Biography
Born in northern Michigan in 1986, Chris has been surrounded by music all of his life. "I was always the one that was finding a rhythm in the strangest sounds - I remember tapping a drum beat to the sound of a radiator clunking when I was in middle school." Having played the piano for years by the age of 12, music was a part of his blood. In order to express himself artistically, he started dance. He went on to attend the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy for dance and piano in high school, prodiving even more experience in the arts.
He then started making music with his computer. Not having the means to actually produce original music, he took the songs he had and loved and put them up against each other. "I did a whole bunch of mash-ups - I always took acapellas and put them over random instrumentals," he said, "something interesting always popped up." He started using programs such as Ableton Live, then in its most primitive form, to play around with songs and mix them together.
After graduating from high school, he moved near Detroit, studying Digital Media & Film at Eastern Michigan University. He found the music scene there inspiring and almost instantly wanted to get involved. "I saw Gabriel & Dresden at Club Bleu in Detroit - that was my first time seeing a live DJ," he recalls, "I told myself at that moment that I absolutely had to start doing production and live DJing." He frequented online forums (such as the popular TranceAddict.com) to gain some knowledge and communicate with others that shared his interests.
He started compteting in online and local remix contests in order to get some experience in production. "I figured the only way to learn was to actually do it," he said. After learning a bit more about how the EDM scene worked, he then started producing his own original tracks and shopped them around to his favorite labels. Some small labels showed interest, but the one that stuck out the most was TranceTribe Recordings. "I had heard of them before - I was really honored" he said.
"When I make music, I don't try to fit it into a particular genre," Chris says, "and 'Need You Today,' the first song I got released, is a great example of this. It started out as a progressive house track, but by the end it turned out to appeal to the trancers a bit more." Retrobyte's second single, "Going Down," has been slowly building up in buzz since 2006's Winter Music Conference.
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