Tommytriggs - Biography
It all started back in the 70's when growing up fed on a diet of funk by his parents,
Tommy's style began to be forged. The broadning of his horizons came with the mid 80's.
At that time New York was bursting with musical invention & hip-hop was the freshest street
sound around, & Tommy wanted to be a part of it, quite appropriately the DJ part caught his
attention the most. After learning the basics the stage was set, & the next few years spent
improving skills, getting gigs & following musical trends, which by now were turning to
the growing trend in Chicargo style house, & on to acid house.
As acid house took it's grip & the masses were all meeting in M25 service station car
parks waiting for a lead car to take them to this amazing new concept in partying, never
seen before in England. Tommy & a few friends who were all having difficulties with housing
problems, (especially after being spotted on the evening news by their parents dancing at one of these so called, "drug parties"). Started squatting empty houses,industrial units or plots of land. And inevitablely having their own parties, which soon spiraled in to something much bigger.
After a couple of years roughing it, & the governments drive to stop free unlicenced
parties, Tommy decided it was time to move back into society & take his skill more
professionally. He landed a job in the local independant record shop & joined forces with a
P.A. engineer who had been providing extra p.a. at Trade, Turnmills. It was the start of a
long a sucessful working relationship for the pair. Playing anywhere they could & throwing
their own parties, combined with access to the latest releases, they soon became recognised in the local & surrounding towns.
Whilst working at The Record Shack, Djing & learning production, Tommy began to notice
trends falling in hardcore and moving more towards a growing scene in uplifting house. So he
put together a set of house & got a regular night at the local club, which soon taught him
Djing is all about being able to read people and then being able to tap into human desire
and take it to a higher level. Tommy has always been noticed for being outstanding at this.
As a result of which combined with his record shop contacts led to even more work playing
the club circuit around Hertfordshire, & playing a pirate radio station named Juicy fm.
Around the mid 90's the owner of The Record Shack decided to sell the bussiness leaving
Tommy without a daytime occupation, & after a short period he realised the future looked
narrow without the shops strength behind him. What he needed was a new direction which he found in production, so it wasn't long before he'd signed up on an audio engineering course at Hatfield university. It was there he teamed up with a fellow student & DJ, together they started throwing parties in the student bar Hutton hall. Then with the other campus's soon on their diary things started moving again. Then Tommy was asked if he wanted to manage a pirate station named Vision fm. Times were busy again.
After completing their education his fellow student found a position at the label Bug
records, helping produce a known garage act, who having just split with their
previous engineer needed somebody. This also led to more pirate radio, Live fm. They also
helped produce adverts for the nights Animal House, Numb Nums, etc, to be played on London's Kiss fm. Now having more than just an interest in studio, the natural progression was for Tommy to start building his own studio. With some of the contacts he'd made from Djing & production, & with money saved from a job he'd got booking acts for Rank lesiure, combined with a friend emigrating & giving Tommy his old job working for synthesizer giant Korg. It wasn't long before a studio was constructed, & work progressed. Unfortunately this led to Tommys DJ career taking the back burner as he believed just one hit from the studio would more than revive it. After a couple of years of studio life and the lack of club life, Tommy felt unhappy with his direction & decided to arrange a DJ tour out of the norm.
In early 2003 through friends & contacts, Tommy arranged a tour to Australia, going first
to Sydney & then Melbourne. Which led to him staying there for a while doing record
production, club touring & a legal radio show on Melbourne's Street fm. After heading back
& fourth from England a few times, he'd also been invited through south east Asia in 2004-2005 by friends living in Thailand & Singapore, where he resided for a while. With contacts this led to him spending some time in Thailand's southern islands where he ended up Djing at Solo bar in Koh Samui & playing the Full moon parties at Big Boom bar in Koh Pha Ngan & Mad Flemmings in Singapore's Boat Quay. With contacts met in Singapore this led Tommy to The Philippines in 2006, where again though contacts he played his funky stuff at ClubHouse Paraw in Boracay. Then after relocating to Cagayan De Oro in 2007-2009, working at local clubs & bars Pulse, Ghana, Club 11/50, Club Tilt & helping organise events with local radio stations Love radio, Easyrock, Yes FM & Wild FM. Also helping at Cagayan De Oro talent centre events.
After another two month tour in Sydney & Melbourne, then back to England to construct another studio in 2009, this also led to advisory sessions with helping form a new act. Late 09 & back in the Philippines Tommy decided to use an old stratergy in a modern context & started making his own remixes of native hits then using them during his DJ sets with much amusement & good responce.
At the present evolution of his style is best described as "70's electro funk" with a presence of todays house, separating him from his contemporaries. Tommy creates and plays music that gives emotion a chance to flow. It is this universal appeal that he has tapped into that is creating his ever growing fanbase in a good few countries. So much can be said about one of the most promising DJs around, & Tommytriggs has excelled as a producer, artist, remixer, broardcaster/DJ, and dance ambassador. However, Tommy’s core sentiments are not as a producer, to be shut away in some stealthy studio, but as a performing DJ very willing to be seen, and with a deep desire to have contact with his audience, be it 50 people or 5 thousand...
