Growing up in the quiet farm town of Muncie, Indiana four hours drive from Chicago and
Detroit, it was hard to ignore the rich sounds emanating from these House and Techno
strongholds. Troy was among the first to pick up on DJs like Derrick Carter, Jeff Mills
and Richie Hawtin and was always out and about at parties in Detroit, Ohio and across
the Midwest. Strangely enough though, he never thought about picking up a pair of
headphones himself, preferring to leave the DJ duties to his friends. This way he could
fully immerse himself in the music, especially the experimental ambient tones of the after
hour chill outs.
This all changed in 1994. He moved to New York to study photography and like every
student worth their salt, blew the remainder of his cash on a pair of turntables. He’d
been toying with the idea for a while and as luck would have it his flatmate was also the
manager of Temple Records so there was an endless supply of quality tunes on hand
from labels like Perlon to satisfy his growing vinyl addiction.
Troy eventually hooked up with Magda at the Detroit Music Festival in 2001, who in turn
introduced him to Mark Houle six months later. An immediate chemistry developed
between the three of them and although Magda was now in Berlin, Mark in Windsor
and Troy in New York they started swapping music files over the net. By the time the
Run Stop Restore project finally crystallised into their debut release in early 2003, Troy
had already moved to Berlin. It was a big decision to leave but somehow New York no
longer offered up-and-coming musicians the same freedom of expression it used to,
while Germany and Berlin in particular was setting new standards in minimal electronic
music production.
Since touching down in December 2002, he’s been letting his music do the talking. As
a relative unknown, it’s never easy staking a claim in a new city, especially one with
such a rich musical heritage but sure enough, through a string of successful gigs and a
mixture of impressive releases on Minus (Run and Slacknoise), Underline (Louderbach)
and Mo’s Ferry Productions, Troy has been attracting the right kind of attention and is
now a regular performer on the European circuit.
2005 was the year when it all came good. The release of the Minimise to Maximise
compilation and the accompanying tour left a lasting impression on clubbers at such
centres of excellence as Robert Johnson in Offenbach and the Paradiso in Amsterdam
but perhaps the real turning point came in August at pop.com. All those endless nights
on the road and solitary days in the studio came together in one heart stopping set at
the Watergate club. Taking the game to an expectant crowd including fellow producers
and industry types, his uncompromising mix of minimal house and down beat, funked
up techno announced, in no uncertain terms, that he was here for the long haul.