From a very young age Patrick Paredes was exposed to many different musical styles, as a 5 year old living in Lima, Peru, Patrick fell in love with his uncles disco records, constantly playing them on the familys radiola. It was 1980 when Patricks family headed north to Montreal where his musical journey continued by way of his older brother Erick, who by then was a serious b-boy and exposed him to early hip-hop and electro. In 1985 the family moved to Toronto where Patrick would get his first taste of early house music. Saturday and Sunday afternoons my brother and I would record Ron Nelsons Fantastic Voyage Program and Daves Dance Music on CKLN. I still have some of those tapes somewhere. It did not take long before Patrick was exposed to music production. In 1988, having 2 turntables and a mixer from Radio Shack was huge deal, then my brother got his hands on a sampler and started tinkering around with doing some beats, so I would watch and listen, I have such great memories of those times and Im really grateful to my brother for putting me on this path, I was the only kid in grade 7 that could mix!

In 1989 Patricks family moved once again, this time to Miami. Miami was weird at first, I stuck out like sore thumb, it was so different in a way, but very familiar in another. I was right at home with the Latin culture and the weather was easy get used to. Attending high school, Patrick soon found his circle of deejay friends. In spite of the fact that Patrick was in a bass-town, he would still play some house tunes and at times it was not received too well I once got asked to play a set at this house party that my friend was playing at, so I went and I brought out some house records, put it this way; they were really not feeling it, I think this dude wanted to shoot me, I can honestly say that I had never been more scared in my life. Eventually Patrick got a residency in Coconut Grove. This was an all ages Hip-Hop club but one of the residents there had been working the crowd over with some house music for the past few months. It was a great experience playing there, it was where I cut my teeth into clubs, I dont remember if I was even getting paid, but it was worth it, eventually I was even playing some breaks, rare groove and acid jazz to these hard core hip-hop kids, Im proud of that.

In 1993 Patrick made his way back to Toronto and quickly got turned onto a radio show called Vibes N Stuff on CIUT. These guys were playing records I knew existed but had never actually heard, it was like every week I would discover a new chapter in music In 1994 Patrick decided to start up an rare groove and acid jazz night at The Indigo Caf and had the task of hiring a resident deejay It had to be Mike Tull from Vibes N Stuff, thinking he would turn me down I just called up the show and asked him, he said yeah cool, let do it so the table was set for some wicked parties and great music. Indigo ran for two years and is still considered to be one of the longest running and most influential night in Torontos exploding Soul-Jazz scene in those days. Patrick took a lot from that experience and more importantly worked with people who would play a major role in the years to come. Patrick once again started deejaying around Toronto, playing small lounges and lots of after-hour parties. 1999 marked a new residency for Patrick when he hooked up with Tony Lanz to do the Coffee Sessions at the Octopus Lounge We got Friday nights which was an R&B night at the time and it took us awhile to turn the place into a space for house music, in about a month we had the place filled to the rim every Friday night and the party was hot, sweaty and bumpin. Friday nights at Octopus is still revered by many of the heads in Toronto to this day as the place where you could go any Friday and dance to some serious, serious tunes good times. During this time Patrick started getting more and more into production and started putting together a small bedroom studio and started cutting his teeth in making music. Making tracks and playing them out was fun and it only made me more serious about it. In 2002 Patrick and long-time friend Paul E. Lopes hit the studio to produce some music for Pauls upcoming Whatnaut:House compilation slated for Virgin/EMI. We were just talking about this compilation and I had been letting Paul listen to some of the tracks I had been working on, so he just asked me if I wanted to work with him on some songs for the album. Patrick and Paul formed Augusta and went to work on a slew of releases featuring Ivana Santilli and Sacha Williamson as well as a number of remixes and original cuts for other labels such as PlayRecords, a remix of Beady Belles Bella for Universal and Pedras Da Ruas Terra Do Bravo a brazilian floor scorcher which was featured on Do Right Musics Required Listening compilation. It just worked out really well, we had a great time in the studio and we turned out some music were really proud of. In 2004 Patrick and his wife Ivone welcomed their first child, Olivia, into the world. Shes already playing with my records she takes them out of the sleeves and flings them across the room! You should see her bang away at the pots and pans though, Im buying her a drum set this summer!

As of late, Patrick and his brother have been working on something theyve talked about since they were kids, starting up a label and a recording studio. The imprint is called Sustainable Recordings. The studio will be run out of South Beach so Im planning on going there quite frequently and the label will be run out of Toronto and Miami.

Look for Sustainable Recordings first release of Miamis own Agape feat. Nadia Harris.