A lot of people ask me what inspired me to come up with my Live Remix Project.  I always tell them 3 things:  Qbert, Z-Trip, and “this European musician at a Virgin Megastore in Paris.”

I looked at guys like Qbert, who were traveling the world performing on turntables like an instrument, like a scratch rock-star.  Then I saw Z-trip, who used elements of turntablism, but also elements of DJ’ing and blending to create new music ‘live.’  Both of them use turntables to ‘create’, which I had been drawn to since I started getting into DJ battling and turntablism in 1998 (I started DJ’ing in 1991.)

So, what about this European guy in Paris?  In 2004, I was performing at a French DMC battle in Lille, France.  I had a very short time in Paris before my flight the next day (about a 2 hour window).  That was my first trip to Paris.  I walked into a Virgin Megastore in the Champs-Elysees and saw crowd gathered around a performer.  This guy had a bunch of equipment around him, including a laptop and keyboards.  He was sampling and looping himself make sounds and turning them into rhythms, layer by layer.  Then he got on the keyboard and started playing along what he had just sampled…he was an amazing pianist.

That was the moment that it all came together for me.  That was the first time I said to myself, “why not do that, but add turntablism, and DJ’ing?”  I sat on that thought for a good year, until I saw another Z-trip show at the 930 Club in DC.  Z-trip and Goldenchyld had this crazy show, using more than just turntables.  After that show I said, “ok, I’m going to do it.”  That was at the end of 2005.  I started buying (and returning) equipment until I found a way to perform what was in my head.  I figured out early that I had to learn Ableton Live and MIDI to make it work.

I had my first LRP performance in 2006 at WMC in Miami.  Since then, through my videos online, I was noticed and signed by my management company (CEG Talent at the time, and now with Moodswing360).  Getting into Moodswing was big for me, because they booked me a LRP gig in Orlando.  It was that gig that led to getting on tour with Madonna.

So that short performance that I saw in Paris, in a music store, ended up being the beginning of an important series of events that changed my life.  Pretty big deal right?  People would ask me who that performer was, and I honestly didn’t know.  I never got his name, and actually for years I’ve been trying to figure out who he was.  I tried googling him, but all I could remember was that he was from some part of Europe and one of his names began with a “W.”

Well, the other day, I was browsing through the Artist section on the Ableton site, and lo and behold, there he was….Bugge Wesseltoft from Oslo, Norway.  The name finally rang a bell.  I checked out his youtube videos and that sealed it.  Almost 6 years later, I finally know who that guy was!  What a relief!  So…thanks Bugge Wesseltoft for inspiring me and helping me get where I am today.