In the words of a close friend of mine (quoting the well known movie of course)…
“One of God’s own prototypes. Some kind of high-powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die”
Introduction
Hi, my name is Theo as I am sure you have deducted from the website name, I have re-created this website (after 10+ years) to be my personal portal to the World. I have been DJ’ing and working with events since 1996 so I will be focusing on bringing you the best in Psy-Trance which I play under the name Captain Theo and also the best in Tech House, Techno and Progressive which I play under the name CT to keep things separate. You will also find DJ lessons for those of you that are interested. However I will also be using this portal to express my opinions on a variety of matters, some of them you may like and agree with and some not but that is not my problem, that’s why they are called opinions. We are all entitled to them and even though our World has evolved to the point where there actually is no true freedom of speech anymore I will be acting under my natural born right. It may get controversial but I am not looking to win any popularity contests here, nor am I interested in promoting myself as a DJ anymore. The fact is that although DJ’ing was my main source of income for many years I have long since moved on to understanding the financial markets of the World which you can read all about at my other Website www.ElectroFX.com. This allowed me to put DJ’ing back to hobby status which is way more fun anyway and being a DJ is not something I consider to be some kind of major feat, it’s not my opening line to new people I meet if you get what I am saying ;). I do have a real passion for it though and when it comes down to it I have well above average talent so I do still perform at events. Booking requests can be made via the contact me page here at this website but I warn you that I am very selective and your booking request must appeal to me on more than a financial level.
DJ Biography
My DJ career started in 1996 and I have been fortunate enough to perform in 8 different countries alongside the greatest names in the industry. In fact as I write this in January 2012 the past 12 months have seen me performing alongside names such as Nick Warren, John Digweed, Timo Maas, Martin Roth and Guy J to name a few. But let’s hit reverse and start back in the late 90’s where I headed to Vancouver, Canada to check things out. DJ’ing in London at that time was already heavy in competition and the ass kissing talent-less approach had already begun and was dominant. Due to the fact it was the era of vinyl and still early days on the internet there was a distinct advantage for me in North America. I headed off with all the latest sounds from London and shortly after arriving I pioneered the Vancouver Hard House and Uplifting Trance scene with serious dominance. The beauty about the vinyl days was that you could tell a good DJ from a bad DJ quite quickly due to the ear, passion and skills required to beat-match with precision and come up with intensifying mixes. I had/have extremely accurate beat-matching, good mixing skills and music that no one else had so naturally I started to get booked all over the place and soon headlined the events on Canada’s west coast. Somewhere along the line there I even started juggling fire above the decks to see how the crowd would react, everyone is always looking to the DJ so I thought I’d give them something extra to look at. It didn’t take long for word to spread and people to hear and watch me perform before I ended up with residencies at clubs in Seattle and Vancouver. I then expanded from there and played all around North America, then Hong Kong, back to London, and so on and so on until I had played in 8 different countries and alongside most of the greats. I don’t feel the need to ramble on about my accomplishments as a DJ though so I will leave it at that. As I said above, I don’t consider DJ’ing to be some amazing feat worth bragging about, especially these days where I could teach my niece to DJ, and DJ well, in just a few hours.
Scene of Politics
I love playing music but I don’t love the politics that are a big part of the scene. In fact I can’t stand it, all the ass kissing and falseness doesn’t sit well with me, especially when I see DJ’s with no talent further their career with that tactic. Most promoters love having their ego stroked so when ass kissers with no talent come along they suck it up and before you know it we have a variety of DJ’s “trying” and sounding like shit. I think it’s a shame because still to this day I like to play the odd event and I do go out clubbing every now and then but I often end up with a headache because bad mixing and lack of precise beat-matching does hurt my brain. Everyone makes a mistake here and there though so I don’t judge until I have heard 3 consecutive tragic mixes to confirm. The reason I bring this topic up is because as I was out on my bike ride the other day thinking about what I wanted to include here at this website, I remembered something that happened in the early 2000’s not long before I left Canada and came back to Europe. I had heard through the grape vine that my actions cost me a potential signing at a big DJ agency in L.A. This story ends up being a funny story as well as a little example of how retarded the World has become.
It all started at a multi-day event hosted at a lovely outdoor spot in B.C’s interior. There were tons of DJ’s there from all over the World and I had the company of a few of them who were also my friends. I had juggled fire at the event and as usual after I was done had emptied out any remaining paraffin and made sure the juggling gear would not light with a lighter (I always did this for the air travel and general safety). Once at the airport passing through security, they found my fire gear and because it smelled like paraffin told me I could not take it with me, this was not cheap gear and was actually from the UK so I was not willing to part with it for no reason. I explained to the security personnel that I always travel with this gear and that it was not flammable. Paraffin is actually a very stable liquid which is hard to ignite anyway, this is why it is applied to a wick and my gear had no paraffin left anyway. This scientific fact was easy to prove with a lighter which they would not let me demonstrate and kept insisting that I would need to surrender my property in order to board the plane. Naturally I would not comply with these robot people who clearly had no brain or ability to think for themselves left. Things got funny as they always do with these power position folk when you don’t agree with them and I was removed from the Airport by the police. Now, there were some DJ’s from L.A in the line who witnessed all this then reported back to the Agency who then lost interest in me because of that! and so I conclude this story and example of politics by saying. When the choice is to be a retard and say “yes sir, three bags full sir, please take my property for no reason” to robot people who are wrong and I can prove it, OR, have some balls and stand my ground because I am right and I can prove it, I will ALWAYS chose the latter. I would do the same to this very day even knowing what I know now and would not want to be a part of any organization that would respect me for bowing down to authority. The nice part of the story though is that the policeman was a lovely chap, he understood and agreed with me after I explained it to him and then drove me to the bus station so I could head home.
These “politics” are not subject only to the DJ world of course and you get used to it being everywhere but really, it’s partying/clubbing that we are talking about here, having fun and helping other people have fun after their work week. Leave the politics alone! When I go out I don’t want to listen to the guy with the most friends on FaceBook, or the guy who kissed ass the most, or the promoters friend, I want to hear the most talented guy/girl out there. Of course we are mainly talking bout the low-mid level DJ’s and not the top level DJ’s. Top level DJ’s got to the top because they were either very talented or had a great team, but hopefully both…. although not always :O
Why Captain Theo?
Even I have a good laugh with my DJ name sometimes, I mean I don’t navigate boats or fly airplanes. However, my DJ name was actually given to me and I just accepted it and embraced it more than chose it. It all goes back to when I pioneered the Vancouver scene and people around me just started calling me Captain Theo and before I knew it “Captain Theo” was on all the flyers everywhere so I bought captaintheo.com and went with it. I thought about it too and it seemed that I always was a bit of a natural leader and still am to this day. I don’t try, I just am. On top of that when it comes to DJ’ing itself I do take you on a musical journey so I am the Captain of the room for a couple of hours so to speak and it works once again. As I am sure you know though the thought has crossed my mind that I should have a more serious DJ name but then I always think about the fact that the job is to MAKE THE PARTY. Since when did partying become something we need to get all serious about? and therefore I still to this day keep Captain Theo. Anyone who is sitting there thinking that my DJ name is not serious enough for you, top right of your screen is the browser close button (top left on a mac), you are a retard, goodbye… and good luck!
Why DJ Lessons?
Some new DJ’s who I have become friends with lately have nice track selection and with minimal help these days could be easily helped to improve so I have decided to try. Also maybe these lessons can help other new aspiring DJ’s out there. Plus when I hear a bad DJ I can just send him to my site 😛 When I say “bad” DJ I mean technically bad, I am not going to judge their actual music because we all have different tastes. The reason I said minimal help just above is because in this day and age the technical side of DJ’ing really is VERY easy. There is software to help you understand which key a track is made in, software to beat match for you, and controllers that mean you can get used to your own way of doing things and stick with it. Hopeful this section will benefit someone somewhere and increase the odds of me going out and not getting a headache. I’m certainly not claiming to be the best DJ in the World or anything, far from it. I am just well above average and I know what I am doing technically.
In Closing
If you did actually read all of the above I would like to conclude by saying that there are plenty of very talented DJ’s out there that did make it without submitting to retardation and any reference I make to bad DJ’s and DJ’ing is because unfortunately there is more of that than the other 🙂 .. There are also plenty of fantastic promoters that I have met so anything negative I mention in the above is always directed at the masses since you can never say something about an entire group or race of people, there are always exceptions. Furthermore, real DJ’ing is done with Vinyl but these days you just can’t get enough good music on Vinyl so we submit to Digital. If you are going to go Digital, go Digital. CD’s are for idiots and make no sense at all. If you use them and you feel that you are not an idiot then I’m afraid you have had “a moment”, snap out of it. One of the many technological advantages to Digital is lack of scratches and therefore no more skipping. CD’s scratch and skip.
