BIO:

Born in Fiji, raised in New Zealand and forged in the dance music revolution of London in 90’s London, FreQ Nasty started his career in 1998 on the seminal UK label Botchit & Scarper, moving to SKINT Records in 2003. He went on to release a slew of cutting-edge records, collaborating with and remixing a diverse range of artists including Fatboy Slim, Kelis, KRS One, Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Bassnectar, and Reggae legend Junior Delgado.

2008 saw the release of “Creator”, his crossover hit collaboration with MIA producer Switch and NYC hipster Santogold, and the ground breaking FABRICLIVE 42 mix CD, which was picked as DJ Magazine’s compilation of the month.

He is one of Burning Man festival’s most loved DJs, where he brings his signature mix of drumstep, glitch-hop, dubstep, and all things bass-heavy every year.

Early 2011 saw the release of “Dread at the Controls” on California’s cutting edge bass music label, Muti Music, which launched the 17-city Monsters of Bass tour with Marty Party and Opiuo. In December, FreQ’s ‘Low FreQuency Pureland EP’ dropped, and was selected by DJ Mag as the MoneyShot release for December, receiving a 10 out of 10 rating.

With the cutting-edge re-design of his website, launch of his new label, FreQ Nasty Recordings, and upcoming studio collaborations with UK’s Si Begg and Virus Syndicate, California’s Bassnectar, and Canada’s Knight Riderz, FreQ is making a powerful entry into 2012

In spring we’ll see the release of the “Bon Merde” EP on New York’s High Chai Recordings with remixes by FS, Liquid Stranger, Knight Riderz, and B.R.E.E.D., and FreQ’s “Dread at the Controlz” remix EP on Muti Music – featuring Culprate, LowRiderz, Greg Reve, and Sugarpill, all leading up to a summer festival season including appearances at Glade Festival and Secret Garden Party in the UK, and Symbiosis in the US.

www.freqnasty.com
www.facebook.com/DjFreQNasty

FreQ’s latest side projects to tour the festival scene are the Dub Kirtan All Stars, a live 10 piece band of singers and musicians led by the beats and bass of FreQ Nasty and David Starfire, and The Yoga of Bass, a series of talks given with yoga teacher Claire Thompson, both of which seek to open up the Yoga tradition to underground dance music club audiences.

www.freqnasty.com/dub-kirtan-all-stars
www.freqnasty.com/yoga-of-bass

In more detail:

HISTORY

Producer, breakbeat innovator, and international Bass Music DJ, FreQ Nasty established himself as one of the UK dance music scene’s pioneers early on by producing many of breakbeat’s defining moments. Not content with rehashing his genre-defining debut album FreQ’s Geeks and Mutilations (1999), he dropped his “Bring Me The Head Of Freq Nasty’ album in 2003 for SKINT records, creating the template for the ‘ragga breaks’ movement and simultaneously kicking off the breakbeat garage scene with signature tracks ‘Goose’ and ‘Amped’ effortlessly traversing genres, earning plaudits from breakbeat and garage DJ’s, as well as house and techno jocks internationally. ‘04 and ‘05 saw FreQ touring the world with his ‘Video Nasty Experience’ live show, an eye-melting DJ/VJ fusion of animation, graphics and live Vjing perpetrated by a hit squad of crack artists including fellow New Zealanders ‘Brother’s Mogg’ (Lord of the Rings/King Kong animators), and ‘Gorrillaz’ artist Jamie Hewlett’s company Zombie Flesh Eaters.

In 2006 FreQ took time out in California to avoid the perennial UK winter and ended up semi relocating to the sunnier climes of Los Angeles. As the Web 2.0 phenomenon exploded in part out of LA, home to Yahoo, Google, Myspace etc, he connected with music oriented tech renegades from Yahoo and Shopzilla and a cell of underground code junkies out of San Francisco and spent a good portion of his down time creating www.Giveback.net, a website dedicated to enabling artists to use their musical clout to help make the world a better place. It launched in early ‘08 and he has since donated music for several campaigns exclusive to the Giveback site supporting freedom for the Tibetan people (with Bassnectar), an irrigation system for a village in Ethiopia (with Damien Marley), and a music studio for kids in an economically deprived area of San Francisco (with Michael Franti).

2007 found FreQ back in the studio working on prototypes for fresh new sounds that would take him in a new and exciting direction. In collaborating with MIA producer Switch they re-invented the idea of what dance music could be with the uncategorizable 2008 crossover hit ‘Creator’ featuring the vocals of the now ubiquitous Santogold, launching her career as an artist in the process.

The latest long-playing instalment of FreQ flavour dropped in the form of the FABRICLIVE 42 mix CD for legendary UK super club Fabric. Fabric described it as “Bridging the gaps between the most current sounds in the UK’s bass culture, FreQ rumbles with underground thunder in a staggering showcase of some of the rawest bass led beats around”. Evading the pitfalls of a genre controlled mix yet at the same time avoiding the stop-start feel of a mash-up mix, on FabricLive42 he imaginatively arranges a tightly connected blend of FreQy tracks including his hit with Switch and Santogold ‘Creator’. Along with other rave reviews, it was picked as DJ Magazine’s compilation of the month.

facebook.com/DjFreQNasty
To learn about FreQ Nasty’s Giveback project visit: Giveback.net
To learn about FreQ Nasty’s “Yoga of Bass” workshops, visit: FreQNasty.com/yoga-of-bass