Vanilla Gorilla With Dave Powell

Born and bred in the United Kingdom, Dave grew up surrounded by music. His father, a huge music lover, had a vast eclectic collection. "All I ever remember was our house filled with a lot of laughter and the most bizarre music everywhere... sort of like a 70's Gilles Peterson"

From those humble beginnings, Dave developed his own musical taste during his teenage years in the 80's, emersing himself in the Minneapolis sound of Prince and his various proteges. An early spot in the limelight came when he was asked to dance on stage with Prince in 1992.

It was during that tour he was first exposed to dance music proper at an afterparty and thus began his obsession with electronica with DJing a natural progression. He began his DJ career way back in 1993, organising and hosting underground dance parties around the UK.

He immersed himself in the dance scene in Nottingham and London and for years Dave kept feverishly at it, successfully juggling more plates than most of us could imagine. Since those early days, he has gone on to DJ all over the world including the UK, Ibiza, Italy, Greece, America... and now his new home, New Zealand.

2003 took him around the country as the demand for his deck skills continued to grow. Dave has since played solidly in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, building up a loyal following and reputation for delivering to his dancefloor. He has a knack for choosing unique and different tunes, challenging the staus quo by pushing his own very unique presentation of music.

His dance music influences are very diverse and include the likes of Parks & Wilson, BT, Dave Seaman, Darren Emerson, Donald Glaude, Bent, Joey Negro, Roger Sanchez, Pete Heller, Danny Rampling, Timo Maas, Max Graham, Danny Howells, The Plump DJ's and Danny Tenaglia.

Impressing audiences worldwide with his chunky sexy sounds and a knack for picking amazing tunes, he challenges the status quo and delivers his very own distinctive flavour to the dancefloor. Dave's style ranges from traditional vocal house and afro-Brazilian grooves to progressive trance, tech house and breaks... it's this diversity that adds that extra element to his sound. His sets run the spectrum between light and dark; hard, sexy, dirty and funky and he's one those rare DJ's who sees himself as an entertainer in the true sense of the word. "I love to see people dance, so there's always room for a few surprises..."