Dj Escape

Escape has been actively involved in music since the early days of the British underground music scene and can trace his influences right back to the summer of love days around 1988. Inspired by his older brothers and early cassette tapes of Mickey Finn and Top Bizz. He began experimenting with the hip hop, techno and acid house tunes that defined the era. The explosion of hardcore and the early UK rave scene coincided with Escape starting secondary school and he took it upon himself to convert his group of friends at the time with highly sought-after tapes from early pirate stations and legendary live events. On one of his increasingly frequent visits to Pure records, he was dubbed ‘Younga Zone’ by MC Lenni as a nod to his big brother T-Zone who worked behind the counter. This name stuck with him throughout his early DJing days - although at this stage most of his mixing was restricted to after school sessions with his mates rather than major raves or club nights. Things began to change when, escape crossed paths with another artist who would go on to make huge waves in the Midlands scene, DJ Hazard.
At this stage, both were young, broke DJs, hungry for success and doing everything they possibly could to make a name for themselves. Bookings were snapped up regardless of size or setup and they were soon playing to crowds of between 5 and 100 people every week – often for little more than the love of the tunes and a taxi fare home. Before long, Escape was to join Hazard on his weekly radio show on Unity FM. Although the show was well received and opened plenty of doors for the duo, it was difficult being the only drum & bass DJs on an otherwise ragga dominated station and this led to Escape looking for other pirates where his musical policy and jungle selection would be more readily accepted.
 With Kool FM Midlands rapidly establishing itself as the leading jungle pirate in the area and rivalling its London counterpart in terms of the exposure it could provide to up and coming DJs it was clear to Escape that this was where he needed to be. Dogged persistence and a refusal to take no for an answer led to a very large phone bill and no less than five separate demos being sent to Kool. Eventually his perseverance paid off with the reward of a Saturday morning slot that a lot of local DJs would have given their right arm for.

Although up to this point, he was still going by the name of Younga Zone, the decision to rebrand himself Dj Escape was made after care

As published on Resident Advisor

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Booking

Muzikhertz@gmail.com

As published on Resident Advisor