Deejay Starsign

IN MY OWN WORDS...

get ready wordy word word

YO!, The old/long ass self-indulgent bio is below, after this "new" version (if you want to torture yourself and read some borderline egotistical rants I wrote about myself).

This is gonna be a much more condensed and lighter "bio" for you kids with the ADD and short attention span you got from watching too much MTV and reading blogs and not eating nutritious food. I dedicate this to all y'all.

A long time ago, I was a little kid that liked art and music. I got all serious about it and mopey when I hit my teens and started listening to The Smiths and Slowdive and thought I was complex. Then I rediscovered the wonderful gift known as hip hop music. Hip hop music got me immersed in hip hop culture, and I'm not just talking about buying The Chronic and playing the party jams or becoming some suburban backpacker.

I connected mostly with the older stuff like Spoonie Gee, Furious Five, Treacherous 3, etc. Basically all the groups the Beastie Boys ripped off. Actually, the first groups I got into were BDP, De La, JBs, Main Source, Gangstarr, Common Sense, and then I backtracked. Eric B and Rakim, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Mantronix, Stetsa, all them groups I loved. The main thing I liked more than the rapping was the drums they sampled.

So I started buying dusty vinyl, bought me some turntables and was on a mission to find the dopest breaks and make mixtapes to listen to and show off to my friends on that (I got this record, I'll trade you a secret break if you do the same). This was before the f*cking internet made every break available to any new jack kid who hadn't paid any dues.

I wasn't the heaviest dude in the beat digging dept, but I had a real passion and love for it. Slowly, I got the confidence to start djing in public and noticed that I was better than most of the guys with "names" playing at bars and clubs. I got the guts to make a demo and started getting booked. I did my own thing from day one and played to cool crowds that got down.

I weaved in and out of genres, I expanded from funk and hip hop to include less obvious-yet-still rocking choices like an old Chicago Transit Authority jam, maybe some of the more new wave songs that had beats and occasionally some house. Back then I thought I was on to something incorporating different genres. Then I heard cats like Andy Smith and Coldcut take that same aesthetic to the extreme and realized I was just a baby when it came to all this.

These days, a lot of djs are playing eclectic sets, but back in the day, things were more genre based. I met a handful of other djs that also played all over the board and started the whole Parakitachi Collective under the philosophy of playing Eclectic Beats and Jazztronic grooves.

I got tired of playing that kind of swanky beat music and found a new affinity for dirty dance stuff (which is sort of big now) and started pushing that with my fellow dj partner, The Young Adorable. We mostly play "Music for the Arty-Party People".

I don't know what kind of dj I am, other than someone who likes to play good music and hates cheesy bullshit flavor of the month songs. I get heat for not playing some corny 80s crap or the newest song that will go out of style same time next year, but I never wanted to be a dj that played all the latest hits and classic one hit wonders. Actually, I don't get much flack anymore now that I quit playing at spots packed with steikers and steikerettes.

My crew and I do our own thing, still, and the people that get it, they get it and tell their friends and support the underdogs with vision. I don't know what else to write. I'm hungry. Peace.

Thanks for all you who come out to my shows, those who buy my mixes and basically all of you who are down with what I'm trying to do. I love you guys like a fat kid love cake.

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<-- OLD/LONG ASS DJ BIO STARTS HERE -->

I have been drawing since I was 4, graduated with an advertising degree, and have been designing graphics for 6 years... yet, most people know me by my deejay name (Starsign). Through a series of lucky events and some hard work, my hobby (and therapy) has become synonymous with my identity. Music and art are my two undying passions. I can't choose which one means more to me, b/c they have both been equally important in my life. I am continuing to pursue a career in design, but until I find that dream job, being a deejay isn't a bad way to make some scratch. A bit of warning, if you don't like to read, this is the part where you click to another page. If you're brave, you might learn something about me (or you're a true fan, you're bored, or a sadist). By the way, writing about yourself is pretty narcissistic, but since I'm no DJ Shadow, I gotta act as my own publicist.

One of the hardest questions to answer is "what kind of music do you normally play?". I have played everything from classics and cultured beats, to swanky, sexy grooves to electro, house, rock variations. Sometimes it doesn't even sound like the same deejay playing those different sets, but I have a passion for multiple forms of music from jazz to punk, afrobeat to no wave, soul to electro.

One thing that has been constant is my view of deejaying as an art form, not as a service to play hits and favorites. I have nothing against deejays who play pop favorites or contemporary hits, but I personally prefer to spin less recognizable, more discerning forms of music that still have an energetic, timeless, or soulful quality. Nothing is off-limits as long as it enhances the mix. If a song has a good groove, bassline, drum beat or melody I will play it. Because I have a tendency to go all over the place when I spin, I have come up with two DJ aliases.

DJ Starsign is my oldest moniker and the one that has brought me some sort of attention. When you hear a Starsign set, you may hear anything from jazz grooves to house, broken beat to hip hop, classics and maybe a few electro joints.

The Lord Imperial is my alias for when I play more "gutsy electronic music" (mostly of the dirty-disco, house-not-house, electro and booty bass kind), new wave, dance rock, and hip hop. Basically, DJ Starsign plays music for the discerning fans, Lord Imperial plays music for the party crowd.

My dad was a musician and most of what I grew up around revolved around music. I used to listen to The Beatles "Blue Album" obsessively as a child (years later, the same would happen with the "White Album"). When I discovered that music could inspire me, rather than just entertain me, I went from casual listener to full blown fanatic. I was 14 when I started listening to college radio and heard everything from experimental jazz, psychedelia, industrial, electronica, punk, noise, garage, ska, dub, hip hop, folk, and so forth on the same station. Some of my favorite bands from that era include: Bauhaus, The Pixies, Galaxy 500, Dead Kennedys, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Specials, Ministry, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine.

I was a fan of rap music as early as 1984 when I first heard The World's Famous Supreme Team's, "Hey DJ", but I didn't truly get into the culture of hip hop and discover the world of finding original beats and grooves until certain artists like Brand Nubian, Boogie Down Productions, A Tribe Called Quest, Gangstarr, and De La Soul started using obscure jazz, soul, rock and funk samples in their songs. From then on I became what some people refer to as a "crate digger", collecting vinyl that had "sample-ready" material.

For some reason, I have always loved drums. My parents noticed my fascination with rhythm and were amused that I could actually keep in time, so they bought me a drum kit when I was 4. I drove them insane with my constant drumming and they eventually substituted my drum kit with an electric piano. I eventually learned to play piano and later, guitar, but I never forgot my first love. Drums is what attracted me to funk and certain rock bands like Led Zeppelin and The Clash. After I had amassed a pretty hefty collection of funk, jazz, hip hop and miscellaneous records with beats and grooves, I wanted to produce my own sample-based music in the vein of Prince Paul and DJ Premier but with touches of Brian Eno's abstract soundscapes, and Alex Paterson's The Orb (whose brilliant UFOrb album made electronic more listenable as opposed to danceable, slowing down house and combining it with dub and ambient). I couldn't afford the production gear so I bought a deejay setup instead.

In the beginning, I never really had any plans of being a deejay that actually played out in front of crowds, I just wanted to make mixtapes for my own enjoyment and maybe pass along a few copies to my friends. Back in the 1970s, before hip hop was put on record and played on the radio, Bronx deejays defined the genre by playing anything with a good beat from James Brown to The Monkees to Kraftwerk to Chic. That picture in my mind of large crowds of people getting down to dirty funk, rock, electronica, and disco was something that fueled a passion in me to follow the same path and play all sorts of beats, no matter the genre. Right off the bat, I was playing a mix of funk, hip hop and the occasional Cure, New Order, Jimi Hendrix or Clash record.

Around 1998, a friend of mine gave me a copy of "The Document", a mixtape by DJ Andy Smith (of Portishead). It quickly became my favorite tape as he mixed Jungle Brothers, The Meters, Peggy Lee, The Spencer Davis Group and Tom Jones in the same set and it actually sounded amazing. I noticed that certain English deejays were pushing the envelope when it came to mixing. A key influence on my style was Solid Steel, a radio show led by Coldcut and DJ Food that was a 2 hour mix showcasing their unique take on deejaying. This was top-notch mixing at its finest and it appealed to beathead, record collectors like me. While most "electronic" deejays were spinning a form of techno, trance, drum & bass or big beat, Solid Steel would mix obscure funk with novelty records, jazz, soul, golden-era hip hop, house, trip-hop, downbeat, dub, afrobeat, and so on. They educated listeners on so many different styles of music, their programming was well-thought out and their influence on me can not be over-stated.

I started the Parakitachi DJ Collective with my friend Les (aka Lil Tiger) back when I decided to start deejaying outside of my living room. By 2000, my sets were beginning to include elements of downtempo, house and broken beat and I wanted to form a group of like-minded deejays who shared the same philosophy. Along the way Chicken George, Melodic, Aaron Morris and John Angle joined our collective.

It is hard to describe my style to someone who hasn't heard me spin. It's danceable, but not traditionally electronic... gritty but still soulful. I was a new wave 80's kid, who got into underground hip hop and indie rock, and developed a taste for any style of music I could fit into my eclectic sets. For the most part, I tend to stay away from songs you've heard a million times, but I'll still throw in a lost classic if it sounds good. I follow my instinct and let the records do the talking. So far, it has yet to do me wrong.