ArtistInfo

Colin Russell

g, *1973 AU
Musician of Dance
A.k.a. Colin Russell (DJ Freestyle) DJ Freestyle (2) Downunder NoTanLines

DJ Freestyle (Colin Russell) born 1973 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. An early love of music saw him take up guitar in 1989, but quickly put that down a year or two later, in favour of a set of Technics 1200's and a mixer. Loving many styles of music, but dance music in particular (R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Disco, Boogie, House, Garage) Colin started djing professionally at clubs and raves after winning his first DJ Competition. Colin always wanted to be able to mix and scratch like the best in the world. After much practice and winning several dj competitions in his home state, he began learning about music production & engineering at K.Rasta Studio's. This gave Colin the opportunity to work with some talented people and amazing equipment. After a great intake of knowledge from the K.Rasta studio - http://krastastudio.com/home/ Colin set up his own home studio "Funkshun Produkshuns" in January of 1999. After much practice in the art of music production / engineering, Freestyle started getting noticed worldwide. He then signed releases to many labels (mostly U.S. House labels, but some European also). Labels such as Guesthouse, Tango, OM, Grab Recordings, Shifted Music, Frik N Frak, Kolour Recordings, Control, Phuturesole, Briquerouge, Icon, Random Soul Recordings, Safe In Sound Music etc After landing a track on Mark Farina's "Live at Om" mix cd (a remix for Roy Davis Jr) his popularity was now enough to tour internationally. DJ Freestyle played gigs in Poland, the UK, Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovakia, Canada and the United States of America. In doing so though, it was quite difficult for him as a medical condition was in full swing by this stage. He played as a resident in many venues in Australia, gigging in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and up and down both north and south coastlines (Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Noosa etc). After 20 years of solid djing, his medical condition was starting to get the better of him and he had achieved all he wanted to on a pair of turntables thus far, going one on one scratching with world DMC champion A-Trak was a great experience. Within that time, he signed numerous tracks to more labels and was remixing different artists constantly. In 2010, Colin and his wife moved from Queensland to the state of Victoria where he and brother Kay Jay (Soul Deep Collective) run a label called "Integrity Recordings" - http://www.integrityrecordings.com/ Australia's first proper house music label (est 2006). DJ Freestyle was pretty much forced to give up djing as his condition would not allow him to stand longer than 10-15 minutes due to intense, crippling pain. Looking for a positive from that negative, Colin began Mastering tracks for many house labels and producers after years of prior experience in the artform. Colin is a regular Mastering Engineer for established labels such as "Moulton Studio's" , "Seasons Recordings", "Random Soul Recordings", "Integrity Recordings", "Bobbin Head" "Refuge" etc and has done work on many other labels with an established client list of the absolute best house producers in the business. Country Victoria is now home for DJ Freestyle where he continues to produce music at his own pace, run a label and fit mastering jobs in (doing as much as he can handle with his medical condition)

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