I've been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember. I got my first little CASIO keyboard for Christmas when I was about 10 years old. I have great memories of recording my own songs into my computer using the ancient "Sound Recorder" application that came with Windows. I found myself doing this sort of thing for hours! Eventually, my closest childhood friend, Mike Lascu, would introduce me to the computer programs that caused my fascination with making music to expand into a full blown obsession . It was during those priceless adolescent years that I fell in love with using computers to make music.
I first began making music under the AUDICID alias sometime between the ages of 13 and 15. The name came from a hastily concocted mixture of the words "audio" and "acid" (based on the music program I had been using from Sony called ACID). I bounced all over the musical spectrums, experimenting and trying to locate my own sound in the sea of influences that I had around me at the time. I was listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, and Tool. Then, around the age of 16, I was exposed to a style of music that I came to call my own: DANCE.
I still vividly remember my friend Brian Neves coming over to my house after school with a CD that our DJ friend, Steve Pietraczenko, had burnt for him. It was an MP3 disk that was stacked with 60+ songs from artists like Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, Dumonde, and Cosmic Gate. The epic synths, the chugging bass-lines, and the violent, ever-dominant KICKDRUM...I was hooked.
With these new influences flooding my ears, I began to make my first dance tracks. I started off with Ferry Corsten inspired trance. Then I wandered over to creating some Cosmic Gate fueled HARD trance. Soon enough, I was knee deep in making Donkey Roller inspired Hardstyle, the genre which I stuck with for several years.
But eventually, I would hear a track that set me off onto the course that I still find myself on today. I'm sure every producer can pin-point those records that made them say to themselves, "I want THAT sound!"
It was around 2007 when Dirty South's remix of the Cicada track called "The things you say" found it's way to my ears, and it made me fall in love with the sound of Electro House. It was vocal, melodic, and somehow still aggressive and gritty at the same time...Perfecto!
Now, up until this point, I had never formally released my own material. I simply did not think that I was good enough. But thanks to the encouragement of my friends, I sent out some demo's to a few labels on Myspace in 2009. To my surprise, I heard back from a label the very next day! I was blown away. I released my first EP with Peak Hour Music called "Listen Up", featuring the single that would later be featured on 2 different compilations, "Peak Hour Anthems 2010" as well as Deeplife Record's "The Future Sound of Worship Volume 1."
Since then, I've poured a lot of time into collaborations with friends and other artists under my real name, Chris Howland. I produced some pop records with an artist named Nick Matev, one of which had a music video made, receiving over 35,000 views. I did a hilarious comedy-rap project with some close friends, which locally had all of our friends cracking up and singing along. Most recently, I teamed up with some producers from New York to focus on the tech-side of house, which actually resulted in a few songs being signed to New York's infamous Nervous Records, along with long standing New York house label, KULT. One of our tracks called "Feelings" even ended up receiving support from Fedde Le Grand!
However, during this time of collaboration, there was a lull in my activity under the AUDICID alias. I found myself itching to get back to that aggressive electro sound. With a renewed focus on solo-projects, 2012 is looking like it's going to be spent rekindling the passion for energetic, gritty, melodic, vocal-laden house tunes...along with some experimental surprises that might have you asking yourself, "where the heck did that come from?"
Keep your ears peeled for new releases on Christian Dance Music labels like Deeplife, MK837, and Royalty Recordings. You've been warned!
I've been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember. I got my first little CASIO keyboard for Christmas when I was about 10 years old. I have great memories of recording my own songs into my computer using the ancient "Sound Recorder" application that came with Windows. I found myself doing this sort of thing for hours! Eventually, my closest childhood friend, Mike Lascu, would introduce me to the computer programs that caused my fascination with making music to expand into a full blown obsession . It was during those priceless adolescent years that I fell in love with using computers to make music.
I first began making music under the AUDICID alias sometime between the ages of 13 and 15. The name came from a hastily concocted mixture of the words "audio" and "acid" (based on the music program I had been using from Sony called ACID). I bounced all over the musical spectrums, experimenting and trying to locate my own sound in the sea of influences that I had around me at the time. I was listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, and Tool. Then, around the age of 16, I was exposed to a style of music that I came to call my own: DANCE.
I still vividly remember my friend Brian Neves coming over to my house after school with a CD that our DJ friend, Steve Pietraczenko, had burnt for him. It was an MP3 disk that was stacked with 60+ songs from artists like Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, Dumonde, and Cosmic Gate. The epic synths, the chugging bass-lines, and the violent, ever-dominant KICKDRUM...I was hooked.
With these new influences flooding my ears, I began to make my first dance tracks. I started off with Ferry Corsten inspired trance. Then I wandered over to creating some Cosmic Gate fueled HARD trance. Soon enough, I was knee deep in making Donkey Roller inspired Hardstyle, the genre which I stuck with for several years.
But eventually, I would hear a track that set me off onto the course that I still find myself on today. I'm sure every producer can pin-point those records that made them say to themselves, "I want THAT sound!"
It was around 2007 when Dirty South's remix of the Cicada track called "The things you say" found it's way to my ears, and it made me fall in love with the sound of Electro House. It was vocal, melodic, and somehow still aggressive and gritty at the same time...Perfecto!
Now, up until this point, I had never formally released my own material. I simply did not think that I was good enough. But thanks to the encouragement of my friends, I sent out some demo's to a few labels on Myspace in 2009. To my surprise, I heard back from a label the very next day! I was blown away. I released my first EP with Peak Hour Music called "Listen Up", featuring the single that would later be featured on 2 different compilations, "Peak Hour Anthems 2010" as well as Deeplife Record's "The Future Sound of Worship Volume 1."
Since then, I've poured a lot of time into collaborations with friends and other artists under my real name, Chris Howland. I produced some pop records with an artist named Nick Matev, one of which had a music video made, receiving over 35,000 views. I did a hilarious comedy-rap project with some close friends, which locally had all of our friends cracking up and singing along. Most recently, I teamed up with some producers from New York to focus on the tech-side of house, which actually resulted in a few songs being signed to New York's infamous Nervous Records, along with long standing New York house label, KULT. One of our tracks called "Feelings" even ended up receiving support from Fedde Le Grand!
However, during this time of collaboration, there was a lull in my activity under the AUDICID alias. I found myself itching to get back to that aggressive electro sound. With a renewed focus on solo-projects, 2012 is looking like it's going to be spent rekindling the passion for energetic, gritty, melodic, vocal-laden house tunes...along with some experimental surprises that might have you asking yourself, "where the heck did that come from?"
Keep your ears peeled for new releases on Christian Dance Music labels like Deeplife, MK837, and Royalty Recordings. You've been warned!