As another week passes, we feel the sweet blossoming of spring and the familiar sting of summer in the sunshine’s rays, this can only mean one thing…summer is on the way! Which in clubber’s tongue translates as things are hotting up on our stages also, as we’re treated to some of the hottest international acts and DJs around, as they fly towards the warmer climate for some party loving and bomb dropping Australian style. It is this week that Damon Baxter, better known to you all as the unstoppable Deadly Avenger, hits town and is set to blow the roof off of clubs across the nation all over again, with the auspicious Cut La Roc in tow to help stir things up. ITM’s tireless wonder Vocal Assault got a chance to catch up with the party king, just prior to boarding the plane to the land of Oz, to talk about his recent work on CSI, his passion for film scores and of course his fun-lovin’, sweat-drippin’ live shows.

At age 3 Damon suffered a childhood mishap, falling from a slide headfirst into the ground. The accident severed the nerve endings in his nose and lost him his sense of taste and smell. So from that point on Baxter’s remaining senses worked over time as they fell in love with cinema and sound, growing a particular fondness for John Carpenter’s work. As teenhood hit, so did the massive hip-hop, break dancing, graffiti blazing, white boy rap assault, straight from the US, to influence young and impressionable British teens. It was at this particular time that Baxter found himself drawn to The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Young MC et al. “When that whole scene hit us over in the UK, I was still in school and it hit big. It was like a movement. EVERYBODY was into it, it was just this awesome music and basically from that point I got into everything else that was related” recalls Baxter.

After leaving school and opening up a clothes shop, which served him for a little while, bridging the gap between school and the first time electro music. Upon discovery of the sexy and sweltering world of electro, he came to the certain conclusion, that this will be where he makes his living and went about making it happen. “Ultimately, I started off wanting to make records and stuff, but then I realised that I could combine my love of electro and films and dabble in some film-scoring, which became more obvious as a career choice for me.”

It was his old passion for John Carpenter films that he returned to ”: I always liked John Carpenter’s stuff, like Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and all the rest, cause he makes his own music for his films. The way that he made the theme music for Halloween (which is like classic theme music) just intrigued me and gave me the imagination to experiment with different things. The story goes like this, his father had taught him how to play the bongos, so that’s just what he did on the piano, used the same pattern as he used with the bongos and there was the birth of a classic theme track!” expresses Baxter enthusiastically.

After releasing a string of cult classics ‘Milo’s Theme’ in 95, ‘Coney Island Baby’ in 96 and ‘Where Fools Lay Dead’ in 97, his work became acknowledged by a few key players in the film industry, who were happy to give a lending hand and help him get his foot in the door for film scoring roles. As his nights were spent ripping apart night clubs and mopping the dancefloors with his ever growing crew of loyal followers, he spent his days chipping away at his debut album ‘Deep Red’. Filled was filled with beautiful scenes of love, hate, lust, suspense and all of the chair gripping intensity of a thriller. Leading to an undeniable demand for his scoring credits, which have most recently included shows on Sky, Fox and a few new CSI episodes. “I’m also just about to finish a second album, which is also going to be all filmscore stuff. Which I’m really excited about getting out there.”

Deadly Avenger’s recorded work still remains an un-touchable world away from his live shows, which he’s spent years perfecting behind the mixer. “When I DJ, I really go for it, I play like 50 records in like 10 minutes and jump around wasting all of my energy, then I just want to have a laugh basically. I love meeting new people, that’s the best part of it. The emotions I have when I DJ, are different to the ones I have when I’m making the music. When I’m making the music, I take it really seriously and when I’m Djing I don’t, I just want everyone to party with me” admits Baxter.

“When I DJ it’s just like all party stuff, it’s just where I drop anything that you dance to and as far as I’m concerned when I’m DJing, I’m in the crowd with everyone else. I’m just playing records that I want to jump around too. You can expect me to play everything really, it depends on my mood of course, but you can expect some really old records, some disco tracks, old school hip hop, a lot of loose hip hop, just everything. I will be exploring all genres of music, but there’ll be no moody moments, every track will be a party record, because that’s all I want to do when I get out there really” he laughs.

Deadly Avenger tours Australia with Cut La Roc this September, you can see them at the following venues:

Sat 2nd Sep – Melbourne, Fractured
Sun 3rd Sep – Perth, Ambar & Gilkison
Fri 9th Sep – Brisbane, Family
Sat 10th Sep – Newcastle, Dixx
Sun 11th Sep – Sydney, Sounds on Sunday