Damian Higgins (born 1972) better known by his stage name Dieselboy, is an American drum and bass DJ and music producer.

Early life

Dieselboy was born Damian Higgins in

Tarpon Springs Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 23,484 at the 2010 census. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the US. Downtown Tarpon Springs has long been a focal poi ...

, Florida in 1972. At the age of six he moved to Colorado City, Colorado, where he and his two sisters were raised by their mother. He moved with his family to Oil City, Pennsylvania, on the third day of school in the 9th grade, and is a graduate of Oil City Senior High School. He is the eldest son of singer/songwriter

Bertie Higgins Elbert Joseph "Bertie" Higgins (born December 8, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1982, Higgins had a top 40 album with ''Just Another Day in Paradise''. It spawned the hit song "Key Largo", which referenced the Humphrey Bogart and La ...

whose ballad ''Key Largo'' reached #8 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1982. Higgins's early musical experience included playing drums in a school marching band and DJing for high school dances. "I originally started DJing (before learning to beatmatch) back in 1989 and 1990 at dances at Oil City Senior High School and also a small nightclub in Franklin, Pennsylvania, called Shenanigans. I DJ'ed three of my high school's dances, but I was just playing tunes, not mixing." Higgins attended the University of Pittsburgh from 1990 to 1995 where he gained additional DJing experience, and completed a degree in information science. He also played on a

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technolog ...

radio station (

WRCT WRCT (88.3 FM) is a non-commercial freeform radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The volunteer-run station has a studio in the basement of Carnegie Mellon's University Center. WRCT broadcasts throughout the city with an ERP of 1.75 ...

). The name Dieselboy originated from Higgins's

IRC Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat a ...

handle, "Diesel". Upon discovering a local graffiti artist shared the alias, he "made it Dieselboy."

Career

Early career

In 1994, Higgins created a mixtape entitled "The Future Sound of Hardcore," and sold about 100 copies through online

LISTSERV The term Listserv (styled by the registered trademark licensee, L-Soft International, Inc., as LISTSERV) has been used to refer to electronic mailing list software applications in general, but is more properly applied to a few early instances of ...

s. "Through he mixtape people heard about me and I started getting bookings on the East Coast. It was a very slow process that eventually snowballed into my getting flown various places." In 1996, at the request of Dan Donnelly of British Drum and bass label

Suburban Base Suburban Base Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, rave and jungle/drum and bass record label. It is based in Romford, Havering, England. It was established by Danny Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1990 to 1997 and in the United States ...

, Dieselboy did a mix called "DrumAndBass Selection USA". In 1997, Suburban Base had him follow up with ''97 Octane'', this time allowing him to submit track suggestions, resulting in a more varied selection. In 1998, his mix called ''611 DJ Mix-series Vol. One'' was released. Dieselboy did the graphics for the cover. Also that year, Dieselboy recorded a mix called ''Director’s Cut'' which he had packaged in film cans, his first experiment in presenting a dance mix in a quasi-cinematic framework. In 1998, Dieselboy initiated Philadelphia's first 21+ drum 'n' bass weekly Thursday club night entitled "Platinum" at club Fluid, which ended on October 14, 2004. Platinum residents included Dieselboy, Kaos, Method One, Sine, Icon, Karl K, Mason, and MC's Dub2, Messinian, Armanni Reign, Sharpness, and Illy Emcee. It was rekindled in late 2009 featuring Mason, Sine and MC's Messinian & Sharpness. In 1999, Dieselboy released his fourth mix CD, "A Soldier's Story" on the Moonshine label. It opened with his first original “intro” and marked his CD debut as a producer with ''Atlantic State'', a track co-produced with Technical Itch. Also released on the Moonshine label was System Upgrade (2000) while Dieselboy joined forces with

Palm Pictures Palm Pictures is a US-based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD-Video format. Palm places an emphasis on such proj ...

/Island Recordings and his releases ''The Descent'', ''Invid'', ''Render''. ''The 6ixth Session'' was a double CD release on Palm Pictures, featuring a cyborg-themed mix described by the Washington Post as “hard-edged hyperdriven dance music". Dieselboy performed at Industry nightclub in Rochester, NY on August 9, 2001.

Human Imprint

In 2001, Dieselboy founded

Human Imprint Human Imprint Recordings is an American drum and bass record label founded by Damian Higgins (professional name DJ Dieselboy) in New York City in 2002. Human began as a subsidiary of System Recordings and is mostly known for high energy releases ...

, the drum 'n' bass imprint of electronic dance music label System Recordings. For

projectHUMAN Damian Higgins (born 1972) better known by his stage name Dieselboy, is an American drum and bass DJ and music producer. Early life Dieselboy was born Damian Higgins in Tarpon Springs, Florida in 1972. At the age of six he moved to Colorad ...

(2002), Dieselboy presented a mix framed as a movie trailer that reached #6 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic album chart. In 2003, Dieselboy was invited by DJ Magazine to create a mix showcasing American d&b entitled ''DJ World Series: D & B From The United States'', on which he featured American producers Hive, Echo, Mason, Juju, Kaos, Karl K, Jae Kennedy, Stratus and Sinthetix. For his 2004 DJ mix called The Dungeonmaster's Guide, Dieselboy asked Peter Cullen to be the voice of the Dungeonmaster who narrates the mix. In 2006, Dieselboy released his first Human Imprint compilation called "The HUMAN Resource". Disc One ''Selected Works'', is a 12-song un-mixed selection. Disc Two ''Evol Intent Assemble the Monster'' features a continuous DJ-mix from

Evol Intent Evol Intent is a hardstep drum and bass group formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. in 2000. The group is composed of The Enemy (Ashley Jones), Knick ( Nick Weiller), and Gigantor (Mike Diasio). The trio has released several s ...

. In May 2008, Dieselboy released his ninth major mix-CD

Substance D ''Substance D'' is a drum and bass compilation album mixed by Dieselboy. The first disc is mixed and the second disc is unmixed. The CD art was designed by Akira Takahashi (who also created the CD art for Dieselboy's "The 6ixth Session" and "Th ...

(Human Imprint), which reached the Billboard Dance/Electronic album chart. In conjunction with this release, Dieselboy initiated the "Monsters of Jungle" tour with rotating

label artists including Evol Intent, Ewun, Demo, Mayhem, SPKTRM, Infiltrata and MC Messinian.

SubHuman Imprint

In July 2009,

parted amicably from System Recordings. In summer 2010, Human relaunched with Steve Gordon of Steez Promo and Circle Management as new co-owner with Dieselboy, and they created the SubHuman Imprint for dubstep and electro releases. On New Year's Eve 2009 headlining a 3D Productions event at Club 24 in Washington, D.C., Dieselboy played a three-hour multi-subgenre set including drum and bass, dubstep and electro. The enthusiastic crowd response encouraged him to continue experimenting with this new open format into 2010. In January 2013 Dieselboy started playing all drum and bass sets again. On January 31, 2011, Dieselboy released his first new mix in two and a half years, "Dieselboy – Unleashed!", as a free download on SoundCloud. He also performed with Skrillex. In 2012 he released the mix "Wake The Dead" on SoundCloud. On May 23, 2013, Dieselboy's mix "Beyond the Black Bassline" was released by Skrillex's then new NEST HQ website. Dieselboy released his 93-track, 87-minute mix "Dieselboy – The Destroyer" on August 5, 2014. The mix and its art incorporate the aesthetics of his 2014 tour as Blood, Sweat and Bass with bass music producer Downlink and 1970s grindhouse films. It includes a new collaboration with drum and bass producer Gridlok called "MDMX," and three tracks by Faces of Def, a new collaborative project between Dieselboy and Mark the Beast Blvck Celebration" with Counterstrike (SubHuman); "Carcosa" with Mayhem and Downlink (SubHuman); remix of "Tuh Tuh Duh" by Sinister Souls (PRSPCT)

Culinary career

In 2014, Dieselboy's passion for food advanced beyond writing about it for the

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awa ...

-winning FirstWeFeast.com blog, into professional kitchens. He cooked a sold-out collaboration dinner with respected chefs Matt McCallister and Alex Stupak at FT33 restaurant in Dallas on June 9, 2014. Dieselboy competed in a nacho battle against chef Alex Stupak at Empellón Cocina in New York in February 2013, which he lost. He came back to face off against chefs Alex Stupak, Michael Anthony, Wylie Dufresne and Seamus Mullen in February 2014, beating Mullen. Dieselboy assisted chefs Dave Beran (Chicago), Daniel Patterson (San Francisco), and

Christina Tosi Christina Tosi (born 1981) is an American chef and cookbook author. She is founder and co-owner with Momofuku of Milk Bar and serves as its chef and CEO. ''Food & Wine'' magazine included her in their 2014 list of "Most Innovative Women in Food ...

(New York City) at an Art Basel dinner hosted by Questlove in Miami on December 6, 2014. In November 2014, Dieselboy's cooking was featured at his first "pop-up" event called "Burger Night with Dieselboy" at the

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, Netherlands restaurant De Boom, preceding his DJ performance at Subsonic nightclub. In January 2015, another pop-up hamburger event took place at P60 cafe in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villag ...

, Netherlands as a prelude to his DJ gig at the P60 club. In 2012, Dieselboy was a co-presenter with mixologist Jim Meehan (PDT, New York City) and chef/designer Taavo Somer at the Origins and Frontiers mixology workshop at the 7th Annual StarChefs.com International Chefs Congress in New York City. Dieselboy's cocktail "The Higgins" is published in '' The New York Times'' cocktail writer

Robert Simonson Robert Simonson (born September 11, 1964) is an American journalist and author. Personal life Robert Simonson was born in Wisconsin; he has lived in Brooklyn since 1988. Career Robert Simonson began writing about cocktails, spirits and bars for ...

's 2014 book ''The Old-Fashioned'' (Ten Speed Press). Dieselboy collaborated with Betony restaurant chef Bryce Shuman on a limited edition hot dog as part of a monthlong "musicians and chefs" special menu at the New York City cocktail lounge PDT in May 2015. On August 9, 2015 as part of the Moonrise Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, Dieselboy and

The Glitch Mob The Glitch Mob is an American electronic music trio from Los Angeles, California. It consists of edIT (Edward Ma), Boreta (Justin Boreta) and Ooah (Josh Mayer). Chris Martins of ''LA Weekly'' noted that they "have undoubtedly found the largest a ...

hosted a Taco Party for contest winners.

Awards and recognition

Dieselboy placed #23 in the 2014 America's Best DJ Poll, up 19 from the previous year's #42, between

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

and BT. Dieselboy was the highest ranked drum & bass DJ (#45) in the 2008 DJ Times America's Best DJ Poll. On February 12, 2012 in accepting his Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical, Skrillex (Sonny Moore) ended his comments quoting Dieselboy as saying "All the boats rise with the water." In 1998, Dieselboy was the first American drum & bass DJ to be nominated for Best Drum & Bass DJ at the Global DJ Mix Awards, tying with LTJ Bukem.

Discography

Mix compilations

Singles

* ''Patriot Games EP'' (2x12") – Tech Itch Recordings * ''The Descent'' (12") – Palm Pictures (1999) * ''The Trans-Atlantic Link Part 1'' (12") – Tech Itch Recordings * ''Invid'' (12") – Palm Pictures (2000) * ''Render'' (12") – Palm Pictures (2000) * ''Invid (Remixes)'' (2x12") – Palm Pictures (2002) * ''Barrier Break''/''Submission'' (2X12") – (Dieselboy & Kaos) Human Imprint (11/17/03) * ''N/V/D'' (12") – Dieselboy (Counterstrike ''Zentraedi'' remix) Human Imprint (5/8/08) * ''Midnight Express'' (12") – Dieselboy + Evol Intent + Ewun, Human Imprint (5/15/08) * ''Get Back'' (CD) – Blokhe4d & Dieselboy, Unique Artists (2010) * ''W.M.F.D.'' (Digital) – Dieselboy & Bare, Human Imprint (HUMA 8035, 6/20/2012) * ''MDMX'' (Digital) – Gridlok feat. Dieselboy, Project 51 (P5130, 8/25/2014)

Remixes

* ''Hard Times'' – Baby Namboos (Dieselboy + Decoder) Palm Pictures (2000) * ''Opticon'' – Orgy (Dieselboy + Technical Itch Arena mix) Reprise (2001) * ''Subculture'' – Styles of Beyond (Dieselboy + Kaos VIP) Human Imprint (2002) * ''You Must Follow'' – Stratus (Dieselboy + Kaos) Human Imprint (2003) * ''Grunge 3'' – Bad Company UK (Dieselboy, Kaos + Karl K) Human Imprint (2003) * ''Moulin Rouge'' – Dom + Roland (Dieselboy, Kaos + Karl K) Human Imprint (2005) * ''Hooked'' – Dom + Gridlok (Tech Itch + Dieselboy) Project 51 (P51UK10, 8.7.2006) * ''Tuh Tuh Duh'' – Sinister Souls (feat. Dieselboy feat. Mark the Beast) PRSPCT (PRSPCTRMXEP001,1.28.2015)

Videogames

* ''

Amplitude The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of ampl ...

'' : Styles of Beyond – ''Subculture'' (Dieselboy & Kaos Rock Remix) * '' Crackdown'' : Dieselboy & Kaos – ''Barrier Break'' * '' Gran Turismo 4'' : Dieselboy & Kaos & Karl K (feat. Messinian) – ''Nitro'' * '' Need for Speed: Most Wanted'' : Dieselboy & Kaos – ''Barrier Break'' * '' Saints Row'' : Styles of Beyond – ''Subculture'' (Dieselboy & Kaos Remix)

Compilation appearances

* ''Opticon'' – Orgy (Dieselboy + Technical Itch Arena Mix) (2001) on Orgy: Opticon Remixes (12") – Reprise Records * ''Opticon'' – Orgy (Dieselboy + Technical Itch Arena Dub Mix) (2001) on Orgy: Opticon Remixes (12") – Reprise Records * ''Grunge 3'' – Bad Company UK (Dieselboy, Kaos + Karl K) HUMAN (2003) on

Andy C Andrew John Clarke (born 7 April 1976) is a British DJ and record producer and is co-founder of RAM Records, a pioneering label in the drum and bass genre. Music career Early years Andy C was a DJ in his own right but gained a strong repu ...

Nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ci ...

(CD) – Ram Records (2003) * ''Get Back'' – Blokhe4d + Dieselboy on Unique Artists: Volume 1 – Unique Artists (UA001CD, 8/23/2010)

Filmography

* ''Put the Needle on the Record'' (2004) * ''American Massive'' (2002) * ''Atlantic State'' (Technical Itch + Dieselboy), ''Sounds & Motion: V. 01'' (Ukraine, 2002) * ''Moonshine Over America'' (2000)