Yakoozai

Yakoozai is Joel, born in 1984 in Northern Virginia, USA. Joel developed a love for music at a young age and was introduced to the Paul Oakenfold album "2 years at Cream" when he was 17 by a couple of friends and says, "I couldn’t believe my ears (literally), the last song called "Prophet" by CJ Bolland is amazing! I had never heard music so uplifting, listening to the whole album was like a rollercoaster of emotions. I started going to "BUZZ" in D.C. and and mainly only listened to Tech/Trance/Progressive at the time. I started playing as a DJ in the Christmas of 1997 after going to numerous raves at "BUZZ" and "EDGE" which were side by side in Downtown D.C. I started with some turntables from the thrift store, a mixer from Radio Shack and a Boss 303 Drum machine/sampler."

Joel started producing shortly after this and now resides in Charleston, SC: "Since the move in 2005 I have been perfecting my sound in hopes of putting out a fully produced album which DJs all over the world will be playing. I have worked with Shea Vaughn producing the album for her workout video "Shea Netics" which is a three DVD set. I have produced radio commercials and TV commercial soundtracks for Brooke Faville for her Company "Wondrous Products" and done alot of graphic work for her as well. I have done a lot of recording and producing work for Andi Afsar who has recorded acts like Hootie and the Blow Fish and Jimmy Buffet. I have spun with the likes of AK1200 and Curtis B and play regular gigs at Halligans and Buffalo South. I do a lot of graphic design for flyers all over SC as well as producing and spinning daily."

Yakoozai's first E.P. with Toucan featuring his tracks "Caribbean Dream" and "Self Inflicted" was released in July 2009, and during the same month another of Yakoozai's tunes was featured in "Corsten's Countdown", the radio show from legendary trance DJ Ferry Corsten.