A chunk of my friend circle at UCLA were not only artists, but also musicians or otherwise involved in music. One of my friends was a DJ and not long after I’d met Mario, I found out he was a DJ as well. I don’t mean disk jockey like on the radio, but DJ like in clubs playing records. Side note, I’m rather entertained that actual records have made a bit of a comeback.
Anyway, it looked like a lot of fun, so it didn’t take me long to pick up the skill with the help of friends teaching me. I bought my own Technics turntables (which I still have today) and a mixer and I was off and running.
The underground club scene was poppin’ back during that time (1994). There were weekly clubs that happened at actual locations like bars, but then there was the true underground scene which happened in private locations like warehouses in downtown L.A. or Hollywood. These were the raves. Through phone lines with recorded messages or flyers being handed out at other clubs and raves, people would find out what was going on and where. And yes, sometimes the police and/or fire Marshall would show up and bust them too.
Sometimes, these events would even happen outdoors in vacant parking lots or out in the desert. We once drove 6 hours into the night to go to a rave out in the desert. Since another friend ran one of the info phone lines, I had a pretty good network.
Mario was originally known for spinning really hard techno, but when drum ‘n’ bass kicked in, he started playing a lot of that too. When I first started, I was spinning breakbeats and then got into drum ‘n’ bass. Over time, both Mario and I gained a reputation for playing hard and dark jungle.
I once got booked to play a big rave in Detroit and ended up being so wrecked with anxiety about it that I talked to the promoter and had Mario go in my place (he had an awesome time btw). While I had no trouble matching beats and getting a crowd pumped and dancing, I did have trouble with anxiety of being the center of attention and performing.
Some of the locations I did go to were pretty wild… everything from those desert raves, to known clubs, to cramped basement rooms with very little ventilation.
Mario had also been making electronic music since I’d originally helped him buy and build a computer to make it on. It was kind of a natural progression with a lot of DJs that they would eventually start producing their own beats. So I ended up creating a number of drum ‘n’ bass tracks, some co-produced with Mario. We started up our own label, called Jungle Voodoo, with a group of other DJs we’d been hanging out with. We ended up putting out 5 singles before everyone kind of went their separate ways.
I could probably write a book about that era in time and everything we did together. A single post really doesn’t do the memories justice.
Last Saturday was the 3rd anniversary of Mario’s passing and for a few hours, I cranked up the turntables and mixed up a bunch of the old favorites. It really brought a lot of these memories back and ended up being a nice way to spend the evening. I know Mario would have loved it.