>> Todd Edwards
bio: Born December 9th, 1972, as a resident of Bloomfield, NJ USA an outlining suburb of metropolitan Newark. The youngest of two children, Todd proved to be quite a precocious child. Throughout his primary schooling Todd felt a growing love for music. Inspired by his grandfather, an established guitarist and teacher, an also by his uncle, a professional drummer, he began working on musical arrangements and writing simple songs at an early age. Propelled by this clear aptitude for music, Todd's parents enrolled him in piano lessons. Although somewhat routine and cumbersome to Todd, he credits these early lessons and his parents support for building his musical foundation. With such youth came Todd's clear openness to the music of the time. As a child he embraced the popular sounds and was influenced by artists such as Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder and Abba. Yet Todd's serious side lead him to the music of artists such as Charlie Parker.
But the mid-eighties brought Todd an all new musical vision. However because of the increasing time required by his schooling he put off music for a bit and returned to the average life of an American teen. In 1986 as he experimented with song writing and lyrical arrangements, Todd's sampling structure began to develop with his acquisition of a Casio sampler 1987. He gathered interest in the piano again and took lessons in improvisation in 1988. In the same year he came together with long time friend and disk jockey, "Filthy" Rich Criso to begin working on dance oriented music. As Todd further developed so did his musical style. Conceptualizing sounds fitting together in sort of a collage, Todd started laying the groundwork for his sampling artistry.
Three years went by before he really developed some material he was happy with. As his love for the dance form grew Todd began buying records and spinning. Although never a focus in his life, Todd's involvement with Dj's began to take shape in musical tracks. In 1992 he began a relationship with 111 East Records. As their onboard functioning producer, his roots became more cemented in dance music production. Thru such work though Todd's name came into the spotlight for many to hear. He met a variety of people who took a liking to his musical style. Amongst which was Mike Weiss of Nervous Records. Out of this grew Todd's first release for Nervous. Entitled "The Messenger" this EP broke Todd onto the NY scene as a force to be reckoned with. In late 1993 he hooked up with WKTU, NY disc jockey George Calle and Joseph Ventola who discussed creating a label in where local house artists could share some of their music with the world. Out of such grew i! Records, a mainstay label where Todd came to call his home. Propelled by the security of the i! relationship, Todd began further experimentation with his collage concept of sampling and began dabbling with remixing.
The year of 1994 brought great fruits for Todd...including another EP for Nervous, and a host of singles for i!. With continuing support from both area and worldwide Dj's, the artist and remixer of Todd Edwards was taking shape. The year of 1995 proved to be Todd's greatest yet. With other remixes for Nervous and the release of his ground breaking "Saved My Life" he became accepted as the remixer/producer to work with. Out of such grew remixes for Polydor, EMI, BMG, and an artist deal with London Records.
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