisco in 1995. Following a busy stint of live performances of new solo material, he took the position of head music buyer with Pulse Soniq Distribution. For the next 3 years the demands of work and DJing temporarily put production on the backburner. However, it was during this time that a notable placement alongside Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie and John McEntire of Tortoise was acquired as Todd was featured on Moonshake's (Creation Records, Too Pure, C/Z Records) collection of remixes from their "Dirty and Divine" album. 1998 and a return to Ottawa, Canada saw the founding of Phonics Distribution by Todd and childhood friend Linus Booth (aka DJ Booth / Jokers of the Scene). It was not just through Phonics that a portal to the worlds of nu-jazz, minimal techno and IDM (intelligent dance music) was opened to a large North American client base. Shanghai Beats was also formed as a weekly experience of sound, food, drink and conversation guided by the Phonics resident DJs, receiving widespread press acclaim from opening night. The immensely popular evening drew capacity crowds each and every week. This period also saw the musical reunion of Todd and ADSR partner Dom, as Todd remixed the track Backslide for the Soma Sonic "Future" album on Sonic Images USA/Subsonic Recordings. A move back to the West Coast occurred in 2001 as Todd accepted a position with comedian Tom Green's Los Angeles based Internet division, TomGreen.com. Primarily handling the daily audio and video editing of content for the site, he was commissioned to produce original music and sound designs for the official website of Tom's film "Freddy Got Fingered", as well as for other websites, web design education facilities and television pitches. Todd has also completed work for Quicksilver Software, projects with The Aura Group, and Suzuki Automobiles. Original music production, DJing, sound design, consulting and remixing continues under the names Civil Discobedience, Onaisa, ADSR and his own name, Todd Nickolas.
