Dieselboy (Damian Higgins, American drum and bass DJ)

Damian Higgins (born 1972) better known by his stage name Dieselboy, is an American drum and bass DJ and music producer. Dieselboy was born Damian Higgins in Tarpon Springs, Florida in 1972. At the age of six he moved to Colorado City, Colorado, where he and his two sisters were raised by their mother. He moved with his family to Oil City, Pennsylvania, on the third day of school in the 9th grade, and is a graduate of Oil City Senior High School. He is the eldest son of singer-songwriter Bertie Higgins. Higgins's early musical experience included playing drums in a school marching band and DJing for high school dances. Higgins attended the University of Pittsburgh from 1990 to 1995 where he gained additional DJing experience, and completed a degree in information science. He also played on a Carnegie Mellon University radio station (WRCT).[citation needed] The name Dieselboy originated from Higgins's IRC handle, "Diesel". Upon discovering a local graffiti artist shared the alias, he "made it Dieselboy." In 1994, Higgins released a mixtape titled "The Future Sound of Hardcore," selling approximately 100 copies through online LISTSERV networks, which led to initial performance bookings on the East Coast. In 1996, at the request of Dan Donnelly of British Drum and bass label Suburban Base, Dieselboy did a mix called "DrumAndBass Selection USA". In 1997, Suburban Base had him follow up with 97 Octane, this time allowing him to submit track suggestions, resulting in a more varied selection. In 1998, his mix called 611 DJ Mix-series Vol. One was released. Dieselboy did the graphics for the cover. In 1998, Higgins recorded the mix ''Director's Cut'', which was packaged in physical film cans.[citation needed] In 1998, Dieselboy initiated Philadelphia's first 21+ drum 'n' bass weekly Thursday club night entitled "Platinum" at club Fluid, which ended on October 14, 2004. Platinum residents included Dieselboy, Kaos, Method One, Sine, Icon, Karl K, Mason, and MC's Dub2, Messinian, Armanni Reign, Sharpness, and Illy Emcee. The club night resumed in late 2009 with performers Mason, Sine, Messinian, and Sharpness. In 1999, Dieselboy released his fourth mix CD, "A Soldier's Story" on the Moonshine label. The album included his first original introduction track and marked his debut as a producer with "Atlantic State", co-produced with Technical Itch. His subsequent mix album, System Upgrade (2000), was also released on Moonshine. Higgins later signed with Palm Pictures and Island Recordings, releasing the tracks "The Descent", "Invid", and "Render". His double-CD mix album, The 6ixth Session, was released on Palm Pictures.[citation needed] In a 2000 interview with JIVE Magazine, Dieselboy discussed his roots and the rising popularity of drum and bass music, "Well, when I started playing there wasn't drum and bass per se[sic], but I was playing stuff that was prototype drum and bass, stuff that led up to it, like early break beat and it was called dark side which is like fast dark breakbeat. I couldn't have predicted it, I definitely wanted it to become more popular, my goal was to get more people into it and open up the scene a little bit. I hold onto my goal on that...I wouldn't have predicted that it was going to be where it is, that [DNB] would be in commercials or that I was going end up DJ-ing so much." In January 2022, Dieselboy founded Destroyer Design, a graphic design agency offering design, creative direction, and branding services, primarily for food and beverage industry clients. In July 2018, Dieselboy co-founded a streetwear company called Death Saves, specializing in metal and fantasy-themed apparel, in collaboration with actor Joe Manganiello. Dieselboy served as the Design Director for Death Saves. The mixtape The Destroyer 2 featured Corey Burton, a voice actor, providing the intro vocals. Dieselboy has been involved in various clothing collaborations, including work with NEO4IC (formerly Damascus Apparel) in San Diego. On August 13, 2023, Dieselboy hosted his inaugural drum and bass event in New York City, named 'Big Drum and Bass Party', in collaboration with promotion company Driven AM. Dieselboy released his 93-track, 87-minute mix "Dieselboy – The Destroyer" on August 5, 2014. The mix and its art incorporate the aesthetics of his 2014 tour as Blood, Sweat and Bass with bass music producer Downlink and 1970s exploitation films. It includes a new collaboration with drum and bass producer Gridlok called "MDMX," and three tracks by Faces of Def, a new collaborative project between Dieselboy and Mark the Beast ["Blvck Celebration" with Counterstrike (SubHuman); "Carcosa" with Mayhem and Downlink (SubHuman); remix of "Tuh Tuh Duh" by Sinister Souls (PRSPCT)]. On January 31, 2014, Dieselboy and bass music artist Downlink teamed up to launch a DJ touring project known as BLOOD, SWEAT AND BASS. The duo completed five concert tours across the United States and Canada with various featured support artists. On January 31, 2011, Dieselboy released his first new mix in two and a half years, "Dieselboy – Unleashed!", as a free download on SoundCloud. He also performed with Skrillex. In 2012 he released the mix "Wake The Dead" on SoundCloud. On May 23, 2013, Dieselboy's mix "Beyond the Black Bassline" was released by Skrillex's then new NEST HQ website. In May 2008, Dieselboy released his ninth major mix-CD Substance D (Human Imprint), which reached the Billboard Dance/Electronic album chart. In conjunction with this release, Dieselboy initiated the "Monsters of Jungle" tour with rotating Human Imprint label artists including Evol Intent, Ewun, Demo, Mayhem, SPKTRM, Infiltrata and MC Messinian. In 2006, Dieselboy released his first Human Imprint compilation called "The HUMAN Resource". Disc One Selected Works, is a 12-song un-mixed selection. Disc Two Evol Intent Assemble the Monster features a continuous DJ-mix from Evol Intent. In the summer of 2000, Dieselboy contributed to the formation of the drum and bass DJ crew called "Planet of the Drums", alongside AK1200, DJ Dara, and MC Messinian. In July 2009, Human Imprint parted amicably from System Recordings. In summer 2010, Human relaunched with Steve Gordon of Steez Promo and Circle Management as new co-owner with Dieselboy, and they created the SubHuman for dubstep and electro releases. On New Year's Eve 2009, Higgins performed a three-hour multi-genre set including drum and bass, dubstep, and electro at an event in Washington, D.C. He continued using this open format layout through 2010.[citation needed] In 2014, Higgins began participating in commercial kitchen events following his work as a culinary writer for the website FirstWeFeast.com. He cooked a sold-out collaboration dinner with respected chefs Matt McCallister and Alex Stupak at FT33 restaurant in Dallas on June 9, 2014. Dieselboy competed in a nacho battle against chef Alex Stupak at Empellón Cocina in New York in February 2013, which he lost. He came back to face off against chefs Alex Stupak, Michael Anthony, Wylie Dufresne and Seamus Mullen in February 2014, beating Mullen. Dieselboy assisted chefs Dave Beran (Chicago), Daniel Patterson (San Francisco), and Christina Tosi (New York City) at an Art Basel dinner hosted by Questlove in Miami on December 6, 2014. In November 2014, Dieselboy's cooking was featured at his first "pop-up" event called "Burger Night with Dieselboy" at the Groningen, Netherlands restaurant De Boom, preceding his DJ performance at Subsonic nightclub. In January 2015, another pop-up hamburger event took place at P60 cafe in Amstelveen, Netherlands as a prelude to his DJ gig at the P60 club. In 2012, Dieselboy was a co-presenter with mixologist Jim Meehan (PDT, New York City) and chef/designer Taavo Somer at the Origins and Frontiers mixology workshop at the 7th Annual StarChefs.com International Chefs Congress in New York City. Dieselboy's cocktail "The Higgins" is published in The New York Times' cocktail writer