Born in 1984 in Vancouver, BC., Michael has undergone many transformations and accrued many names for himself as an artist. Catharines, Ontario, he began his journey into music with classical piano lessons. He took piano for many years, experimenting with DAWs like Adobe Audition 1.5 and making industrial music influenced by Trent Reznor and other artists as early as 18. He became interested in co
mputing while he was still in high school, taking courses in computer science and learning basic computer programming languages like Turing, Pascal and Visual Basic. He worked as a computer technician for several years, building PCs from scratch and learning about hardware peripherals through hands on experience... but change was coming for him. It became apparent, when he moved to Toronto in 2004, that his musical ability could be of use to his contemporaries. He began performing at open mic nights as an emcee, but it was his introduction to Lamont and D.B. Hawkes in 2007 that led to him taking up the mantle of "producer" once and for all. He started making hip hop beats under the name "Redarick Beatchild" for his friends and partners in crime, using unorthodox synthesizer bits and unique sonic architecture from his experience in the world of computing and his love for electronic music. He took up DJing at around this time, mixing mostly 70s funk and soul records in Kensington Market where he used to manage a record shop. This is where he met his future business partner, Matthew Cashman (Sixth Dimension) and formed Red Gorilla Productions and later the "Kensington Dub Hub(aka DUB HUB TORONTO)". The duo began performing their energetic house, dubstep and glitch hop shows in the area, even playing at Kensington Market's Pedestrian Sunday on a few occasions to rave reviews. At the suggestion of his longtime friend Shayne Jackson, he signed to Fizx Recordings. In 2013, after a year of hard work and progress, Michael released his first album "Chaos Engine" under the moniker 'Slamsterdam'. He teamed up with Andrei Mihailescu in 2014 to form the dynamic duo 'The MANDROIDZ' and began practicing Live P.A. This attracted the attention of local performance artist Brooke Stubbings (one half of Itchy and the Infectious) and they began performing regularly at Nuts and Volts (a Live P.A. producer showcase). His exposure to the burgeoning underground Techno and Witch House scenes began to influence his style and soon after he began producing abstract, atmospheric music under the name "D X X M C V B V L". He also started working on music based on the atrocities of organized religion and occultism and became a founding member of †††Madrigal†††. Tempered by his love for Drum and Bass music, he began working again under the name Slamsterdam to release his next album "Overkill" in 2015, featuring all Drum and Bass. He opened for UK legend Bailey at Coalition and provided support for other acts such as Frankie Gunns, RMS, DCision, Love Hz, Nephilim, Grizzy Gram, Remedy, Maddi Qwikkstep and many more. His style began to take on elements of multiple influencing sources. His time working with the more technical members of Fizx Recordings led to him attempting various sonic experiments and dabbling in breakcore and IDM. His releases began to get more refined and he decided that it was time to retire the name Slamsterdam to reflect his evolution as an artist. In August of 2015, he released his final album as Slamsterdam, titled "Slamsterdam is DEAD" and disappeared from the spotlight. This was not the last we would see of him, however. After a year of working behind the scenes on other projects, he finally released two new tracks under a new alias: Drivebyee. Based on the world of computing and featuring a style that is both reminiscent of the analog era and deeply saturated in modern digital recording techniques, Drivebyee has made his presence known in a big way. His first single release, (credited as Xodan - Surrender), was picked up in 2016 by Sub:LVL Audio (Detroit) and included on their compilation "We are Sub:LVL 3" (available on Beatport). He then attended Trebas Institute (Toronto), where he was trained by some of the best Engineers, Producers, Musicians and DJs in the world to lay down the foundation of Canada's evolution as music innovators. Look over your shoulder... Drivebyee is coming.
