Gary Dickenson

Artist bio

Belfast in Northern Ireland has been a hotbed for DJ & production talent since the scene exploded back in the early ninety's with the likes of David Holmes & Phil Kieran both making a stamp on the international arena with their trademark Norn' Irish sounds. It would seem that the well has not yet dried up with a current new breed of talent breaking through with Gary Dickenson at the forefront of a bustling scene that has recently regenerated itself and come back bigger, bolder and better. Belfast in Northern Ireland has been a hotbed for DJ & production talent since the scene exploded back in the early ninety's with the likes of David Holmes & Phil Kieran both making a stamp on the international arena with their trademark Norn' Irish sounds. It would seem that the well has not yet dried up with a current new breed of talent breaking through with Gary Dickenson at the forefront of a bustling scene that has recently regenerated itself and come back bigger, bolder and better. A relative newcomer to the DJ world with 4 years experience behind him, Gary has had a meteoric rise in club circles with his name on the lips of most right thinking club promoters and record label bosses. Dropping his football boots to push his career in music further was a hard decision for the youngster, as he was on the books of one of the countries biggest clubs, but it's a decision that thankfully has been paying off recently. Gary's easy going attitude and friendly persona makes him one of the most genuine characters you'll find in today's diva filled mishmash of overpaid & over hyped artists. Gary's early influences came from visiting the dance floors of his local clubs Lush, where great regard developed for the progressive sounds of the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Danny Howells & Nick Warren. Ibiza also proved to be a big inspiration with regular visits to clubs such as Space & DC10 inspiring Gary to push a sound as he puts it " more on the tougher, underground, techier side of house". "I like to think when i play I don't stick to one particular style, I have an ear for listening to tracks in their own merit. I prefer the more underground/tougher side of house music, In my sets you can everything from deep/tech/electro house to break beat and even some techno " Since adopting this new sound Gary has achieved enormous success. He was noticed by the promoters at Lush as a fresh up and coming talent in 2003 and was selected to warm up for Dave Seaman, this proved to be the break he had been hoping for. Also more recently he has been gaining regular gigs at shine's sister club Stiff Kitten, who hosts big name talent week in week out including Andy Wetherall, Dave Clarke, Josh Wink, Derrick Carter, Plump Dj's etc etc "Gary has played at lush! on 2 or 3 occasions over the last year and on each appearance he has impressed me with not only his track selection but also his programming and understanding of how to build up a set. He is definately one of the best of the new breed of young Irish dj's coming thru the ranks. He is also now making his first foray into production, and if his first 2 tracks are anything to go by, he has a bright future ahead of him as a dj/producer" Col Hamilton (lush resident dj/promotor) Since then he has played alongside Dave Seaman, Mauro Picotto, X Press 2, Cass, Futureshock, Markus Schultz, Col Hamilton, Greg Vickers, Barry Gilbey, Echomen, Alan Simms, Phil Kieran, Paul Hamill, Psycatron & Chris Cargo with the list of talent growing longer each and every month. The Dickenson name has been getting about with guest spots at a host of Ireland's top underground club nights. 2006 seen him take his talents over to Russia where he completed 2 tours of the country. He played to capacity crowds in cities such as Taganrog, Rostov-On-Don and Volgodonsk at clubs such as Club Embargo, House Cafe, Club Neo and many more. The russian promotors were'nt long on picking up on his talents as he is now signed to Russian Dj Agenycy Replay Records who are exlusively handling his gigs in the country!!! He has also did live mixes on famous N Ireland dance radio show Across The Line on many occasions. You will also hear him on the airwaves on the ever famous and very popular Proton Radio and KSK Radio in Buenes Aires in Argentina. It's only a matter of time before the rest of the UK & indeed the world stand up and take notice of this fast rising talent. Gaining regular gigs at the world famous Lush! club in Northern Ireland has helped embed the name of this fast rising starlet in many a local clubbers head, and has been as Gary admits, a key to his success over such a short space of tim, he was even asked to fill in for sasha back in july when he was sick and got to rock the club to 1500 clubbers!!!! Noting the likes of Danny Howells, Laurent Garnier, John Digweed, Carl Cox, Peace Division, Tiefschwarz & Damien Lazarus as influences Gary pins down listening to his peers as the catalyst to inspire him to push his own take on a mixture of their attitude free underground house/funky techno sounds. This sound has gone down well on the Avalon system at Lush with Mr Dickenson playing warm up alongside some of the most well established names in the scene. Recently it's been people like Layo & Bushwhacka, Desyn Masiello, Derrick Carter, Danny Howells that have been pushing the right buttons for Gary musically and it's through no coincidence Matthew Bushwacka picked up on Gary's sound and signed two of his own productions (Flashback & Effective) to the prestigious Oblong label. Support has come from the likes of Deep Dish, BT, Paolo Mojo, Desyn Masiello, Can Costa, Steve Lawler, Anthony Pappa, Hernan Cattaneo, Chris Cargo, Layo & Bushwhacka, a testimony to how far Gary has come in such a short length of time. 'Flashback/effective is one of the strongest releases I have had the pleasure of signing to Oblong and both sides of this 12" monster totally destroy the dance floor with great sounds and fantastic arrangements. Very DJ friendly and so well produced. I cannot wait to hear more from these boys. XXX Matthew.' Matthew Bushwacka (layo & bushwacka). 'wicked stuff, definitely a producer to watch out for in the future' Paolo Mojo 'A tasty slice of tech-house from this rising irish dj/producer' Chris Cargo Gary has also had tracks signed to Si Gordon's Play Recordings imprint which was released in November 2005 and just recently his latest track 'Hypnotizin' was released on the ever growing label Fiberline Audio and his remix of Matt Rowan-Stonker(Fiberline Audio) is doing the rounds on all the big dancefloors. Reactions to Gary's latest piece of vinyl has been extremely positive, once again showcasing Gary's energetic dance floor sound. He also has 2 other tracks coming out very soon, Reaching Out on Fiberline Audio. His latest production Hands Up on KumQuat Tunes is set to be a huge success for gary with a remix by Luetzenchirchen and hopefully will puh gary's name even further!!!!!. Reloaded as well has just recently been signed to matthew dekays well established label DK Records. Gary's career is continuing to soar to great heights and will continue to do so without a doubt. 2007 looks like it's going to be a massive year for the Belfast man with gigs already confirmed in Jordan, England, Lithuania more gigs in Russia and a few other overseas gigs in the pipeline who could argue going on his achievements so far. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.