Steve Branson

b. Los Angeles, CA.
a.k.a saru / spooky monkey / apollo / ultranaut

Los Angeles Producer / DJ / Volunteer Monkey Ranger SARU spends one month each year trekking through the mountains of Nepal searching for rare herbs. Are they in between a baboons brow, under a long forgotten trading card, or possibly in the folds of a sequined prayer robe? Who knows. He seeks these rare and mystical plants for a magic elixir that will one day wash away the woes of the world. Someday he'll find the elusive ingredients. In the meantime he settles for twisting vinyl discs into eighty-minute mandalas and brewing his special tincture of throat-soothing beats.

Currently signed with Bastard Jazz (as Spooky Monkey) and Shadow Records (as SARU).

Downtempo Dojo Kit list: Roland JX-3P, JX-305, AlphaJuno 1, Casio SK-1, Yamaha FB-01, TG-33, RY-10, Takamine G330 6-string acoustic guitar, Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro Mixer, Alesis M1 Active mkII Monitors, Apple Macintosh G4/533 DP w/ DA-2496, Studio Vision Pro.

Machine Kit list: Roland JX-305, Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro Mixer, Alesis M1 Active mkII Monitors, Apple MacBook Pro with FW-410, Logic Pro 8, Reaktor, Battery, Kontakt.

contact: saru@downtempodojo.com

Jim Behrens

b. Cleveland, OH.

Jim started playing musical instruments in 1983 at age six. Over the years, he's played alto and tenor saxophones, violin, piano, oboe, upright and electric bass, guitar, and drums. He studied improvisational jazz on the sax from 1991-1995. While enrolled at Purdue University from 1995-1999, Jim played sax with The Snails, an instrumental jazz-funk 5 piece, entertaining drunken hippies at crowded house parties. He later played bass with 5 lb. Bag. In 1999, he moved to San Diego and met Steve, who opened his ears to electronic music. In addition to recording with saru, Jim has been writing and recording folksy rock songs in his apartment, and while at sea. He would like to thank his mom for driving him to all those music lessons.

Jim plays on the songs 'bamboo shadow', 'planet', 'something stronger' and he co-wrote 'fishbowl funk' and 'suck in love' on downtempo dojo and a member of DAEL

Equipment list: Ovation 6-string acoustic/electric guitar, Yamaha 6-string acoustic guitar, Carvin fretless bass, Yamaha YTS-63 tenor saxophone, Mitchell 12-string acoustic guitar, Line6 DL4 & MM4.

contact: jim@jimbo.cc | www.jimbo.cc