Temisan Godwin Adoki
Well, the project, and mainly my beginnings as a solo artist actually began in 1997 when I was just 13 years old. I’ve always been into music and active in music from a young age. I grew up playing the piano when I was in grade school, then moved from that to playing the flute, then the guitar, then around 1995/1996 or so I was put onto electronic music…mainly house and techno. This was around the time the movie “Hackers” came out which was one of my proper introductions to that sound that was gaining some sort of mainstream traction around then.
The first time I was introduced to house was back in 1990 though with the song “Spin That Wheel” by Hi Tek 3 and Ya Kid K that appeared in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action film. My dad actually bought me the soundtrack on cassette and I still have it. I would listen to that song and dance until I couldn’t anymore. But going back to 1997, this was when I was getting into electronic music heavily. If it wasn’t for the video game “Wipeout 2097” that was released on the original playstation and MTV’s “Amp”, I probably wouldn’t be here today in 2015 as a musician/producer.
From those I discovered The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Underworld, Keoki, Josh Wink, Two Lone Swordsmen, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Photek, Goldie, Squarepusher…and from there people like Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Richie Hawtin (plastikman) and a slew of other talented DJs and Producers who I still hold as major influences in my work to this day. This was around the time of the second wave of the rave era too. Being a teen in the mid to late 90s I had a bit of exposure to that whole rave subculture from skateboarding, hip-hop, and generally hanging around those circles. And eventually I started going to raves and house parties soon afterwards. So after listening to those artists and buying their CD’s I attempted to make my own music. The first attempts at it were kind of crude cause I really didn’t have an idea of how those producers were making those tracks and creating those sounds. So, as I was making my first tracks I was just learning how to do it through trial and error. I would take my Dad’s ambient music cassettes (which contained music from Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, etc) and dub sounds to one cassette (mainly synth patches) and take drum loops from a jungle track from a cd to that same cassette and do my best to try to sequence them to create a song. I then stepped up from doing that to learning how to make music on the computer.
The first track I made was on my parents’ Compaq presario 540 desktop using Sound Recorder. I would take stock sounds like the sound of helicopter blades whirring and slow it down by 200% and attempt to use that as a drum pattern and overlayed it with other stock sounds to create melodies by reversing them so that it wouldn’t be heard as a recognizable desktop sound. After it was all said and done I recorded it onto tape. This is where it began really. I took a 5 year break to focus on school from producing and just took to DJing. That began after seeing DJ Spooky live opening up for a Fergie-less Black Eyed Peas on the Levi’s Sno Core tour back in 1999. After that, I was hooked. I bought a copy of his “Haunted Beats Vol. 1” 12” at the merch table, asked my mother for a Radio Shack DJ mixer. and used that and my parents turntables to start learning how to mix. Eventually after working my first real job at Burger King I used the money I made to invest in real turntables, a mixer, and records.
I started out playing UK Hard House records and Tribal house records, with a little bit of Disco House in between and some Electroclash. I would go to Hypervinyl (RIP) in Oakland on Forbes Avenue to buy records and Futuresounds (RIP) in Squirrel Hill. This was in 2002 when that was big along with Trance. When I started college in the fall of that year in Marietta, Ohio, I was gifted a new computer (a Sony Vaio Desktop) that had a copy of screenblast Acid Pro and I used that program to create my first tracks. In my first semester I made 4 cds worth of original material. Those were my first real albums. But since there was really no way at the time to get that out there (other than sharing it on Kazaa hoping some random would download my tracks) I sent demos out to labels. I sent demos out to Warp Records, Skam, and Schematic around that time cause this is when Cd-R’s and cd burners were more available to the public. I didn’t hear anything back from them so those albums pretty much were played by me for me and friends. From there I started doing shows. The first show I ever did was at an art gallery exhibition at my college in the spring of 2003. Then I started doing shows in my hometown of Pittsburgh at Club Cafe and The Rex Theatre opening up for Vampire Nation and former XTC drummer Terry Chambers.
After leaving Ohio in 2004 and moving back to Pittsburgh I just ended up producing non-stop on a yearly basis. My friends at the time were also making tracks, but more on the hip-hop side of things. I worked with different styles from experimental electronic, noise, ambient, and glitchy styled music cause I was using Ableton (I was using ableton when it first came out) and getting into live sequencing using computers. This is where the Composite project came from in 2004 and the Sect project in 2006. After 2006 I took a break from producing. and got back into it in 2008 and I’ve been at it ever since.
I started doing club DJing and did radio shows for WPTS 92.1 and WRCT 88.3. These were shows that was pretty much me mixing on the tables for 2 hours with no breaks other than for commercials in between sets.. I’d play everything from IDM, to Miami Bass, Juke, Jit, Techno, Minimal, Progressive, Baltimore Club music, Dancehall reggae, soca, kuduro, to deep house and downtempo hip-hop. Pretty much everything. I also ended up opening up for some acts during my time playing at the Shadow Lounge & AVA (both RIP) in East Liberty Pittsburgh between 2007-2010. It was during my time at the Shadow that I managed to meet a then unknown local rapper by the name of Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller before the fame.
But to “Hidden History” it’s basically the sum whole of the past 18 years I’ve been making music. And the title “Hidden History” itself basically alludes to my history as a producer and a DJ, quietly making tracks just cause that’s a part of my own history period. The most known unknown.
Well, the project, and mainly my beginnings as a solo artist actually began in 1997 when I was just 13 years old. I’ve always been into music and active in music from a young age. I grew up playing the piano when I was in grade school, then moved from that to playing the flute, then the guitar, then around 1995/1996 or so I was put onto electronic music…mainly house and techno. This was around the time the movie “Hackers” came out which was one of my proper introductions to that sound that was gaining some sort of mainstream traction around then.
The first time I was introduced to house was back in 1990 though with the song “Spin That Wheel” by Hi Tek 3 and Ya Kid K that appeared in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action film. My dad actually bought me the soundtrack on cassette and I still have it. I would listen to that song and dance until I couldn’t anymore. But going back to 1997, this was when I was getting into electronic music heavily. If it wasn’t for the video game “Wipeout 2097” that was released on the original playstation and MTV’s “Amp”, I probably wouldn’t be here today in 2015 as a musician/producer.
From those I discovered The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Underworld, Keoki, Josh Wink, Two Lone Swordsmen, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Photek, Goldie, Squarepusher…and from there people like Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Richie Hawtin (plastikman) and a slew of other talented DJs and Producers who I still hold as major influences in my work to this day. This was around the time of the second wave of the rave era too. Being a teen in the mid to late 90s I had a bit of exposure to that whole rave subculture from skateboarding, hip-hop, and generally hanging around those circles. And eventually I started going to raves and house parties soon afterwards. So after listening to those artists and buying their CD’s I attempted to make my own music. The first attempts at it were kind of crude cause I really didn’t have an idea of how those producers were making those tracks and creating those sounds. So, as I was making my first tracks I was just learning how to do it through trial and error. I would take my Dad’s ambient music cassettes (which contained music from Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, etc) and dub sounds to one cassette (mainly synth patches) and take drum loops from a jungle track from a cd to that same cassette and do my best to try to sequence them to create a song. I then stepped up from doing that to learning how to make music on the computer.
The first track I made was on my parents’ Compaq presario 540 desktop using Sound Recorder. I would take stock sounds like the sound of helicopter blades whirring and slow it down by 200% and attempt to use that as a drum pattern and overlayed it with other stock sounds to create melodies by reversing them so that it wouldn’t be heard as a recognizable desktop sound. After it was all said and done I recorded it onto tape. This is where it began really. I took a 5 year break to focus on school from producing and just took to DJing. That began after seeing DJ Spooky live opening up for a Fergie-less Black Eyed Peas on the Levi’s Sno Core tour back in 1999. After that, I was hooked. I bought a copy of his “Haunted Beats Vol. 1” 12” at the merch table, asked my mother for a Radio Shack DJ mixer. and used that and my parents turntables to start learning how to mix. Eventually after working my first real job at Burger King I used the money I made to invest in real turntables, a mixer, and records.
I started out playing UK Hard House records and Tribal house records, with a little bit of Disco House in between and some Electroclash. I would go to Hypervinyl (RIP) in Oakland on Forbes Avenue to buy records and Futuresounds (RIP) in Squirrel Hill. This was in 2002 when that was big along with Trance. When I started college in the fall of that year in Marietta, Ohio, I was gifted a new computer (a Sony Vaio Desktop) that had a copy of screenblast Acid Pro and I used that program to create my first tracks. In my first semester I made 4 cds worth of original material. Those were my first real albums. But since there was really no way at the time to get that out there (other than sharing it on Kazaa hoping some random would download my tracks) I sent demos out to labels. I sent demos out to Warp Records, Skam, and Schematic around that time cause this is when Cd-R’s and cd burners were more available to the public. I didn’t hear anything back from them so those albums pretty much were played by me for me and friends. From there I started doing shows. The first show I ever did was at an art gallery exhibition at my college in the spring of 2003. Then I started doing shows in my hometown of Pittsburgh at Club Cafe and The Rex Theatre opening up for Vampire Nation and former XTC drummer Terry Chambers.
After leaving Ohio in 2004 and moving back to Pittsburgh I just ended up producing non-stop on a yearly basis. My friends at the time were also making tracks, but more on the hip-hop side of things. I worked with different styles from experimental electronic, noise, ambient, and glitchy styled music cause I was using Ableton (I was using ableton when it first came out) and getting into live sequencing using computers. This is where the Composite project came from in 2004 and the Sect project in 2006. After 2006 I took a break from producing. and got back into it in 2008 and I’ve been at it ever since.
I started doing club DJing and did radio shows for WPTS 92.1 and WRCT 88.3. These were shows that was pretty much me mixing on the tables for 2 hours with no breaks other than for commercials in between sets.. I’d play everything from IDM, to Miami Bass, Juke, Jit, Techno, Minimal, Progressive, Baltimore Club music, Dancehall reggae, soca, kuduro, to deep house and downtempo hip-hop. Pretty much everything. I also ended up opening up for some acts during my time playing at the Shadow Lounge & AVA (both RIP) in East Liberty Pittsburgh between 2007-2010. It was during my time at the Shadow that I managed to meet a then unknown local rapper by the name of Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller before the fame.
But to “Hidden History” it’s basically the sum whole of the past 18 years I’ve been making music. And the title “Hidden History” itself basically alludes to my history as a producer and a DJ, quietly making tracks just cause that’s a part of my own history period. The most known unknown.
