I suppose the logical place to start would be with one of the most frequently asked question "Krysko? Where the f**k did you get that from?!" … well it's his real name, His grandma was German and grandad Ukrainian, during the war she had just left Dresden hours before the allies fire bombed it … met his grandad who was (after being captured by the Nazis) an ex-Russian POW and eventually fled on a boat bound for Liverpool. On arriving at the immigration dock and with the obvious language barrier (scouse / Russian) the scouse immigration officer more or less made up the name from what he could make out! Krysko was born.

His passion for music started very young but the biggest turning point was at the age of 12 when he and my best mate nicked his brothers 1991 DJ Sy mix tape. "needless to say we heard it and for want of a better word we were obsessed!" He adds and soon after he came home with a brand new pair of Soundlab DLP1's. Every spare second they had was spent on the decks mixing everything from Shut Up & Dance records to Disco Magic to his mates Diana Ross albums! After scrimping and saving he got his own belt drives a year later … From there things just kinda progressed.

His early gigs were school discos continually being told off for playing `inappropriate' music … early Harthouse records … Hardfloor - Hardtrance Acperiance … The Drum Club – Alchemy all given to him by his uncle in his (as he told young Krysko in later years) campaign to make sure he didn't turn into a `rock' kid! Top man! Needless to say he lost the school gig … but had already started playing at friends' parties and friends' older brother and sisters' parties and discovering another side disc jockeying, elders treating you with respect! Where as before you were that grubby kid. NOW the tables have turned with comments like "sh*t that kid can DJ"

At the age of about 17 came his first club, a local ritzy that was mainly hardhouse and trance, he played for an hour and to his surprise got asked back every week. "I always tried to educate I remember once stopping the music and dropping `the whistle song' by Frankie Knuckles … a severe drop of 100bpm's was never gonna work but I kept trying". As for his clubbing experience, after a little clever copying of his dads mature NUS card he had a fake I.D. Then a rave in and around Yorkshire called the Ark. His first proper clubbing experience which completely blew him away.

"My main influences musically have been my uncle, who was and still is someone I completely and utterly respect and look up to because of his producing, a real driving force for me."

Obviously the wanting to play out more lead to the next natural progression, throwing his own parties. Having grown up going out in Leeds and having friends there was the obvious choice, he and a friend started a night called Ka:pooch at a local bar called Fudge (now where the basics crew throw regular Sunday parties) … they went well but never really took off mainly because no reputable DJ would play any where in Leeds other than Basics. From this he got a residency at (the short-lived) Back II Basics pre-bar alongside Paul Woolford, Dan Tait & Tristan Da Cunah. From there he developed a friendship with Dan Tait who ran another excellent Leeds house night, Homework. After guesting there a few times and in the same period coming runner-up in Muziks bedroom bedlam competition for two months in a row and playing a Label launch night at the home of Stompa Phunk in Brighton with his uncle, all helped him build his own reputation.

Then came his first big break, after reading a tiny snippet in Mixmag about a new night that was looking for a resident he sent a tape, forgot about it, then 2 months later got a call from Neil Frost (promoter) asking if he would do it. The night was Madcow and was held fortnightly on a Sunday at the Void in Stoke-on-Trent. It only ran for 1-½ months and was a case of right idea but wrong town! Although the night didn't really pull in the numbers he still managed to play the last set after guests such as Steve Lawler … Yousef & CJ Mackintosh; being thrown in at the deep end definitely stood him in good stead.

At the last night with CJ Mackintosh he met Sam Kandell, who was chaperoning a DJ called Woody (original Tribal Sessions resident) who played the back room at Madcow. He stood in view most of the night (which made me nervous) liked what he heard and gave me his address, again I sent a CD and forgot about it. Then after growing tired of DJs' saying no to playing for our nights in Leeds we called Sankeys Soap `to get a quote'. After chatting to David Vincent and playing a track I had just done down the phone he told me to come in and meet up. Putting 2&2 together when we met he remembered hearing my CD and realizing it was me he asked if I would like to play Tribal Sessions. This is when I first met Greg Vickers who was then in Kindergarten. His debut was upstairs at the Laurent Garnier live show … then Dave Clarke. He was asked back regularly and loved the place even more with each visit.

Around New Year time he was told Paper were leaving The Redlight and was asked to become resident by Mr.Vincent. He decided he needed thinking time and after roughly 3 seconds he agreed!