It all began in 1997. Phaze was going about his usual day, as an intrepid shark with an iota of self-respect and an empty belly should, hunting for bountiful food. He had a particular penchant for rotund wealthy men on yachts. This was for purely chivalric reasons. Years before, Phaze had been courting a female who was said to have the sexiest gills and the most lithe and salient dorsal fin in all the oceans. Legend had it that she could go from 0-60 gnashes in 6.4 seconds. Whether this was true or merely hearsay did not concern Phaze. She was the one. Tragically, just as he was making his move she was untimely bumped in the head and killed by a huge yacht sailed by a guffawing pratt adorned in gold. From that moment Phaze swore vengeance.
It did not take him long to espy a potential victim. A beautifully obese man, who had decided to descend from his yacht and have a swim, was flailing helplessly in the water like a coked up marionette. Without a moments pause, Phaze lunged for him and instantly tore off a chunk of the mans protruding stomach. Whilst delighting in this, something caught Phazes attention. It was something that rose above the fat mans putrid incessant squealing and ululations of desperate grief. He heard the fluid, lucid beats and rhythm of something clearly Premier-produced. It ensnared him like the ethereal trappings of Echo as it drifted across the wrinkled ocean bed.
He began to swim in the direction of the music and it wasnt long before he found the source. A pirate radio broadcast was happening on a boat nearby. After much hysteria, misunderstanding, jumping to certain doom and throwing of inanimate objects, Phaze befriended the perpetrators of the broadcast. From that moment it was music that took over his life. He was overcome, in a moment of astute clarity, by a need to take part in quality entertainment that could satisfy the appetite infinitesimally more than a legion of fat Texan reprobates.
A pair of turntables and a mixer was promptly acquired. Over time, as he sought to appease his destiny, he found many more who had the same insatiable hunger for, and enjoyment of, music and singularly like-minded people. The year 2000 marked the conception of Beat Feast, a regular night at Reading University Students Union. From here the feast moved to Revolution Vodka Bar, followed by Po Na Na, and then to The Purple Turtle, where it currently resides. A considerable collective has been built up over this time, consisting of DJs, MCs, VJs, musicians and artists. In 2005, his adventures took him to Australia, where he co-presented a hip hop radio show in Melbourne and collaborated with a number of producers, MCs and DJs around the country including DMC champ DJ Selekt. His DJing career has seen him supporting such artists as Killa Kela, DJ Yoda and Peshay, and over the last three years, time spent in his sub-aquatic studio has resulted in the production and remixing of a number of tunes.
So whats in store for Phaze? With an imminent move to the capital, he has already begun to make a few splashes, including joint projects with the Peace Not War collective and musical involvement in a theatrical performance of Ovid's Metamorphoses at the Old Vic Theatre. To those that are planning to come to one of the regular Beat Feast nights: Dont forget your cutlery.
www.myspace.com/askauntiejane