Music has, and will always be a true passion. It started back in the day when I fell in love with one particular track, ‘Tour de France’ by Kraftwerk. It became the very first piece of vinyl I bought. The song gained an insane amount of plays at home. This obviously led to an embarrassing wardrobe collection, crappy B Boy moves and an ever growing array of cassette tapes which I mixed on a double cassette boombox, whilst annoying the crap out of my parents. Obviously the daily decibel level was totally inappropriate for Boomers.

Teleport four years. Paul Souber rocked up to a friend’s house with his DJ set up. At the time he was playing Bat Mitzvah’s and birthday parties, which in my eyes was a bonafide big time DJ.

I hadn’t seen a set up like that before. I had no clue how to mix, however, after clumsily playing a couple of records on those wheels of destiny, I was totally addicted. The prospect of graphic design and being an architect was out the window, electronic music was now my future.

A few weeks later I purchased my first set of decks, practiced, scratched and beat matched every spare second I had.

A good friend persuaded me to send a DJ mix tape to a pirate radio station in north London. For those that don’t know, pirate radio is illegal in the UK. These type of stations have been around since the late 70’s, then based on boats, thus the name Pirate Radio.

Needless to say, with their popularity the police had their own force called the DTI that would raid illegal stations and ruin the party. This resulted in fleeing the law multiple times, most famously a 48 hour party a few houses away from Abbey Road studios. You’ll know the place from the zebra crossing outside, The Beatles made it iconic. That raid caused absolute mayhem, but thats a story for… not here.

Amazingly the radio station, Touchdown FM heard the tape, and liked it. They gave me a daytime time slot on Saturdays. One issue, I have a phobia of public speaking that no one knew about. Upon rocking up to my first live set, a room full of scary looking guys in a squat watched as I couldn’t speak, hands shaking like I was purposely trying to destroy my records. James came to the rescue, grabbed the mike, started MC’ing and that was part of our act for years to come.

I started getting DJ gigs in London, clubs like Turmills, Club DaDa, The Rocket, Ministry Of Sound and others. The money was rubbish but the buzz electrifying, better than any chemical high. Next step, learn how to produce.

I have no clue how I met Ollie, he’s now the lead singer of Arkana. Probably had something to do with me having a few dates with his sister, but I still can’t remember meeting him. Anyway our first session together in the studio and we clicked.

One night doing the graveyard shift in Rollover Studios, we crafted a single ‘Underground Confusion’ by Sly T (I know, bad name) and Ollie J (way better). It was a full on rave single. Big vocals, all about rushing and ecstasy come ups. The single got traction, embraced by the UK rave scene and bingo, we had a UK tour lined up. Unfortunately, in typical Tony fashion, the night we met our tour manager, I had been DJj’ing at another club in London. I took way too many pills and / or powders, rocking up for our first performance an absolute mess. I was even worse on stage. Ollie was all business, I was all party. I ended up passing out after the performance in front of the tour manager. Needless to say, Monday morning the label called and the tour was cancelled. They did however pick up the second single, which was nice but that was the end of that chapter.

Four years passed. In that time I’d gone back to college to learn Music Technology and Sound Engineering. I worked as a ‘Tape Op’ in a famous recording studio in London, run by a big time coke dealer. Yep more stories there.

I‘d had sporadic DJ gigs, released about ten singles but nothing hit hard. I was toying with two genres, Progressive House and Trance, using various guises including TR Junior, Samui, Slap N Tickle, Triptonic. However hard I tried though I couldn’t make a living from the business.

Then came ‘Mojito’, the song, not cocktail. I’d been working on this song with pushy tribal elements for a while, determined to design the biggest build up and drop that would create a frenzy with clubbers. I thought I might have nailed it.

Within a week the track was signed. Pete Tong took it under his wing, making ‘Mojito’ record of the week on his BBC Radio 1 show,. He then proceeded to play it five weeks in a row. The cogs started turning. Before I knew it, every DJ in every club from London to Ibiza was playing the song.

I jumped at the traction, releasing a follow up ‘Schrigger’ on Player 1, then another high octane build up track Pachinko’ on Platipus. This concreted my style. The the next four years became an absolute whirlwind of electronic music heaven. I was remixing for the major record labels, signing contracts most weeks, DJ’ing all over the world. Life was good.

I engaged a manager, a beautiful soul called Jean-Nicole who ran a DJ / Producer agency and S&M events for the disconcerting. He managed to drag me to one of his more elusive S&M nights, that opened my eyes to a whole new world.

His belief in me led to DJ’ing in Mexico, Thailand, Japan, Europe. Guest spots on mainstream radio stations, impromptu interviews he never told me about (this was to ensure I did them). Signing with Ministry Of Sound, producing over 40 singles, remixing the cream of the crop and having the best years anyone in their twenties could ever ask for.

As with most things though, the honeymoon stage never lasts. Five years had passed and the dance music scene crashed. Some say it was Napster, others that clubbers were simply bored of the drug menu, but It caught everyone off guard. It was our business and someone pulled the rug from under us.

Myself and fellow producer friends panicked, we had mortgages, responsibilities. We looked at various options and tried other music ventures. Nearly two years of development, late nights, arguments, sweat and tears, but those ventures failed.

I was bouncing back and forth between Europe and South East Asia, needing a change. My ex persuaded me to move to Australia. I was ready to move to Italy, but I’m so glad she nudged me in the Australasia direction. This is when Zenhiser was born. A sound design company specialising in samples, loops and presets for the electronic music market.

At the time very few sample companies existed, especially online. I think myself and Loopmasters were the only ones supplying digital downloads.

It started with a simplistic website, a small catalogue, plus a burning desire to make this work. And it did. Over the years Zenhiser has grown into a sensational company if I do say so. Not because of me (well a bit), but our team of producers who create such inspirational catalogue in genres from Breaks to Trap, Psytrance to Deep House.

Five years in Splice’s Top 10 has solidified the brand and concretes the fact that what we do is right on the money. I couldn’t be any prouder.

For now, this is me. 9-5pm, Monday to Friday, surrounded by electronic music (with a little surf, walk in the national park and a bit of gym chucked in). Out of the office it’s another ball game. A world of eclectic music plays through speakers in every room of my house. I mean every room, even the shower has one! Anything and everything is fair game in Casa Rapacioli, from ‘Hollywood Nights’ by Bob Segar to ‘La Femme D’argent’ by Air. For music isn’t one genre, one style, or one preference. Music is a universal language, it speaks the unspeakable, turns sounds into emotions, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say, it could possibly be humans finest invention.