theCruzat

I'm Dan Cruzat, a digital creative and producer in Portland OR.

My primary disciplines are front end web development and audio engineering. I like to build.

I try to remember a life beyond work, to feed the creative drives, to keep all planets in my system in harmonious orbit. Familia es todo.

I was born born on Jupiter, but I am "from" Chicago, I've been in Portland since late 2006.

Lots of things have changed...

In former lives, I've been a prankster in life insurance, a most loathesome breed of telemarketer, a binder of books, a jockey of cd/dvd replication, a walker of dogs (and scooper of poops), an animator of Flash (and looper of loops), a pusher of vacuums, lawnmowers and vitamin supplements, and as a Distinguished Fellow of Assemblies with the John Hardy Company of Evanston IL, maker of the world's finest digital microphone pre-amplifier, the JHC-M1.

Let's start there.

John Hardy has a post-it in his office that reads "The Amazing Autodidact". He taught me about being self-taught, how to learn what you need to know as you go. He built a globally recognized audio processing brand from his childhood home in Evanston. He is still active in the community and a fixture at cafes.

The Heise family of Evanston, gifted writers, owned a bookstore that was my first regular job. Half science fiction and half Chicago gangster history. I cannot imagine a more perfect place for 12 year old me. Also the first time I had any sense of a work ethic.

Two businesses I worked at in the earliest years that taught lessons I carry with me to this day. You are who you were when you got here. It's okay to be weird, it's okay to stand out. Sometimes in that space of individuation, we find our true communities.

A star's energy will travel for aeons after its death, its light will continue to fall on remote worlds. I still work and live in the lane those jobs placed me in.

I got my first piece of music sampling software in 1992 and quickly became obsessed with collecting little pieces of sound. 96 had me with a 4-track and 98 plugged me in with MIDI. I spent my college years running in the insanity of indie rap in Chicago.

In the course of my beatmaker / sample-crazy days I went through crates of cassettes, tapes, reels, and thousands upon thousands vinyl records. I've used plenty of hardware over the years, my all time favorite sampler is the Akai MPC 2500. Mine is named Vader.

Sampling is an odd artform that chose me... At the age of 20, I was introduced to PhotoShop, the same principles I had learned in audio translated to visuals. I repurpose, rearrange, reconfigure and realign.

I have always loved rap, the intersection of vocalized rhythm and conceptual writing. I'm sure I'll still be embarassing myself with it in my ancient years.

Writing has always been part of it, a part of me. I have pages from notebooks that are almost 40 years old. Once upon a time, Dave gave me the best advice.

What an era we find ourselves in. The best of times and the worst of times, rolled up into one. I take comfort in knowing many young nerds and weirdos that are resilient in their oddness. Go forth, young lions.

It is in the nature of things to grow and change, the world changes and we all change with it. Try to accept the changes.