1.Growing Up
As a teenager I spent many weekends watching Rage on the ABC. It was a huge part of my musical upbringing and explains a lot about my love for video clips. This is when music became a visual experience for me.
2.Inspirations
As a child I remember being visually inspired by artists like Peter Gabriel and Dire Straits, who in their videos pushed the boundaries of what was possible in multimedia at the time. The first album I ever bought, though, was Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill. I was seven years old and I have my older brother to thank for igniting my passion in breaks and beats. These days a vast amount of my new inspiration comes from the net, as well as the constantly changing local scene I’m proud to be a part of.
3.Your Crew
I’ve been tour VJ for Sydney hip hop heavyweights Bliss N Eso since their Flying Colours album release in 2008. I’m also one half of the AV duo NTSC with the dusty-fingered digger of the deepest crates, DJ Raine Supreme. I’m co-founder of the Sydney chapter of Hip Hop Karaoke and I’ve recently started VJing with the Daily Meds crew of the Big Village family.
4. The Music You Make And Play
I listen to almost any type of music given the right mood, but my heart has always been in hip hop. From golden era to the finest in new-school intellectual raps, my sets are AV mash-ups and mixes to mess with your senses.
5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
From a VJ’s point of view, there is simply not enough love for visuals from most promoters in the Sydney scene. For a while there we had visuals at almost every hip hop event, but as I’ve stepped back from the club scene and one-night-only shows, I haven’t seen a lot of development in the art. Touring video DJs like Yoda, Peanut Butter Wolf and more recently Mike Relm tend to inspire a small burst of visual creativity out of a handful of cats, but then it dies down as there is no AV scene to keep it going. I’m now hosting a monthly gig called Channel Zero at Play Bar in Surry Hills to build a home for video DJing in the Sydney hip hop scene. I’m using the night as a workshop to bring in other DJs with an interest in video and get them smashing some pixels!
Catch Channel Zero withAdverse, Caratgold, Makoto, Juzzlikedat, Tom Dobalina, Benny Hinn and more to be announced atPlay BaronSaturday December 13.
