User:Dannydubbz/sandbox

From a young age Danny had an undeniable affiliation with music, having a family member writing and producing for the likes of The Prodigy, Massive Attack and more he knew that was where he wanted his future to lie. Living in South London there was a wealth of inspiration across the airwaves in the form of pirate radio, which is where Danny started to listen to a broad spectrum of music from Hardcore, Jungle, Acid House and UK Garage. Recording these shows from radio to listen to on the journey to school became a weekly ritual and soon Danny started to develop a real passion for UK Garage. Soon after followed the release of the first Pure Garage album mixed by the legendary DJ EZ. This was a real turning point for Danny because hearing the skills that EZ had on the decks was like nothing he had heard before and music contained on the CD's was of a different selection to that on pirate radio....the decision was made, he wanted to be a DJ. He took his first trip to his local record shop 'Slammin Vinyl' in Kingston Upon Thames at the age of 15 and although he didn't actually have any turntables spent a couple of hours listening to the tracks on offer and making his first purchases. It was here that he'd overheard some others in the shop talking about an Uptown Forum online, keen to see what it was about when he returned to school on Monday he spent his lunch break in the library looking checking it out. Suddenly this wealth of experience, music and knowledge about the scene he'd fallen in love with was at his fingertips and finally he could talk to others with the same passion he had and keep up to date with what was happening on a day to day basis. Needless to say that very few of Danny's friends saw him on lunch breaks at school after that as every day was spent learning about the ins and outs of what was a music scene about to blow up in the UK Charts and beyond. It was on this forum that Danny met a guy who was selling his belt drive turntables at a reasonable price locally so he was finally able to start learning how to mix. The two records Danny had bought that day at the record shop were 'Richie Dan - Call it Fate' and 'Londons Unique 3 - Silver Shadow', it was these two records that for the next month were the subject to many a clang, pots & pans mix and failed attempts to scratch in order to learn how to beat match and get the tracks in time. Quickly Danny realised he'd need far more records but they didn't come cheap so he got himself a job at the local Sainsbury's in the evenings and weekends. Danny built up his collection and became an active member of the Uptown Forums, meeting up with local people with the same interests in music and leading him to join a group of people trying to start their own Pirate Station. Suddenly Danny had an outlet for his music and very quickly became a popular offering on his station Rampage FM for both is mixing and mic skills. Unfortunatly after a couple of years Rampage Fm fizzled out with all the team all growing up and going their separate ways, as a result Danny was offered shows on other stations and went on to play on: Freeze Fm, Ice Cold Fm, Raw Mission Fm, Flex Fm and Delight Fm.

As Danny now had a rep for himself he decided that it was a good time to start learning how to make the music he has such a love and passion for. He had a friend called Detox who was using some music production software called Reason and said he could teach Danny the basics. It didn't take long before Danny was able to put some tracks together and armed with CD's he'd burnt containing the tracks he hit the radio studios and clubs distributing his wares. A few years passed along with a move down to the South Coast and Danny needed to turn to the internet for promotion of his music as he was no longer in the thick of London to dish out CD's. 2006 came around and finally the break that Danny had been looking for, Dj Charma took a liking to his music and wasted no time in offering him a spot on one of his acclaimed Streetz ep's with the track 'Miss You'. Miss you although a bootleg went on to be played on BBC 1xtra by Cameo & DJ Q and was hammered repeatedly on KISS by the man who Danny aspired to be like from day one.... DJ EZ. This was the major turning point for Danny as he'd gone from a nobody to a pretty big deal very quickly having such forces in the scene and on radio playing his track. Bookings started to fly in and quickly Danny found himself DJ'ing all over the UK, spreading the vibes and music he was so passionate about. The follow up to ' Miss You' came on Streetz vol 6 in the form another bootleg, this time of 'Keith Sweats - Twisted'. Again this was picked up by the big hitters and played on national radio by a host of dj's including EZ and was play listed for daytime radio on KISS! At this time things were going great and Danny was approached by another DJ Fiskin who was big in the UK Garage scene at the time and told he wanted to put more of Danny's music out on vinyl. Fruity Booties was born featuring not one but two of Danny's tracks, most notably the remix of 'Amy Pearson - Don't Miss You'. Whilst the track didn't quite get the amount of airplay on national radio this quickly turned into a pirate radio anthem and earned Danny a new set of followers and fans that had never heard Danny's music. Danny's MySpace began to really blow up with hundreds of thousands of plays of his tracks becoming more and more common. The next natural step for Danny was to put out an original track, so he started hunting for a singer to work with and found Tam. After a couple of studio sessions they managed to write and produce 'Don't Wanna Fight', which was very quickly snapped up by UK Garage legend Marvel for his new label Marvelis. Featuring remixes from DJ Q, Ed Case and Solution this once again propelled Danny to another level. Guest shows on BBC 1Xtra and KISS came in quick succession along with a guest mix recorded for BBC Radio 1.

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Danny continued to work hard in the studio working on official and unofficial remixes for artists including Beyonce, Rihanna, Asia Cruise and Ne-yo to name a few but it wasn't until 2009 that another major break came. Danny had made a Garage bootleg remix of Tim Berg (Avicii)'s 'Seek Bromance' which was heard by Ministry Of Sound. Two phone calls later and a contract appeared in Danny's inbox that stated they'd like to sign his mix officially, feature it on the official single release and include it on their up and coming compilations. This was massive news and this new relationship with Ministry Of Sound opened the door to him remixing officially for Example and being invited to host the Essential Garage radio show on Ministry Of Sound Radio. Danny continued to work on the show for around 3 years but after the birth of his first Daughter decided to step back and focus more time on his family. Continuing to make music in official and unofficial capacities Danny is acclaimed for being a UK Garage stalwart and still gigs regularly across the UK.