Dieselboy

The most recognized face and sound in American drum & bass belong to Dieselboy. An icon for American d&b for over a decade, he has become an international symbol of this volatile underground dance music movement. America’s best-selling d&b artist by far, Dieselboy was the first American to be voted into the UK-based Drum & Bass Arena Top 10 DJs 2004 online poll. Early in 2007, Dieselboy tag-teamed with d&b’s best-known superstar Goldie in Russia where they co-headlined a festival attended by over 25,000 junglists, and they shared headliner status again soon after at SXSW 2007 in Austin, Texas.

As a DJ, Dieselboy, born Damian Higgins, was an original pioneer in the early ‘90s spreading d&b in North America, first in Pittsburgh, then from Philadelphia, growing in popularity until he was criss-crossing the continent virtually nonstop. His popular mix-tapes and mix-CDs have been the gateway for countless fans to the high energy, futuristic, science fiction sound of d&b. Dieselboy’s style is characterized by flawless execution, meticulous pulse-quickening programming that not only excels at showcasing individual tracks but also creates an intense and epic cinematic atmosphere.

Based now in Brooklyn, Dieselboy is the most in-demand American d&b DJ on the international club, rave and festival circuits including the United Kingdom (home of d&b), Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North and South Americas. Beyond the scene, Dieselboy, sponsored by DC Shoes, has played rock festivals and X-treme sports exhibitions. Few d&b artists can claim as hardcore a global cult following as Dieselboy’s.

As a producer, Dieselboy was the first d&b artist to chart a single on Billboard’s dance chart with “Invid” in 2000. In 2002, Dieselboy founded HUMAN, the d&b imprint of respected dynamic electronic dance music label System Recordings which launched in 2000, boasting Dieselboy as its first artist, and where he is still its best-selling artist. In 2003, Dieselboy was honored to be asked by highly respected, globally distributed DJ Magazine to create a mix showcasing American d&b entitled DJ World Series: D & B From The United States. In 2006 Dieselboy presented the first HUMAN IMPRINT compilation, a 2XCD set with a mix by producer/DJ crew Evol Intent of Atlanta and a CD of singles called The HUMAN Resource which debuted at #14 on the Billboard electronic album chart only behind non-dance competition such as Gorillaz, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, and a Disney remix CD.

Born in Florida in 1972 and raised in Colorado with his two sisters by a single mom, young Damian Higgins played drums in his school marching band, and his hobbies included break dancing, skateboarding, videogames, reading, films and role-playing games. In his senior year of high school he DJ’ed a few dances fading between CDs, tape cassettes and a turntable. Then as a student at the University of Pittsburgh, Higgins threw house parties where he met two Carnegie Mellon University radio DJs who offered to teach him how to beat-match records at the station. Higgins was soon was playing on their weekly 6 hour-long radio show.

In 1994, on borrowed turntables, Higgins made a mix-tape called The Future Sound of Hardcore and offered it for $5 on rave-related Internet list servs. "Through that, people heard about me and I started getting bookings on the East Coast. It was a very slow process that eventually snowballed into my getting flown various places," which now extend to the six continents with d&b venues. In 1997, Nigel Richards, DJ and owner of 611 Records in Philadelphia, was looking for a roommate, so Higgins moved to Philly, became the d&b buyer for the store, and designed T-shirts and logos for 611. From 1998 to 2004 Dieselboy hosted “Platinum,” a weekly Thursday night event at Philadelphia club Fluid, which gained renown as North America’s premier d&b club night.

In 1998, Dieselboy tied with atmospheric d&b legend LTJ Bukem as “Best Drum & Bass DJ” at the Global DJ Mix Awards, also marking the first time an American had been nominated for the award. In 2000, Dieselboy’s track Invid became the first American track ever played at Goldie’s legendary London club, Metalheadz.

Each of Dieselboy’s albums has raised the bar for the mix-CD art form. He had the distinction of being the first American invited by British d&b label Suburban Base to make a mix cd of a compilation, Drum & Bass Selection USA (1996). Suburban Base had him follow up with 97 Octane (1997), this time allowing him to submit track suggestions, resulting in a more varied selection. In 1998, Nigel Richards gave Dieselboy full artistic control for his next mix-CD, 611 DJ Mix-Series Vol. One (1998), for which he even did the graphics. Always striving to create something different, in 1998 Dieselboy made a mix-tape called Director’s Cut which he had packaged in film cans, his first experiment in presenting a dance mix in a quasi-cinematic framework.

In 1999, on legendary dance music label Moonshine, Dieselboy’s A Soldier's Story was a comment on junglists' (who often called themselves "soldiers") second-class status in the scene, relegated to substandard rooms and sound systems, while house and trance DJs took center stage. It opened with his first original cd “intro” and marked his debut as a producer with Atlantic State, co-produced with Technical Itch (Mark Caro) of Bristol, England. On his next Moonshine mix, System Upgrade (2000), his intro featured a clever sample from the Ghost in the Shell movie. His mix prominently featured emerging American producers Hive and E-Sassin.

Later in 2000, Palm Pictures released Dieselboy’s The 6ixth Session, a cyborg-themed mix described by the Washington Post as “hard-edged hyperdriven dance music,” which marked the beginning of Dieselboy’s VIP remix phase. Also for the first time he bundled a second unmixed CD with original tracks.

For projectHUMAN (2002), Dieselboy presented a mix framed as a movie trailer, hiring movie trailer voice extraordinaire Don LaFontaine for his intro and outro. projectHUMAN was also Dieselboy’s first foray into massive remix commissioning, most of the tracks featuring American producers remixing UK and other international producers, and vice versa.

For his next mix-CD, The Dungeonmaster’s Guide (2004), Dieselboy asked Peter Cullen, well-known for his work as the cartoon voice of the Transformers’ Optimus Prime, to be the voice of the Dungeonmaster who introduces the d&b fantasy and appears throughout the mix to narrate phases of the journey. Again Dieselboy commissioned remixes, this time asking d&b producers from around the world to remix tracks by non-d&b dance music luminaries including Tiesto, Sasha, BT and Josh Wink.

Dieselboy has played metal concerts with Orgy and Disturbed, and was the only d&b artist invited by rock superstar Moby for his Area2 national tour that also included David Bowie, Busta Rhymes, Blue Man Group, Tiesto, and Digweed. Dieselboy has been booked for the second U.S. Virgin Festival at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland in the fall of 2007, where he shares the bill with Smashing Pumpkins, the Police, Beastie Boys, Wu-Tang Clan, Interpol, and Velvet Revolver.

Always seeking innovative ways to build bridges within the d&b community, Dieselboy has toured with other DJs such as Technical Itch & Decoder, DJ Rap, DJ Fresh, Bad Company UK, and Hive, expanding exposure for their respective fans as well as creating interesting bills for promoters.

In 2000 Dieselboy united with two other North American d&b legends, AK1200 (Dave Minner, Orlando, FL) and Irish ex-pat DJ Dara (Darragh Guilfoyle, New York, NY), to create an annual super-tour, the Planet of the Drums. Dieselboy brings his trademark hard edgy pyrotechnics, Dara a mellower dub/reggae flavored vibe, with AK1200’s arsenal tearing up the space between, but when these three forces of nature tag-team, with MC Messinian (James Fiorella, Philadelphia, PA) hyping the crowd, the combined effect is magical mayhem. 2007 marks POTD’s 8th North American tour, making it the longest running annual electronic dance music tour of any sub-genre. The Planet of the Drums proudly claims credit for moving d&b out of the side rooms and onto the main stage.