In real life, people call me Pepijn van der Linden. In Ghana though, they call me Yao Foli, which means I was born on a thursday and the first born among my brothers. I was born and raised in Breda, the hometown of Tiësto (though I don’t spin anything like him). I saw the light on november 15th 1979, and again when I first heard the song ‘Roodkapje’, which was my first encounter with housemusic. Don’t even remember when that was, only that I liked it and my mother hated it! So I decided housemusic was cool.

I didn’t do anything besides creating my own ‘mixes’ on a shabby tapedeck and listening to a pirate radio station which broadcasted housemusic all day: I was too young to go to a club a that time, but I still remember being blown away by Moby with ‘Go’ on the radio. It didn’t go any further than that even when I started visiting clubs. This had been like that for years, until I ran in to an old school friend of mine, who introduced me to DJ-ing. He had already been spinning the decks for some 6 years, mainly techno. Watching him dj-ing triggered a yearning in me to start doing something with music, too, instead of just listening and enjoying it. So when he asked me if I wanted to try it one day, I didn’t hesitate and tried my hands at mixing. Surpisingly, I seemed to have a feeling for it, so about 6 months later, after saving every penny, I bought my own set.

That was in 2001…though I did buy some techno in the beginning within months I switched to progressive, and that has been my deal ever since. Nothing affects me more, and I like to tell a story in a set. To me, that is the power of prog. It tells tales…

So far, I’ve done a few small gigs, and really enjoyed Start and Depart in my hometown, Breda. Being the hometown of Tiësto, it is very trance oriented, but with this small initiative a few friends of mine (DJ’s Rubio & Umami) have tried to create somewhat of a progressive scene out there, which quite surprisingly seemed to appeal some quite some people. Hopefully they’ll be able to move it to the next level, and I’ll be spinning there once again.

My inspirators are to be found among the new generation upcoming DJ’s at this moment: Steve James, Nigel Marcussen, Desyn Masiello, Hernan Cattaneo, Ollis, Muzo B, Ali Ajami and Barish Turker are a few of them. I guess every DJ that really puts his heart into what he/she is doing will eventually appeal to me at some point.

Hoping to move things to another level for myself now, my Frisky Radio exclusive is one of my first steps into the big bad world of music. Let’s see if I step into a bear trap, or find solid rock…