// DJ Distance
( / )Wann / Wo >> /
Distance took his first musical steps when he decided to learn guitar, aged 11. By 15 he was playing with a number of low key rock and metal groups, finding himself more and more intrigued by bands like Fear Factory and Korn who would involve samplers and digital drum machines alongside the traditional rock instrumentation. This in turn led Distance towards acts like The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin as well as the tribal and a host of hard hitting D&B artists.
Going to college brought new people into his circle and he quickly found himself immersed in different styles of music – Garage, Drum & Bass – even Hip Hop and R&B. It was Zinc’s legendary breakbeat-garage rhythm ‘138 Trek’ was the track that took Distance down the path of garage’s darker side – Wookie, Zed Bias, Oris Jay, as championed by Kiss FM’s EZ. In the persuit for darker and darker strains of garage it was only a matter of time before he’d discovered FWD>> and of course DJs such as Hatcha and Youngsta - in the years when ‘dubstep’ was still generally referred to as ‘dark garage’.
Inspiration struck and Distance began experimenting with production, keen work in the bass weighty style presented at the FWD>> nights. Beginning with Fruity Loops, it wasn’t long before he had moved on to Cubase – passing his productions out to Hatcha and Youngsta initially although in fact it was EZ who was the first to drop a Distance beat on the radio – his second ever production ‘Trust My Logic’. Soon after Youngsta dropped ‘Nomad’ at FWD>> where he met Paul Rose from Hotflush, who quickly snapped up ‘Nomad’ - along with another - ‘3<sup>rd</sup> Wish’, to kick start his label with. Around this time he started playing on the legendary Rinse FM (one of London’s leading pirate stations), which he continues to do to this day.
From that point onwards Distance found himself in demand and has since enjoyed a steady stream of releases for labels such as Sting, Destructive, Boka as well as Hotflush, Tectonic and most recently – established home for the eclectic - Planet Mu, who will also be releasing his debut album later in the year. You can find Distance on the wheels of steel at benchmark dubstep night DMZ, hosting his show on Rinse FM, doing guest mixes on Radio One, BBC 1Xtra, Kiss 100, Resonance FM – when he’s not at home - making next level beats and bass…