D:Fuse, an electronica artist who hails from Texas, was interviewed by the Vail (Colo.) Daily before a show in Vail.
Here’s the interesting excerpt:
VD: What has been your major impact on electronic music and how do you plan on impacting the future of electronic music?
DJD: I hope my biggest impact will be turning dance fans into very eco-friendly people. I’m putting together an 800-mile bicycle ride on the original Route 66 to raise money and awareness for earth-related causes next spring. It’s called “Earth66.” I’ll be doing daily video diaries that we’ll be broadcasting online. We’re putting it together now but you can see our progress at www.earth66ride.com. Other than that I hope the impact I’ve had is to move people through the music I’ve written over the years. I was one of the first electronic acts to post my music on iTunes and I like to think it helped show others in the electronic scene that downloading is the future of music. It’s great to see online music buying such a force in today’s market.
The ride goes from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, logging 70 to 100 miles a day. According to the Earth 66 Ride site:
Earth 66 is a mission to raise awareness for a planet in peril. It’s the mission of International DJ D:Fuse to ride a bicycle along Route 66 seven hundred miles from Los Angles to Albuquerque to
help raise money and awareness for a variety of issues related to climate change. […] Along the way he will be doing his best to “convert” rural America to house music with his portable DJ set up. The idea is to entertain and inspire music fans to educate themselves of the world around them and take action. D:Fuse will not be riding alone. Joining him will be former pro-rider Scott Card who will provide logistic and equipment support and videographer Jimmy Hofmann who will be documenting the journey. No purely gas-powered vehicles will be used for Earth:66. All three will be riding bicycles. The support vehicle will be a Hybrid car. What better way to raise awareness for the planet than to ride a bike 700 miles on the mother road that ushered in the modern age of the ever-polluting automobile?
One of his sites says the tour takes place April 1-10, 2009, but another says it’s this October. I’ll e-mail to verify. NOTE: D:Fuse has confirmed it will be next year.
Here’s a video of D:Fuse talking about the ride:
As for the music, I’ve actually listened to a few of D:Fuse’s albums. I’m not a big fan of electronica, but he’s very good at what he does. It’s also relatively rare to find a DJ who’s as skilled with percussion as he is with the turntables.