 Andy Jarrod first picked up a pair of headphones early in 1994 whilst working in the local record shop in his hometown of Lancaster in the North West of England. With obvious access to a variety of house music it wasn't long before he owned a pair of turntables and quickly turned into a vinyl junkie, often travelling to other record shops on his day off just to pick up that deleted B-side remix or a rare promo-only accappella. Through working in the shop Andy made many contacts with promoters and eventually his DJ'ing career began to move forwards. His initial "break" came with the Ark organization that ran dance events in Leeds and other areas. Playing as a resident for Ark alongside the likes of Graeme Park, Allistair Whitehead and Rob Tissera, Andy was approached by Fantazia and appeared on billings with Carl Cox, Dave Seaman, Ian Ossia etc.
Lancaster University approached him to become a resident at their new "Lust" night at the famous Sugarhouse Club, Lancaster in 1995. The night ran successfully for nearly two years with Andy as resident DJ and played host to a variety of stars. Highlights he still talks about include the opening party with Jon Dasilva, playing back to back with Allistair Whitehead, the Hacienda Tour with Graeme Park and finishing off after Danny Rampling on the 1996 Mixmag Tour to capacity crowds. Guest appearances around the UK included playing at London's famed Whoop It Up night, Tangled in Manchester and the superb Deja Vu in Hull. It wasn't long before Andy's reputation for smoothly mixing cool underground house with harder progressive tunes spread, leading to two new residencies at Angels (Heaven) in Burnley and Home in Manchester and further guest spots from Dundee to Doncaster, Belfast to Brighton. He regularly performed mixes for various radio stations including Kiss FM in both London and subsequently Melbourne, Australia.
By June of 1997 Andy had graduated from working in a small record shop to becoming the Labels Manager for Unique Records & Distribution Ltd in Manchester. Solely responsible for A&R, manufacture and distribution of more than 15 independent dance record labels he began his own production career. His debut single "Storm Cycle" was licensed to a Renaissance compilation and his talent was noticed by Sheffield's ultra-cool label, Choo Choo Records. Andy was signed to the label alongside superstar DJ and Renaissance resident Anthony Pappa and his productions were played by some of the UK's biggest DJ's including John Digweed, Danny Howells, Nick Warren and often featured on their mix albums. One particular piece of production took the progressive house scene by storm. Andy's remix of Blue Planet Corporation's "Micromega" received much attention from the world famous Sasha who included it on his 1998 Northern Exposure album. It wasn't long before Andy had achieved one of his many career ambitions by spinning on stage with Sasha.
Increased studio work led to Andy DJ'ing much further a field. Regularly playing in Eire, Scotland and Wales, he toured Australia in March 2000 playing with Anthony Pappa. As Anthony's warm-up DJ he received rave reactions everywhere and was quickly re-booked to tour again in October 2000, this time as the main guest DJ. In September of 2000 Andy toured Holland playing various gigs in Harlem, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, again with Pappa, and was once again re-booked to tour at the end of January 2001. Holland's Extrema festival asked Andy to mix the CD for their July 2001 event, which they distributed to 6000 lucky Dutch clubbers. He also played on the main stage alongside Lucien Foort, Nick Warren and Danny Howells amongst others. It was whilst playing for Extrema that Andy teamed up with Dutch booker Peter van Hal (john-doe@planet.nl), who now exclusively handles Andy's management.
Other gigs have seen Andy playing all over Europe alongside DJ's as diverse as Josh Wink, DJ Remy and Chris Fortier... He has just returned from Greece where he's been playing in Athens to promote a front cover photo shoot, mix CD and feature in Greece's largest dance magazine Fast Forward. Andy has also recently been signed to UGS Management USA www.ugsoundmgmt.com and www.propulsion-media.com with various a tours of America already under his belt. Wax magazine featured Andy in their latest issue and he's recently returned from a 5th tour of Australia playing gigs such as Slinky and Two Tribes as a headlining DJ alongside Seb Fontaine, Steve Lawler, Goldie and Pete Heller. He now produces under 3 monikers - Andy Jarrod, Blakstone and Black Jesus and has just remixed the new Trancesetters single for Hooj Choons and the new Dario G single for Manifesto. Current production projects include his remix of Madoka's huge 'If We begin' and breaks legend Chris Carter's new 'Botty Funk' single. He has also completed mix albums Vapourised 3, for Vapour Recordings in Australia and the Extrema 2002 CD after his Dutch festival success last year. Andy has recently been asked to mix live on Radio stations in America, Turkey and Canada where he's just returned from a mammoth 6 hours set at Toronto's legendary Guvernment club. London's I Crunch Radio have also asked him to mix live on Digital TV to an estimated audience of 2 million people.
As a Director of 3 Beat Label Management Ltd in Liverpool (www.3beat.co.uk), part of the world famous 3 Beat Music Empire, Andy oversees manufacture, promotion, marketing and distribution for some of the world's finest underground house labels including Vapour Recordings, Sog Records, Deep Records Sunkissed Records, Teknology and Zero Tolerance amongst others. He's also joined forces with long time friends and nu skool breaks Kings Koma & Bones to launch Forged Recordings, a label focusing on cool break-beat and 4/4 house. The label now up to it's 10th release has formed a huge following all over the planet. Andy, together with 3 Beat, has also secured a bi-monthly residency in the Annexe at Liverpool's famous Cream. With an ever-increasing DJ schedule that has saw him play in every continent in 2001, it look sure that 2002 will be the year Andy breaks through to the masses.
www.AndyJarrod.com
Discography
Single production to date
Andy Jarrod - The Fourth K - (Forged Recordings 2001)
Jarrod & Gilbey - Corixa Parts 3&4 - (Choo Choo Records 2001)
Black Jesus - Muizich - (Forged Recordings 2001)
Blakstone - Superfrill - (Vapour Recordings 2001)
Blakstone - One Thing - (Vapour Recordings 2000).
Jarrod & Gilbey - Venom - (Choo Choo Records ’98).
Jarrod & Gilbey - Deliverance - (Choo Choo Records ’98).
Andy Jarrod - Corixa Parts 1&2 - (Choo Choo Records ’97).
Andy Jarrod - Storm Cycle - (Generis Recordings ’97).
Remixes to Date
Madoka - If We Begin (Jarrod’s 667 Dub) - Deep Records 2002
Trancesetters - The Saga (Jarrod vs Freeloader Remix) - Hooj Choons - 2002
Dario G - Don’t You Cry (Jarrod vs Freeloader Remix) - Manifesto - 2002
Chris Carter - What Sounds Are (Jarrod vs Freeloader rmx) - Forged 2001
Paul Van Dyk presents Tranceparents - Child 2 - Forward Rmx - Devolution 2001
Natious - Digital Hymn Jarrod & Gilbey mix - Triple XXX 2000
Paris Red - Git Wit Me - Jarrod & Gilbey mix - Glow Records ’99
Oudja - Never Tell - Jarrod & Gilbey mix - Bonzai Records ’99
Blue Planet Corporation - Micromega - Jarrod & Gilbey mix -Flying Rhino ’98 |
