SEMPER-FI spent his first 18 years fending off country music and rednecks in the great northern wilderness of Canada. His love for beats started at the tender young age of 9 with his first record; Beastie Boys “Licence To Ill”. This love began to evolve to the likes of various hip-hop groups and heavy metal bands. Young Semper-Fi gained a reputation for listening to very different music from the other children in the class and this was solidified with a jaw-dropping airband of “Let your Backbone Slide” by Maestro Fresh Wes at the end of Primary school. In the coming years, he became a ‘respected’ drummer in a local band, notorious for driving people out of shows with long blasts of feedback guitars.
In 1997, he began a volunteer / part time tour of duty with video revolutionaries Channel Zero. Here, Semper-Fi assisted in the establishment of a record company called Play Records (www.playrecords.net). In his spare time at the office he was given access to wheels of steel as well as opportunity to train live on a weekly night. Soon after he met his wife to be and an invitation was extended to visit Australia. After finishing his first studio track, Semper-Fi headed southwest. Spending 1 year in Australia, he continued making mix tapes and giving them to anyone who would listen, as well as having a couple guest spots on the “Montage” Radio show on 2SER FM.
October of ‘99 saw a return home to Canada as a married man, forming of a new crew with some old friends called “Junglerama”, a costly record shopping spree, and 2 new tracks. Upon his return to Australia in January of 2000, Semper-Fi entered Radio Dex’s Bedroom Bangers’ competition, which he won, as well as coming runner-up for his tune “Track One” in the Great Australian Bite competition.
Since then he has opened for Lee’ Scratch’ Perry, Mad Professor and reggae legends Sly & Robbie as well as regular opening spots for New Zealand’s Salmonella Dub when in town, played for 2SER, hosted ‘Motion’ bi-weekly jungle show on Sydney’s Rhythm FM before the stations untimely demise (RIP), did guest spots at Sounds On Sunday (North Sydney), Happy Valley, Reclaim The Beaches, Beat-Fix (Home), Blueprint (Globe), Sonic Fiction (Frontier), Connect 4 (China White), Sequence (Cauldron), Basscode, Xstruction 1 & 2, Hyperspeed 2 & 3, Intellect 2, Pave New World, Rush Hour, Kerfuffle, Airbourne, and just about every d’n’b night in Sydney not to mention out of towners at Homebase (CANBERRA) and Optic Nerve (MELBOURNE).
