DJ fatfinger

Bio DJ/Promoter

Fatfinger has been dropping beats for all kinds of audiences over the past 25 years.  Burning Man? Check. Full Moon Party in Thailand? Check. X Games Los Angeles? Check. High school dances, radio shows, bars, restaurants, gallery openings, parade floats, international night clubs, family dance parties, a cooking competition, a double decker bus, a barge, a BMX race and a BDSM club?  Yeah, check those off too! Born in the underground, but with one foot firmly planted in the mainstream, Fatfinger is as diverse as he is accomplished.

“I have a passion for sharing my love of music in live performance, and knowing how to create the perfect musical arc for any situation. I want to engage and titilate my audiences, in an intimate exchange of musical emotion.”

Fatfinger

Fatfinger’s DJ story starts back in High School, where he’d sling cassettes and vinyl on the school FM station and everyone just called him Travis.  Later while studying in Paris, his passion for live DJing was ignited on a steady diet of 90s techno, trance and house.   Back on American soil in the late 90s, he started to hone his skills and gig in San Francisco’s clubs and bars, while also organizing and broadcasting on Radio X, a pirate FM station.

Over the next five years Travis’s journalism career took him to Buenos Aires and Mexico City, where he chased stories by day and rocked dancefloors by night.  There he would start the event promotions company Burn Productions and find his true calling as a DJ, playing every weekend to raucous crowds.

From 2003, Fatfinger was deeply entrenched in Los Angeles, as one of the most influential promoters of the decade.  With his production company Project Alma, he created the iconic monthly house music party, Plump, which ran for over ten years and was considered the “Cheers” for the Burning Man crowd. Project Alma co-produced many of the most important New Year’s Eve parties in Southern California, Nexus and Beyond Samsara for some ten years.

In the later 2000s, Fatfinger’s focus changed to DJing and producing music and arts festivals, employed by the likes of Lightning in a Bottle, Boogaloo, Symbiosis, One Love and LA’s Taste of the Eastside. The boom in the popularity of festivals provided many opportunities to DJ, produce stages, build decor and organize workshops for revelers of all ages.  In 2012, Fatfinger partnered with Chinosound to start a mini-festival called the Gathering, held annually in the Santa Clarita River valley.  Now in its eleventh year, the event has a cult-like following due to its outsized star power and high production value, and it sells out every June.

As an audio producer, FatFinger has cranked out everything from banging electro house, bass music and acid jazz to radio documentary and NPR News.  His massive musical range has seen him play everything from pop and hip hop to reggaeton and rock with a soft spot for melodic and timeless dancefloor tracks.

A consummate creator, Travis has, in recent years, also begun to distill fine spirits, which he hopes some day to share with the world.

Travis is a father to two young sons, and strives to be a conscious and present parent. He does volunteer DJ sets for countless school and non-profit fundraisers.  He is guided by his strong, progressive political beliefs, infusing all his work with an element of community-building, creating stronger human bonds and mutual empathy. Underlying all his organizing work is a desire to provide situations where real human connections lead to furthering a caring and nurturing society.