Дизельбой: Американский диджей и продюсер drum and bass

American DJ and producer
the rock band

Damian Higgins (born 1972) better known by his stage name Dieselboy, is an American drum and bass DJ and music producer.

Dieselboy was born Damian Higgins in Tarpon Springs, Florida in 1972. At the age of six he moved to Colorado City, Colorado, where he and his two sisters were raised by their mother. He moved with his family to Oil City, Pennsylvania, on the third day of school in the 9th grade, and is a graduate of Oil City Senior High School. He is the eldest son of singer/songwriter Bertie Higgins whose ballad Key Largo reached #8 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1982. Higgins's early musical experience included playing drums in a school marching band and DJing for high school dances. Higgins attended the University of Pittsburgh from 1990 to 1995 where he gained additional DJing experience, and completed a degree in information science. He also played on a Carnegie Mellon University radio station (WRCT). The name Dieselboy originated from Higgins's IRC handle, "Diesel". Upon discovering a local graffiti artist shared the alias, he "made it Dieselboy."

In 1994, Higgins created a mixtape entitled "The Future Sound of Hardcore," and sold about 100 copies through online LISTSERVs. "Through [the mixtape], people heard about me and I started getting bookings on the East Coast. It was a very slow process that eventually snowballed into my getting flown various places." In 1996, at the request of Dan Donnelly of British Drum and bass label Suburban Base, Dieselboy did a mix called "DrumAndBass Selection USA". In 1997, Suburban Base had him follow up with 97 Octane, this time allowing him to submit track suggestions, resulting in a more varied selection. In 1998, his mix called 611 DJ Mix series Vol. One was released. Dieselboy did the graphics for the cover. Also that year, Dieselboy recorded a mix called Director’s Cut which he had packaged in film cans, his first experiment in presenting a dance mix in a quasi cinematic framework. In 1998, Dieselboy initiated Philadelphia's first 21+ drum 'n' bass weekly Thursday club night entitled "Platinum" at club Fluid, which ended on October 14, 2004. Platinum residents included Dieselboy, Kaos, Method One, Sine, Icon, Karl K, Mason, and MC's Dub2, Messinian, Armanni Reign, Sharpness, and Illy Emcee. It was rekindled in late 2009 featuring Mason, Sine and MC's Messinian & Sharpness. In 1999, Dieselboy released his fourth mix CD, "A Soldier's Story" on the Moonshine label. It opened with his first original “intro” and marked his CD debut as a producer with Atlantic State, a track co produced with Technical Itch. Also released on the Moonshine label was System Upgrade (2000) while Dieselboy joined forces with Palm Pictures/Island Recordings and his releases The Descent, Invid, Render. The 6ixth Session was a double CD release on Palm Pictures, featuring a cyborg themed mix described by the Washington Post as “hard edged hyperdriven dance music". Dieselboy is represented by agencies Corson Agency (USA) and RVLT Agency (Europe) for booking.

In January 2022, Dieselboy founded "Destroyer Design", a graphic design agency. Dieselboy began his design journey in 1991, has a background in both DJing and graphic design. During the pandemic, he transitioned to launch Destroyer, offering design, creative direction, and branding services. The agency's portfolio includes work for various restaurants and bars, with clients like Bonnie’s, Win Son, Rolo’s, Cozy Royale, The Meat Hook, Mischa, Empellon Al Pastor, Empellon Taqueria, Nura, Variety Coffee (NYC), The Far Out Lounge (AUSTIN), Point Easy, Hop Alley (DENVER), Kinn (LOS ANGELES), Adroit Theory (VA), and more. Dieselboy has been involved in various clothing collaborations, including work with NEO4IC (formerly Damascus Apparel) in San Diego.

On August 13, 2023, Dieselboy hosted his inaugural drum and bass event in NYC, named "BIG DRUM AND BASS PARTY", in collaboration with promotion company Driven AM. Dieselboy released his 93 track, 87 minute mix "Dieselboy – The Destroyer" on August 5, 2014. The mix and its art incorporate the aesthetics of his 2014 tour as Blood, Sweat and Bass with bass music producer Downlink and 1970s grindhouse films. It includes a new collaboration with drum and bass producer Gridlok called "MDMX," and three tracks by Faces of Def, a new collaborative project between Dieselboy and Mark the Beast ["Blvck Celebration" with Counterstrike (SubHuman); "Carcosa" with Mayhem and Downlink (SubHuman); remix of "Tuh Tuh Duh" by Sinister Souls (PRSPCT)]. On January 31, 2014, Dieselboy and bass music artist Downlink teamed up to launch a DJ touring project known as BLOOD, SWEAT AND BASS. Over the years, they've conducted five successful tours across the United States and Canada. These tours have included various support artists, such as Apashe, Craze, Justin Hawkes, KJ Sawka, Ajapai, and more. He also performed with Skrillex. In 2012 he released the mix "Wake The Dead" on SoundCloud. On May 23, 2013, Dieselboy's mix "Beyond the Black Bassline" was released by Skrillex's then new NEST HQ website. In May 2008, Dieselboy released his ninth major mix CD Substance D (Human Imprint), which reached the Billboard Dance/Electronic album chart. In conjunction with this release, Dieselboy initiated the "Monsters of Jungle" tour with rotating Human Imprint label artists including Evol Intent, Ewun, Demo, Mayhem, SPKTRM, Infiltrata and MC Messinian. In 2006, Dieselboy released his first Human Imprint compilation called "The HUMAN Resource". Disc One Selected Works, is a 12 song un mixed selection. Disc Two Evol Intent Assemble the Monster features a continuous DJ mix from Evol Intent. In the summer of 2000, Dieselboy contributed to the formation of the drum and bass DJ crew called "Planet of the Drums", alongside AK1200, DJ Dara, and MC Messinian.

In July 2009, Human Imprint parted amicably from System Recordings. In summer 2010, Human relaunched with Steve Gordon of Steez Promo and Circle Management as new co owner with Dieselboy, and they created the SubHuman for dubstep and electro releases. On New Year's Eve 2009 headlining a 3D Productions event at Club 24 in Washington, D. C., Dieselboy played a three hour multi subgenre set including drum and bass, dubstep and electro. The enthusiastic crowd response encouraged him to continue experimenting with this new open format into 2010. In January 2013 Dieselboy started playing all drum and bass sets again.

In 2014, Dieselboy's passion for food advanced beyond writing about it for the James Beard Award winning FirstWeFeast. com blog, into professional kitchens. He cooked a sold out collaboration dinner with respected chefs Matt McCallister and Alex Stupak at FT33 restaurant in Dallas on June 9, 2014. Dieselboy competed in a nacho battle against chef Alex Stupak at Empellón Cocina in New York in February 2013, which he lost. He came back to face off against chefs Alex Stupak, Michael Anthony, Wylie Dufresne and Seamus Mullen in February 2014, beating Mullen. Dieselboy assisted chefs Dave Beran (Chicago), Daniel Patterson (San Francisco), and Christina Tosi (New York City) at an Art Basel dinner hosted by Questlove in Miami on December 6, 2014. In November 2014, Dieselboy's cooking was featured at his first "pop up" event called "Burger Night with Dieselboy" at the Groningen, Netherlands restaurant De Boom, preceding his DJ performance at Subsonic nightclub. In January 2015, another pop up hamburger event took place at P60 cafe in Amstelveen, Netherlands as a prelude to his DJ gig at the P60 club. In 2012, Dieselboy was a co presenter with mixologist Jim Meehan (PDT, New York City) and chef/designer Taavo Somer at the Origins and Frontiers mixology workshop at the 7th Annual StarChefs. com International Chefs Congress in New York City. Dieselboy's cocktail "The Higgins" is published in The New York Times cocktail writer Robert Simonson's 2014 book The Old Fashioned (Ten Speed Press). Dieselboy collaborated with Betony restaurant chef Bryce Shuman on a limited edition hot dog as part of a monthlong "musicians and chefs" special menu at the New York City cocktail lounge PDT in May 2015. On August 9, 2015 as part of the Moonrise Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, Dieselboy and The Glitch Mob hosted a Taco Party for contest winners.

Dieselboy placed #23 in the 2014 America's Best DJ Poll, up 19 from the previous year's #42, between Moby and BT. Dieselboy was the highest ranked drum & bass DJ (#45) in the 2008 DJ Times America's Best DJ Poll. On February 12, 2012 in accepting his Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, Non Classical, Skrillex (Sonny Moore) ended his comments quoting Dieselboy as saying "All the boats rise with the water." In 1998, Dieselboy was the first American drum & bass DJ to be nominated for Best Drum & Bass DJ at the Global DJ Mix Awards, tying with LTJ Bukem.

Dieselboy has a son with his ex partner Jackie Carnesi, born in 2018.