Gabe and Mike first met during the summer of 2001 while Gabe was working for Detroit’s world renowned nightclub, Motor. They spent many nights partying in the VIP and ending up at Mike’s house for after parties where they would spin records until the sun came up. The two became fast friends and Mike would occasionally drop by Motor with his congas and play live percussion while Gabe DJed. This eventually led to the first of their tag-team sets in the back lounge of Motor on Fridays. They formed a tight bond based on their shared passion for soulful house music. In the spring of 2003, Gabe and Mike founded Souldega Music with many objectives in mind, including promoting soulful house music to the people of Detroit, unifying Detroit’s often spread out house scene while producing and releasing original house tracks. Many of those goals are now becoming a reality. In early 2004, Gabe and Mike released the now classic, “Soul Sessions Vol. 1” mix CD which has been regarded by many as one of the best house mixes they have ever heard. Since then, Driving Soul has gone on to play alongside such artists as Jon Cutler, Derrick Carter, Miguel Migs, Groove Junkies, Kaskade, Louie Vega, Paul Johnson, Lego, The Greenskeepers, Quentin Harris, Grant Nelson and Ron Carroll to name a few. Souldega Music has become a major force within the Detroit house music scene and Driving Soul’s DJ sets are in more demand than ever. Gabe and Mike were recently added to the 3 Degrees Global talent roster as the Detroit associates and 3 Degrees resident DJs and their touring schedule has taken them as far away as Puerto Rico.

GABE REAL BIO:
Born and raised in Detroit, Gabe Real would spend hours digging through his parents’ record collection and listening to classics such as Stevie Wonder, The Gap Band, James Brown and most of the Motown catalog. His first record purchase came at the age of 4 when his mom bought him a 45 of George Benson’s “Gimmie The Night”. Always hungry for new kinds of music, Gabe discovered hip-hop at 8 years old becoming a huge fan of early Def Jam artists such as Run DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. He would spend weekends break dancing with friends outside of the local supermarket with classic artists such as Afrika Bambaata and Egyptian Lover blasting out of the boom box. During the early nineties, he even picked up a guitar for a while and would spend weeks jamming in his friend’s garage after school. In the fall of 1993 at the age of 16 while painting graffiti art at the local train yard, Gabe met another graffiti artist that would change his life forever.

His new friend exposed him to the most popular electronic artists of the time such as Plastikman, Aphex Twin, and Moby. Hungry to hear this new music live, Gabe started attending raves during the spring of 1994. He immediately became obsessed with the art of DJing. Influenced by the acid house sounds of DJs such as Richie Hawtin, John Acquaviva and Terry Mullan, Gabe realized that he had to become a DJ himself. He would spend the next couple of years attending raves, collecting records and practicing on his friend’s turntables. In the spring of 1996, Gabe decided it was time to become a rave promoter because many of the promoters at the time were not bringing in the headlining artists he wanted to see in Detroit. He called his production company Analogue Systems and went on to become one of the biggest rave promoters in Detroit. The last Analogue Systems rave was on New Years Eve 1998-1999. Gabe’s DJ debut came as he closed out the night playing an electro set. He spent most of 1999 – 2000 accepting gigs for other promoters and playing everything from hip-hop and drum & bass to electro and house.

In late 2000, feeling pretty confident in his DJing abilities Gabe decided that it was time to focus on one genre. Influenced by DJs such as Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak and Mark Farina, he chose the newly emerging genre of soulful house because it was nearest to his roots and his heart. In the summer of 2001, Gabe accepted a job as the promotions director at Detroit’s world renowned nightclub, Motor. He went on to become the talent buyer and was given the opportunity to rub elbows with many of the most well known DJs in the world. He became the club’s resident house DJ and has played along side house greats such as Mark Farina, John Acquaviva, Miguel Migs, Fred Everything, Larry Heard, Roy Davis Jr., Louie Vega, The Groove Junkies, Lego, DJ Rasoul, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter, DJ Heather, Felix The House Cat and Doc Martin to name a few. Gabe has also DJed all over the country in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco and San Diego. His first mix CD, “Selections” sold thousands of copies in Detroit and a few other outlets around the country.

MIKE RHYTHM BIO:
Born and raised off the coast of North Carolina, Mike grew up with two drummer uncles. He would spend hours clanking butter knives on pots and pans in his mom’s kitchen. His uncles introduced him to classic rock such as Led Zeppelin, Rush and The Allman Brothers Band. At the age of 9, for his forth grade music class, when it came time to choose an instrument, Mike picked the trumpet. After a few months Mike realized that he would rather take a page out of his uncles’ book and switch to the drum section. He tried his hand at the snare, bass drum and xylophone. At the age of 11, Mike would spend his weekends at the local roller rink, where the DJ would expose him to such classic electronic tracks as Herbie Hancock’s “Rock It”, Kraftwerk’s “Numbers” and Cybertron’s “Clear”. Around that time, Mike’s first piece of vinyl came when his mom bought him Afrika Bambaata’s “Planet Rock”. His first attempt at DJing was scratching on his Mom’s record player. When Mike was 14, break dancing was at the height of it’s popularity. He would spend every day after school practicing windmills on a piece of linoleum in his friend’s garage while listing to hip-hop pioneers such as Kurtis Blow, Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash.

Around the age of 16 a friend introduced Mike to bands like the Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic. He took a particular liking to Domingo Ortiz, the percussionist from Widespread Panic and began sitting in drum circles before their concerts. Soon after, a friend gave Mike a set of old congas. He wasted no time and immediately began playing percussion in a band with friends called Seven Feathers, a jam band. At about 23, Mike upgraded to a nicer set of congas and started playing with a bluesy acoustic trio and played 2 or 3 gigs a week at local bars. In 1997 when Mike was 25 his friend Chad who attended his band’s gigs gave him a copy of Mark Farina’s “Imperil Dub” mix which was heavily percussive, featuring many tracks by west coast house ensemble, Dubtribe. It took a while to get used to the 4/4 time signature but he became infatuated with the way it merged with the sounds of congas, bongos and timbales. Chad would throw house parties and Mike would bring his congas over and jam while Chad DJed.

In the fall of 1999, Mike moved to Salt Lake City to live the snowboarding lifestyle. It was there where he experienced his first rave out in Utah’s desert and for the first time realized just how big of a following there was for house music. He and some friends would throw all night house parties where Mike dabbled with turntables for the first time. After a brief stint living in New York City, Mike moved to Detroit in the spring of 2001. His new roommate, Raph a veteran of the Detroit electronic music scene, had a set of Technics 1200’s. He began purchasing vinyl by the crate and would spend all of his free time practicing. Within a couple of month’s, to his friends’ amazement, Mike was able to match beats with ease and released his first mix CD “Waffle Rhythms”. He has gone on to play at many of Detroit’s top venues including Motor, Bleu, Good Life Lounge, Carbon, and Foran’s to name a few.