Skitty

Hailing from Wolverhampton, Gavin Skitt better known as SKITTY has been a leading force in the West Midlands drum’n’bass scene since the mid-nineties. It all started back in 1991 when he heard early live tape-packs from events such as Quest, Fantazia and Edge. Inspired by DJ’s such as Mickey Finn, Top Buzz and LTJ Bukem, SKITTY started to buy records a couple of years later at the tender age of 13 and eventually purchased a pair of decks so he too could represent. Three years later and he got his first booking at the largest venue in his hometown ‘The Mezzanine’ alongside DJ SS and MC Warren G. This was to be the start of SKITTY’s journey into the drum’n’bass scene, as many DJ bookings followed at local raves playing with the likes of DJ Zinc, Ed Rush, Doc Scott & DJ Lee amongst others. He also got offered his own two-hour radio show on his local pirate station, which he did primetime for three years running. He finally moved on in 1999 when the infamous Midland’s based KOOL FM invited SKITTY to join the ranks of JB & Spice, DJ Hazard, Devise and MC Biggie, and gave him his own Saturday afternoon show. From here SKITTY began to finally get the recognition he deserved outside The Midlands with dates in France, Germany and the well known Bar Rumba in London. Now SKITTY was firmly known as DJ with a reputation for playing upfront cutting edge music. In 2001 he left KOOL FM to concentrate and focus on production. This was something he had wanted to do since 1997, but now with five years experience of DJ’ing and rocking clubs he felt he could use his knowledge and his ideas to contribute something fresh towards the scene. With no one around to help or really advise him, SKITTY had to do it alone spending numerous days and nights locked in his self-funded studio learning and mastering programs and plug-ins on his PC. He took he time to get a sound that he was happy with, and a sound that truly represented him. In 2003 SKITTY sent out a few demos of his first batch of finished tunes and the response was overwhelming when four tracks immediately got snapped up. “Reckless Behaviour” and “B4 Life” got signed to Loxy’s CYLON imprint and released in February 2004 after heavy support from Bailey, Tech Itch, Ink and Pendulum, as well as “DNA” and “Taboo” getting signed to Outbreak Ltd. This dropped in April 2004 and also received major club play from a string of top DJ’s including BBC 1xtra’s L Double. From these debut releases SKITTY began to work on more material and word started to get out. Renegade Hardware wanted to sign him exclusively, Digital, Bryan Gee and Dillinja all started requesting tracks, and then Metalheadz turned around and signed three tracks “Ten Steps”, “I Can’t Describe” and “X Dreams”. From there things escalated for the talented producer with an interview on Bailey’s BBC 1Xtra show, a DJ booking in the ‘Breakin Headz Room at the new METALHEADZ night at The Carling Academy in Islington, London and even more labels getting in touch for music. SKITTY’s third release dropped in June 2004 was on Emma Wildchild’s new Wildstyle imprint. With releases by XRS and Simon ‘Bassline’ Smith & Drumsound under her belt, SKITTY did the business again with two killer tracks “One Cut” and “Forgive And Forget”. SKITTY now has music signed and forthcoming on numerous cutting edge labels including a the massive “Stand And Deliver”/“No Matter What They Say” 12” on Nu Directions, the future classic “Fall Down” on the forthcoming Chronicles EP on Renegade Hardware, a 12” for Bassbin and a track for the Bassbin album, a track on the forthcoming EP on Loxy & Keaton’s Xtinction Agenda label, as well as working on some new material for a new label called Diverse Products which is distributed by LOAD Media. 2004 and has been a big year for SKITTY and with a strict policy of quality music on a consistent basis 2005 looks to be even bigger for this Midlands based talent. Remember the name, because SKITTY has arrived. text taken from hydra-breaks.net Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.