Jeremy Ballard aka Dj Onket
-Sonus Productions / Lesson Learned Productions / The American Jungle
Onket has been dj'ing since New Years 1998 when he purchase his first set up turntables, mixer, and stack of vinyl. He found his roots in the South West Florida scene playing house parties around Naples and a few after hours events in Ft. Lauderdale.
In October of '99, He moved to Denver, CO and quickly started making moves in the Colorado EDM scene.
Onket had his first gig in Denver playing Thanksgiving evening '99 at Trax 2000, upstairs in the jungle room. He started his first night running the patio at Herbs Hideout with Digital Girl & Architech during the summers of 2000 and 2001.
After the summer of 2001 Onket teamed up with Turbo Alliance on a weekly drum-n-bass night called Rockers Sound at the Flying Dog Brewery. This night began Dec. '01 and lasted till july '02. Rockers was a great success and propelled Onket into the Denver drum-n-bass scene. Turbo Alliance brought him on board as an official crew member and helped educate Onket in the drum & bass / jungle culture.
He threw other weeklies between 2002 and late 2003. Over those years Onket played out regularly at other local nights and parties around Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Breckenridge.
In October of 2003, he started playing at the infamous Snake Pit's jungle night Breakdown and eventually became one of the rotating residents in the final days of the weekly. In 2005, Fury and D:Ecco ended Breakdown and began a weekly at The Church Nightclub where Onket was a monthly resident. This residency would help Onket to gain knowledge in club promotions and play with legends like Mampi Swift, Dieselboy, and Craze among many others.
Onket has always been a skilled technician behind the decks and has done well in the mixtape contest over the years. In August of 2000, Dj Onket won a mixtape contest at Twist-n-Shout Underground with his Breakbeat Mix. He next recieved an honorable mention in the Sept. 2001 issue of BPM magazines "Unleash the Beats" contest.
Having a steady residency at one of the top drum & bass weeklies in Denver, a growing internet radio show, out of state gigs, and a few successful parties 2005 shaped up pretty nice for Onket.
In 2006, Onket set new goals and aspirations for himself. New Years weekend of 2006, Onket made his first trip to Cali to play at Adrenaline in Orange County and at Liquid in San Diego with Kasia Star. They soon returned in August to play at the infamous Respect in L.A. In March, Onket threw his first WMC party called Westside, at Tantra Restaurant & Lounge, featuring local artist from around the U.S. and went off and helped stretch his network of fans and artist even farther.
In April of 2006, Onket started promoting parties at the Shelter Nightclub in Denver. Between April and October, Onket started up Sonus Productions and brought out Artificial Intelligence, Chase & Status, MC Verse, Reid Speed, Femme Fatale, Nightstalker, Jayvon, XYZ, Priest, and Clutch.
In October, Sonus started a chill Tuesday night weekly at The Funky Budha called System Tuesdays. It is a really relaxed environment, with music consisting of Dubstep, Downtempo, House, Breaks, and Techno. You never know what you might hear there.
In November, Onket and Sonus Productions moved away from the Shelter and gave a shot at the warehouse scene. Teaming up with Diskonected Development and threw an all locals party called The Christmas Eve, Eve Party to finish off the year.
In 2007, the sky was the limit for Onket. He started off the New Year combining forces again with Diskonected Development with a bang by bringing out two of his all time favorite producers/dj's Ed Rush & Optical with MC XYZ for a huge underground party.
Onket now had the honor of representing Almost Famous out of L.A. with a few events in the Denver Area. 2007 was full of shows and kept Onket & Sonus Productions looking like a constant year of work. They brought out Mathematics in February, London Elektricity in March, working with Almost Famous on two parties during the WMC (Almost Famous at Afterglo & Continuity at Tantra), and Artificial Intelligence in May.
From March through 2008, Sonus Productions hosted the main floor of Vinyl, a Friday night monthly bringing out Dieselboy, MC Messinian, DJ Craze, MC Sharpness, Total Science, Goldie, MC Armani, Shy FX, Keaton, Reid Speed, Shortee, MC Tali, Chase & Status, MC Verse, Mampi Swift, Killa Kela, and the list goes on. Sonus eventually moved into the Vinyl basement and shared a weekly with Sub.Mission who brought dubstep legend Hatcha. Sonus hosted the night with locals and a headliner monthly including Simon Bassline Smith, Evol Intent, and Friction. During these years Onket and Sonus Productions made a mark in Denver Drum & Bass and expanded his network into the artist he admired and looked up to.
Onket has had a fruitful career and being able to open up for Pendulum twice, network with Los Angeles and the UK junglist, His expectations have been met and the journey has just begun.
The next couple years, Onket & Sonus Productions took a step back and concentrated their efforts into the film production world. For the next few years, Onket joined forces with Phenetic to create Lesson Learned Productions and The American Jungle. It has been a long journey since Onket purchased his first set of decks and there is still way more to come. Look for The American Jungle to release soon and major events in the works with Sonus Productions.
Keep checking in for updates on up and coming events.
