Cezar Touch

Homemade House 27 - Travis Kell


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Growing up just outside of Toronto, Travis was first enchanted by House Music at 16, in the late 1980's as a Dancer first at an all ages Club called NRG.
At the age of Eighteen, the passing of his Grandfather marked the beginning of what would be an illustrious career as a DJ for Travis. Taking advantage of some money left to him, Travis purchased his first turntable, a grey 1983 Technics 1200 and a Rane mixer sourced from a mobile wedding DJ service who were converting to CD format. Record shopping took place at Traxx records in Toronto with guidance from Tim Patrick.
In 1993 Travis moved to London Ontario to attend University and during that time became disillusioned with the frat boy/keg party existence that was everywhere, and opted instead to jump in the car with like minded Dancers and House Music lovers and head to Toronto to attend Warehouse parties and all night Raves. The Dance Floors at these parties were filled with incredibly skilled break dancers and groovers from all over Southern Ontario and New York state and were so very inspirational to Travis. It was here that his DJ groove was really established with the soundtrack provided by the likes of DJ Dan, Mark Farina, Ritchie Hawtin, Dj Sneak, Roger Sanchez, Terry Mullan and many many more. He always gravitated to the more upbeat Chicago Style Sounds.
In 1996 Travis graduated from University and drove 2000 miles west to Vancouver where he planned to work in the Provincial Parks of British Columbia. He was stationed on a small island in the Gulf island chain and there he lived for the next two years, running and managing this park in the peace and isolation of the ocean and evergreen trees. There was no electricity at the Ranger station but he was able to run his decks from a Generator in the workshop. He finally purchased another turntable, a Technics 1100 series with a pitch knob that was extremely tricky to master. Practicing for hours and hours on this sub par scenario led Travis to become extremely precise at beat matching and long mixing. His record shopping trips required a ferry boat ride to the mainland and were at Bassix and Boomtown Records.
The year 1998 saw Travis move to Vancouver, extremely apt in the art of mixing house music. It was during this time that his friends called him The Holy Ghost.
Wanting to take his craft to the next level, Travis moved to London UK in 2001. He picked up a residency at Smile London and has played at various other venues across the city such as Oblivion, the Cross, the Fridge, the Viaduct, Turnmills and Bagley's.
There was a very vibrant Pirate/Underground Radio scene here and in 2002 he started his Radio show, called Believe, on Worldwide FM. He was quickly courted over to UnknownFM 90.2 where his shows were super popular and showcased his ever evolving Energetic US Funky/Jackin’ House style.
In March 2004 International DJ Magazine (IDJ) chose him as runner up in their monthly mixed tape competition. From this he was contacted by fellow DJ and promoter Roman Pushkin and he started going to Moscow and St. Petersburg regularly to play gigs. In all Travis played over thirty times in Russia and many other cities like Minsk in Belarus, Ufa, Ekaterinbourg, Magnitagorsk and Vladivostok.
As the years passed and Believe became more and more popular in 2008 Travis hooked up with a group of like minded house heads on ChicagoHouseFM.
In 2009 he got married to the love of his life in South Africa and although he still hacked around a bit on the decks he decided to focus on his real life. In 2012 his first Son was born and then a second one came in 2015 and he has been very Daddy focused ever since!
Now in 2020 the passion for Jazzy Jackin Underground Funky House Music still burns very strong in this Jedi so he now has his decks set up and is going to start up Believe once again, streaming his sound and video via the web. The Dj’s Dj Podcast.
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Cezar TouchBy Cezar Touch