When Captain Badazz was just a little badazz, he would spend hours and hours alone in his room listening to music by James Brown, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Sly & The Family Stone, Earth Wind & Fire, Queen, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and the Beatles.
“Those artists and records brought such joy & happiness into my life. They were my school. And they allowed me to dream and travel to places & emotions I had never imagined.”
Badazz came from a musical family. His father, a professional drummer, would begin teaching him drums at age 6. He would often practice drums, on his drum pad, while his mother played Beethoven & Tchaikovsky pieces on the piano. At age 7 he began to play trumpet in the school orchestra. “My uncle was a pretty well known trumpet player and a pretty cool guy, so I thought, If I play trumpet, I will be cool too.”
Big family holiday dinners would find grandpa playing his mandolin, grandma playing her violin, while old aunt Dorothy would be dancing with her accordion. “It wasn’t a pretty sight but the music brought laughter and fun to what would have been another boring family dinner in front of the television.
In high school Badazz was so glad to be a musician playing in the marching band and orchestra. “It got me out of P.E. and allowed me to leave classes early for rehearsals, performances, and field trips.” "I wasn't really an academic person." He was always pretty much a loner. He followed his own fashion, listened to his own music, and did his own thing without regard or concern as to what others thought. “If everyone is going right, I want to be going left.” While other kids were going to parties, dance clubs, and hanging at the beach, he was up in his room hooking up electronic synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, echoplexes, and recording them into a very primitive music computer called the Atari ST. It was during this time that Captain Badazz got his name. “I would often have friends come over to do weird voices or play some percussion parts. One friend would always say, ’your shit is so bad-ass’. So after awhile people were calling me Badass. One night we were having a party and doing some background vocals while drinking way too many Wild Turkeys. Someone knocked on the door and a friend of one of the singers arrived and she introduced me as Captain Badass.” During his 4 years at art school while taking classes in animation, graphic design, theater, photography, and world music, he began to mix his psychedelic stew of electronic funk, pop, rock n rap. “Being around creative artists 24/7 opened my eyes and mind to so many other interesting creative worlds that I never knew existed.” Badazz has worked as a musician, songwriter, arranger, mixer, producer and singer on many great hit records. As a songwriter, his most famous song is, “Hypnotize”, recorded by Notorious “Biggie” B.I.G. Badazz wrote the music/beat for that worldwide #1 hit record. Captain Badazz creates unique records with great beats, great sounds, and great feel. He is in his own unique world still going left while everyone is going right… Steve Katz |