Mike Dearborn
Michael James Dearborn was born October 7th, 1972 in Chicago Illinois, USA. There he lived on the South side in a modest apartment with his parents and his older brother.
Mike first became fascinated with music at the age of 8 years old. He would sit in his bedroom and pretend to have a radio show. Some of his favorite artists and groups were Men at Work, The Fixx, Kurtis Blow and Quiet Riot.
Mike’s interest in music took a turn when he began listening to a radio station called WBMX (which is no longer in existence). On that station, he would listen to programs like the Hot Lunch Mixes as well as the Friday and Saturday night mix shows. On these shows, you could here the likes of Farley ‘JackMaster’ Funk, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, and Frankie Knuckles. This is when Mike’s interest in DJ’ing was sparked.
It was not long after that Mike became interested in producing. He and his brother would experiment with a Roland TR-505 and a Casio sampler. Mike began producing on a more serious note in 1988. In mid 1989, he released his first 12’inch with a schoolmate named George titled “Make the Music” and “Uninhibited Desire” on the legendary Chicago Trax/Housetime label. The exuberance in releasing his first record soon turned into frustration from dealing with a ‘shady’ label.
In January of 1991, Mike teamed up with George again to release a three track EP. This EP was released on Warehouse/Muzique Records. Again the excitement led to disappointment.
Having released two records and seeing no return, Mike stop producing and DJ’ing and concentrated on obtaining a Degree in Communications-Media Studies from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, IL. In March of 1992, while back in Chicago for the weekend, Mike visited a friend to listen to some records. While listening, he came across a record on the DJAX UP BEATS label by Terrace a.k.a. Stefan Robbers of the Acid Junkies. Impressed to find a label that was releasing that style of music, he prepared a demo and sent it to DJAX. Soon after, he received a call from Saskia Slegers a.k.a. Miss DJAX. He signed with DJAX and began a 4-year relationship with the label.
After signing with DJAX, Mike began to DJ throughout Europe. His first DJ gig in Europe was at rave in Paris, France for a crowd of about 7000 people. Other highlights include touring in Australia and Brazil, DJ’ing at Germany’s biggest rave MAYDAY 7 and performing live at MAYDAY 8. This was Mike’s first live performance in Europe. It was also broadcast live on Viva, Germany’s MTV equivalent and voted #8 in the top 10 international live performances of the year by FrontPage magazine, Germany’s leading dance magazine at the time.
Other noteworthy DJ gigs include Ministry of Sound in London, the Rex in Paris, Tresor Club in Berlin and MelkWeg in Holland. Mike has also played in other countries such as Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Spain and Portugal. In addition, Mike has played some of North America’s best clubs like The Limelight, Sound Factory and Twilo in New York, Shelter and Karma in Chicago and Industry in Toronto as well as many underground parties throughout the world.
Mike was also seen in the critically acclaimed documentary film “Modulations”.
Mike has remixed artists such as The Advent, Felix the Housecat, Gary Numan, Hardfloor, Joey Beltram, Robert Armani and Steve Stoll. Mike has headlined events worldwide with DJ heavyweights such as Carl Cox, Sven Vath, Daft Punk, Dave Clark and Westbam.
Mike graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Communications-Media Studies degree in December of 1995. He returned to the Chicago area in the summer of 1996. Soon after, he parted ways with DJAX Records and started two labels, Majesty Recordings and Majik Gruuv Records.
While Mike will be spending more time pursuing goals not related to music, he will continue to produce and DJ. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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