Dj Joyrider

founder and head of "Mental Arts"

He started his musical career as a Resident Dj (3 days a week!) at the Roxy/Cologne from 1985-1988. His Style at the time was: Rock, Punk and New Wave. In 1990 he met up with Dj Honesty as "Freestyle Soundsystem" and started organizing his own parties at the M20/Cologne. He then became Resident Dj at Sixpack/Cologne and his musical direction changed constantly to more danceable styles like Hiphop and Technohouse.

In 1991 the techno-thing grew big and bigger with several Warehousepartys at the D-Base (Hönningerweg/Cologne). And the underground-craze in 1992 let him to advanced guerilla-partying in several antique Forts in Cologne, under highway-bridges, on early outdoor adventures and to gigs in the infamous Sweatbox/Cologne, where he started to work under the artistname "Andrenalin". But from the beginning he had problems with the name due to another dj with the same nickname from Wiesbaden (who now still works as Andre Galluzzi ). In Wiesbaden he also played his first mega-gig at a legendary party at the Wiesbadener Schlachthof with 3500 ravers.

In 1993 he started to work as teaboy at the Metra Studios Cologne and dropped several huge (+1500) events at Farinafabrik/Cologne. The same year he got in contact with the north-german psytrance-scene on the VOOV, an experience that irreversibly changed his outlook on music. And so, in autum 1993 he helped the first psytrance-party in Cologne to take place in Farinafabrik with the "Family of Love" (Dj Marcus, Dj Mahasuka, Dj Bimmel and Dr.DNA (who later got well known as "Der dritte Raum") from Göttingen. In this year also his conflict with the Düsseldorfer House Dj Andrynalin started, where juristical intervention failed due to the "fact" that it's just a name-alikeness.

In the beginning of 1994 he had his first gig at the Club 42d.p/Cologne, where he immediately was offered the residency for the saturday-morning afterhour, called "Morgenandacht", a job he did consecutive for the next 4 years. He then together with Ralf Henninger from Metra Studios founded the Label Polytox Rec.. and worked as A&R Manager for them. He also founded the ELIXIER culture-club and they had the first ever Open-Air at the Herkulesberg/Cologne. More and more partys outside of Cologne followed.

In 1995 he compiled the groundbreaking CD-Sampler "Heavy Mental Music" on Polytox Rec., had big partys in the Kantine/Cologne with ELIXIER, made first contact to Freeform Booking-Agency, had gigs in whole Germany with residency at "Natraj-Temple" Munich and "Club Shambala" in Vienna.

In 1996 the MMS-distribution went bankrupt and soon with them Polytox Rec.. He took over the sunday-evening in the Club 42d.p/Cologne and established the regular-night "Rise & Shine". He than had too many parties to count, with strongest recollections to the legendary "Club Tara" in the Sauerland/Germany.

In 1997 together with the "N-Factor" producer Xanu and the guitarist Maurice Larin he founded the project "Sharas" which later had a release on Flying Rhino Rec. He established a steady presence in north-germany areas with some huge Freeform Open-Airs like: "Lovefield", "Matreja" and "Two Moons". He got invited to play at the "Total Eclipse Party" in Venezuela and stayed there for three months with lots of gigs all around the country.

In 1998 he dropped his residency in the Club 42d.p/Cologne after four years, but is still partying every weekend. Invitation to Brasil with parties in Sao Paulo's "Club Lov-E" and the Daime-Tribe in Bahia.

In 1999-2000 he started being more selective on this bookings due to occupational retraining, but played on the Freeform "Sylvester Paradise 2000" and the "Lovefield"-Festival with 4000 guests. His name-changing to the artist's name "Joyrider" received a lot of attention. His project "Funky B.O.T." released on Freeform Rec.

On "Silvester Paradise 2001" he rocked Hamburg again and later was involved with the Spacebus-Crew for two massive underground-events on Carneval and 1. May at the Kolb-Halle/Cologne. He had a stealth-appearance at "Antaris"-Festival and produced new trax with "Funky B.O.T." He works as IT-consultant and 3D-motion-capturing-engenieer.

In 2002 the final foundation of Mental Arts is set. He plays and produces together with Dj Puls as project "Lovecraft" and they start to regulary appear at the Soma-Festival. He hosts the beautyful "Circle fo Light" parties at the Casino Garden/Cologne and engages into the election campaign through the Zerstoiber-Party.

While he was working to get this label running, in 2003 he got contact with the Sonics-Cybertribe, that intensivied his political-avareness and let to his involvement with the organisation of the Hanfdemo in Cologne. He participated at the "Chaos Comunication Camp" of the CCC and played a set for their camp- Radio Subether that can partly be heared here

He'd been writing reviews for the german V.I.B.E.Z-Magazin and organised the legendary Inner-Circle Partys.

He had been working for the Dj-department of the Musicstore for 5 years and now runs Nextlevel-Entertainment a event-soulution company.

Contact:joyrider@mental-arts.com