Anton Banks - The Vault Radio Show - Aug 2008

Biography of Anton Banks

By day, Anton works as an Engineer in the aerospace industry for a company that produces jet aircraft engines. He graduated from Central Connecticut State University in May, 2000 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology and is currently pursuing a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hartford. In his free time, Anton is a DJ and aspiring techno music producer.

In 1993 Anton Banks was a student at the University of Rochester and was into hip-hop and euro-dance pop music. He especially liked the beats and rhythms found in this music but became increasingly disinterested in the lyrics. Looking for something different, Anton borrowed a compilation CD from a friend. That CD was the seminal 'Moove Your Body' release on Tribal America Artists. Soon he was obsessed with all forms of underground dance music and broke all ties to the pop music scene. Anton found himself buying all the rave and house music he could find at a store called 'The Record Archive'. Also at about the same time Anton started going to a club in Rochester called 'Heaven' which was a stripped down version of New York City's infamous super club , the Limelight, as it was also built out of an old church. He only knew that he liked the music but it would be almost a year and a half later before Anton realized that he had been listening to early techno in it's heyday in the form of tracks like The Goodmen's 'Give it up', Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams' and an assortment of music from early Detroit and Plus 8. The turning point came in 1994 when Anton first heard 'Psychotrance', a mixed CD by Mr. C on Moonshine Music. This CD and his experiences at 'Heaven' gave him a desire to learn to spin records.

In 1995 Anton transferred to Central Connecticut State University and joined the school's radio station, 107.7FM WFCS, as the student engineer shortly after that. As the engineer he had 24 hour access to turntables and an audience and used this opportunity to learn to mix records by taking advantage of dead air (which was and still is often at WFCS) to practice mixing. Through WFCS Anton met other people such as DJ Rockphonics- founder of Equinox and O.L.- the third hillbilly on 'Hillbilly House', who showed him the ropes and got me bookings. In 1996 Anton got his first booking at the now legendary Equinox weekly (Webster Theater in Hartford, CT from 1996 to 97). This turned into his first residency which gave him the opportunity to open for many touring DJs from New York City, Boston, and beyond.

Anton's first radio show, 'Spatial Distortion', was first heard on WFCS on January 18, 1995 and was on the air until May of 2000. In July, '99 Anton started a second show, 'Vault Radio', that now airs on 88.1FM WESU (Wesleyan University), as an offshoot of 'Spatial Distortion'. Anton is now one of a small number of people promoting non-commercial electronic music in Connecticut on a station that covers most of the state.

It has now been over 10 years since Anton began DJing and he has become one of the most versatile acts around. He has built up a musical repertoire of several thousand records that span from minimal house to techno to industrial and most styles in between.

Miss Kittin - The Vault Radio Show - Aug 2008

Biography of Miss Kittin

CHILDHOOD

Born in 1973 in Grenoble, a medium town in the Alps, south east of France. Due to my young parents, music was everywhere at home, from Genesis, Supertramp, Miles Davis, Philadelphia Sound, Maria Callas, Pink Floyd and of course, The Beatles. I remember my Mum doing the housekeeping on Vivaldi's 4 seasons... Around 6, I was often playing piano for fun at my grand-parents', reproducing melodies from the radio. They decided to pay me lessons but I gave up after 2 years. I also practiced ballet from 5 years old to 22.

STUDIES

After a high school degree in economy in 90, I studied art, first in Marseille in 91, then in the Beaux-Arts of Grenoble specialized in contemporary art in 93-94. I finished my cycle in graphic design in Amiens in 95, north of France before starting my full time DJ job.

RAVE REVELATION

I first got in touch with electronic music in a new-wave club in Grenoble, where I met The Hacker. For New Years Eve 90, came a DJ team from Valencia, playing *Bacalao*, this Spanish commercial techno-dance. The club became quickly a dance club, where the DJ played U96, 2 Unlimited, Usura or Transformer 2. I needed money and offered a go-go dancer attraction to the boss, never topless, just entertainers like in Ibiza. The 1st guest-DJs I've seen were Jack De Marseille, Anthony and Jeff Valle. One week later, my friends and I went to our 1st rave party: a revelation. KLF, LFO, Aphex Twin, Autechre and the 1st Warp big releases became our home soundtracks. The French Alps became one of the most exciting party scene in the country. 1993 was the rave madness, driving around the country with Belgian club tapes and DJ sets loud, living for weekends, searching for outstanding DJs to dance on. We had our best party memories like Borealis #1 in Montpellier and the Spiral Tribe wild night near Orly airport in Paris, freshly escaped from the Criminal Justice Bill in UK. Shortly after, the tribe stayed in our hometown, setting up memorable illegal parties in the woods. Liza N´Eliaz or Electric Indigo became local heroes. Nostalgia, craziness and freedom describe perfectly this happy wild time we all miss.

1ST STEPS

In 94, I did my 1st mix at my boyfriend's, actually due to a funny arguement about his technique. He missed a mix, I explained my point of view, he took it bad and told me to do it myself. I succeeded in my 1st try. Thinking it was easy, so naive I was, I bought my 1st records: Richie Hawtin's Fuse, Robert Hood *Protein Valve* on M plant, Pizzaman...

Still at school, we founded with a bunch of students 'Swift Tuttle', a collective offering rave decorations, so we could party for free and earn pocket money. We organized our 1st illegal party in an old military fort in the mountains. I played records for the 1st time in the chill out room on the unique no-pitch turntable. It´s also the 1st time the name 'Miss Kittin' appeared on a flyer. 3 months later, I officially played in my 1st party with Eric Rug, Bertrand and Miloch, I had no turntables at home but a plastic box with 20 records. I was missing school to train at a friend's before a gig. After a 3 months job as a cashier in a big supermarket, I bought my 2nd hand pair of Technics from a radio station. I still use them today. I entered Tekmics booking agency created by my friend Miloch.

In 95 and 96, I started to play a lot in the country, 1st in the famous Dragon Bal illegal raves of south of France, but also in Chicago for Mike Dearborn and in Moscow. After conflicts at school, I decided to stop my studies, as DJing was already my half-time job. During summertime I met DJ Hell in Marseille, he just started his label 'International Dj Gigolo', I played him a tape with 808 loops I did for fun at some friends´in Geneva, he asked for more. Back to Grenoble, I called the Hacker, we recorded Frank Sinatra at Kiko´s studio above his record store. We sent it out to DJ Hell, without any other track on a tape. Few weeks later, he was already playing a dub plate of it. He invited me in Munich to play at the legendary Ultraschall club. It was my very 1st visit to Germany.

THE RISING YEARS

End of 96 I moved to Paris, sharing a very special house with Sex Toy, Rachid Taha, and owners of the now famous gay club Le Pulp. The Hacker and me recorded 'Frank Sinatra' for DJ Hell's label. I started to hang around half of the time in Geneva with my friends from Mental Groove records/shop. Summer 97, I left Paris for Geneva. I worked for a few months at the Mental Groove record shop. The Hacker and me finally released our 1st EP 'Champagne!' on Gigolo, with a total of 8 tracks composed while I passed by Grenoble. I immediately started to play more in Germany, as a new member of Gigolo-Disko B booking agency.

In 98, the track '1982' from 'Champagne! EP' had an unexpected success, 1st because of promo copies spread over Berlin to underground DJs. That´s where we performed our 2nd live ever, at Suicide club. Few months later, Westbam closed the Love Parade with this track in front of 1 million people. And we began to tour non-stop all around Europe. In 99, we performed live at the famous mega rave Mayday in Dortmund, Germany: 30,000 people. We released our 2nd EP 'Intimités' on Gigolo. I had propositions to collaborate with several musicians for my lyrics.

In 2000, we had our most important gig in Barcelona for Sonar, the advanced music festival. It changed my way of performing, creating an interraction between the audience and us. I had my 2nd visit at Mayday as a DJ. I met Felix Da Housecat in a Swiss festival, next day we were composing 'Silver Screen Shower Scene' and 'Madame Hollywood' in a small friend´s studio in Geneva.

2001: THE CELEBRATION

Miss Kittin and The Hacker finally release their 1st album on Gigolo. My voice appears on a song with Steve Bug, an album with Felix Da Housecat, an album with my Zurich friend Goldenboy. I am suddenly welcome in France after 5 years of abscence. I took my 1st holidays in 3 years. After shooting the video of 'Je t´aime moi non plus' Serge Gainsbourg cover with Sven Vath, I decided to move to Berlin.

2002: BUSINESS IS RUNNING

I started an A&R consultant job at Mute Records Germany since September 2002, and a non-regular show for Laurent Garnier's web radio PBB on www.laurentgarnier.com also since Sept.2002 I recorded a song with Tricky in L.A, and got back to rock'n'roll. I experienced lives and DJ sets on festival's big stages, mainly with The Hacker, before we decided to do a break after the feeling being on tour since the last 5 years! Benicassim festival in Spain was definately the absolute pick time of the year.

It was time to focus on my solo project, stop any kind of live performances, big interview features, DJing only once a week mostly in my 3 residencies in Geneva, Zurich, and Barcelona. For Christmas, I got a nice present: www.misskittin.com was born!

2003: BERLIN

I found my home, got closer to the scene and supporting it. I started to work on my album, helped by two sound engineers: Tobi Neumann and Thies Mynther aka 'Glove', who previously worked with the Chicks On Speed. That´s actually how I met them, after composing the 'Cheek shaving' song for the girls, and recording lyrics for Steve Bug. I also collaborated on 'The game is not over' for Berlin´s Shitkatapult label boss T.Raumschmiere. I discovered two amazing countries, 1st Brasil, then Australia for a very special live tour with The Hacker as we´ve never played there before.

I created my own label 'Nobody´s bizzness' to release my finished album and keep the maximum freedom with my music. I started to make music on my own, mostly on the road on my computer. Ellen Allien´s 'Alles Sehen' remix was my 1st track totally done by myself ever released. As a DJ, I achieved anything I could dream of, playing among my heroes in the best parties and places ever.

I accepted a new residency in Sven Vath´s Cocoon club in Frankfurt opening in spring 2004!

ABOUT MY STYLE

DJ is my main activity, working every weekend in clubs or festivals since 1994. I started with hard techno-acid sounds: Drop Bass Network, Analog, Interr-Ferrence, Force Inc, SP23, to Detroit and experimental techno. I figured out it expressed my late teenage aggressivity. With experience, I got musically softer and more open-minded.

Actually I play everything that entertains me: minimal, deep, to kicking techno, mixed with funny our leftfield tunes, classics, electro, no matter what it is. That's why I hardly can describe my style. A 2h monotone set really bores me. If I don't have fun myself, I'm not able to please people. DJing must be, in a way, something selfish. I shout it loud: I don't do it for the people. I never pretended to educate the audience, I just share a big part of me, taking it as serious as I love it. Michael Mayer (Kompakt records, Cologne) said: 'Taking it serious about having fun.' Because 1st it's a job, and we should never forget being paid to give pleasure to people is a great privilege. If the risks I take in my sets are my trademark, my priority is still to make dance the ones who make my living. Question of respect.

I think I have a sharp technique, pitch-control born in my acid times, I consider my best weapon to focus on musical choices.

I love playing records, it's probably the best thing I know to do in life. I do it because it's big fun and it makes me free, it even turns into a meditation kind of thing. With records, nothing is planned, every record is important. I often compares a DJ set to a tennis game where each ball counts. But people know me more for my voice even if I never took singing lessons.

AS A WOMAN

We can't help the DJ starification. If I'm against it, because we are basically 'record pushers', people always needed icons. As a woman, I'm proud to be in the minority. I can't say I was a direct macho-victim but it's true, we mostly earn less than men, and I saddly think you rarely succeed if you are fat and uggly. It's a common fact. When we DJ,1st people will pay attention to our appearance, figure, clothes, make up. If 'male DJs' are sexually more successfull when famous, it's undirectly not the case for us. As we can consider the 'groupie effect' as a girl thing, men may fantasm on us, they mostly are too scared to approach us, and it's really fine for me!!!

Billy Nasty - The Vault Radio Show - Aug 2008

Biography of Billy Nasty

BILLY NASTY has been DJ'ing half his life, a career that has seen him spin for ten of those years at a professional level. Travelling the world as one of the most in-demand DJ's, he has performed at some of the biggest dance events and some of the most famous venues on the globe and consistently featured in the upper regions of DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 World DJ's. He has also enjoyed an extensive recording career, formed a techno label that's as respected as his DJ'ing and set up his own DJ agency to expose nurtured talent to the rest of the world.

Having spent a handful of formulative pre-House years soaking up the rhythms of rare-groove, go-go and funk, Billy was already pursuing DJ'ing when Housemusic exploded in the UK.

Securing a job at London's cutting-edge Zoom record shop in the latter part of 1989 gave him a frontline job which acted as a meeting point for figureson the evolving scene and helped him to build up his reputation as a DJ.

At the beginning of 1990 Billy started his first residency, The ExplodingPlastic Inevitable (with accomplice Steve Bicknell) at the legendary BrainClub in Soho. It ran for two and a half years with Billy playing 'Nu Groove records, loops, European stuff and a lot of dance mixes of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Happy Mondays and James'; sounds and a style that were aprecursor to the progressive house scene that would come.

By 1991 Billy was gaining a reputation for his deck skills to the extent that he was asked to contribute the first mix for a new CD series entitled 'Journey's by DJ' (JDJ). Segueing together emerging artists of the time like Leftfield and Where Eagles Prey, it displayed Billy's fresh and developing style and even gained him an entry into the Guinness book of records for being the first ever DJ to produce a mix set available commercially. He alsoundertook his first studio project when he was invited to remix St Etienne's 'Join Our Club', with whom he then accompanied to Japan as tour DJ during 1992.

Throughout 1992-93, bootleg mix tapes of Billy's were flooding the UK in such amounts that they were consequently acting as an agent for him. The bookings came thick and fast with Billy securing gigs at burgeoning nights such as Venus, Renaissance and Back2Basics as well as numerous other clubs that welcomed the tougher progressive and tribal sound that Billy was pushing.

At the front of the pack when Progressive House boomed in 93, Billy's DJ'ing schedule became ever more frantic. Besides being a regular at four of the most prominent clubs in London (The Drum Club, Open All Hours, Final Frontier, and Strutt), he begun to reach wider audience's as he travelled the whole of the UK and undertook an increasing amount of European gigs.Studio adventures came with Dave Wesson (Zoom owner) as Shi-Take - enjoying a six single career on the shop's own label - and alongside future Chemical Brothers engineer Steve Dub as Vinyl Blair, as whom they found support at the recently founded Hard Hands label of underground house compatriots Leftfield.

1995 saw Billy's workload multiply ever more dramatically reaching such a stage that he left Zoom to concentrate on his DJ'ing, which now had him playing between 3-5 gigs a week at home and abroad. So in between studiosessions with Aloof/Sabres members Jagz & Gary as Kamaflarge, he founded his own DJ agency to manage his now hectic diary. Theremin soon begun to represent other British DJ's like Jim Masters, Mark Williams and Phil Perry, followed by European spinners like Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Joel Mull, and over years of development has consolidated itself into one of today's premier techno agencies.

Whilst the miles clocked up through 1996, Billy was nominated for best national DJ and best Radio One Essential Mix at the UK Muzik awards and played prime spots at Tribal Gathering's in the UK and Germany.

Having evolved into playing more and more harder-edged techno, 1997 was an appropriate time to update an audience, some of which were still comparing him to his past. So a second mix CD 'Race Data' (Avex) was released featuring tracks by the likes of Planetary Assault Systems, Dirty House Crew and Vegas Soul and a comprehensive summary of Billy's sound at the time.
Frustrated also that the style of music he had been playing and championing was only minimally supported by a few labels and people in the UK, he set up his own imprint Tortured to tie-in. 'The reason I did 'Race Data' and started a label was so that people could see what sort of music I was now playing, because they were all listening to the old tapes and the old CD. And even though all the music I've played has had a power and a dirty funk to it, my style was changing from progressive house into trance and then into techno. 'Having also been responsible for nurturing the likes of Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Joel Mull, Umek and Gaetek, (Billy flew them over for their debut UK gigs) I knew I was sort of looking after all these talented people - who at the time nobody really knew who they were, so it was natural to start Theremin.'

Billy also started Open to Torture (with Jim Masters); a bi-monthly night at London's The End which has to this day been one of the few quality techno nights in London and has acted as an all-encompassing showcase for the talent both attached to and surrounding the label (other guests have included The Advent, Green Velvet, DJ Slip, Oliver Ho, Holy Ghost, Swag, Laidback Luke, Cherry Bomb and Access 58). Studio time was eaten up with a new project Barb-Wired (with Swag's Richard Brown) and a brief re-formation of Vinyl Blair for the remixing of Gravediggaz and Howie B.

Finally to round off a magnificently creative year, Billy became a father to the first of two daughters.

1998 saw Billy's first expedition to the States, the Americans quickly warming to his decks dexterity and there have been frequent returns to spinat New Yorks' legendary Twilo club and at venues in places such as Chicago, Detroit, Washington, San Francisco, LA, Toronto, Seattle through Canada also, gaining popularity along the way. All the while Billy has continually enjoyed return trips to many places throughout the UK and Europe where the crowds and promoters are exceptional and his reputation and rank most enduring. In Holland where his following is enormous, he's voted second most popular international DJ of '98.

1999 up to the present has been spent constantly running and shaping Tortured (which has now achieved over twenty releases) and Theremin which has been rapidly expanding over the last 18 months.

In May 2000, Tortured released 'The Torture Chamber'; a brand new mix CD by Billy which showcases the quality of Tortured's pounding beats and power cuts. 'I wanted to do the mix CD as a label compilation because I think that we've put out some superb music out on the label. When I started it I made a list of some of my favourite ten producers and I'm proud to say that I've had eight of them work for it. 'It will be the first in a series with the other DJ's involved with the label mixing future ones. I want this to be the best series of techno CD's for the next decade.'

In support the Tortured team was out on the frontline with a mammoth tour from mid-February until the end of May that travelled around the globe (with Adam Beyer, Steve Rachmad, Craig Walsh, Holy Ghost, Umek, Joel Mull, Daz Saund, Gaetek, Marco Carola all supporting Billy on varying dates). Straight after he remixed Leftfield's 'Double Flash' with Richard Brown.

A new label has also been launched; Electrix which deals in 'Experimental electronica - everything from Maurizio style stuff to electro'. The success of Electrix has surprised everyone, with the media going mad for this new outlet of classy underground music. Billy will be releasing tracks on Electrix soon.

2001 sees Billy returning to Ibiza for the first time in many years where he will be playing at Amnesia for Dance Valley. As well as the now legendary techno sets, Billy played an extra special tech-house set for Slam’s residency Freelance Science in Glasgow. He will be dropping back down to Headstart at Turnmills for an Electrix Records showcase with a farely hefty electro set. The Tortured parties are still thriving down at the End, plus Billy has taken up a bi-monthly Tortured residency at the Red Box in Dublin. Later in the year, he plans to launch Tortured parties in Amsterdam.

Now in his 11th year of professional DJing, Billy has moved through varying genres in his time turning his back on the cash lined path to preserve his musical integrity. He still remains at the summit of underground dance music.

Things are looking Nasty.