Straight From The Heart

Mixed tapes had always been a creative outlet for myself growing up. Turntables were the ultimate tool to seamlessly flow from one song to another, helping to create artwork where the songs produced by other artists became my paint.

Learning to play live sets for dancing-starved crowds proved to be another beast all-together. It took months of practice at Russian house parties to feel comfortable playing live. Of course, I had lots of help along the way from experienced mixers - most notably South Africa's Nicholas Clarence and Russia's Andrey Len.

Last summer I met Adrien Dhanraj, a local DJ & promoter who gave me the opportunity to play in some of Calgary's clubs when I was ready. As luck would have it, Adrien was also the organizer of Calgary's annual Dirty Tones DJ Competition. I decided to enter this year back in March and was ecstatic to find out that I had managed to get a slot! Three rounds later, I had made it through to the finals. With each round, I became more and more humbled playing alongside some of Calgary's most talented DJs. A BIG thank you to Adrien and the entire Dirty Tones crew who put together such a fantastic event promoting local talent and electronic music.

Lastly, I want to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who spread the word and came out to support the local DJ scene in Calgary during this event! The album cover shows just how overwhelming the experience was for me to play for so many beautiful people - far beyond words. Special thanks again to Patrick Latter who captured this moment (more of his photography can be found at http://www.hikingphoto.com/ )

This mix is a compilation of the 3 sets I played during this special event.

Track Listing | Artist - Track (Mix)

1) Parov Stelar - Booty Swing
2) Chilly - For Your Love
3) Jey Sharam - Young Blood
4) Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon (Madeon)
5) Ricki Lee - You Wanna Little Of This (Ali Payami)
6) Nervous Kid - Straight From The Heart
7) Stretch Vern - I'm Alive 2010 (Jordy Lishious)
8) Danny Freakazoid & Matt Casell - Long Legs Running 2011
9) Herd & Fitz feat Abigail Bailey - I Just Can't Get Enough
10) Pryda - Mirage
11) Sunfreakz - Counting Down The Days