Joey Musaphia

Joey’s mum was a massive black music fan and that music was the soundtrack of his childhood. He was influenced by the Soul, Funk and Disco, that he was hearing on a daily basis around the house and in the car as they drove around London. Joey bought his first pair of Technics 1200’s and mixer at the age of fourteen and was working small jobs here and there to feed his vinyl addiction. Having been knocked out of the DMC UK Mixing Championships at the age of seventeen by DJ Pogo back in 1988 did not dampen Joey’s quest for mastering the decks, or deter his interest in making a career in music. In 1988/1989 Joey enrolled on a year long course at the School of Audio Engineering in London after hearing about the course from an ex school colleague called Tim Simenon, who created Beat Dis’ under the guise of Bomb The Bass, Joey then turned to music production. Joey’s first studio productions were homework projects whilst at the college, with releases on small independent labels. By 1991 a deal was on the table from EMI’s head of A&R Simon Dunmore at Cooltempo under the group name Taste Of Paradise. The deal with Cooltempo lasted a year with Reach Out being the only single released. Moving on to 1993 and something very special was about to happen, the Cover Ups EP’s’ were launched and they took the dance music community by storm, they literally were the most anticipated releases of that era and they sold globally in huge numbers. Joey was courted by Joey Negro and worked with him on numerous projects and to say that Joey Musaphia was paramount in the Disco edits and cut ups genre in those early days is frankly a huge understatement. The Cover Ups EP’s gave Joey the recognition to kick start a ridiculous remixing career and eventually go on to launch his own label, Ulterior Records, in partnership with long time friend Gerald Elms, the man behind G-Club Banda Sonora on Defected. The label saw releases by Carol Leeming, Mary Pearce, Roger Sanchez, DJ Disciple, Dawn Tallman, Michael Watford, Andrew Doc Livingstone and Julian Jonah. The 2000’s saw Joey busy writing and recording tracks for his new Refunkt Records imprint with the cream of soulful vocalists throwing down such as Lisa Millett, Michelle Weeks, Sabrynaah Pope and Rita Campbell, in addition to a handful of other quality tracks that were signed to the label. The relative success of the label brought great interest in clubs requesting Refunkt themed nights across the UK and Europe where Joey played alongside the resident DJs. By 2005, Joey had over one hundred remixes and productions under his belt, including artists such as Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick & The Detroit Spinners, Ricky Martin, Aretha Franklin, Ann Marie Smith, Jodeci, New Edition, Tito Puente, Stephen Gately, Adeva any many, many more. During this creative period Joey DJ’d all over the world thanks to the recognition of his production work and he became a regular guest at clubs such as Pravda, Terminus, Take 5 and Oxa in Switzerland, as well as regularly playing in the USA, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, France, Ireland, Finland and Norway. In the UK he always played at the cream of the clubs such as Ministry of Sound, Pacha, Turnmills and The Cross in London, as well as Moneypennys, Tall Trees, Hidden, The Tunnel, Blend, The Arena and many more venues in the North of England and Scotland. Then…NOTHING! It was almost as if Joey had fallen off the face of the earth. In 2010 Joey had taken advantage of various business opportunities that were presented to him, far removed from the music industry and he also had started a family. Having built up a very successful business within the London taxi trade, Joey is now able to spend more time back where his heart is, making music and DJing. You know SSW always thinks out of the box and we have been waiting for Joey to say yes to SSW for a few years now. To say that this is special is an understatement, so don’t forget where you saw Joey Musaphia play his first gig in literally years and listen out for the prolific amount of tracks coming our way from this UK legend in the not too distant future.