At the age of 27, Brighton raised Friction is
without a doubt one of the most talented DJ-Producers to make a
significant impact
in Drum & Bass in recent years.
From the age of 15 Friction has been dedicated to developing his
skills and ability to achieve where he is today. With a rapidly
increasing worldwide following and massive tunes on labels like
Valve, True Playaz and Renegade Hardware, a batch burning in the
pipeline and his self owned imprint running smoothly; where did
the apocalyptic sparks ignite?
As a teenager whose first love was music, Friction used his friend's
decks to mix and was soon passing mix tapes around at school. Over
the following 3 years Friction DJ'd out at events and promoted
his own club nights. With his preference of music style and scene
association it was inevitable he would link up with established
Brighton Drum & Bass producers such as Stakka, Skynet, Nu Balance & K-Tee.
At the age of 18, Friction became friends with these Brighton based
music heads and was soon inspired to produce the beats and bass
he loved, provided by a perfect opportunity to be nurtured and
gain production experience. Many hours were spent in the studio
where Friction was able to develop and execute the natural talent
he appeared to have.
February 1999 welcomed his debut release. Using the collaborative
name 'Kinnetix', Stakka & Friction released 'Critical Mass'
on the Under Fire label. Friction was now receiving interest from
major Drum & Bass record companies. Most significant was from
Clayton, boss of TOV & Renegade Hardware. He was invited to
produce a track for the 'Here Comes Trouble' EP. The result saw
Friction's elementary production 'Photon' gain him the position
of a talented producer.
Regular bookings on the UK and European club circuit started to
appear and raver's were starting to talk about this new, exciting
DJ from Brighton. As the releases started to flow and the word
spread about his ability to enthuse a dance-floor, regular flights
out of London took him to play at events in Holland, Switzerland,
Austria, Germany, Australia, Japan, USA, Singapore & France
to name a few. Then came the first real acknowledgment of his talent,
with Friction winning the title of 'Best World Newcomer' at the
2002 'Drum and Bass Arena' awards. People really were starting
to take notice of the extreme talent he was offering.
With more
heads hearing of his skills and tracks like the massive 'Robocop'
and 'Electrolux' smashing dance-floors worldwide 2003 saw Friction
win Knowledge magazines 'Best Breakthrough' award. Things were
rounded off with a link up to Dillinja and Lemon D's Valve Recordings
and the launch of his own label 'Shogun Audio'. He is now regarded
as one of the scenes front running DJ's alongside names like Andy
C, Zinc, Hype and Mampi Swift and also regularly demonstrates his
skills to a global audience via BBC 1Xtra on his fortnightly 'Mix
Show'.
Last year saw Friction hit success in the CD market with the massive
'Bingo Sessions Vol.1' CD mixed alongside DJ Zinc which actually
graced the UK album charts. In the 2004 DJ Magazine world DJ poll
he was the 4th highest ranked drum & bass DJ coming in at 107th.
This was followed up with another 4th place position in the 'Accelerated
Culture' awards as well as taking home the 'Best Newcomer' title
at the same event.
The UK's hottest, freshest drum & bass DJ talent is undoubtedly
Friction and its time to take things to the next level.
For UK & European Bookings contact Unique Artists on info@uniqueartists.co.uk or
(+0044) (0)207 3718840/1
For USA and Canada bookings contact Contagious Musiq on mihai@contagiousmusiq.com or
(+001) 305-534-9358