WDPK837’s first memory of electronic music is listening to a Kraftwerk CD that belonged to a friend’s father. It made a pretty big impression. He discovered electronic artists like The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy while growing up in Dallas. He was given the chance to DJ for the first time at an event before his freshman year of high school, and spent the next four years dragging his gear around and playing anywhere anyone would let him. The wide variety of music coming through and out of Texas honed his tastes and skills, exposing him to some of the world’s best DJs and musicians. His style switched up quickly, beginning with any electronic music he could find, then shifting to focus on trance and techno, then hard house, then drum and bass. After moving to Florida to attend college and study digital music composition, he realized two things. One, he and the School of Music weren’t on the same page. Two, not everyone wanted to hear loud, angry drum and bass. He was forced to evolve and adapt, developing a musical aesthetic based on the idea that concepts of style and genre were secondary to the overall flow and feeling of a DJ’s set. His highest priority became communicating with the crowd and the experience that he could create. He graduated from college with an art degree, drifted for a few months, and became a ski photographer, living and riding in Winter Park, Colorado. Live sets by pioneering artists like DJ Shadow and Daft Punk made him rethink the way he mixed as he slowly began to understand the concept of deconstructing music and piecing it back together to create new compositions. Following a brief move to Philadelphia, he returned to Colorado with an upgraded set of tools, having discovered Traktor, which had opened up a brand new world of possibilities.

Influences

Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Soulwax, Dieselboy, Delta Heavy, Diplo, DJ Hype, DJ Micro, Richard Humpty Vission, DJ Shadow, DJ Z-Trip, Bitcrusher, Underworld

Previous Aliases

DJ Snowcrash, DJ Tex, Ben Hustis