Event Information

This month at DARKROOM: Craig Kuna ( [KONTROL], Mothership), plus residents dCOY, Fil Latorre & Javaight!

About Craig Kuna:

Hailing from the once industrial city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Craig found his early tastes in music heavily influenced by the environment that surrounded him. Being brought up on a diet of heavy metal and classic rock, he found himself wielding the proverbial axe at the age of 12. Throughout his teen years, Craig played guitar, bass, and drums in many local Pittsburgh metal and punk bands. In 1993, at age 15, he attended his first rave, and the rest is history.

His influences of hard-edged music initially turned his ears towards the gritty sounds of D'n'B and Detroit Techno as his passion for the beat flourished. Within a few years, Craig sold his guitar, bass, and amps to buy his first set of 1200's. He started off playing breakbeats and D'n'B, but soon after found his art in techno, due to it's complexity and his ability to create longer mixes with more minimal tracks. Soon after, in the wake of a burgeoning rave scene, he decided it was time to introduce other people to the music he loved and played, and in 1998, at the ripe old age of 19, he threw his first event.

In the years to come Craig continued to host events, from small club after-hours to 5000 person warehouse raves, bringing the likes of Green Velvet, The Stickmen, Mike Dearborn, Marco Carola, Funk' D'void, Slam, and H-Foundation to name a few. After relocating to San Francisco in 2001 in an effort to broaden his horizons, he realized that techno was just about a dead art on the West Coast, and started to get more into house music, or as people so often call it, he became "San Francsicanized". After getting burned out on the music and the scene and taking a brief break from it all, Craig turned to what was happening in Europe and, more specifically, Germany for inspiration.

As he puts it, "I realized that with minimal techno and house I could play with the sounds that I loved and was used to with traditional techno but with the swing and groove of house, which ultimately appeals to the older and more mature crowds." Now, with a renewed fervor and a fresh style, Craig has dove back into the world of DJing and promotion along with the rest of the Kontrol crew, and is once again turning other people on to the music he loves.

About Javaight:

David Javate aka DJ Javaight aka JV8, is a DJ, event promoter and writer for Nitevibe and 365Mag. A veteran DJ from Washington DC and lifelong dance music aficionado, David's love has always been towards the deeper side of house and techno. As is evident in his contributions to SF nightlife with the deep house night, Staple, the ground breaking techno event, Optimal, and the techno happy hour, Killswitch, David continues to showcase deeper styles with a DJ style which acknowledges house and techno's pioneers while also welcoming today's innovators. Showing the diversity of being able to play during different moods of the night, David always strives to take the listener on a journey, and make an audio collage which moves the mind and body.

About Fil Latorre:

Originally from Washington DC, and after years of playing at nightclubs and raves around the country and South America, Fil Latorre settled in San Francisco in 1999, and shortly thereafter helped start the party known as Stap[e. Stap[e's focus has always been on deep, quality dance music, what Fil and partner David "dj Javaight" Javate call "Future house and Deep techno". Over the years, Stap[e has featured acts like Layo & Bushwacka!, Stacey Pullen, Kenny Larkin, Dan Bell, Jori Hulkonnen, Common Factor, Mark Ambrose, John Tejada and Alexi Delano, culminating in being awarded "Best House Night" by the SF Bay Guardian. Passionate about music all of his life, Fil currently works as an Audio Engineer, and has been working on his own production work, which he regularly plays in his DJ sets.

About dCOY:

Tim dCOY was raised in the Cleveland suburb of Elyria, OH where he spent many a day on a skateboard, strumming his guitar, and playing in psychedelic/alt/Manchester influenced bands.

In the late ‘80s, Tim began going to dance clubs, and found himself being more and more influenced by the electronic sounds of Meat Beat Manifesto, Ministry, Nitzer Ebb and 808 State (to name a few).

In 1996, being heavily influenced by the more raw, stripped down sounds of the Midwest, Tim started DJing in Gainesville, Florida, playing sets of pure techno - contrasting heavily against the local standards of breaks and trance. Always in search of a home, Tim would eventually leave Gainesville to follow his heart to the West. By 2007 Tim was in San Francisco and DJing on a steady diet of minimal techno and tech-house. Alongside fellow DJs Razvan, Farzana, and IXD, Tim helped establish Oakland’s now legendary Black Market Techno.

In February 2008, Tim decided that everyone needed more techno and co-founded Killswitch with DJ Javaight, a weekly techno happy hour in the Lower Haight where Tim continues to push the envelope and the rhythm into the hearts and minds of listeners. Over the years, Tim has played alongside artists such as Dan Curtin, Seth Troxler, Josh Wink, Meat Beat Manifesto, Todd Sines, Reference, Eric Johnston, and Sassmouth, among others. Always keeping the dance floor a priority, dCOY drops with a solid mix of tech and textures, vibrations and aftershocks.