By Cindy Kim

Posted Date : November 2006

With only a few weeks left until the World Electronic Music Festival 2006, I am both stoked and curious as a 1st time attendee to hear what Ryan Kruger, aka DJ OS/2 will have to say over the phone.

Noted as "one of Canada's finest trance DJ's" by XLR8R Magazine, DJ OS/2 is also known as Canada's largest running event producer of Destiny Productions events—the company which is commended for not only having the most dance music events in Canada for the past decade, but also for the WEMF. OS/2 is accredited in all areas that circulate around the WEMF, including the website www.damndjs.com.

The WEMF is held every year in July just outside of Toronto, Canada. This year it will be held in Tweed, Ontario from July 21-23 on a beautiful beach lake, where campers set their tents up. Different stages are set up to commemorate the diverse genres of four-on-the-floor and other dance beats. This year's line-up on the Drum n Bass stage includes top-hats such as Goldie, Krust & Die, Grooverider and many more.

Now, in its 12th consecutive year running, the WEMF may come to a halt after this year's event. "It is no rumor, especially if it's written in black and white," OS/2 points out. "It's like those charity telethons you see on TV. There’s a certain number goal at which [point] the show will end and it's a hit. Well, that is basically the story here with this year's WEMF.”

Sad as it may seem, OS/2 sounded very optimistic about this year's three-day event. Adding a rock-band stage to this year's line-up created a new twist that WEMF has incorporated this year. "A lot of electronica festivals in the past few years have had rock-dance fusions as part of the headliners, so we thought we do that this year and see how that goes."

I asked OS/2 how he got involved with DJing. Apparently, OS/2 vowed never to get into DJing at all. "I've seen alot of DJs being flown from wherever and getting paid enormously, whereas the local DJ's were getting paid next to nothing. I didn't really agree with that system."

Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, OS/2 was always into promoting events first before everything else. "It was more like a labor of love, if anything. I enjoyed the feeling of that rush you get out of doing something you admire so much; for the love of music. And that is what the WEMF has been for the past few years to me, a labor of love."

So how did the DJ bug bite him? "I've always ended up having all these crates of trance records in my basement left over from a party by some friends of mine. So when I ended up with turntables, and started fiddling with trance records, you knew it was the beginning."

Aside from having mostly trance records in his possession, OS/2 finds it appealing for different reasons. "Trance to me, has different sub-genres. It can be down-tempo, or hands-in-the-air, let's-get-crazy layers....basically, what I want to hear when I am on the dance-floor is what I want to play."

OS/2 held a residency at club Ascension in Toronto and recently gave up his residency at Republik last year. For the past 7 years, OS/2 has been rocking the decks across North
America. Here in America, he has played in New York, LA, Chicago, Jacksonville, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Madison, Detroit and Miami. He toured long summers with Chris Liberator, Christopher Lawrence, Commander Tom and Jon the Dentist, all of which have played to sold-out audiences.

Studio projects include the single "The Key" with Chris Liberator Oberon, which was released on Chug and Bump records in June 2000 as well as on Germany's Noom Records. Other works include studio collaboration with Jon the Dentist on Phoenix Uprising. For the past while, OS/2's main focus is event planning/promoting in lieu of WEMF, and Destiny productions. His insightful way of planning and promoting for the past years has earned him enough standing credentials for the success of WEMF. In retrospect, his willingness to engage the rest of the world in such a profound manner is purely sweet music for the dance masses.

Photos by: Alex Dordevic TRIBE - tribe.ca