Biography
In late 2014, Chicago born and raised DJ/producer YOGI decided to re-brand himself and ditched the "YOGI" name he had used for decades, and take on the new name "YOGS". Over the years, the YOGI name had started to get used more and more by others, and searches on music sites became confusing. Also, he thought it would be a good opportunity to mark a change in his production career, focusing back on his main love of "Real" house music (although he still likes to play around with other genres, and uses to name YOGZ for these productions). He has had releases on Moody Recordings, Broken Records, Manufactured Music, Shift Axis, and DUBTRXX. He also is planning on the re-launch of his label Water Tower Music. A label focused on his beloved House music.
For the time before the name change, this is how the story developed. In 1991, YOGI got his first set of Technic 1200's, and thus began his active journey into dance music. He would faithfully listen to and study the techniques he heard on Chicago radio mix shows. He spent countless hours practicing REAL mixing. His play lists were heavily House music influenced, although, being a lover of all music styles, he often incorporated hip hop / R&B, new wave / synthpop, freestyle, techno, and industrial into his sets. After years of playing gigs at all the local colleges and universities, he hooked up with one of Chicago's biggest promoters, and began playing at some of Chicago's biggest and most legendary and iconic clubs.
After a few years, YOGI decided to take up production, and put DJing on the back burners. In early 2000, he released tracks on his first vinyl record label Ohm Records, and later in 2004, released tracks on his Noir Music label. These tracks were well received, and topped all the major national record pool charts.
Flash forward a couple of years, YOGI decided to pursue some new career options, and didn't have time to dedicate the appropriate amount of focus to production. He would still DJ for fun.
In 2009, with some newly found free time, YOGI decided to get back into production, and started making custom mashups, and then slowly got back into full-on original dance music tracks. By late 2010, in the new era of digital labels, his productions started to get recognition and were signed to domestic and international labels.
In early 2011, YOGI decided to get back into the label game, and formed the Lotus Music Group. The group, which includes sub-labels LMG (prog/bigroom) Nataraja (trance), Carpe Noctem (tech) and Water Tower (House), would serve as an outlet to release dance music not only for YOGI's productions, but for up and coming producers throughout the world. Releases from these labels received huge support from international DJs, like Eric Morillo, Matt Darey, Sister Bliss (Faithless), Ivan Gough, Markus Schulz, Roger Sanchez, Robert Owens, Tom Novy, Syke 'n' Sugarstarr, Omid 16b, Larry Tee, Brandon Block, Roog, Benny Royal, Etienne Ozborne, Those Usual Suspects, Mike Rizzo, Cicada, Johnny Vicious, Steve Murrell, D.O.N.S, and resident DJs at places like Ministry of Sound, Pacha Ibiza, Pacha NYC, Space Miami, Space Ibiza, Cocoon, Mansion, Haven, and Nikki Beach.
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