© Jason Phats

© Jason Phats

© Jason Phats

Jason Phats (Phats & Small)

Jason Phats bought his first guitar at 5 years old and started his first band when he was 14 in ’84. He purchased a computer (Commodore 64) and a four track (Yamaha MT44) and produced his own guitar based tracks for a few years until he started making sample/electronic based music in ’87 at the age of 16. He would take influence from bands like New Order, Human League, Gary Numan, Heaven 17. Through out the late 80’s he was heavily involved in the club scene and in 89, with the purchase of his Technics 1210’s he began DJing in various clubs in Brighton holding residencies along side Carl Cox. By 1990 he had a small studio setup comprising of an Akai S1100, Boss SE50, Atari ST running Cubase and an Ensoniq SQ1. It was the perfect DJ/Producer budget setup acting as the ‘core’ for what went on to produce his future hits.

Through the early 90’s He recorded under various guises such as the The Delorme and Dharma bums for Zoom Records, DMC and Stress Records and produced numerous award nominated remixes working with James Brown, Booker T, Masters at Work, Jocelyn Brown, Todd Terry, Norman Cooks Mighty Dub Katz, The Peach Boys and Kathy Brown to name a few. He also began his own label State Communications, with fellow Delorme/Bum Martin Tyrrell to release further Delorme/Dharma Bums material. He was also involved with other production projects with Polygram Records. In the mid 90’s he started his solo label Afrocuts which saw his debut release as DJ Phats receiving international support from DJ’s Stacey Pullen, Derrick May, Ian Pooley and Daft Punk.

In August 98 he created ‘Turn Around’, the number 2 in the UK (and many more excllent international Chart positions), multi million selling Phats & Small debut.

He followed the success of Turn Around with further top 20 hits, Feel Good, Tonight, This Time Around, Change and The Sun Comes Out and numerous remixes with artists Earth Wind and Fire, Jean Michel Jarre, JCA, Mousse T, Arthur Baker, Dannii Minogue, receiving awards, including two German Dance Awards, TMF Award, Muzik Award and RSH Award. He also received Brit and MOBO Nominees for Best Newcomer and Best Dance Act. His performances have seen him play numerous events including the Berlin Love Parade, UK’s Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall, touring the worlds best clubs from Ibiza to Iceland and Asia to Australia and recording three Albums….Now Phats What I Small Music, This Time Around and the Soundtrack To Our Lives.

His Studio now consists of Power Mac G4 running Logic Pro 7, featured software from Native Instruments, Ohmforce, FXpansion, G-Force, Mackie 48/8 bus mixing desk, outboard and analogue kit by Korg, Roland, Sherman, TLAudio, Akai, Novation, Lexicon, Focusrite, Boss and Pioneer.

His DJ/Live performances incorporate Decks, Effects, Powerbook G4 and Ableton Live and bring his studio production experience and DJ expertise direct to the dancefloor.

He is currently working on his next album due for release in 2007.