“Vinyl has been part of our lives since we were both kids. It became a bigger part of our lives when we were teenagers and discovered mixing and scratching. Bill discovered mixing when listening to The Hot Mix 5 (legendary mix show DJs) on WBMX Radio in Chicago. I discovered mixing vinyl when I went to club to hear my first DJ(Boris) at a club called Marilyn’s in Pasadena. I didn’t know how to dance at the time so I just stood there watching the DJ and that night changed my life.”
“We both spent the early years honing our crafts at various clubs and parties. I was playing house parties, school dances, and all ages clubs early on. I made a name for myself in LA which led to mixing on KDAY and eventually moving over to Power 106. At Power 106 I created the longest running dance mixshow on radio, Powertools.
Bill DJ’d local parties as well as entered and won a bunch of DJ battles. He began throwing parties as well and his mixes caught the attention of Chicago Radio Stations WGCI and WBMX, where he began mixing at the young age of 16 years old, making him the youngest mixer on radio. Later, Bill moved on to mixing on B96 and won the Mix Show DJ of the year award at the WMC Music conference in Miami. It was something we both loved doing more than anything else in the world!
We met in the early ’90s in Chicago. I was in a techno group called The Movement that Bill had booked for a club appearance. I saw Bill DJing after our performance and I was impressed by his skills on the turntables. We both had a lot of similarities in our styles. We instantly became friends and we started sending each other records. Bill would send me records that were coming out of Chicago that I could not get in LA. I would send techno imports that he couldn’t get in Chicago. This exchange of records eventually led us to working together. We’ve put out 2 mixed CDs that kind of became the staple of the mix CD market, House Connection 1 and 2.
As technology began to progress, vinyl faded out of our DJ sets as well as for every DJ in the world in the early 2000s. CDs became the new standard and everyone and their mom became a DJ. This year something was in the air that would draw us back to vinyl. People started calling DJs ‘Button Pushers,’ DJs were playing pre-recorded sets and the art of DJing was getting lost. We realized there was a new generation that had never seen a DJ play vinyl! We came up with a crazy idea, play vinyl again—the Back To Vinyl Tour.
We took it step further by pressing up a whole new set of vinyl just for our DJ set. We wanted to play NEW music on vinyl. We connected with Capsule Labs pressing plant and told them our idea, and they were all in. We’re doing a 25 city tour playing all vinyl. There’s a whole different energy when you’re playing vinyl that we never realized. It brings a more live element to the dance floor where everything is not perfect, but that imperfection is what makes everything perfect.”
—Richard Vission and Bad Boy Bill
Bad Boy Bill Official | Facebook | Twitter
Richard Vission Official | Facebook | Twitter
