All down to my sister really.
She had a little Casio keyboard. I got a monster Technics KN920 and Roland Groovebox.
She had an Encore electric guitar and a little Spanish one. I got a Yamaha Electro-acoustic, a 7-string Stratocaster, a 12-String Epiphone and a £20 little Thai acoustic.
She made mix tapes by recording songs off the ghettoblaster on Radio 1 on New Years Day. I got a pair of Denon CD Scratch Decks with a mixer.
The first big step was during my final year at Man Uni, where I finally got the balls to put an indie-rock band together EVERYDAY 50. Just over a year, I officially got Jack-Blacked out of it, due to choosing to go traveling for a few months, but you can check out some tracks we did on LAST.FM. Although I'd loved to start up a new band, time commitments just won't allow it presently. I continue to write songs - I just never find the time to perfect and record them! Nonetheless, there's a lot of my tracks, both Rock and Electronica scores, on my last.fm site and I'm working my way in re-recording a series of acoustic covers that were recently wiped off of my YouTube page. Bloody Shemaroo.
Parallel to the band, I was invited to audition for a weekly student clubnight ENVY that friends of a friend were putting together. Bagging my first DJ gig within 3 months of buying the hardware was a stroke of genius, and though it didn't last long, the gigs were still some of the best DJ experiences I've had to date. Following this, I began to play more and more mobile events, such as weddings, birthdays, xmas, work parties etc, which increased through strong word-of-mouth. I dabbled in a few different projects such as EAST, an Asian Underground clubnight with music supremo Rohini Kanish, but eventually had to leave the north for warmer pastures down south in London.
In truth, London was a slow start as I had no idea where to go and how to find other promoters. Luckily, I discovered an old university friend, RUI MENDEZ, was really up for putting a clubnite together. Since he was more of a Funky House DJ, to keep a succinct style in mind, I chose to concentrate on my newfound love of crazy Mashups. And so was given birth to HIP THERAPY, a monthly night which we hope to bring back some day.
Keeping in line with the mashups, I discovered there was a huge gap in the market for Bollywood mashups. Granted, there had been a couple by then, but nobody had yet mixed a Bollywood track with another Bollywood track. And everybody tended to stick with mixing in slow RnB tracks and, as a rule, I try not to play anything under 90BPM - the dancefloor is for dancing, leave the grinding and smooching to the bedroom, yeah? So after successfully mashing and editing a vid for Gypsy Neck, I put my efforts towards mashing up Aaj Ki Raat (Don) with Raat Baaki Baat Baaki (Namak Halal), creating the most viewed Bollywood Mashup on YouTube for 2 years, Aaj Ki Raat Hai Baaki (before my YouTube account got suspended - bloody Shemaroo). This gained the attention of BOMBAY FUNKADELIC promoter Jas Pandohar, who invited me to do a set for her night. I enjoyed it. She enjoyed it. The crowd loved it. We continued doing it. And so here we are.
With Bombay Funkadelic, we have created a number of partnerships with Bollywood Bitesized at the Richmix, The Bollywood Experience at the Holiday Inn Kensington with Zing! TV and B4U Nights sponsored by O2. We love people. People love us. Love was created to be shared :)
She had a little Casio keyboard. I got a monster Technics KN920 and Roland Groovebox.
She had an Encore electric guitar and a little Spanish one. I got a Yamaha Electro-acoustic, a 7-string Stratocaster, a 12-String Epiphone and a £20 little Thai acoustic.
She made mix tapes by recording songs off the ghettoblaster on Radio 1 on New Years Day. I got a pair of Denon CD Scratch Decks with a mixer.
The first big step was during my final year at Man Uni, where I finally got the balls to put an indie-rock band together EVERYDAY 50. Just over a year, I officially got Jack-Blacked out of it, due to choosing to go traveling for a few months, but you can check out some tracks we did on LAST.FM. Although I'd loved to start up a new band, time commitments just won't allow it presently. I continue to write songs - I just never find the time to perfect and record them! Nonetheless, there's a lot of my tracks, both Rock and Electronica scores, on my last.fm site and I'm working my way in re-recording a series of acoustic covers that were recently wiped off of my YouTube page. Bloody Shemaroo.
In truth, London was a slow start as I had no idea where to go and how to find other promoters. Luckily, I discovered an old university friend, RUI MENDEZ, was really up for putting a clubnite together. Since he was more of a Funky House DJ, to keep a succinct style in mind, I chose to concentrate on my newfound love of crazy Mashups. And so was given birth to HIP THERAPY, a monthly night which we hope to bring back some day.
Keeping in line with the mashups, I discovered there was a huge gap in the market for Bollywood mashups. Granted, there had been a couple by then, but nobody had yet mixed a Bollywood track with another Bollywood track. And everybody tended to stick with mixing in slow RnB tracks and, as a rule, I try not to play anything under 90BPM - the dancefloor is for dancing, leave the grinding and smooching to the bedroom, yeah? So after successfully mashing and editing a vid for Gypsy Neck, I put my efforts towards mashing up Aaj Ki Raat (Don) with Raat Baaki Baat Baaki (Namak Halal), creating the most viewed Bollywood Mashup on YouTube for 2 years, Aaj Ki Raat Hai Baaki (before my YouTube account got suspended - bloody Shemaroo). This gained the attention of BOMBAY FUNKADELIC promoter Jas Pandohar, who invited me to do a set for her night. I enjoyed it. She enjoyed it. The crowd loved it. We continued doing it. And so here we are.
With Bombay Funkadelic, we have created a number of partnerships with Bollywood Bitesized at the Richmix, The Bollywood Experience at the Holiday Inn Kensington with Zing! TV and B4U Nights sponsored by O2. We love people. People love us. Love was created to be shared :)