Help me get my groove back

**updated**

(Original video transcription)

Material objects are one thing, but this was soul robbery...

Their actions stripped me of 1000's of hours of work, my art, a major part of my identity, my coping mechanism and my sanctuary.

Furthermore, they halted my dreams and career until I can produce and perform again.

This isn't just a career born of childhood talent, passion and dedication. Music is why I'm still alive and it's what keeps me believing in a brighter future. It's also a vehicle for me to visit my friends and family around the world. Were it not for the dance floor, I might be imprisoned, institutionalized or a junkie due having a life that started out something like the series “Shameless” set in the rural Midwest.

I owe it my life and I want to give back.

It's really true: You don't know what you've got, until its gone.

It's also true that I could ask for less, get some cheap gear and try and start over again, but 20 years of experience has taught me that cheap gear breaks under professional demands and it simply doesn't make sense for me to ask for something that will soon need to be replaced. I don't need the best gear out there but I do need equipment built to last, because I'm going to be using it daily for long hours in the studio as well as in live performances.

Ironically, my life took off like “The Challenger Mission” shortly after I changed my artist name to Alquimia. To me this is the only name that transmits the essence of my work in life: Transmutation. Taking noises, blocks in peoples bodies and heavy circumstances and transmuting them into good vibrations, healing opportunities and growth lessons. As you'll see in the details of this campaign, this year has offered me several tests in transmutation, often in the form of extreme pain, challenge and loss.

Preparing this campaign has been a similar process. One of turning victim-hood into self-compassion and acceptance, overcoming self judgment to get on camera and ask for help and one of asking for what I really need instead of selling myself short.

Through this process I've also come to realize that in order to truly master my art, I need more people than I could ever know to support me, and this support can not come until I ask for it. My whole life I've been stubborn about asking for help, and constantly struggle between ego-elimination and the need to self promote. All of which I need to get over.

The only way to do so is to humble myself further and ask you: If you can, please help because I really need you.

Share this campaign on social media. Follow me on twitter, FaceBook and Instagram. You can also follow me on Soundcloud and play on my mixes there. You don't even have to listen to it all, just click play for a minute on each one. These are a few free and easy things you could do that would help me tremendously. In the end these are numbers games and SMALL ACTS, MUTIPLIED BY MANY, HAVE GREAT EFFECTS!

Words fail to express my gratitude for your time and generosity.

Thank you so much for being a part of my life and my future.

This seriously IS the world to me and I will be lost without you.

**

Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/alquimiamusica

Facebook personal: https://www.facebook.com/sunofosiris

Facebook artist: https://www.facebook.com/eliaalquimia

Twitter: @47ch3m15t

Instagram: @bfree2bu

________________________________________________

(more about me)

I didn't want to ask for help.

As a country boy from Michigan, it's just not my style. It's not how we do things. We make due with what we have and work it out, it's that simple, life or death situations exempt. I feel like I'm dying inside, so I'm filing for a special exception.Honestly, I don't need this much either, but with CC processing fees, site fees and currency conversions of this process I have to ask for more this much to get what I need.

I've spent most of my life cultivating my passion for music . At age 5, all I wanted for Christmas was a dual-cassette stereo to make mix tapes. At 7, my grandmother began teaching me piano, then came the saxophone, flute, clarinet, 4 mallet percussion, trumpet, singing and more in school. Yes, I was THAT band geek performing in ensembles and orchestras for over a a decade until I discovered techno in Detroit. It was the combination of everything I loved... performance, mixing, programming, applied intuition, dancing AND helping people lose themselves in the moment all with unlimited learning potential. I had to do it! Since then, I've lived and performed in several cities across the United States as well as in Delhi, Kathmandu, Barcelona, Madrid and Ibiza, living a modest life and reinventing myself in new scenes, experimenting with multiple genres of the underground, spending countless hours sweating on dance floors, exploring rhythm in movement and on the decks.

It's not about fame, its about personal expression, development and maintaining sanity in an insane world.

Its a challenge starting over. This year has been a whole new level of both beautiful and brutal. Moving back to Barcelona after many years has had its complications, but I've never felt more like I'm home than in this city. The culture just flows with my biorhythms and me going back to my roots in techno meets perfectly with the vibrant and growing techno scene.

Dreams from as far back as I can remember... from childhood, from18 years ago when I bought my first turntables, from 8 years ago when I lived here last and from 4 years ago when I started studying audio production and engineering ...

I had been contacted by the CEO of one of my all time favorite record labels, played on the beach in Ibiza, was discussing fall club dates in Barcelona and Madrid, landed a cute little apartment close to the sea...

It was all coming together so beautifully!

Then life rocked me like a hurricane...

It started out light. My crystal collection of 20 years was stolen in transit to me. A week later the bike that was my primary transport for years was stolen. Throughout the summer I would suffer nasty food poisoning for a week, nearly break my hands falling on a bike rendering me unable to use them for almost a month, endure a month of wicked viral gastroenteritis that put me in the hospital, during the height of which the water company cut me off and sent me a 4500 euro bill due to clerical error, forcing me to fetch all my water from the fountain up the street for a week while they sorted it out. Seriously though, it's was insane. Wave after wave of madness. They also stole a bike a friend had lent me. I'm on my 3rd now. She's beat down and ugly. I hope she stays for a while.

The Heartbreaker...

It was July 20th, 2 days after my birthday and a sticky 33 degree night (~91 Fahrenheit).I came home late, inspired from the full moon drum circle and swim in the sea, showered off, hopped in bed and sketched some rhythms until I fell asleep. In the early morning of the 21st, some robbers entered my window under the cover of nearby construction noise, drugged me to keep me asleep and proceeded to take their time searching my entire flat for everything valuable.

I woke up feeling out of it, it really took me a minute to really get conscious and realize what had happened. Needless to say I felt both violated and devastated, and that's just the tip, just the beginning. The shock has taken months to process.

They took my wallet, cash savings and foreign currencies I had collected from my travels. They packed my music equipment into their cases. They reached over me to unplug and take my laptop, literally from my hands, as I slept naked on top of the sheets. Then they casually walked out the door with it all, back up drive and cables included.Sadly, the forensic police couldn't find a viable print on the window so the only basis of their investigation are the 2 different footprints they left under each of my windows.

Their actions stripped me of countless 1000's of hours of work, my art, my craft, a large part of my identity, my coping mechanism, my sanctuary and, ultimately, postponed my dreams indefinitely until I can produce again; my career until I can play again. Material objects are one thing, but this was soul robbery and I've been on a downward spiral since. Lately, its become difficult to enjoy anything.

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, and that ain't no joke!

This is why I need your help.

I'm so close to making it, but at this time I'm not in a position to afford another set of equipment. I was in the process of making tracks for a couple labels but I haven't signed with anyone (yet), so there's no advance option. My work options without equipment are pretty limited to non-existent and the money I make as a massage therapist barely covers my bases, not to mention my right thumb is still recovering from the bike accident and limits the amount of work I can do.

What I need to get back in the groove:

A solid macbook pro (within last 2 generations, ideally used, but not abused) with, Logic Pro at least 8 GB RAM (pref. 16GB) and a large 7200 rpm or solid state hard drive, plus equal back up drive **(Have now, Thank you!)

A solid analogue mixer such as the Allen & Heath Zed 10FX with USB out for both live and studio performance. **(Have now, Thank you!)

Native Instruments Kontrol Z1 for non'club DJ gigs (can use with phone or laptop!). **(Have now, Thank you!)

A keyboard/midi controller with pads, knobs and faders and a good synthesizer. The ARTURIA Microbrute would be ideal. It´s a sick polyphonic analog synth that doubles as a midi keybard. **(Have now, Thank you!)

Pioneer HDJ200 headphones, since they work for both DJ and Studio. **(Have now, Thank you!)

Korg Wavedrum - This instrument will vastly accelerate my production time by allowing me to play 200 different drums live instead of sourcing and editing specific samples to play in midi. Additionally it will add natural expression to my percussion sounds and make a beautiful addition to live sessions. See a demo here:

A quality pair of compact studio monitors such as the IK Multimedia iLoud Micro monitors, a microphone, cables and cases.

**Time to work. I've already begun designing new sounds on the synthesisers, putting together custom drum kits and tracking but it takes MANY hours (approx. 15-20 hours per minute of audio) to put together a track. It takes at least 4 tracks to box an EP and track lengths average 6-7 minutes.

Any over funding will go toward mix down time in proper studios, professional mastering, insurance, promotion and other costs that come with this work.

I don't have much to give back right now, and many of my mix sessions were lost for good, but here is a catalogue of what I could recover from friends and family.

Be sure to leave an email address so that I may send you the link to the drive with my mixes, you can choose whichever you like. :)

ALL MIXES CAN BE HEARD HERE: https://www.mixcloud.com/eliaalquimia/

1) AETHERNET (2009) 1 hour continuous mix

• Transcendental rhythms with tasteful vocals in a base techno, deep house and electro fusion.

2) ALEPH (2012) 1 hour continuous mix

• Deep tech-house mix of 44 tracks that I arranged into a long poem, then mixed into gem of a session.

3) ASTRAL GLIDE (2010) 1 hour continuous mix

• Deep, spacey mix of tech-house.

4) ATLANTIS (2011) 1 hour continuous mix

• Deep, ethereal mix of trance and tech-house.

5) AUROBOROS (2014) 1 hour continuous mix

• Richly spiritual chill out mix with Middle Eastern and Indian rhythms fused with dub.

6) CASA DEL SOUL (2013) 1 hour continuous mix

• Down-tempo flow cascading through multiple genres

7) CLIC(PLAY) (2016) 3 hour continuous mix

• 3 hour solid tech-house mix featuring today's hottest music, a few classics and a couple of my original themes.

8) COSTA DORADA (2009) 1 hour continuous mix

• Balearic inspired fusion of tech-house, neo-tango and flamenco

9) CREME (2012) 1 hour continuous mix

• Delicious mix of tech-house and electro with seductive vocals for a pool party in Miami

10) DEEP (2013) 1 hour continuous mix

• Deep house fused with multiple genres

11) FLUX (2014) 1 hour continuous mix

• World music inspired dubstep and trip-hop

12) HTML (2010) 1 hour continuous mix

• Deep, lounge-inspired mix of tech-house

13) I, ANDROID (2013) 1 hour continuous mix

• Solid tech-house and electro mix with overarching theme of robots taking over the world

14) KAVA (2012) 1 hour continuous mix

• Groovy chill-out mix of multiple genres, inspired by my favorite artists heard at the Kava Lounge, San Diego, and composed for their 10 ^th anniversary

15) LO QUE SURJA (2015) 1 hour continuous mix

• Tribal fusion mix with story line theme “a night at the disco”

16) MASTERS AT WORK (2003) 70 minute continuous mix

• Old school vinyl only mix that revisits the roots of techno.

17) MODEM LIFE (2010) 1 hour continuous mix

• Tech-house fusions with vocals that emphasize themes we encounter in modern life.

18) MODEM LOVE (2010) 1 hour continuous mix

• Tech-house fusions with vocals that emphasize themes we encounter in love.

19) MOKSHA (2009) 1 hour continuous mix

• New age down-tempo mix designed to help relax and let go.

20) QI (2011) 1 hour continuous mix

• Driving tech-house mix with electro elements and touches of pop music

21) SANDS OF TIME (2013) 1 hour continuous mix

• A cinematic journey through sound that follows the salt and spice caravans as they move from South Asia, traversing the Middle East, on their way to Casablanca

22) SAMADHI (2012) 1 hour continuous mix

• Down-tempo mix designed to invoke a deep, reflective state.

23) SATELLITE (2009) 1 hour continuous mix

• Trance and tech-house fusion sure to set your mind and body into orbit

24) SOM AQUI ARA (2016) 80 minute continuous mix

• Inspired by the 25^th anniversary of Space (Ibiza), this CD-lenght mix spans multiple genres and 25 years of electronic music. Screen capture video of live mix available on YouTube will give you a visual of both how I mix and how I structure stories using track names. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ4vxs-nN2M

25) SOULAR (2012) 1 hour continuous mix

• Groovy blend of deep dubs with world beat and hip hop textures

26) TANTRA (2013) 1 hour continuous mix

• Seductive, jazz-inspired tech-house mix designed to get your shakti flowing.

27) UPASANA (2011)

• Downtempo mix of ambient and world music inspired electronica.