Some artists want to be DJs because they want to be the center of attention. They want millions of people to know their names and what they look like. They want to be able to show up at any club or any party and take the DJ booth and do whatever they want for as long as they want. They want the perks that come along with the fame of everyone knowing your name - the drugs, the cash, the girls.
And then, every once in a blue moon, their are artists like DJ Permanent Press who do everything they can to avoid the lime light. Of course this game of guess who only works for so long. Eventually your fans demand to know who you are, they can't continue to live in a world with out having a name put with a face. And that is how this story is different. DJ Permanent Press has somehow become one of the biggest name in electronic music that no one has heard of.
If you have not been going to the most secretive of secretive shows in Sao Paulo, Berlin, or Tokyo you probably have missed him. Getting accurate information about him, his travels, his life style are notoriously tricky to come upon and even harder to verify. I was able to get a couple minuets with the elusive artist this weekend and learned about his fascinating life story.
DJ Permanent Press, who will not divulge his real name, was born to a family of gypsies in western Europe. The exact location is hard to pin down the DJ says because there is no record in any hospital of his birth let alone who his mother or father was. His childhood was spent being shuttled between one gypsy commune to another through out western and central Europe. He did divulge that he spent some time living on a house boat on the Seine River in Paris for several years were his caretakers who two midgets that only had two working eyes between them. He said he learned his appreciation for electronic music from these caretakers. They opened his young ears to early electronic music and their was no going back. To gain access to the early records that he wanted to hear he would routinely create elaborate hoaxes with these two-semi blind caretakers at record stores throughout Paris where he would steal albums from the stores and listen to them later on their houseboat.
DJ Permanent Press was unable to stay long in Paris though, by the age of 12 he had already broken the hearts of multiple uber-rich heiresses around Paris and stolen significant amounts of money from them. On the run from these families, and the law, DJ Permanent Press relocated to a secluded castle in southern Germany that was owned by a family friend. For the next four years he would slave away at his music and his craft in this castle until at the age of 16 he had put the finishing touches on his first album. "My Body Needs To Talk To You". Sadly, DJ Permanent Press only produced 10 copies of the album due to the fact that he had carved each one into hot wax. Only 4 known copies exist and they are estimated to be worth millions.
From the success of just that one album DJ Permanent Press has been touring the world over DJing the most secretive parties. Rumor has it he was asked to DJ Will and Kate's royal wedding after party in a abandoned catacomb under the streets of London but turned it down due to fear of being seen by too many people. He is routinely be spotted in the most exotic spots around the world with the most exotic and beautiful woman. His home base seems to be in Berlin, although he wouldn't verify that fact, but sources say he has hand build a state of the art studio out of a solid granite block in a undisclosed location in the suburbs of Berlin.
We are proud to present a special one-time mix my DJ Permanent Press here on Denim/On/Denim. Enjoy.
