Dieselboy

Damian Higgins was born in Tarpon Springs, Florida, in 1972 and moved with his family to Colorado at six, then later to Oil City, Pennsylvania. He came up in Pittsburgh's rave scene while studying at the University of Pittsburgh, learning to beatmatch live on college radio and playing trance, happy hardcore, and breaks at house parties before his 1994 mixtape "The Future Sound of Hardcore" brought him out-of-town bookings.

In 1996 he became the first American asked by a British drum and bass label to mix a compilation, recording "Drum & Bass Selection USA" for Suburban Base, and followed it with "97 Octane" the next year. He moved to Philadelphia in 1997 to become the drum and bass buyer for 611 Records, and in 1998 launched Platinum, the city's first weekly 21-and-over drum and bass night, which ran at club Fluid until 2004. That same year he was the first American drum and bass DJ nominated for Best Drum & Bass DJ at the Global DJ Mix Awards, tying with LTJ Bukem.

He's since founded the labels Human Imprint and SubHuman, and became the first drum and bass artist to chart a single on Billboard's dance chart, with "Invid," in 2000.