Black belt in the art of club DJing, Producer and audio engineer, one time magazine publisher, Radio DJ, King of the CDJs, sneaker and t-shirt aficionado, Businessman and addict for Paul Newman’s Ranch Dressing- George Bechara, better known as DJ G-Wizard wears many hats.
To many, the name G-Wizard is synonymous with the Urban club scene where he has played a significant role in the success of the RNB Superclub franchise and CD compilation series amongst many other high profile achievements. But labelling him as an R&B DJ is hardly fair, after all he has far better dress sense than those R&B fellas and as described by collaborator DJ Tom Piper “He’s like urban and stuff but with like rock styling, punk styling a bit.” If that makes any sense you may be a little way towards getting the bigger picture of G-Wizard.
As a teen, G-Wizard ran wild with high NRG dance sets before settling into his preferred genre. It’s the urban scene where G-Wizard earned his rep and learnt the ropes but in more recent times, has switched his focus to making great music without the necessity for any kind of obvious genre labeling.
G-Wizard took the somewhat controversial step of switching from vinyl to DJing with CDs in 2000. DJ purists are often quick to turn up their noses at DJs who have made this switch, however Wizard has honed his craft to a point where his skills on the CDJs are comparable to the best out there using vinyl. Nor has he turned his back on the art of vinyl spinning, in fact, his more complex sets combine his use of the MP3 to vinyl software Serato with CDJs and feature cutting, scratching and all the other skills that separate the true DJs from the fluff.
First cutting his teeth in 1994 as a mobile DJ, G-Wizard progressed to the club circuit in 96. Out of his club DJing experience grew a new level of enthusiasm for the music industry which saw Wizard relocate to Ohio, USA in 1997. It was here that the enterprising DJ completed a Recording and Music Engineering module at the highly reputed music and engineering college Rec-Shop. His time at Rec-Shop saw G-Wizard well equipped for future production and remix work. Upon his return to Sydney in 99, Wizard body slammed the Sydney club scene with sets swiftly racked up at all the main spots as well as being booked for various industry events and support slots for some of the biggest names in Urban music to tour Australia. If there is any confusion about where to witness Wizard in his element just look out for the clubs with the biggest line out the front each week and before your little sister can screech “I’m on the DJ’s list!” to the doorman, G-Wizard probably already has the crowd tearing up the dance floor. Over the past decade, G-Wizard has continued to be one of the top choices for DJ support of major Urban tours in Sydney and interstate and maintains residencies at over six weekly club nights. We could dazzle your eyes with a list of all the big names Wizard has opened for and played their after-parties, but we’ll save the full list for the end “cough, FloRida, Sean Kingston, G-Unit, Will-I-Am, Craig David, Ice Cube, cough cough”.
Wizard’s sterling rep in the industry has lead to a regular stream of remix work for locally signed acts, major label projects as well as the creation of his own mix CDs. Once the production and remix work began to roll in, G-Wizard established his own recording and engineering facility dubbed The Kitchen and has used the facility as a base for recording demos for local acts, remix and mastering work through to more corporate work such as recording radio advertisements for advertising agencies. Later (2002) teaming up with Sydney Dj Eko to open the doors to their state of the art Studio Facility which they would call 'Emerald City'.
Across multiple releases, G-Wizard has over 400,000 CDs sold with his name in the Executive Producer and producer credits.
Where G-Wizard has really moved into an exciting new realm is through his collaboration with fellow Sydney DJs and producers Eko and Tom Piper. The trio recently opened a recording studio ‘SOTZU’ as well as establishing their mashup club routine under the group alias of ‘BattleStar’.
And if all the above isn’t enough, G-Wizard can be heard mixing it up on Sydney’s Edge 96.1 FM. What can we say? The man don’t sleep! Fuelled by his drive for success, passion for music and the crowd reaction, there are no signs of G-Wizard slowing down to catch up on sleep any time soon.
What up DJ G-WIZARD!!! Just stopping by to show some love. Hope everything is good on your side. We would greatly appreciate if you would stop by our page and check out our BRAND NEW SONGS!!! Leave a comment or voice message telling us what you think.
Please take a listen to my new production "Don't Go" with Hollywood actor Tony Yalda (American Dreamz). The Remix is available on myspace. com/ceevonkay
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