Since a young age I have been obsessed with music. I used to listen to music all day long. At first it was the music my friends were listening to, or my older brother and his friends – mostly music in which guitar played an important role.
But when I learned about electronic music I went on a journey by myself — I discovered a new energy in music that literally opened my ears and my mind. I listened to everything, from Trip-Hop to House, Drum and Bass to Techno — even a little Trance in the beginning. Oh, and I was fascinated by Acid, which wasn’t really a genre, more a sound created by just one machine, the Roland TB-303. When I started DJ-ing, all I had were two CD players without a pitch and my small but wide selection of electronic music albums and compilations.
With this modest set-up, I miraculously won a minor DJ competition in the local pop venue, which got me my earliest residency as a local DJ on a student night. The first thing I did was buy some cheap turntables and began slowly building up a collection of vinyl records which I practised with in my student room pretty much non-stop.
It was the love of music that pushed me further and further into the world of House and Techno, the two genres that I love most. My deep interest in the art of mixing vinyl records and selecting the right music for the right time made me want to do nothing but DJ-ing.
But then I got curious about how all these records were made. At the time there wasn’t much on the internet about how to create electronic music, so I just went to the local music store and bought a simple instrument to start learning about music production.
That got me hooked, and my teachers at art school started to tell me to focus more on their curriculum. In the end I did finish my education in architecture and design, but I managed to master the art of DJ-ing and a little music production at the same time. In the long run, it was my love of music that prevailed. It was stronger than my ambition to become a successful architect — I worked in architecture for a short time, but when I managed to get a little success with my first music releases, I decided to go for music full time.
It wasn’t easy at first, even in 2003 when there wasn’t as much competition for DJs and producers, but the power of music was strong and made me persist. The power of music has given me the opportunity to see the world, travel as a DJ, play my music for thousands and meet people in far-away places.
If you love music as much as I do, there’s a chance you can make it too, but it’s hard work and it takes time. Technically, it’s much easier to become a DJ these days, but the need to really embrace the music hasn’t changed.
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