Born and raised in Florida, DJ Icey first got interested in music in his teens. He was especially fond of early 1980s new wave synth pop, industrial, and hip-hop music. The boom in club music during the late 1980s hooked him and when he began DJing early in the 1990s, he usually played out acid house and funky breaks. He gained his first residency at The Edge a large club in Orlando, Florida, where he is also credited with getting The Chemical Brothers their first US show on July 4, 1993. Beginnings Icey states that as a child he was mesmerized by electronic music ever since hearing the synthesizer breakdown on The Edgar Winter Group’s “Frankenstein”. “My mom had that album and I would play that middle part over and over wondering how they made that sound,” Icey recounts. “I was little and thought it was so cool”. He went on to study ballet. Rising to prominence out of the fertile Orlando, Florida electronic music scene, which has spawned such acts as AK 1200, Kimball Collins, Jimmy Van M, Chris Fortier, Jay Skinner and Baby Anne, Icey first cut his teeth at the legendary Edge nightclub in the mid-90s. When the Edge closed in 1996, DJ Icey hit the road and has continued to tour across the United States ever since. In 1997, Icey was discovered by BBC Radio 1 DJ and longtime A&R kingpin Pete Tong and became the first American producer signed to Tong’s U.S. label. Icey was also the first American DJ selected to record a prestigious “Essential Mix” for U.S. Release. Career as a Producer Icey runs two Indie labels dedicated to producing breakbeat. His first label, Zone Records, released it’s first 12” single in 1994 titled “Energy Tracks Volume 1”, which was quickly followed by the hard to find “Encyclopedia Funktanica”. Both of these records gained a cult following and contributed to Icey’s rise in popularity worldwide. Zone Records continues releasing more than a dozen records a year and Icey’s second label, Tree Records, follows very closely behind with slightly more eccentric productions. Having performed at respected nightclubs all over the U.S. and with over 200 12” singles under his belt, DJ Icey continues to raise the bar for the breakbeat genre as well as the electronic music scene. |
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