Beam Up is one of several musical outlets for UK born Brian May. His musical love affair started off by playing trumpet in a Big Band Swing group at age 6. Since then he’s been performing and (later on) Djing music from all 5 continents. Migrating to Melbourne in ’89 saw him host a 12 year long weekly drivetime, freeform radio show on Melbourne’s PBSFM. He formed and played in several bands during the ‘90s & early ‘00s in Melbourne’s overactive live scene, touring AU & NZ widely. The non radio Djing started in the mid 90s with Australia’s developing outdoor party scene. Playing as DJ Delay as well as live Beam Up sets, many a chill floor was tilted sideways from his musical selection & projection.
The last 10 years have been spent living between Melbourne, Osaka & Berlin. In Osaka, he joined the solid reggae scene there, being a guest member of band Bush Of Ghosts and DJing regular underground parties across Japan. After a year long pause in Berlin, he landed back in Melbourne (2006) and wasted no time co-founding the first regular Balkan music night the city had seen, whilst continuing to spin dubwise music, now the 2 halves of his record collection were united.
In 2008 he brought the Balkan & dubwise spirit back to Berlin, DJing all over Europe and releasing 2 remix albums that pushed the boundaries of East European traditional music in a club context. Since settling in Berlin he’s also found time to produce generative sound installations for Australian painter John Aslanidis. The two have exhibited extensively in NYC, Berlin and Australia since 2011. New dubwise roots were planted in Berlin and set on slow cook to develop a strong cross fertilisation of musical experiences til then.
A large portion of his record collection and some instruments have survived the all moves and come along for the entire ride. The 6 years up to 2014 have been a period of coalescence of the previous 20. Beam Up’s hammer is now driving a milestone into the ground.
Photos by meggyesi.com