|
|
|
|
ROEG DU CASQ is the name behind the Birmingham Based DJ / Producer Darren
Farr. I was born in Birmingham in 1972 and was very much into music from an
early age. I grew up on musically everything, having an older sister in the
house there was always music being played on regular basis.
My influences in the early eighties were Hip Hop and Reggae. I used to listen
to Hip hop on the radio like most inner-city kids at that time and record
shows, take tapes to school, it was a cool time to be growing up. In the late
eighties a couple of my of my mates had decks and I would go around their
house to have a mix and a scratch and generally just learn how to use turntables.
Hip Hop at this point had become very influential to me.
It wasn't until 1998 that I finally decided to buy decks and bought two 1210's
and a Vestax o5pro mixer. I then started to buy records, all the classic tunes
over the years I had watched my friends buy. After about a year I got a few
DJ slots around Birmingham, playing in alot of the bars in and around the
city centre, mostly playing the warm up set before the main acts with other
DJ's I knew at he time such has Kytel and Jodo from the Subterraneans. This
was really good for the experience and making links with other DJ's Twelve
months on and I started to think about production and maybe making my own
music, so I bought a PC and some software and started chopping up beats and
samples. At first I used to make fairly basic instrumental tracks to practise
scratching over, and after a while progressed to more complex arrangments.
In September 2000 I had a track signed to LTJ Bukems label Cookin Records,
the track was called 'Semorah's Theme' I was really excited that Bukem took
an interest in my music , and this to me was a green light to keep doing what
i was doing. In March 2004 I released my own six track EP on a label I set
up with DJ Kytel called 'Fifth Rise Recordings'. We basically set up the label
to put out good soul music, whether or not it be Drum and Bass or Hip Hop,
because there is so many producers around us with lots of good material that
isn't being heard, so we thought we would try and create our own outlet.
Our first release was a six track EP by myself, which contains six Hip Hop
/ Downbeat Instrumental breaks. The feedback of the release as been really
positive and It has had some really good reviews. With numerous collaborations
in the pipeline from producers to MC's this is only the beginning........