My real name is Francois de
Swardt and I'm a composer, musician and producer from Pretoria, South
Africa.
I was born in 1972 in Lichtenburg in, what was then
called, the Western Transvaal. I matriculated at the end of 1990 from
Hoërskool Lichtenburg, after which I served a compulsory
period
in the South African Army for 1 year. In 1992 I moved to Pretoria and
have been living here ever since.
I have been in a number of different professions since 1992 but as far
as my current day-to-day existance is concerned, I'm a freelance design
engineer and CNC programmer. Appart from music production, my hobbies
include DJing, pencil sketching, 3D
animation & poetry.
I am a devout Christian with Dutch Reformed views and I have a
strong "live and let live" outlook on life.
Music
Production
I compose, write & produce music in the following genres:
Trance, Commercial or Euro-Trance, Afri-Trance, Electro, Dance,
Electronic
& Ballads.
For
as long as I can remember, I've wanted to create my own music. After
seeing the music video of Rendez-Vous 4 by Jean-Michel Jarre for the
first time in 1986, I
became really interested in playing keyboards. Therefore I considder
Jean-Michel Jarre to be my number one musical influence.
As a result of the fact that I grew up in the 80's, Italo &
High-Energy music like that of Fancy, Ken Laszlo, Roger Meno, Mike
Mareen, Modern
Talking, Den Harrow etc., are some of the other major influences on my
music.
ATB, Alice Dee Jay, 666, DJ Nordkurve and
others
like them, influenced my music in the early 2000's and still do. More
recently, my
influences include Manian, Bang Bros., Cascada, Basslovers United,
Topmodelz, 2-4 Grooves, Jan Wayne, Lazard etc. On the pop ballad side,
I considder artists like Amy Grant, (Munchener) Freiheit, Enya, Linda
Ronstadt,
James Ingraham, REO Speedwagon, Air Supply & Nino de Angelo to
have
had the biggest influence on
me.
Although I've never had formal musical training, I see myself as a
composer and producer rather than a live musician or
singer. Therefore I usually make use of session vocalists to perform
lead vocals on my songs.
DJing
I'm a versatile DJ with almost 23 years of experience. I started out as
a mobile DJ in 1987 and continued doing that untill I finished school
in 1990. Since I moved to Pretoria in 1992, I've been a resident DJ at
several different night clubs including: Club Cinema,
Vulopté, Stars, Burbon Street Pretoria, Topaz &
Presley's Pretoria. Appart from residencies, I've also played DJ gigs
at numerous clubs accross the country. My years of
experience, creativity & musical knowledge (both technical
&
artistic) provide club patrons with a
unique experience.
I am not a stage performer but I am always ready to do a DJ gig. So...
If you book me, I will come.
I obviously would love to make
it big in the music world. However, I'm realistic and know that it
takes time to get there.
I plan to release at least 10 new songs during 2010 and to do serious
web based promotion as I would like to increase my fan base
hundredfold. In the near future, I would also like to start performing
the
lead male vocals on my releases myself instead of having to find
someone
suitable.
