"I dunno man, to me it's all just dance music."
Despite being involved with an almost-completely England-based sound known as UK Garage, as well as many of its' sub-genres including "2-step" and, more recently, "Bassline" or "Niche", the producer A9's Queens, New York-flavored accent reminds you where he's from. He's clearly an outsider, and he loves it. He loves the fresh perspective it brings him, and he loves the fact that he can always be apart from "the scene". Producing under the name Achitekt 9 (which has been more recently shortened to simply A9 in many occasions) for four years, he has proven that he intends to go nowhere anytime soon.
But it didn't start just four years ago. No, A9 has been involved heavily in different music scenes since the late 90s. He traces his undeniably deep roots to what is often referred to as "The Golden Age of Hip-hop". Many years of MCing, Grafitti writing, and DJing soon gave way to his most ferverent passion, however, which became beatmaking. While still just a teenager, A9 began accumulating the skills & the gear necessary to realize his passion. Throughout the late 90s, he tore it up wherever he went, whether it was in the studio or in a cypher. But, for him, the honeymoon would soon end, as "The Golden Age" soon gave way to "The Jiggy Era".
Always citing his infulences as among the more diverse of his friends, once hip-hop became boring to him, he quickly sought out and explored different styles of music. From drum-n-bass to trance to trip hop to psychedelic folk, A9 absorbed and created everything and anything that would stimulate him. Finally, one fateful day in 2001, he found the sound that he craved when a DJ friend of his put him on to an artist who had been making noise abroad for a few years, but had only recently come to surface in the US. That artist's name was MJ Cole.
A9 loved the snap of the drums, the depth of the basslines, and the raw emotion of the Rhodes. He was hooked, and instantly began seeking more and more of this UK 2-step flavor. As the years went on, he finally decided to start creating his own 2-step vision, but not without the help of his long-time friend and collaborator on many previous projects, Delek. They were both pretty hooked on the idea, and not long thereafter, they formed a collaborative partnership called Bibliotek.
Their first release came soon after in the form of a 12" collaboration with another good friend named Sumeet. DJ Charma of the then-up-and-coming label Stereohype Recordings snatched it up and released it alongside remixes by Will Phillips, Karl Brown, and MJ Cole himself. Since then, Bibliotek has been a mainstay on a scene 3000 miles from the city they call home. They've released tracks & remixes for artists such as the Toronto, Canada-based, Juno-nominated singer Deesha and r-n-b crooner David Lewis.
Always experimenting, Architekt 9 wants to take everything to a new level. Still heavily in the lab with his partner Delek, he has branched out on his own as well to see what new and different flavors he can concoct. Whatever sub-genre that record shops may try to fit him in, it's apparent that he can glide through these small niches with ease. After all, apparently it's all just dance music to him.