Mike Khoury
listed/Deckstar/Vision
Just a few short years ago, Mike Khoury never envisioned himself as a DJ. Having only been exposed to mainstream radio hits of the dance music genre, he wasn’t impressed. Thankfully, that all changed in 2002 when friends dragged him to his first underground event at the original Crobar in Chicago and he quickly became a regular. It wasn’t long before he invested in turntables and started spending more on his records than his rent. And so began Mike’s journey into vinyl junkie-ism.
Still wet behind the ears after only a year of practicing in his home and for friends at parties, Mike landed a gig at the Paul Oakenfold show in summer of 2004. A week later he was invited to open for PVD at Sound-Bar. Quite a leap for a DJ fresh out of the schoolroom. Soon after, he settled into a year long weekly residency in Zentra’s main room where he continued to impress Chicago audiences with some of the most forward thinking progressive house sets played by a local DJ to date.
Mike’s musical path changed directions in 2006 when, after being inspired by headliners at a laundry list of WMC parties, his focus turned towards techno. His self-described style is dark, funky, and twisted minimal tech, although he still spins a little bit of progressive, electro, and house when the venue and lineup call for it. Mike has developed a signature sound of fresh and dirty grooves over pumping basslines that rock the dance floor.
With an extensive history of opening and headlining gigs, it’s no surprise that Mike is now an elite member of Chicago’s EDM Scene. His sets have ignited dance floor madness at clubs like Vision, Crobar, and Sound-bar. Known for his versatility behind the decks, Mike has opened for artists including Paul van Dyk, Danny Howells, Satoshi Tomiie, Desyn Masiello, Ferry Corsten, Chris Fortier, Luke Fair, Exercise One, Pan-Pot, and GummiHz.
He’s set his sights on broadening his reach into other markets and is in fact halfway there. He spent a good part of 2006 playing gigs on both coasts, including Spundae in LA, Love Parade in San Francisco, and headlining at Moomia in NYC. In 2007, Mike helped found The Deckstar Collective, a Chicago-based DJ agency and became an official resident for listed, a San-Francisco based promotional group. He organized not one, but two parties at WMC ’07 (both of which garnered rave reviews): Twilight on the Tikki with Desyn Masiello and Demi and the Varsity All-Stars Pool Party which featured a stellar lineup of DJ’s he’s worked with and gotten to know through his travels over the last year.
In addition to launching listed productions in Chicago, Mike’s now working on taking the Varsity Allstars concept party on a national tour, with planned stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. Not bad for a guy with under 5 years behind the decks.
Looking to the future with a focused intent towards educating audiences on the techy sound and delving into production work, Mike seems guaranteed a sure–fire rise to the top
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