128 N Campbell Fire Relief Fund
Donation protected
Listen to this. For as long as I can remember music has been a part of my life. My father was the band director at the Sabre Room in Hickory Hills where he arranged charts for Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet. I had a little baby tuxedo and I attended the concerts of groups like the Pointer Sisters and the Chi-Lites before my earliest memories were formed. In 1st grade at my schools professional day my dad remixed Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters” on a Linn 9000. We were literally dancing on our desks in the classroom when the teacher burst in and shut us down.
I started to play violin at age 3. My grandfather was a well-known violinist around town and I was to follow in his footsteps. My first violin was a Cracker Jack box with a ruler taped to it covered in wood veneer tape.
As an adolescent I discovered rock and roll and started trying to emulate my heroes playing electric guitar and bass. I played in numerous rock, punk, and “experimental” for lack of a better word bands. I also started going to shows. The energy of live music consumed me.
It was also around this time I first discovered hip-hop and electronic music. I spent my communion money on a used set of technics 1200 M3D’s, a Stanton SK1 mixer, and a box of break and scratch records. Then spent countless hours trying to copy Rob Swift’s “Rock The Bells” routine.
When I was 22 years old I was invited to participate in Victor Wooten’s Bass and Nature camp at Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns Tennessee. It was there that an unassuming man in a tam-o-shanter changed the course of my life in the most incredible way.
As we settled in for an evening lecture this man put his guitar down flat on his lap and started tapping away with both hands on the fret board. The sound he made was that of Stevie Wonder’s “You are the Sunshine of My Life.” And it was the most sweetly beautiful music I had ever heard.
After the lecture I was fighting back tears as I approached the speaker hoping to get some sort on insight into how to make that sound. The man introduced himself as Regi Wooten. And he invited me to study with him at his home in Nashville.
I was supposed to return to Chicago to start my first real job at a printing company after the Bass camp. But just like that everything had changed. I knew in my heart I was going to be a scientist of emotion, a musician. I had never felt anything so intensely and nothing in the world had ever mattered more to me than Nashville.
Oh my what a long strange trip it’s been. The universe has a way of letting you know when you are on the right path. There is a boundless energy that we as humans can tap into at will if and when we so choose. I owe my life to that force. The people I have met, the things I’ve seen and done; the sacred and profane. It’s all amplified vibration.
On the afternoon of Friday July 24th a fire decimated the building in which I lived and housed my studio at 128 N Campbell Ave in Chicago, IL . I heard a faint alarm and then smelled smoke. I ran into the hall to see giant flames shooting out between the wall and the roof of my neighbors unit. I managed to grab my laptop, my main production hard drive and a Maschine Studio before an overwhelming sense of dread consumed me with the singular thought “get out while you still can.”
Over the next several hours the CFD fought heroically to stop the blaze . I have a new found respect for what these brave men and women do every day. I can’t imagine myself ever voluntarily going back into the hell on earth I witnessed for anything. And I can’t fathom the courage it takes to do what they do.
My guitars and basses, keyboards, turntables, preamps, microphones, synthesizers, and earthly possessions are burned to ash but all is not lost. I awake today imbued with a new sense of self and a revitalized energy to create peace and harmony in this world.
If we have ever shared a stage, a verse a bar or a chord or one of my events brought you a little joy I ask that you please donate what you can. Because you already know, the show simply must go on.
-Erik
DJ Demchuk & Justin "Select Inverse" Ferranti
Deejay Earl & Umbertron
DJ Gantman
Traxman
DJ Assault
CJ Milli & Starfoxxx
Sirr TMO
DJ Hank
DJ Rashad & DJ Spinn
Sepalcure (Machinedrum & Praveen Sharma), DJ Rashad and Madjazz
--
"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water."
-Ray Charles
I started to play violin at age 3. My grandfather was a well-known violinist around town and I was to follow in his footsteps. My first violin was a Cracker Jack box with a ruler taped to it covered in wood veneer tape.
As an adolescent I discovered rock and roll and started trying to emulate my heroes playing electric guitar and bass. I played in numerous rock, punk, and “experimental” for lack of a better word bands. I also started going to shows. The energy of live music consumed me.
It was also around this time I first discovered hip-hop and electronic music. I spent my communion money on a used set of technics 1200 M3D’s, a Stanton SK1 mixer, and a box of break and scratch records. Then spent countless hours trying to copy Rob Swift’s “Rock The Bells” routine.
When I was 22 years old I was invited to participate in Victor Wooten’s Bass and Nature camp at Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns Tennessee. It was there that an unassuming man in a tam-o-shanter changed the course of my life in the most incredible way.
As we settled in for an evening lecture this man put his guitar down flat on his lap and started tapping away with both hands on the fret board. The sound he made was that of Stevie Wonder’s “You are the Sunshine of My Life.” And it was the most sweetly beautiful music I had ever heard.
After the lecture I was fighting back tears as I approached the speaker hoping to get some sort on insight into how to make that sound. The man introduced himself as Regi Wooten. And he invited me to study with him at his home in Nashville.
I was supposed to return to Chicago to start my first real job at a printing company after the Bass camp. But just like that everything had changed. I knew in my heart I was going to be a scientist of emotion, a musician. I had never felt anything so intensely and nothing in the world had ever mattered more to me than Nashville.
Oh my what a long strange trip it’s been. The universe has a way of letting you know when you are on the right path. There is a boundless energy that we as humans can tap into at will if and when we so choose. I owe my life to that force. The people I have met, the things I’ve seen and done; the sacred and profane. It’s all amplified vibration.
On the afternoon of Friday July 24th a fire decimated the building in which I lived and housed my studio at 128 N Campbell Ave in Chicago, IL . I heard a faint alarm and then smelled smoke. I ran into the hall to see giant flames shooting out between the wall and the roof of my neighbors unit. I managed to grab my laptop, my main production hard drive and a Maschine Studio before an overwhelming sense of dread consumed me with the singular thought “get out while you still can.”
Over the next several hours the CFD fought heroically to stop the blaze . I have a new found respect for what these brave men and women do every day. I can’t imagine myself ever voluntarily going back into the hell on earth I witnessed for anything. And I can’t fathom the courage it takes to do what they do.
My guitars and basses, keyboards, turntables, preamps, microphones, synthesizers, and earthly possessions are burned to ash but all is not lost. I awake today imbued with a new sense of self and a revitalized energy to create peace and harmony in this world.
If we have ever shared a stage, a verse a bar or a chord or one of my events brought you a little joy I ask that you please donate what you can. Because you already know, the show simply must go on.
-Erik
DJ Demchuk & Justin "Select Inverse" FerrantiDeejay Earl & UmbertronDJ GantmanTraxmanDJ AssaultCJ Milli & StarfoxxxSirr TMODJ HankDJ Rashad & DJ SpinnSepalcure (Machinedrum & Praveen Sharma), DJ Rashad and Madjazz--
"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water."
-Ray Charles
Organizer
Erik Voit
Organizer
Chicago, IL