DJing started as a hobby around the year 1999, soon the party series called Check One Two (a monthly event for 15 years, now a once-a-year event in Tallinn) and hiphop.ee were launched, the latter in the now legendary Club Spirit, considered as one of the first truly successful hip-hop club events in Estonia, paving the way into clubs for many other hiphop/rnb/urban music events. Quest was also the resident DJ of the party series Brown Sugar, which can be considered as the first ever monthly RnB club event. Soon Quest and his companions would take control of managing most of the hip-hop related events in Tallinn, kick off the very first official Estonian MC Battle and start a weekly radio show called Programm on a commercial station EnergyFM (moved to Estonian National Radio’s Raadio2 in 2003). Quest is also one of the few Estonians who has been selected to participate in the Red Bull Music Academy (Seattle 2005) and one of the few European members of the international DJ crew The Mix Syndicate (formerly known as BumSquad DJz). He is also producing music (as DJ Quest and various side projects like Tunnetel On Kõla, Jay Escalade, Baltijaam and Smthing Smthing) and runs a small independent record label Emerald City, which is focusing on releasing music from noteworthy Estonian artists (released debut projects from names like Sander Mölder, OYT, Firejose and Avoid Dave). He has worked as a program manager in jazz club Clazz and Fotografiska Tallinn, curated stages and booked artists for Positivus Festival, Juu Jääb Festival, Jazzkaar and hundreds of corporate and private events over the years.
The cornerstone of his DJ-sets is a combination of hip-hop DJs technical skills and the musical knowledge of a classically trained electronic music enthusiast – blending various genres of modern electronic dance music with classic soul, funk, jazz and boogie – moving effortlessly between the genres and mixing, as he labels it himself – “whatever’s soulful and moves you”. Besides playing at all the best clubs in Estonia, his DJ skills have also taken him to events and festivals all over Europe, the United States and Asia. He holds residencies at Club Studio (Tallinn) and at his own events Check One Two and Souled Out, which also has it’s own mixshow that Quest is hostin.
Over the years he has also received an increasing number of invites to give lectures and workshops about DJ-ing, production and the business side of music. When not spinning records, doing a radio show, organizing a party, producing a track or releasing a record, he works as a program consultant and booking agent for night clubs and festivals.
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