With a brimming dance music resume including
international DJ and producer, and an innovative soul to match,
Dave Ralph is a dedicated music enthusiast. His track record
in providing clubbers with memorable DJ sets, unforgettable
club nights, quality vinyl and critically hailed mix CDs have
all garnered him a place in the hearts of millions. Turning
his back on the snobbery often associated with the dance scene,
Dave has been influential in breaking down barriers within
the genre and outside of it, in the spirit of good times,
the dance floor, and great music!
As a DJ for more than two decades, as well as a recording
artist and producer since 1989, Dave Ralph first built a name
for himself in the UK. In his early days as a teenager in
Liverpool, he kicked his career off by putting a mobile DJ
unit together with a friend in order to provide a much-needed
outlet for "good music." He soon built a name for
himself in his hometown where he was lucky enough to make
a living from his hobby. "We got better and better and
began earning money," Dave says now. "It's the best
training ground in the world for being any kind of DJ. It
teaches you to look at a crowd and entertain them." His
specialty became mixing rock and pop with soul, funk, and
disco. Then Dave stumbled across house music in 1986, upon
hearing Fingers Inc's "The Washing Machine." This
pivotal moment was followed by a trip to see Sasha in 1989,
where he fell firmly under the spell of dance music.
At a time in the early '90s when the club scene in Britain
was undergoing a renaissance, Dave was one of the DJs at the
helm, mixing techno with house and trance, and providing clubbers
with a night of an "anything goes" party atmosphere.
Dave was instrumental in bringing new sounds from around the
world to clubs across the UK (in fact, he was the first person
ever to bring Paul van Dyk to England to spin). He also wrote,
reworked and sang on the Bassheads' classic "Is Anybody
Out There" while establishing his own GLOW Records.
Dave spent two years as Paul Oakenfold's support DJ of choice,
which gave him the opportunity to travel the globe honing
his skills for international crowds. He later became resident
DJ for Cream in Ibiza, where he spent summers performing for
three consecutive years. It was there in 1996, during a four-hour
set celebrating Oakenfold's birthday, where he was offered
a spot on BT's US tour. In 1998, he returned to the US with
Oakenfold for the Tranceport tour. Following the massive success
of Oakenfold's 'Tranceport' CD (the best-selling album of
its kind at the time), Dave mixed its successor 'Tranceport
II' (1999). His next release, 'Love Parade: Berlin' (2000),
was an homage to Germany's massive Love Parade, the celebrated
daylong festival where clubbers congregate on the streets
of Berlin to celebrate dance music. His work with Mike Koglin
under the moniker of the Argonauts also won him hyperbolic
praise. The singles "Sommertag" and "Fruhlingstag"
have been considered two of the most influential tunes in
Trance.
Dave Ralph's last mix CD, 'Naturalized' (2001), was a double-disc
release - his third offering since relocating to America from
his native Liverpool, England in 1999. Now fully settled Stateside
(first in Miami and now in Massachusetts) and enjoying the
success of numerous mix CDs and his DJ career, Dave is dabbling
in film score opportunities and has started his very own label
and publishing company, RFactor Recordings and RFactor Music,
respectively. Both will be a vehicle to put out his own work,
as well as to support a lot of other artists he's had the
pleasure of working with in the last couple of years. "I
want the label to be a family," Dave says. "Not
a vehicle to make money, but a vehicle to make music. If the
music's good, the money will come."
Dave's newest project is a double-CD set as well: 'Resident
Alien'. "Records that made me go 'ooohh' were about the
only criteria for this mix," he says. Beginning with
"Deep Sound", a favorite which he feels never received
the exposure it should have, the album takes the listener
on a melodic journey. "Full Contact", a piano tune
produced by Dave with Alex Whalen, serves as an intense stepping-stone
to the next stage of the album, giving way to "In Your
Eyes", a lush vocal track that is another of Dave's favorite
tunes and exemplifies who Dave is musically. CD2 gives a bit
of insight into the music and personal thoughts of Dave Ralph
via a mega-mix of forthcoming tracks from RFactor Records
and bonus video footage of Dave DJing and speaking about various
topics on his mind. Dave's goal with this record "I
hope 'Resident Alien' will make people happy; we all need
a little smile now and again."
