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Rodrigo Vega was born on June 20th 1977 in Bogotá, Colombia. Since a very short age he was attracted to music, and wanted to become a musician. During his school years at Colegio San Carlos in Bogotá, he made close friends with whom he shared his passion for music; many of those kid friends are now well-known in Latin America's music industry, such as popstar "Cabas". While he liked eletronic music very much (he was a big Jean Michel Jarre fan) he discovered dance music up until beginning of the 90's, when he heard on local radio stations Technotronic's "Pump the Jam", MARRS's "Pump Up the Volume", and Inner City's "Good Life". He got hooked by those beats, and collected every cassette from Technotronic, 2 Unlimited, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Ace of Base, and such. Also during that time, Rodrigo taught himself drumming and bass guitar and in 1995 he played bass guitar and was lead singer of the band "Salida de Emergencia", and he also started taking his first steps as a DJ: he recorded his first dance compilations in cassette tapes for his friends' parties. Carlos Vivas, a good friend of his at that time remembers: "Well, one time this guy showed up at a party with around eight 60-minute cassettes, and he just said: 'They're numbered. Just stick 'em in your stereo, make sure the run in order and that nobody touches them, and when I tell you crank up for full volume, OK?' Damn! You've must been in that party! It was plain awesome and wild, eight hours non-stop!"
In college
During 1996 and 2000, while studying for his degree in Industrial Engineering, Rodrigo met César Salgado and formed the band "Awkward Blues". He kept making party compilations for his friends and playing with Akward Blues in various gigs, strengthening his reputation of "au courant" with good quality dance music. Rodrigo always though that mainstream electronic music at the end of the '90s lacked "melodic value" and was "stuck". Therefore he was still looking for tracks that had more vocal and musical richness for his compilations: he found what he looked for in a british duo Everything But The Girl (EBTG), a big influece in his current sets and remixes.
Abroad
During spring 2003, while he was living in Coro, Venezuela, Rodrigo finally found the core essence of his musical influence when he got for his birthday a CD album: "Café del Mar: Chill House Vol. 2 - Compiled by Bruno". In fact Rodrigo's had a major influence with those tracks, meeting the sound of Mark Grant, Solar House, Julius Papp and Miguel Migs.
By summer 2003, Rodrigo was transferred to Switzerland, where he joined a local DJing club and learned how to DJ; and he learned quickly, very quickly. He mastered the DJing basics within two weeks; when his mates heard his first set, one of them said: "He Mann! Sie sind ein sehr schneller Anfänger. Sie Sind DJ Schnell!" (Hey man! You're a very quick learner. You're DJ Quick!). DJ Schnell was born.
Since then, DJ Schnell held weekly residencies in small pubs and lounges in Zürich, Luzern and Basel. From time to time he went to London to visit friends he had there, where he found in the Notting Hill Arts Club a Sunday evening party called The Lazy Dog, where Jay Hannan and Ben Watt (Tracey Thorne's partner in EBTG) were the DJ's. He was impressed with the unique, stylish, yet powerful sound, and actually got himself to talk to Hannan and Watt, who were kind enough to give him a good load of tracklistings and a few DJ tips. Due to his "day job" responsibilities, DJ Schnell only played occasionally, mainly in Zürich and London, but as well, this also gave him the opportunity to play in a couple of lounges around the world.
Back Home
By 2005 he was back in Bogotá, and got himself a residency at a lounge called "Anita Lava La Tina". A fancy, tiny lounge that allowed him to play right next to the people in the floor, Lazy Dog's style, where he played three times a week. Sabas Pretelt, former owner of Anita Lava La Tina: "His sets are wonderful! I was a DJ myself, and Schnell always had new material with the utmost quality. Besides the great, "trés sophistiqué, f-TV style, lounge grooving atmosphere he creates, he can also be a very hardocore DJ. We'd organised several events here at the lounge and I've seen this guy actually spinning for 13 hours non-stop!" During this time playing in Anita Lava La Tina, a costumer gave him the idea to record his sessions, and he produced the "Palyndrome Series": a total of 6 double CD mixed albums, recorded from his live gigs.
By September 2006, Schnell's manager gets him to play at "Barbarosa" a top-notch lounge in Bogotá. Schnell had there a Thursday-through-Saturday residency, and where he shared turntables with DJ Charly Illera. Later on, 2007 finds DJ Schnell playing at a local jazz café called "Story Ville"; from those sessions he was able to put together two more CD albums.
Costa Rica: Schnell's New Home
On April 2007, DJ Schnell moves to Costa Rica to start his career as an industrial entrepreneur and further expand his parallel career journey as a DJ. There he had the opportunity to share a couple of sets in many of Costa Rica's nightlife venues such as Club Oh!, Frankie Go, and Club Capone, Expresivo, Los Arcos Disco, Rubik/El Retrovisor, Lubnan, Latino Rock Café, Shangri Lounge, and Nova Río Lounge among many others. He has also warmed up the dancefloor for well-known centralamerican DJs Mario Miranda, Melissa O, Diego López, and Panamanian Tom Sawyer. Matteo Piccirilli (Frankie Go's owner) agrees that "DJ Schnell plays very refined house tracks, very musical and with excellent quality". On August 2007, DJ Schnell is invited to share some of his mixes on the electronic music radio show "Promosónica Radio" in Costa Rica, where he received incredible feedback and response from the show host, as well as the audience.
By Tourist Season 2008, DJ Schnell had established a weekly residency in Tamarindo Beach’s newest hot spot: the open-air BAR 1, where every night’s vibe dictates the musical style that ensues. Reknown amongst the community for his playful approach and all-night energy, DJ Schnell continued to grow in the Costa Rican music scene, earning another residency at Rapsodia Lounge in San José.
From april to july 2008, DJ Schnell hosted Groove Funky; a weekly show in the UK-based web radio station Definitive Beats, where he spun live a refined selection of his favourite tunes and club/lounge hits, sharing his music and mixing style all around the world. Just after his Groove Funky internet sessions, he flies to Chicago, Illinois and spins at the SPIN*DEPENDENCE party, held at Sonotheque, a very well respected venue in Chicago clubbing scene. His mixing style and track selection received very good comments from music editors of Metromix / The Red Eye (a Chicago Tribune music and arts publication) and CenterStage Chicago.
During the second semester of 2008, DJ Schnell begins his Chicago-based monthly residency in Sonotheque called "The Lazy Cat - Chicago", and begins distributing a bi-weekly podcast with that same name, where he showcases the finest deep, funky and jackin' house selections from his live gigs.
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