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RANK	SCORE ?	GENRE	LOCATION
5387	25	House, Chicago	Dubai, AE

Paz has been around the block as a DJ for quite some time and has covered a wide variety of genres. Find out more about him...

Born in a small rural town in Quebec, Canada but growing up in Toronto, Paul Arthur Zwarts, a.k.a 'Paz' became fascinated with music from the youngest of ages.

"I remember always getting in trouble by my parents for rummaging around with their vinyl collection and buggering around with the turntable, trying to see what made it tick. It was off-limits but I never listened."

"When I was 8 we moved to Toronto and I got my first transistor radio to keep me occupied on the trip. I remember very distinctly that certain music gave me shivers up and down my spine, and always wondered what it meant to be affected so drastically..."

Always being close to music, Paz had studied several musical instruments including (in order) Clarinet, Saxophone and the Violin.

"Drumming was also a spare time for me, owning only a set of sticks, I banged away on anything that had a flat surface and a different sound. I never did get close to a drum set but that never dissuaded me from experimenting with rhytmn."

From 1990-1991 onwards at the age 16, Paz started his life as a DJ, spinning popular Dance, Reggae and Hip Hop.

"In my school, we had two twins Colin and Robin who were fantastic Hip Hop dancers. In their shadow I figured, either be a dancer or a wall-flower at parties. So I picked DJ. I wanted to do something that turned heads as well and since I love music, it seemed logical."

"Somewhere around '90, I started buying weird vinyl that was always white label and we only knew it as 'Bleeps' as it coined video game sounds. It was quite weird and wonderful stuff. I think it was at least a year before I actually heard the word 'Techno'."

From that point forward, electronic music was more than a passion, it was a way of life, but only for certain ears.

"I've never put alot of effort into playing gigs. I call myself a pure 'format' DJ, who plays what the concept dictates and specializes in certain sounds. I couldn't care less what other people think. In that respect I've always had a smaller following of people who appreciate my attitude for playing good sounds rather than popular stuff."

In 1998, Paz and his girlfriend at the time Natasha, moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands in search of a new life.

"From '96 on I had played Trip Hop fairly exclusively and I had figured the coffeeshop scene in the Dam would be ideal. However, being the home of Acid and Gabber, the Dutch werent ready for that sound. At that point I teamed up with my partner in crime, "Yorika" and we started playing regular gigs in bars and lounges. At that point I moved towards Deep House and we became fairly well known for our sexy sounds that was somewhere between dancing and sitting."

"Around 2000-2002, I spent alot of time in the studio with my other partner Joey and we were banging out tracks left right and center. Some very interesting stuff, totally not with what I spun and very ahead of it's time. We hit the progressive Trance sound a few years before it hit anywhere else. Of course, it wasnt sellable and we didnt really try. Just play some parties and learn our way around a decent production space."

In 2005 after getting married in the north of Italy to his long time mate, Natasha Tome, Paz & Nat decided to get back into a long time plan of moving to another place.

"It took us a year to plan and execute the wedding and finally by April '06 we managed to get to Dubai. The music scene was pretty shocking when we arrived. Very limited even though it had the best lineups coming through. Rather than see this as a negative thing, it became a challenge. Having played Deep House for 5-6 years, I started to go back towards the club-scene, but very decidely skipped European Electro sounds. Back to my home continent of House, I now specialize in the Chicago sound (aka Funky House to those who dont know their genres). I can go from deep to mid to up whenever it suits, and I dare any DJ to match how up-to-date my Chicago collection is."

"I chill alot with Smokingroove, Just Lance and Charl Chaka. These guys are my homeboys and we share the love for the Chicago sound. The goal is to help the disenfranchised clubbers of Dubai discover the sexier side of House music and leave the crunchiness behind for a more groovey and natural sound."

"The last 4 months have also been very busy. The productions have started again, this time with Smokingroove. We're just getting ready to release our first EP with 3 Chicago tracks with an old-school Jazz/Swing flavor. We're now at the point where we can jump into the industry and start to push the sound and make the contact. Expect to be hearing from us soon. Though we think Dubai is not ready for this sound yet, we will certainly work it where we can."

Productions and mixes from Paz can be found at djpaz.net and myspace.com/paz75