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After seeing Fat Boy Slim in Melbourne on New Years Eve 1997/98, I decided that BREAKS was the music I wanted to DJ. When I started out, the major promoters, who believed the only dance music was Drum & Bass and Hard House, scoffed at the music I was playing.

So I began my own night in 1999 at Stix Nightclub called Funkshen and combined upcoming DJ's and live acts with established DJs playing a range of music - my only prerequisite being the music had to be funky! During this time I also played at Worldsend alongside Grif aka G-swift, one of Adelaide's most talented DJ/Producer/MC's. These nights were renowned for their eclectic blend of funk, hiphop, breaks, and just plain "weird shit".

This "weird shit" included lots of Ninja Tune label stuff, funky breakbeat ala Fat Boy Slim, early nu school breaks ala Krafty Kuts, Meat Katie and others, cool French hiphop, weird Japanese funk and a lot more besides... It was hard to mix, made harder by having no fold back, but we just did it for a laugh.

I played various gigs throughout 1999 and 2000, still being derided by the major promoters for playing music that wasn't 'rave' music, and admired by others for pushing a new sound and not being a slave to fashion. Whenever I played, I seemed to get people on the dance floor, and people always asked what I was playing, and this gave me the confidence to keep going when, at times, I felt I was beating a dead horse in a one horse town.

In 2000 my music production became more of a major focus, as my tune Ol School Twist was rated very highly at Downloadmusic.com.au and got into the Top 100 of Channel V's "Leg Up" competition, whilst other tunes I had made were used in a short film that gained a placing at Tropfest. Following that, I was asked to produce the main theme for two projects for Downwind Media. Due to time constraints because of work and study, I had to abandon the music making which is a shame, but at the moment I prefer playing records to producing my own.

2001 began on an excellent note as I was asked to play at Earthcore NYE. The year got better, as I was asked to play a regular Wednesday night gig at Minke, and played to a packed 'side room' at a Bass Bubbles 2, and at Beats International 002 with DJ Tayo.

Throughout the next few years I continued to push breaks, landing regular gigs at Dusted at Minke, and Hooligan Jam at Mojo West (now looking for a new home) as well as playing various other nights such as Breaks at the Rhino Room and at the two Blind parties. My taste has evolved and my mixing has become refined, with most sets being pure 'nu school breaks' instead of mashing it all up, although I do like to do that now and then.

I have been heavily involved in the dance music scene in other ways besides DJing. I began writing for inthemix in 2002, and continue to write game and event reviews, as well as feature stories with major dance acts. I am now contributing photos to the website. I am the current Dance Music Editor for dBmagazine, writing the dance music news, reviewing music and writing feature interviews. Most of my reviews and interviews can be found on my website FunkyJ.com either in text or audio form.

I also had a two year stint on Radio Adelaide hosting my show City Zen Radio, an hourly show focusing on the best of breaks from Australia and abroad. Archives of the show can be found at http://CityZen.funkyj.com

Apart from Music, my second love in Computer Games. I am employed by Krome Studios as a tester.

I also review games for one of Australia's best game related websites XboxWorld Australia as well as and dB magazine, and contribute to Kotaku, Destructoid and other game related news websites.

Hit me up on Xbox Live - Gamertag is FunkyJ AU