About Me
„If you agree that black revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal deserves a new trial after inhumanely 27 years on death row, click here and sign the petition.“
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DJ Phoneys current fave tracks:
DeRobert & The Half-Truths "Wake On Up"
Electric Wizard "Dunwich"
Bob Seger System "2+2=?"
Ray Barretto "Together"
Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band "Adam Raised A Cain"
Jedi Mind Tricks "Heavenly Divine"
Elias Hulk "Nightmare"
The Proletariat "Options"
A-D "Deadzone"
Bear Brothers "Love Is"
Robert Palmer "Johnny And Mary"
Rhetta Hughes "High Rise"
Rory Gallagher "I Fall Apart"
Big Boys "Why Can't You See (The Big Picture)"
Ernest Drake "Bullshit Detector"
Portishead "Machine Gun"
The Impressions "Inner City Blues"
Alec Empire "New Man"
Teddybears & Mad Cobra "Mad Cobra Style"
Charles Earland "Revelation"
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Short info:
Musician, producer, DJ and label-owner extraordinary. Not because DJ Phoney could afford a rolex and an expensive suit or was the definite virtuoso but because of the amount of emotion he puts in his music. Having a backbone and not kneeling down to any trend, scene or ruler is the major concept behind Phoneys philosophy and music. He won't be using any handclaps in hiphop because it's common, he won't turn the distortion to maximum in a guitar-tune because most do, he won't do no dancehall because that's what's called reggae today. And he sure won't bow down to no government because the neighbours do.
Phoney did about 350 DJ-sets within the last years and worked on tracks almost every single day. He also runs the small but dedicated 'Phoney Tapes'-label.
Instrumentals/beats/productions by DJ Phoney can e.g. be found on the following releases: October 1917 "s/t" (1998, Red Flag) Ernest Drake "Demo" (2005, Phoney Tapes) D3Zs "1st Album" (2005) EmCee Lynx "Living in the Shadow" (2005, Lynx) D3Zs "2nd Album" (2006) Eduardo "Ehrlich gesagt" (2006, Basslabor) Ernest Drake "Rotten Commie Radical EP" (2006, Phoney Tapes) Michael Schiffmann "Wettlauf gegen den Tod" (2007, audiobook) Rich "Staatenlos" (2008, 2WasGestalten) DJ Phoney w/ Int. Criminal "Dead Fingers Talk" (2009, Drake Records/Soulplex Recordings) Ernest Drake “A Fraud / The Threat†12" (2009, Drake Rec/Soulplex) International Criminal "The Beginning Of The End" (2009, Phoney Tapes)
Some of his DJ-mixtapes: Between Love & Hate (Vol. 1-3) Elegy Mondnacht (audiobook w/ soundtrack) The key to the center of your mind Kung Fu Dub Reggae is king ExSamples
The radio-show:
Dead wax markings (on soulsender.de - together with kleinski)
History: - First fairy tale-record scratched around the age of five - first band: burning bibles - second band: think again - start of deejaying - first drumcomputer, beginning of 4track-recordings - third band: man ray - digital 8track and pc-productions (instr-hiphop and dhr) - founding of the voice of the people soundsystem - working with vocalists/MC's - releases of several productions by these artists - 2009: release "dead fingers talk"-lp DJ Phoney w/ International Criminal
Long info:
I was so deep into music at such an early age, my parents thought I might have some kind of behaviour disorder - 'cause I was always sittin' at my childrens safety seat in daddy's car, nodding my head up and down (no matter if the radio was on or not). I always had a song in my mind since as far as I can remember.
My parents were fighting a lot and I used the music I created in my head as an escape. I couldn't just run away but I also couldn't stand it. A therapist told me once that without this solution I may have become autistic...
I wasn't to good at school. Couldn't concentrate on learning - too many songs in there, damnnnn... As Dave Smalley (singer of Dag Nasty) put it: "It's inside of me, can't turn it off, no matter what I do". As I was like 5 or so I had this fairy-tale book which had a flexi-disc and a needle that you could use the freehand way. I think that was my first scratching. Since the needle didn't make it, I used some of my mom's needles (no, she didn't take heroin ;-). When the flexi was through, I would've loved to do it another way, but like the Beasties said: "don't try this at home with your dad's stereo!"... I wasn't allowed to play records on my fathers.. stereo - so I always had to wait until my mom came to turn the side - ...extremely bad start for a later DJ I'd say.
It didn't take long and I was the rebel with a cause. I didn't really fit in. If I didn't like the opinions of my teachers (which was the case most of the time), I said so. At least I managed to get some Rock'n'Roll into school by having some song-lyrics translated and analyzed (during english lessons) - which of course meant that the songs would need to be played loud enough to understand the lyrics. Something even those who hated me, loved me for. I was recording music to tapes for nearly every guy in my class ...and some girls. Also I made first mixtapes for my father (who was often away on longer business trips) when I was twelve. Well, you gotta start somewhere...
A guy called "uncle Hans" (he wasn't actually my uncle - hmm...) taught me whistling and I did it all day long until people started threatening me to make me stop ;). My granny gave me her old acoustic guitar (she had bought in the fifties) - which started my career as an active musician.
After having collected my first few hundred records and being nearly through with school (in any way that is), I was playing guitar in my first punk band. The singer left and I picked up the mic, changed the bands name to THINK AGAIN and added more Hardcore. Maybe we sounded like Samiam meets Youth of Today in some german smalltown (oh, yeah...). I got straight edge (am still) and started a Hardcore/Punk-label that was called 'Red Flag'. Later that brought the first EP-releases of the great german punk-band Inner Conflict.
I was joining a local antifascist group around that time and got deeper into grassroots politics. Three years later I joined the International Socialists (tendency belonging to the british SWP - if anyone wants to know). For some time I was very interested (and still am, eventhough in a different way) in the connection and antagonism between music and politics.
After learning gardening (I wanted to be independent money-wise as soon as possible - looking back it wasn't a wise choice) and suffering a lot, my third band started - with me on bass. It included a bit more experienced musicians and was a bit more sophisticated. Our sound was somewhere between melodic guitar-rock, emocore and noiserock. The drummer Brami of better known german punk-act Muff Potter was playing the drums at the beginning ...by the way. That was when I moved from the smalltown where I'd been living with my parents to cologne.
I also started sampling then. I had been programming drummachines and doing sort of homerecording since I bought my first four-track years ago. End of the 90's, me and a friend, released a cd under the project-name of 'October 1917' (which of course was a reference to the october revolution). The music ranged somewhere between Jungle, Breakbeats, TripHop, Industrial and experimantal sound - still getting a tight groove together was a main aspect always.
When the last band broke up, I decided I wanted to do it alone from now on. Which I did. But music was still not the main part of my life. I did a lot of horrible jobs that ate up much time and brought not much cash. That went on for some time.
Writing and publishing fanzines I had done for years and I kept buying records and started deejaying more intensively. The point came where I was so completely sick of doing shitty jobs I hated and having to wait until the end of day to do what I really love (...and having no more power for that then...) that I quit. My fridge is pretty empty ever since but I'm much more of a happy dude.
I played more than 300 DJ-sets between 2001 and 2004, my record-collection grew to a few thousand. I started a mixtape-label (Phoney Tapes) in 2000. I also founded the Voice of the People Soundsystem in 2002 (which lasted 2 years). I had always produced my own tracks while doing all that but then I decided to concentrate on that. In 2005 I did a bunch of conscious Roots-Reggae/Dub-tracks with half-german/brazilian singer Eduardo and started working with EmCee Lynx (an anarchist MC from San Francisco). Also I worked with Cheese (a canadian living in Japan) and Rich (MC from Cologne).Spring 2006 saw the releases of albums by Eduardo and EmCee Lynx, which contained some of my instr's/riddims. Rich's album is out since feb 08.
I've been working on an album with International Criminal (a tough canadian MC, living in Madrid right now - that makes Busta Rhymes look like a boyscout ;-) It's finished and will be released in 2009 via Soulplex Recordings / Drake Records. It's title is "Dead Fingers Talk". Watch out for that wicked piece of underground hip hop!
I also did songs with the brilliant canadian singer Stephanie Standerwick - for example "Funny" which is featured on the "phoneyz phavez"-compilation and there's surely more to come.
There's been a release on my Phoney Tapes-label in 2007: the (above mentioned) jubilee-compilation "Phoneyz Phavez". Have a look at: http://www.myspace.com/phoneyzphavez for detailed info.
An audiobook based on Michael Schiffmann's "Race against death" (which reveals the story of Mumia Abu-Jamals trial, who's on death row since 25 years now) had just released - incl. musical interludes by DJ Phoney.
I also been producing a song with International Criminal for Mumia trying to reach a few people cause his defence is running out of money and the whole Free Mumia-Movement isn't as large as it was in the 90's. But the mf's at the US-government are once more going to try and kill Mumia this year - so we gotta get off our asses and fight for his life and freedom once more!
Why don't all these so-called Gangstas rent an army and get him out of there, damn! (Click the Freiheit fuer Mumia-profile in my friends-section, inform yourself about Mumia and add the site to your friends list.)
I'm also doing a radioshow called "dead wax markings" with my mate kleinski. The kind of show where we do not just play tracks but give some insight about how we got the record, what the music means to us or some info about the musicians and all sort of background.
Music-wise it's about anything with a groove that moves your heart and brain as well as yer arse! Soul, Funk, Jazz, Hip Hop, Reggae, Afro, Latin, Electronic, Rock and whatever may suit us.
You can listen to dead wax markings on http://www.soulsender.de each 1st sunday of a month at 10 pm.
I also founded the Anti Bling Bling Coalition - a lose organization anyone can join that wants to see political, postive, conscious statements in hiphop rather than expensive cars, fake boobs and jewelry. http://myspace.com/antiblingblingcoalition
Other than that I contribute to the discogs-net-discography-project.
In june 2008 I openend my own recordstore Drake Records - myspace.com/drakords. Worth a visit anytime.
Anyone who's interested in my person and/or my music - just write, you'll get an answer for sure. I am constantly working on new tracks. If you think you're my size and have ideas for a collabo contact me (I don't care about your status but I do care much about the quality of your music and it's content).
