DJ Merj - The Medicine - Jul 2005

Biography of DJ Merj

Bryan Halcott was born and raised on Long Island, NY. A passion for music began being expressed at a young age. He first touched turntables and a mixer at age 13, mixing 'rap' records with his friends during the break dancing days of the early 80's.

In the middle nineties, while at university in Connecticut, Bryan began mixing drum and bass records, inspired by the arrival of jungle/dnb to the NY area from the UK. With the help of Ben Guerrette (Ecin), he had a five hour long, five year running radio show, Turbulence, at WXCI 91.7 FM. The dex and mics were open to all who could throw down; breaks, dnb, reggae, hip-hop, trance, house, MC's and musicians. The show was a welcome break from the commercial schlock that seeped from the rest of the dial.

During 2000-2001 Bryan lived in Paris, France, where the explosion of 2 Step had him saying 'bo' and buying breaks/garage records for the first time. The 'French Touch' of Parisian music production left its mark, smoothing out the rougher edges of his taste. In late 2001 he returned to the US to attend Bunring Man, was adopted by Los Angeles and has been loving life in the city of quartz ever since.

While in LA his taste grew towards the nu skool breaks sound coming from London and Australia. He had a small weekly party for most of 2003, which had the same open mentality that worked so well with his radio show. DJ's with different styles were very welcome to come and do their thing.

2004 was the year Bryan decided it was time to learn how to produce his own music. He began learning a lot about music theory, composing software and audio.

In 2005 an idea that was brewing for a while came to fruition. Bryan and Ben (Merj and Ecin) started performing a live 'remix' of the movie Fight Club, mixing and effecting footage and audio samples from the film, riding on big dark electro beats, dnb and Metallica. This is evolving into a full DJ/VJ A/V performance, treats for the ears and eyes, known as The Broken Lens Remix Show.

Occasional DJ gigs aside, and being honored with a guest slot on Annie Nightingale's BBC Radio 1 breaks show, 2006 was spent creating a full-length release, 'DYSTOPIA - audible delusions of hope and grandeur', ten heady, breaks and bass driven tunes. Creating this project was quite a learning experience, hopefully the first of many music creations.

2007 looks to be a fantastic year. Bryan will marry his love and life partner, Sandra, in the California desert. The release of DYSTOPIA and vinyl singles from the project, more beat making and house rocking...its a good life.

'The music is inside of us, we give it life'