Now when I first joined this site back in yonder days, the internet was a big ocean, with lots of little pools to hide in, like this very site for one, which has treated me very well over the last couple of years.  Lately, it has started closing in.  This little pool has got bigger and attracted more attention, and I have got fatter.

When I joined, I, like everyone else, had to choose a name that I felt represented my music or at least sounded cool. To me, that name was Virus

It seem a logical progression for me.  You see ( boring history lesson alert) after the previous CD I released (only 10 copies of, made with my old Atari-based studio) under the name 'The Original Contagious Specialist', which originally came from the Wu-Tang Clan name generator somewhere on the internet.  That name had special significance to me and the crowd that I worked and played with in Reading at the time, for obscure reasons that I won’t bore you with, but basically it stuck.  Lets just say that my house during those years was a bit of a free-fire zone for various hedonistic and slightly nefarious activities that never stopped until I actually uprooted and left the country to get away from it all ....err..where was I?  So yeah...but there are several artists all with that same name.  At least a couple in dnb called DJ Contagious Specialist so I went with Virus.  Still following?

That figure is none other than long-time dnb label Virus Recordings, founded by dnb producers Ed Rush and Optical, artists who I must admit to have probably influenced me slightly, though I wouldn’t know it, having always been too  out of my face at raves and clubs to know who was playing, what they were playing or even what genre of music I was dancing to.   I was just having a good time.Anyway...

I knew at some stage that if I ever wanted to have anything released commercially, I would to need to change my artist name.  I was told this by one dude from a label in fact and I started to take myself more seriously.  I’ve even been wondering just lately if this problem with my name is actually preventing me getting signed.

So, I am now Phage. You know, after the little fella that is my avatar, he's a phage. I will miss the name Virus, I've had it for longer than any other and acheived more with it, but its time to make that next step before I get rich and famous, which will no doubt happen very soon.

I just wanted you guys to know first of all.