Greg K
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Biografía
- He sent out demos to many labels, but after not hearing back from any he decided he was going to create his own reality and start a label, and 12 Stepp Music came to life. The first release was pressed on vinyl and with original tracks from Olin, Jorge..Greg K was born in the country of Poland to his parents Mariola and Les Kusnierz. His mother did most of the raising early on as his father was off at sea as a navigator of Cargo ships. At the age of 3, he was given gift, his sister Klaudia, although early on he may have not thought so. His childhood was filled with visits to Grama's and Grandpa's farm which brought play with chickens, rides on the tractor with his Grandpa, and his Gramas home made ponchki, polish donuts filled with jelly. His aunts Ewa and Dorota had a major influence on him as he remembers spending lots of time with them. Ewa, the artist in the family and Dorota the brains took great pride in taking care of him. His toy car collection was one he loved to share with his friends in games of race car dragging, and he loved to play a game of bottle caps in the sand where you carved out a course through the sand and each person hit the bottle cap one shot at a time, if the bottle cap exited the course it had to return to the last position, until the winner crossed the finish line. He also spent lots of time with his cousin Krzysiek, who was only 6 months older than him. They spent days riding around on their bikes, having intense soccer matches, and jumping off garages. Their bond was strong, like brothers they were. Then one day at the age of seven his parents came to Greg and Klaudia and told them that they were going to go on a vacation to visit his grandparents in America who he didn't remember, but was excited. They packed their belongings, as much as they could, and they went on Dad's Cargo Ship. It was going to be a 3 month journey through the Atlantic, filled with stops at many ports as his dad still had a job to do. To this day Greg still prides himself as the person that was able to keep from getting see sick the longest in his family. After the first week he remembers looking out the window and seeing only water around him and realising in that moment that they were on a ship and that was the only thing that kept them safe. He garnerred as much strength as possible for a seven year old and told himself that they were going to make it. His days were filled with visits to the gym room, games of lego with his sister, and his first introduction to Atari. Dad would show him the navigator room and from there they would stand on the balcony high above to see the waters ahead. One beautiful day there were a school of dolphins swimming along the ship, almost as if they were playing a game with the ship. There were hundreds of them, swimming alongside jumping up in the air. The journey continued and in a few months time they finally reached north America. Sometimes they stopped at a port and visited the city, like the time when they landed in Cleveland and Greg and his Dad were walking by a stadium that had an Indian on it. Greg asked his dad, “What's that?” “A stadium were they play sports at.” his father replied. Greg was amazed and the pure size of the building, it was the first time he'd seen anything that size. Finally, they reached the port of Chicago were he remembers seeing people drive and asking his father, “Do people drive with no hands here?” as an adult he realizes that they must of just been driving with their legs. The years passed, with lots of games with his sisters, visits to the park with his dad to play baseball and tennis, and spending lots of time with Grama Janina and Grampa Edward at home as they lived with them. He was also introduced to his Aunt Ewa and cousin Roxanne who lived in the same building. The years continued to pass and Greg's family found themselves living in Bolingbrook and then Romeoville were he eventually graduated High School. He went off to University of Illinois at Chicago on a tennis scholorship were he met Jon, Pete, Ansel and later Chris and Frank who introduced him to this new music called “House music”. At first he only really listened to it when he would visit the guys so that he could get in the bar were they were doing events at. Being only 19 he was able to get getting there early and helping with set up. He really liked going there so that he could meet girls. The house music things seemed to creep up on him. And he started to ask for cds and really began to enjoy the 4 on 4 beat. He started to seek out the music and began religiously listening to mixes. The next year brought on some changes due to his sudden tranfer to Illinois State University. He went down there to play tennis and it was an amazing first half of the year of tennis. But he felt like there was a part of him that was missing. His music selection started turning back to Dave Matthews and Pearl Jam, jamming with his friend Kevin on the guitar, which was his foret into a musical instrument. After that year he realized he needed to go back to Chicago. He picked up his bags and transferred to Columbia College Chicago for a degree in Televeision Production. He was again reunited with the crew and now they were doing things in much bigger venues such as Circus and eventually, Jon, Chris, and Frank began a night at Zentra called Jack Fridays. Greg started to go to this event religiously to blow off some steem and dance the night away, spending hours getting down to the groove of artists such as Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, Justin Long, Shur-I-Kan, and Green Velvet. And then, while staying at Ansel's and Jon's, he got the bug to try this DJ thing. Ansel gave him a couple of records to mix together. It sure was a lot more difficult than he imagined. He continued to stumble for the next month and a half, finally saying that this dj thing was not for him. He continued to go to Jack Fridays dancing the night away and the years passed until he graduated college. He made a quick jump to Los Angeles that consisted of 4 months were he had an internship and persued his goal of making it as a film director. Quickly he realized his head was in the wrong place and he ventured back to his parents house in Romeoville. Teaching tennis for the next year he was give a call by Big Shoulders Digital Video Production, a company he had interened for during his college years, to come out a work on an event that was called Bud Light Maximum Exposure. He enjoyed it so much that he found his way to the east coast portion of the tour, staying with friends, and being hired by the company as a local PA. These were events that were promotional ventures for Bud Light were they would go to a city, set up a party that between 1,000 to 5,000 people attended. The next year he got hired full time on the tour. On that tour, there was a DJ Mauricio, who played on cdj's. Interested Greg asked him to show him the gear. Greg started to bring cd's of that house music he was into and started messing around with those CDJ's when ever he had some free time. The following winter, when the tour was on break, he asked the BSDV if he could borrow the CDJ's and mixer. Greg practiced every day, sometimes 2 hours, sometimes 9 hours. When the tour begin the following year, Greg bought his first Technics and DJM 300. He started buying vinyl, started going to the record stores, he continued to go to Jack Fridays were eventually his friend Andy gave him a chance. His first official gig. He was gonna play the downstairs at Zentra. His first gig only a few came, his girlfriend Sandra and her best friend Lindsay were there. It was a growing experience. Life continued and his passion for the music grew, increasingly becoming even more a part of his life. In 2009, after coming back from an Anthony Robbins seminar, Greg began doing events. First he started a night at Purgatory with a young bar manager Dom Brown, where he brought in artists such as Ken of East Coast Boogiemen and Bushido among many local artists. He then moved on to Between Lounge a lounge were he brought artists such as James Curd of Greenskeepers and worked with promoter Martin Malafaktor on Su Casa es Mi Casa, a night showcasing house music. Greg continued to play out at places like Betty's Blues Star Lounge, Par Lounge, and Debonair were he eventually was introduced to the techno world. Seemingly out of nowhere, there were these techno parties popping up, a whole new era was emerging as a number of Detroit people were moving to Chicago and started doing underground events. His first introduction into parties that lasted for 24 hrs or more were at Tom and Justin's loft were you would go Friday night and come home on a Sunday filled with laughter, dancing, lots of love, and of course house and techno. He was really in the thick of things then. He quickly became friends with the techno kids and began expanding his musical knowledge, playing alongside local DJ's such as Fred Zahm, Ari Frank, Olin, Max Jacobson, Sevron, Nathan Drew Larsen, Funk Shui, and many more... During that period, Greg decided to get into the studio and put his passion in house and techno to the studio where he continued the journey putting beats down into the computer. He first got into MacProVideo.com were he watched videos on Sythesis and how to make music on Logic, which he was introduced to by his friend. He got deeper and deeper spending lots of hours learning how to make a kick pop, how to create a bassline, and what a melody brings to a table. He sent out demos to many labels, but after not hearing back from any he decided he was going to create his own reality and start a label, and 12 Stepp Music came to life. The first release was pressed on vinyl and with original tracks from Olin, Jorge Cerna, Garrett David, and an original from him. For the release party he teamed up with Sassmouth of Naughty Bad Fun Collective and they did the party at Canvas with friend Preston Jones. Garret David, Jorge Cerna, Olin, Sassmouth, and Greg played the decks and the party went til 7am to a packed house of 300 guests. Through that record, Greg met Jose Raul of Danzon records and released the We Dance EP were he ventured down to Guatemala City for the release party were he met new friends Mariano, Mike, Luis, and Mario. Greg came back to Chicago and since then has partnered with NBFC to throw events with artists such as Move D, Maayan Nidam, and Dan Bell. He worked at Gramaphone records as the digital transferrer. He now works at Smartbar Chicago as the production manager and recently opened up for Christian Martin and Worthy. You can also find him on the tennis court, working on himself with the help of Tony Robbins and Frank Kern, and spending quality time with his wife Sandra. He has a strong belief that everything is possible if you put your mind to it and wishes you all the success in all your dreams. Feel free to drop him a line or come say hi as he is interested in what you're doing and is grateful for you and the music. Get more info on Greg K at: www.12steppmusic.com www.facebook.com/gregkmusic https://soundcloud.com/gregk