About
ABOUT US - updated January 2007
Suzy Solar and Brian Benning (DJ Lil’ B) founded Solar Power Music, Inc in 1999. Originally a mobile DJ service for small clubs and parties, the company grew to international status within one year’s time. Since then, Solar Power Music has become a full time music studio, business office, and independant label.
It’s no fluke that the popularity of DJ Suzy Solar has grown so quickly. Her uplifting personality, tight mixing skills, and ability to work a crowd have won her the respect of her listeners globally. Fusing creativity, energy, and emotion, Suzy combines elements of hard/epic trance, progressive, tech-trance, and the occasional breakbeat into her mix. Her deep layering is a unique trip, moving listeners and taking them on a journey with her “magic touch.”
Born in Miami, Florida, Suzy has had a fascination for music and technology since early childhood. She decided at the age of three that she wanted to grow up to be a DJ and musician and started to collect records. Although unaware of how big the DJ movement was going to be, in 1975, Suzy amazed family members by predicting that the sound for the new millenium would be computer generated and entertained the idea that drummers would be obsolete.
Suzy’s love for electronic sounds started in the early 70’s and began to find her talent for singing, writing, and dancing. She took ballet classes and was the youngest student in her class at the age of four.
By the time she reached high school, Suzy became popular in her hometown of Tampa, Florida. Frequenting the all-ages nightclubs in Miami and Tampa from the age of thirteen, her outrageous dress and personality got her noticed. She won various dance and thespian contests and was often featured on TV.
Her first break at deejaying came in 1987 when she was hanging out at a local nightclub and was approached by the resident DJ, who taught her how to use the turntables. Suzy spun new wave and industrial music for two clubs in the Tampa area for three months, then quit deejaying when friends and family convinced her that she would “grow out of the whole music phase.”
A highly talented vocalist with a 3 1/2 octave range, Suzy sings both alto and soprano and writes lyrics. She joined the Tampa punk/death metal band, Dead, in 1988 as their lead singer under the alias Belching Snotsucker. She gained an interest in playing live instruments and began to learn to play keyboards, bass, electric guitar, and even took an interest in drumming. Dead cut their first and only E.P. in 1990 on the German label, Gore Records, a sub-label of Nuclear Blast Records. Dead looked promising and received airplay in Germany. However, the band disbanded soon afterwards due to conflicts with their guitarist.
Suzy majored in mass communications at Hillsborough Community College and received her diploma in studio production at Jones Intercable. (Fun fact: Suzy minored in psychology with the interest of becoming a specialist in sexual deviancies. Another fun fact: Suzy’s school guidance councellor told her that her talents are in cartoon writing and tried to persuade Suzy to send Disney samples of her writings.)
On her birthday, October 6, 1992, she launched the first airing of her TV show, “The Morbid Underground” on cable access. The show was a popular series in which Suzy, dressed in Goth gear, would air death metal/punk music videos and interviewed top underground bands. Her character on the show, Suzy Morbid, was a seductive cannibal video jock, in which she would tie up and eat her guests. Suzy loves to make people laugh, and would often make her own comedy skits to give the show an extra edge.
Suzy soon became a legend in her hometown. She attracted the attention of A&R reps of Atlantic and Capitol Records when a lot of the bands that she featured on her show soon had their first hit songs. Some of the bands she interviewed were Pantera, White Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Testament, The Genitorturers, G.G. Allin, and many more.
Suzy had produced, edited, written, hosted, directed, promoted, and executed all of the technical work for her whole show, with only one other person on her team – the cameraman.
The popularity of the show skyrocketed and Suzy planned to go on and have a career in television and movies. However, in March 1994, “The Morbid Underground” came to its demise when punk-rocker G.G. Allin defecated on the show and Suzy’s license for television production was revoked.
Meanwhile, Suzy began to attend raves in the early 90’s. She purchased her first trance CD, “Tranceformed from Beyond,” featuring Paul Van Dyk and Cosmic Baby, and was so inspired that she wanted to do everything she could to help push the electronic sound.
In January 1997, a friend took Suzy to the world renowned Simon’s in Gainesville, Florida. She met resident DJ, Todd Baran, who inspired her to start deejaying again. Suzy bought her first pair of turntables in March ’97 and taught herself how to mix, with some help from Todd and her friends.
Suzy had learned to mix very quickly and made her first appearance after three months on the decks as the campus DJ on the Playboy Channel’s “Sorority Girls.” Two months later, she landed her first club residency at the Luna Lounge in Tampa. From there, she began to play every weekend at clubs, parties, and raves all around Florida.
After spinning for six months, Suzy released a brilliant trance demo tape entitled “Cloud 69.” Her follow up epic demo tape, “Somber,” made two months later, proved to be another brilliant force to be reckoned with. She started to build up a strong fan base who felt her passion through her music. She became the pioneer for trance in Tampa.
These demos inspired her current partner, Brian Benning, to seek out and find her. He became her booking agent and manager in March 1998 and Suzy taught him how to mix. Using the alias DJ Lil’ B, he started to accompany Suzy to shows and often opened for her. (After many years of managing their own DJ bookings, Suzy and Brian signed with a booking agency and management company. As of July 2004, Jessica Bendig at The Joint is their booking agent and Oscar Poche at Media Services NYC is their manager. Brian still travels with Suzy as her road manager and plays at events with her.)
In 1998, Tampa passed an anti-rave law, forcing the late night scene into bottle clubs and strip clubs. A year later in July 1999, Suzy and Brian took on a major challenge. They began to promote, DJ, and supply sound and DJ’s for a central Tampa bottle club four nights a week. They transformed the dive into a safe and positive environment. Their nights became successful and were the first weekly late night in Tampa dedicated to trance music. Suzy and Brian left the bottle club in January 2000 and went on to play every major nightclub in the Tampa Bay area, which included some of the best residencies in central Florida.
Eager to spread their wings and fly out into the world, Suzy and Brian played their first out of state bookings in November 1999 at Karma and Dragonroom in Chicago, Illinois. They followed their hearts and began to concentrate on global bookings.
Early in their career, Suzy and Brian had become residents on the trancedomain.com online radio station. The owners of the site, DJ Trancelott and his wife, Veronica, gave them their first major exposure to the world. In July 2000, Suzy and Brian traveled to Germany to attend Loveparade with DJ Trancelott. Suzy met with Tunnel Records and they gave her the honor of inviting her to play on the Tunnel float. A week later, they played in Calgary Canada, then in Panama City, Panama. That was only the beginning of a wonderful life as a touring DJ.
Through hard work and clever marketing, steady international bookings came pouring in. Suzy and Brian have headlined shows in wonderful places such as Canada, Europe, Central America, South America, and all around the US including Hawaii.
A represenative from Neurodisc Records heard Suzy play on trancedomain.com and offered her two mix CD deals, which are distributed by Capitol Records. “The Perfect Trance,” (2001) and “The Perfect Trance 2.0″ (2003) have topped Billboard’s US electronica charts and are two of Neurodisc Records’ top selling albums.
Suzy’s live DJ mixes are being aired on many prestigious dance channels, which include Ministry of Sound radio, Intuition Radio, “Resident Nation” on Music Choice on digital cable televsion, Sirius Satellite Radio, Digitally Imported Radio, XM Satellite Radio, and Worldspace.
Every Wednesday, you can tune in to hear Suzy mix 100% live on CD & vinyl turntables on her show “Solar Power Sessions” at www.etn.fm 2 - 4 pm EST on the trance channel. Every first Wednesday of the month, she has a live high quality video feed in real time and plays for the whole two hours. On the other three weeks, “Solar Power Sessions” is a live “audio only” broadcast, with DJ Lil’ B or a guest mix in the first hour and Suzy in second hour. Additional monthly residencies include “Trance Fetish: DJ Suzy Solar” on www.sensegenerate.fm, among many others. Her shows are highly recognized among trance fans and have a strong following. Suzy has even been recognized by the prestigious Deet List, and was voted #48 worldwide on the Top 100 Female DJs list in 2006.
Suzy is currently concentrating on producing original music. “Ocean of Love,” a collaboration with Germany’s Miss Shiva and Steve Kay, is a pumping trance dance floor filler. The Odyssee Breakbeat Mix is featured on Paul Oakenfold’s Grammy nominated “Creamfields” mix CD compilation 2004, and the original mix is featured on the 2003 Austrian compilation titled “Shiva – Colors.” The track was just signed to ESNtion Silver and will be released in early 2007 with a music video and 3 new remixes (7 remixes altogether).
In mid 2005, Suzy happened to meet popular Dutch producer Thomas Bronzwaer by accident in a random MSN chat from someone on her contact list. When Thomas traveled to Florida a few months later on a student exchange program, he and Suzy produced Arizona Vs Suzy Solar “Samurai” in her studio at Solar Power Music. The Original Mix, which features Suzy’s vocals, and the Assure Remix (aka C-Quence) was relased on Dedicated/United in June 2006. The Japanese inspired trance tune has graced dance charts all around the world, including the Technics Dutch Dance Charts. “Samurai” is supported by the top international DJs, including Armin Van Buuren and Ferry Corsten. Thomas and Suzy are currently working on a follow up track. Suzy is also producing new solo tracks and is working on other collaborations to be announced soon. She’s planning on releasing an album of her original music and collaborations in the future.
Suzy’s dream of making people happy and being a positive light in their lives is becoming a reality for her and this is only the beginning. She loves to travel, meet new people, and to entertain. Suzy truly cares about her fans and the quality of her music. This multi-talented artist has a bright future ahead of her and is shining brightly in the hearts of those who have been touched by her presence.