KLAW

SEARCH

Biography
Events
Mixes
Discography
Photos
Vinyl
CDs/Albums
Charts
Links
News
Bookings

RANK	SCORE ?	GENRE	LOCATION
48313	0	Jungle	Denver / L.a., US

Born in New York City 1971, DJ KLAW fell in love with music and recording at an early age. Being exposed to Jazz and Rock by his Dad (Grammy winning Bill Goodwin legendary jazz drummer with the Phil Woods Quintet, and producer of over 300 jazz records) and hitting the road with the band at age 7 forged a strong bond of rhythm, composition and arrangement in the young guys mind. Klaw says of those times, "I would go out to gigs with these old cats and a just be blown away by the improvisations and attitude, then I would fall a sleep in the stand up bass case. As things go Klaw was exposed to allot going up in NYC and the sticks of Pennsylvania, punk/hip hop really being his focus because of the "raw energy and just how loud and pissed off that shit was" A teenager in the 1980's Klaw got into record collecting and "digging" as well as being a DJ on a local college radio station WESS (at age 14) as well as hitting up his old man for Jazz records. Those time have always played a part in Klaw approach to DJing. "I don't see a division in genre's if it works in my arrangement I will use it, for me DJing is a way to speak without speaking, telling a story." In 1991 a friend form the punk scene took him to a rave at warehouse in Allentown PA. that was it. It was a combo of all things Klaw loved, loud music and vibrant energy, Mixing records and styles, he was especially drawn to the HARDCORE BREAKBEAT, pre jungle style that was coming over from the UK. It was over for him. It has been a journey ever since.

In 1995 after years of moving around and being broke a girlfriend helped Klaw buy his first turntable, "Yeah I had ONE table and a MD player I would spin all these old DUB, HIP HOP and Ragga records and mix to beats, I was making on my computer that I had recorded on to MD, GHETTO!!!! to say the least. At the time he was living in Denver, CO. and going to school for design. Two years later he was in Los Angeles, CA. doing art and music. In 2000 after a stint as a DJ in a ROCK band, Klaw got hooked up with N20 records a Jungle label based in LA. Here he learned about the business of this business and began to play out in chill out rooms and lounges around the LA area. At the same time Klaw's work as a visual artist was beginning to get him some exposure and he was showing his unique political based poster prints through out the LA area in group and solo shows, He has sold work to Walt Disney Family, MTV, VH1 and private collections.

In 2002 Klaw long time partner DJ Doc Holiday moved to Long Beach and they started up a bi weekly called SOUNDWAVES at a club named Moonshadows in Malibu, It was a raging success, mixing downtempo, drum and bass, electro, house and nu jazz to create a environment perfect for the setting. They pair has gone on to play gigs in Las Vegas, the most recent of which was a gig in the parking lot of the Hard Rock Casino for the "high roller rail jam" an event which attracted over 3000 people. In 2004 Klaw has moved back into the Denver area and is pursuing his career as a commercial / fine artist and trying to get as many gigs as he can.

-Joaquim Hernandez JOINTZ MAG 2004