In the beginning there was jack.

My love affair with electronic dance music began before I even knew what a rave was. I was just 12 years old when my uncle handed me a burned CD that would unknowingly rewire my soul. On it? Legends like Bad Boy Bill, Nick Warren, and Mark Farina—sounds that pulsed with energy, mystery, and freedom. It wasn’t just music; it was a door into a whole other world.

By 16, that world became real. I started driving to San Francisco every weekend to dance until sunrise at places like Kelly’s Mission Rock, completely captivated by the culture, the lights, the bass that felt like truth. I was part of the beginning of EPR (Electro Pop Rocks)—an underground Wednesday night party that started in Berkeley and eventually made its iconic home at 715 Harrison Street, becoming a weekly ritual that raised a generation of ravers.

At 20, I followed the call of the bass and moved to San Francisco, fully immersed in the scene that shaped me. It wasn’t long before I started throwing my own events, collaborating with DJs and promoters to co-create magic. My journey then led me into music journalism as a writer for TheDJList.com, where I had the surreal opportunity to interview and meet the artists who once lived on those burnt CDs—Flux Pavilion, Kaskade, FuntCase, Skream, and so many others who changed the game and lit up my life.

EDM didn’t just give me music.

It gave me purpose, community, expression, and direction.

It gave me family.

It gave me understanding, therapy, life.

It gives me reason.