Writing about music is something that I’ve become more and more passionate about over the past few years. I have always been one to voice my opinion (sometimes perhaps not always in the best interests of my career!) but I feel it’s important to stand up and speak about what you believe in. So after meeting Damion from Decoded Magazine on Spring afternoon in London, spending hours discussing music, life and how things were much, much better back in the day, we got onto the subject of me taking over the website as guest editor. (Yes, Damion had had a few beers by this point, but I managed to hold him to his word). It felt like the timing was right for me to try something completely new in our wonderful scene, so here I am.
A little bit of background on my involvement in dance music… I have been in the scene longer than Martin Garrix has been alive (Yes, that has made me feel old). My journey began when buying my first set of decks in 1996, when I’d hammer out pumping house and speed garage through my cobbled-together set-up in my parents spare room. Over the next few years I progressed to working in record shops and putting on my own events in my hometown of Birmingham in the UK, before becoming resident for the legendary event brands, Godskitchen and GlobalGathering in 2004. To this date I have DJ’ed in over 50 countries across 5 continents. Thanks to Funkagenda, I started making music a couple of years later, and I have been fortunate to have many a Beatport hit on labels such as Toolroom, SIZE, Spinnin, Positiva, Global Underground, Defected and Little Mountain. I’ve been privileged to be able to remix the likes of Underworld, Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Deadmau5, Chicane, Basement Jaxx, Taio Cruz (Hey come on… Deep Dish once remixed N*Sync!), Josh Wink, Mark Knight and many more.
At the end of 2013 I launched my record label, UltraViolet Music, an outlet for my own music as well as artists I love and support in my sets. Now I feel ready to add another string to my bow with writing about the scene I love. I have chosen something which is deeply important to me. Depression often gets brushed aside by the public, and as you will hopefully read in my article, it’s something which can affect successful DJs & music producers – anyone – despite the perception that you need a reason to be depressed. I hope the article opens up discussion around the illness, and makes some tiny movement in breaking the stigma surrounding it.
I hope you enjoy my time in charge at Decoded. I’ll do my very best not to burn the office down.
