Who da fuq
is Alphajay?

Just press pause BEFORE the DJ speaks!

"For anyone that remembers the time, these Top 40 bootlegs were great, until the DJ started introducing the next track and the recording cut short. The "voiceover" would always be met with a huge sigh! I distinctly remember sitting for hours, tweaking and playing with a twin cassette stereo (yes we'd progressed to twin cassettes at this point) and working out a way to play the intro of one track over the top of the outro of another - trying to create a seamless "mix" without the sound of the DJ."

Soon enough, Compact Discs (CDs) were introduced and with it, saw the beginning of Alphajay's own CD-based music collection. "CD single were great, especially when combined with the latest copy of NOW! That's What I Call Music. I think my first was #20." - we're up to 113 at the of writing! "I also think that CDs were the strongest time for music artists and labels alike - but more on this in a series of articles I'm considering writing".

Don't tune a left-handed guitar, right-handed!

Beyond his own music collection, Alphajay has ALWAYS owned a keyboard and had guitar lessons from a young age. "Nothing exciting here. I once played an acoustic version of Layla by Derek & The Dominos on a Radio Lollipop stage in a town centre at around 8 years old - I'm glad that was a public and very open space, the guy who got me on stage is now locked up for child sex offences!

I used to transfer what I'd learnt on guitar across to keyboard, but I was always only interested in the riffs, melodies or playing the vocal elements so you could recognise the song. Maybe why I like mash-ups today?"

"I've never been a 'band' kinda guy, and I'm no musician in that sense - total admiration for those that play instruments to a high standard!"

Like a Shooting Star...

It was this love of melodies that the cheesy pianos and vocals of the late 90's rave scene heavily appealed.  Happy Hardcore music, mix tape collections (back to cassettes again) and events such as Dreamscape and Helter Skelter. Inspired by his friend's older brother who owned a set of KAM turntables, and listening to Happy Hardcore DJ's Sy, Vibes and Hixxy, Alphajay tried his hand at spinning records. However, without his own vinyl collection or turntables at home, practice time was limited and still being in school, budget was slim to none and you could only get so far with two single CD players and a small 2-channel mixer. "I actually see this early start as crucial. Little did I know at the time, but I was refining my harmonic mixing, picking tracks of the same key and tuning my ears for beat-matching and track selection."

Jumping behind the decks for the first time, Alphajay became at one with CD mixing at its inception, and even had an article printed in DJ Mag charting the rise of the new digital format - and all before the first Pioneer CDJ deck was in production ("Remember those Denon twin CD players or KAM if you were on a budget!").

Blur. Oasis. They were late 90's too weren't they?

We tried fleshing these bits out, but the rest of the 90's are apparently for another time or are pretty much a blur. Starting and running a couple of mobile disco businesses (one of which is still running to this day), navigating between raves in fields, building car stereo systems with as many speakers as possible, the legendary Pawlett Manor in Somerset and everything that went with it.

Back once again for the Renegade Master!

Leaving school and going on to study Music Technology, Alphajay began producing Happy Hardcore and Jungle tracks before a hiatus as normal 'life' ensued. A marriage. A divorce. 1.5 kids and we're suddenly we've fast forward 20 years! An invitation from work colleagues ("we all need a 'normal' job don't we?") to a weekend away sparked his interest in getting behind the decks once again and he soon found himself with a brand new Pioneer DDJ-200. ("Yes, the little portable one - I had those fields in mind still!").

With a little time and focus courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in 2020, not only did he return to the decks, but he also produced two remixes by the end of the year and has now fully stepped back into the studio working on 3 remixes for an awesome local Reggae band and his first 'house' track, "Dance for the DJ" is being released through G-Mafia Records on 29th September 2023!