SwiTcHcaChe aka Calvin, born 1984, has been around music all his life. His Mom has a licentiate in Piano and made music a big part of his life. He studied music at school and did percussion as his instruments. Matriculated in 2002 and then he decided to go to London and see what it was all about and what there was to offer both in the music industry as well as the corporate world. At this point he had just started listening to Psychedelic trance but had been a follower of electronic music since he was 13. During his first year in London he partied and did a lot of networking and tried to learn about the entertainment industry.
After this trip he went home for a holiday and he found that one of his friends had started his own business doing private parties for people. Supplying them with sound, djs, lighting and so on. He had a pair of Gemini turntables and Calvin found himself giving them a spin. He found them easy to adapt to and thoroughly enjoyed having mixes with some of his favorite tunes on vinyl. He went back to London and decided to get himself a pair of turntables. His first decks cost him 100 pounds (Home Mix tt1000) came with mixer as well. He learnt on these and played at a few of his old housemates parties. The only problem was that they weren’t the greatest decks and the platter wobbled which caused other djs that played on them to break the needles. To put a set of decent needles on the tables was going to cost him quite a bit so he decided to use his savings to get another pair of turntables.
The next move he made was a very influential move in his career. He went and got the Technics MK5s and a Pioneer DJM600 mixer. What a setup!!
At this time an amazing opportunity had come along for Calvin, a job opportunity that he thought he would never get. Working for the LFEPA. Also known as the London Fire and Emergency Planning Department situated at the London Fire Brigade Headquarters. He was called in to do graphic manipulation, collate emergency plans, put presentations together and many more duties. He worked here for a year and 4 months and the reason for leaving was that he was not able to obtain a work visa due to not having any degrees. But he took at it as though wasn’t meant to be and flew back home with his cdjs and mixer (most valued possessions) and proceeded to make a demo called Trippin Traktor. This took 2 months to compile and this got him most of his gigs. It was made to show how his styles can vary. So its starts off day style, funky electric guitar and by the end of the set it is full-on psychedelic. Calvin then approached Dean Fuel @ Labyrinth and gave him his demo. With a lot of persisting he finally got a set. It went perfectly the crowd loved it, so this was a kickstart to his career in South Africa .
Since then Calvin has been making a name for himself. He has played at parties such as The Fu-Cha gathering which he is now a resident at in Johannesburg, Labyrinth (CT), Shizzle(CT), House of Fun(CT) and Organik (CT) with artists such as Protoculture, Shift, Slug, Abomination, Twisted System, Tickets, Jester, Zyonysis, Wreck, Fuel, Wobblz, Digital Dream, Killer B, Noise Anomalie and many more South African artists that are dominating in the Psychedelic trance scene in SA as well as the world. Cape Town is considered one of the best places to go for outdoor psychedelic trance festivals, is home to some of the worlds leading record labels and hosts producers of top world quality as well as DJs that rip the roof off of any party!
He has managed to start his own company called Psynopticz Productions doing events co-ordination. He has managed to throw 5 underground (2 in London and 3 in Cape Town) and one mainstream event, called Elec-Tric Mind Warz, which went off fantastically even getting compliments from the venue managers saying: 'it was the best party ever thrown at their venue.'
Calvin’s dream is to become one of the party organizers that is recognized around the world and also be known as one of the most intuitive djs. This is just his main focus accompanied by him learning production and wanting to be a sound engineer, study business management and all the necessities in running a business.
Goals and wanting to achieve the highest level of success, not money but success in what he does, is what he wants out of life so this is his biggest step in getting to where he wants to.
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