| Influences | 
i got my 1st 45 single in 1980 & it was the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's delight".  i used to go crazy dancing around the living room to the b-side "Apache" (Jump ON it, Jump On it) I also liked big rock music like Rush & the Who (i was 9).
I was deep into breakdancing in Junior high. The movies "beat street" & "breakin'" were huge in my world. I couldn't convince my parents to buy me technics 1200's and a mixer for my 12th birthday, but i did hook up my sister's and my whole stereosystems next to each other so that i could scratch (read: ruin) a mint worth of classic vinyl. i got like $300 worth of gift cirtificates to a dance music record store for my bar mitzvah (no joke) so i bought a couple crates of some serious classics (i was living in Evanston, Il right outside of Chicago and house/electro/techno and underground hiphop were burgeoning styles). i had original pressings of Al-Naafish  (the original electro tune in my book) Art of Noise's "Into Battle"  ("beatbox", "moments in love" - this shit directly formed my musical sensibilities) Kraftwerk's "Tour De France"  (i still start poppin just hearing the breath soundz and those chirpy hihats- that shit IS breakdance music) i had slick rick n doug e fresh "ladidadi" memorized the week that tune came out. we would go to dances at the YMCA and the DJs (who were like the 14 year old younger brothers of some serious Chitown DJS) would play all of these jams with no regard for genre/style it was all underground dance music. i remember that Shannon track "let the music play" had the sickest "double pump" kick drum pattern that i couldnt get enough of..... "AEIOU", herbie's "Rockit"....And yes i sold all of that shit except for "into battle" and "ladidadi". I really miss that al-naafish ("ITS TIME")... but i was finished with puberty and then it was New Wave/Goth music nonstop (Bauhaus, Skinny Puppy, front 242, New Order, The Cure, The Smiths, Ministry, Souxsie, 4AD, WaxTRax, man i was all over it- i saw them all live and yes i wore a black trenchcoat and eyeliner), my friends & i had a goth band called "charge, recoil, and swoon" and we would drink coffee and smoke cigarettes and have a shitload of fun being depressed. Then i discovered , um, "psychedelic excursionising" and in comes the psychedelic rock (grateful dead, pink floyd, led zep) then Reggae/Dub/n a heavy dose of ol skool funk (P/F & Ohio Playerz & Zapp, etc..) this was around 1986.
In 1989 it was off to college in Massachussetts right as Phish was emerging as the new deal in east coast psy-jam culture. Then it was all about Jazz for a few years. i studied w/ saxophonist/composer Yusef Lateef and played jazz guitar for 8 hourz per day. then i discovered samplers! Joined a band called Boogie Shoes from Chicago and toured for 3 years straight (95-97) playin hiphop/live band flava (like the beasties w/ a funk band) until that wore out. Then i dropped out of music for a couple of years...
Then i Joined Denver's Future Jazz Project in 2001. I made a kids CD called "Kids Are Funky, Too" in 2002. In 2003 Zilla appeared out of thin air (long story), in 2006 we started Sporque w/ Ooah (Glitch Mob) & Jamie Janover. I played my 1st VibeSquad set at Symbiosis Gathering 2006 (30 minutes long right before the Zilla set), but 2007 wast the year that VibeSquad really got rollin: releasing ep's "Return of the Pudding People" & "Songs to Accompany Dance Move: The Worm" on NativeSate and Proboscis & playing numerous live sets Colorado, Oregon, California, BC, Texas, & BlackRockCity.... 2008 is starting off with a bang!
I listen to mostly electronic music these days (havent picked up my guitar in quite a while). I love making music with a computer.
i like so many artists that it is silly to make a list. my friends are my biggest musical heroes these days. i listen to lots of idm/downtempo/dubstep/electro/glitchhop/breakbeat/ but these genre names are getting silly already ;) lets just say i LOVE BASS & ill beats in all of their glorious formz.
i am dedicated to making music that vibrates POSITIVITY, LOVE, and LIGHT... w/ ridiculous amounts of BASS & a nasty-ass beat of course ;) |
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