Phil Hiett

Growing up in a musical house, it was unsurprising Phil got into music. After being recognised as having vocal talent, Phil was handpicked to join the renowned Chelmsford Cathedral Choir at the age of 7. He stayed there for 5 years, becoming immersed in the complexities of four part choral music. He took up the violin at the same time as well as singing in other choirs. After progressing to secondary school, he applied these skills to participate in various bands and orchestras. It was during the late 90s that the first trickles of dance music entered his life.

His lifelong friend at the time (Scott Bowman) purchased a set of decks and some imported vinyl. It was after listening to one of these records that Phil, aged 12, realised he had just fallen in love with dance music, and more specifically this strange new sound he was told was called Trance. The track that did it was ‘Energy 52’ from Café Del Mar ’98. From that moment on  Phil knew his calling was on the dance floor rather than in the concert hall. Ditching the choir and the violin, Phil took up the drums and DJing. Phil taught himself how to mix - starting out on a pair of Soundlab Direct Drive turntables gained from Father Christmas.  He also started building up a vinyl collection. After falling in love with DJing, he started playing out alongside fellow deejay Scott Bowman. Playing house parties, birthdays, weddings and the odd Christmas party the DJing duo learned the art of working a crowd. After mastering the art of mixing Phil decided to evolve onto the next facet of dance music – production, whilst Scott went on to DJ solo.

Phil started making his first tracks aged 15 - starting off using a free version of Cubase on a 486 PC and a Korg i5S. Taking influences from all the music he listened to the tracks were an eclectic mixture of everything from breaks to hardcore to classical to trance. Over the next few years Phil continued to practice his studio skills and build up his equipment, whilst continuing to put on the occasional party. Trying to integrate these skills into his school curriculum, Phil chose to do Music Technology at A-Level. He managed a respectable grade vven though there was no one there to teach the subject!  Fed up with his school taking no interest in his skill, he shunned the normal selection of Universities and went to Rose Bruford College, an arts school specialising in Music and Theatre. Here his creative flux was moulded into a slick production machine. It was whilst creating this degree that his production style was narrowed down to purely house and trance, with a sprinkling of the beats that break. It was for the final project of this degree he created The Second Coming, his first full length professionally produced CD.

After getting behind the decks a couple of times at the start of Uni life, Phil was constantly requested back to DJ at house parties in order to properly blow the roof off. This peaked in the second year of Uni, when Phil put on the largest party the small college had ever seen…leaving something of a legend behind.

Now aged 21, he has completed the degree, and is looking forward to what life will bring…..