Influences: Hold on 2 your hats, this may be a long list here: OK.........PRINCE (first and foremost, my hero....), THE BEATLES (the reason 4 existence is in their discography. Don't front.) Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby, James Brown (rest in peace, Godfather! Thank U 4 putting "the one" in my bloodstream!), Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra/Ryuichi Sakamoto, early Chicago, Radiohead, Telex, Yes, King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Frank Zappa and .. more
History of DJ Psycho in his own words...
August 13, 1981. A North-side Flint, MI kid obsessed with music decides to be a DJ that morning...and the world ceased being the same for him from that moment on. Dezi Magby, a student of music since he was barely an infant, yearned to follow in the footsteps of a couple of uncles who were already rocking parties in the Detroit and Pontiac area. Already an avid record collector since he was 3 and a budding musician who played both by ear and by notation since he was 6, he quickly learned to adapt his hand to the speed of his hero at the moment, Grandmaster Flash. Within a year, Dezi started doing small gigs, playing elementary and junior-high school events until he graduated to doing things in front of different high schools in the Flint area, all the while studying from the Detroit radio broadcasts of The Electrophying Mojo and Jeff "The Wizard" Mills. His first big break came in 1987, when a college friend got him to subsitute for another DJ that worked at a local club in nearby Genesee called The Mikatam. That moment not only got him noticed by people outside of his social circle, but also put him in close proximity with another DJ that would help shape the next part of his life - Kevin Klida aka KJDJ. Within a month and a half, The Mikatam went from playing strictly to local teenagers to being the hottest club in the Greater Mid-Michigan area, even attracting Detroit area tastemakers. He later got into doing radio, cutting commercials, doing voiceovers and commandeering station events, while still making the grades on the battle circuit, winning the Midwestern DMC finals in 1990, 1991 and 1993. He got his own mix show, the first ever for a local DJ, in 1992, but he still kept his head in the underground, playing and helping to put on shows in the budding rave scenes in the Flint and Detroit areas and doing production for local rappers. Dezi quit radio in 1993 in order to devote himself to the underground, while still maintaining local residencies to support himself. In 1997, he joined a local rock/funk band called REV. RIGHT TIME AND THE 1ST CUZINS OF FUNK, in which he put his indelible style of handspeed on their sound. This turn of events brought him to a wider audience than he had originally resigned himself to, and Dezi found himself bringing turntablism to places that had never seen such a thing before, which resulted in him travelling more outside of the band. He quit RRT in 2003, and a year later Dezi joined a pure funk band called FUNKILINIUM, of which he is still a member. Over the last 12 years, he has released 5 mixed CDs, one artist CD, and played next to national and international DJs such as ADAM X, FRANKIE BONES, TESTE, ROBERT HOOD, DEITRICH SHOENEMANN, SKRIBBLE, DJ FUNK, DJ T-1000, GREEN LANTERN and FRANKIE VEGA. Dezi still maintains the ideals of what his DJ heroes (The Wizard, Flash, Jazzy Jeff, Jam Master Jay, Terminator X, Carl Cox) have taught him and seamlessly mixed them with the lessons taught by being on stage with bands - the best DJs must entertain and inform simultaneously, be adaptive of their surroundings and challenge the minds of their audiences. The ones who have come out, show after show and time after time, appreciates his unpredictability. He never plays the same set twice, can easily jump from genre to genre, and engages his audience with wild antics and mind-numbing trickery. Becoming a member of Detroit Techno Militia in 2006 has been a boon to both his career and the team that drafted him, widening his personal scope as far as where he wants to take the art form and the things that he strives to accomplish musically. "As long as I am here on this earth", he says, "I'm devoted to the music, and in turn, I'm making sure that the music and the role of the DJ never dies."
