Biography

DJ Quest, (Carlos Aguilar) was born in 1973 in El Salvador, and moved to the San Francisco’s Mission District in the early 80’s where he began his musical pursuit. During this time he was exposed to the sounds of Hip Hop, Electro-Funk and rap music; from Run DMC, Newcleus, Ice T, Soul Sonic Force, Kraftwerk, Kurtis Blow and Art of Noise. The discovery of this new culture triggered a long-lasting obsession with the Hip Hop elements and exceptional interest in scratch music.

In the mid ‘80’s, Quest took his talents to the street when he partnered up with DJ’s 2-Fresh and Polo G, and began rocking house parties, high school dances, etc. However, dissatisfied with the lack of appreciation for scratch music at his mobile gig, Quest took his skills to the stage, by DJing for various local rap crews, this allowed for the occasional solo.

Not long after, he began to enter competitions. Quest is a veteran of DMC, New Music Seminar and countless DJ battles - which provided the foundation that raised the level of dedication and discipline required to master the craft.

In the late 80’s, Quest hooked up with DJ’s Eddie Def and Cue, and created an early version of a DJ band “The Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters”. Their biggest contribution came in 1992 with the release of Hamster Breaks Vol. 1, the first record of its kind arranged specifically for scratch and battle DJs. This set off a wild fire- like effect and opened up a new market for tool records and battle breaks.

In 1996, the crew released the follow up “HB 3.5”. "The 'Paul's Boutique' of break records" as described in URB magazine. Now under a new name, The Bullet Proof Space Travelerz, and new additional members; M.C. Eddie K and DJ Marz, the group branched towards new areas of showcasing and production.

Quest, is also known for coining the term “Hamster Style” which refers to the reverse set up of the turntables into the mixer. Today the term remains popular world wide and is recognized by DJs and gear manufacturers. Nearly every competent battle mixer has now adopted the Hamster feature (the reverse switch).

In late ’96, Quest further expanded his musical horizons by teaming up with Albert Mathias (percussion) and Andrew Kushin (contra bass) to form the experimental Jazz/Hip-Hop group Livehuman.

Since its formation the trio has self produced recordings for the British based label Fat Cat Records, the Bay Area’s Hip-Hop Slam, Matador Records and their own independent label Cosmic Records.

This new artistic outlet brought forth unlimited possibilities as well as the opportunity for Quest to display his abilities all over the US, Australia, Japan and Europe. Highlighted performances include the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and Transmusicales Music Fest in Renn, France.

Around the turn of the millennium, Quest kept busy producing breaks and tools. In 2000, Quest linked up once again with old school DJ partner 2 Fresh, and created a label specifically for DJ records, Breaks Ahead. Previous releases include: “Etchings of the Upper Dynamic Frequencies”, “Vinyl Hedz”, and “Electro Sox”. Their latest release, “Scratch Breaks vol. 1” is part of a new series of skip-less tools.

In addition to the numerous releases, Quest has collaborated on many recordings with various artist including Dan “The Automator”, Blackalicious, Rondo Brothers, Rob Swift (X-ecutioners, Ill Insanity), Z-man (One Block Radius), TOPR, Sacred Hoop, DJ Zeph, DJ Q Bert (Do It Yourself), Wide Hive Records collective “Variable Unit”, and The DJ Project. Quest, is also featured in the Doug Pray directed documentary “SCRATCH” (Palm Pictures).

While learning about every aspect of the industry and application of the music, Quest expanded his versatility and used it to cater to a spectrum of situations. In 2000, as part of a seven piece orchestra, Quest took part in the Urban Opera “The Human Placebo”, based on "Kinh" the Mayan mythology of time. In 2002, he collaborated with composer Gina Leishman, and co-produced and performed the sound score for Cal Shakes’ Shakespeare at the Park production of “A Winter’s Tale”.

All along spreading his contagious love for the art and taking part in even more events such as DJ workshops and clinics, constantly contributing to the fine tuning of the turntable as an instrument, and the shaping of turntablism.

In 2003, Quest and Livehuman once again pushed the boundaries of turntable Jazz with the release of “Breaks Even”. A show record sampling bits and pieces of the band, loaded with instrument sounds and special effects for the musician-DJ or producer.

The albums’ success lead to a remix album “Breaks Even Remixes” featuring a collection of artist from around the world. The remixed tracks were later arranged on a mix CD, the results, were a unique concept that reaches a new realm of audio experimentation.

The latest of the Livehuman collection is a live CD, “Live in Osaka”, which was recorded in late 2003 during their Japanese tour with Shingo 2.

Aside of his solo and group expeditions, Quest has toured with the likes of Quannum artist - Latyrx, Mike Patton’s Peeping Tom, MC APOSTLE (Heavyweight Dub Champion), The Bomb Hip-Hop DJs, and Future Primitive Sound.

Occasionally, Quest will support fellow -Gurp City MC’s; Z-Man, Luke Sick, and two of San Francisco’s favorites Eddie K and Topr. And is also the DJ for Top Rockerz (break beat band) featuring an all-star cast of musicians; MIRV, Brain, House, to name a few.

Presently, Quest is sharing his DJ knowledge with his Quest School of DJ Arts, in collaboration with Horizons Unlimited/The DJ Project, a non-profit community based- organization which offers arts entrepreneurship program that uses music to engage young adults through programs such as small business management, audio production, event production, and of course DJing. The curriculum includes beginner to advanced courses on mixing, scratching, and industry related subjects.

On the recording front, Quest has recently had a string of releases, including a full length album “Questolous”, which features, collaborations with Dawgisht, DJ Oaty Love, and DJ T-Rock, as well as vocal appearances by Eddie K, Bas 1, and Luke Sick.

“Questolous” is the synthetic fusion of drum-machine and vinyl, mapping sonic travels to the sci-fi-retro-future, by maintaining the rawness of the old school with futuristic sound-scapes and techniques.

The album was closely followed with the release of “Scratch Anthology”, on Future Loops, out of Portugal. “Scratch Anthology” is a scratch sample library with hundreds of ready to loop a-cappella scratches for producers. The library contains a wide variety of scratch patterns from different eras of the art form.

Following these releases, Quest did a series of promotional radio shows. Two of these were recorded and released as live performances. The first, “Live on 3” (Breaks Ahead) is a live-mix CD on 3 turntables at KFJC with DJ 2 Fresh who is also a featured artist on “Questolous”.

The second release, “4/20 Live” was recorded at KZSU Stanford. For this session, Quest invited Dawgisht (on beats), and DJ Oaty Love (turntables). The result of this jam (a blend of dynamic turntable and electronic improvisation) gave birth to one of Quest’s new projects, Quest Quartz Qrew. The live LP was released in the summer of ‘08 on Reverse Techniques, Beat Zen, and Majestic Jewelry and Loan, their conjoined labels.

Currently, Quest is working on production for “Scratch Breaks vol. 2”, the monster mash-up mega-mix “Schizo-Hernia”, “Quest Cameos 2”, and “Phases of Quest” DVD which documents hundreds of live performance clips from Quest’s career.

From the stage to the studio, the classroom to the battle field, for over two decades, Quest's passion and persistence has keep him in the creative fore-front of turntable music, and has earned him a place in the DJ community as a visionary of the instrument of the future, “the turntable”.