Even at a young age, (from the moment he came out of the womb, if you ask his mother), Aaron had a love of music. With influences coming from his mother, aunt and older cousin, Aaron grew up listening to everything to early rock and roll to crooners to Motown to modern rock. By the time Aaron was 5, he had a 45 collection that would rival his older cousins’, not just typical children’s records either. No way. There was Styx, Elvis Presley, Carly Simon, The Hollies, Seals & Crofts as well as The Mama’s & The Papa’s, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones and Neil Diamond. Of course he had inherited his mothers’ 45 collection and somehow always got the records that people were going to get rid of. By the time he was 10, Aaron had over 1000 45’s spanning 3 decades. Unfortunately, most that collection was lost in a move when Aaron was 9.

As Aaron was entering high school, new wave and the UK “New Romantic” era was just starting. MTV was beginning to put its stamp on the music industry and Aaron was paying attention. During his freshman year in high school, Aaron became part of the schools’ radio station and was broadcasting on air by Christmas break. This opportunity would introduce Aaron to other kinds of music as well, the stuff that wasn’t being played on mainstream top 40 radio. Groups like Ministry, The Cure, Bauhaus and Joy Division would soon become known as “Goth” groups a couple years later, but between MTV and the radio station at school, Aaron had found his new love in music.

It was also around this time that Aaron discovered the 12” single. 12” singles are extended or remixed versions of a song that is usually different from the 7” and LP versions. They were introduced in the late 70’s and were generally used/aimed for nightclubs and were promotional only. In the early 80’s, they started being sold in record stores for general sale. Aaron instantly fell in love with the new versions of songs that he already loved and started to collect 12” singles his freshman year. The 1st 12” he bought was Duran Duran’s “Union Of The Snake”. He couldn’t wait to see what would be released as a single from his favorite artists and what the 12” would be like. It wouldn’t be long before Aaron realized he wanted to be able to make remixes and extended versions. He was hoping the radio station would start getting promo 12” singles and how he could make a show featuring these awesome different versions. Unfortunately, Aaron’s family would move after his freshman year to a school whose district did not have a broadcasting curriculum. He was accepted into a college broadcasting course at the local community college at the age of 15, the only 15 year old to be allowed to take a course at this college, but it wasn’t in the cards as enough people did not sign up and the class was cancelled.

This would not deter any dreams Aaron had of becoming a DJ or learning how to remix. At the age of 16 Aaron would discover “teen” clubs like McGreevy’s, Medusa’s & Photon. These places were known for being more goth in customer base and played more UK music instead of American Top 40. It was at these places that Aaron would discover “mixing”. The first time Aaron went to Medusa’s he realized that the DJ wasn’t doing “typical” blending, letting one song fade or end and then start the next one. No, this was continuous. There was never really a break from the music, it just kept flowing. Aaron found the DJ booth and just watched the DJ as she placed headphones on her head, turned on a monitor, played around with the record that wasn’t the one playing at the moment, moved some levers on a board and VIOLA! A new song was on. Aaron was in amazement and went home that night determined to learn how to mix records together.

At the age of 18, Aaron met Donnie Warner who would soon become his closet friend and partner at DJ’ing. Abandoning the one turntable, one tape deck that they had been using to try to mix, Donnie had gotten 2 belt drive turntables with pitch control and one Radio Shack mixing board. They would spend hours and days together, mixing records. Aaron would practice for hours a day, going from the lowest BPM to the highest and then back down, then up again. Before long Aaron & Donnie started to record their efforts on cassettes to listen back for progress/mistakes. After 3 months of continuous practicing, they gave one of the better tapes to the DJ at Photon in hopes of doing a guest spot. Their luck was in as they got to do a 1 hour spot on a Friday night. Unfortunately, Aaron & Donnie would not become a famous DJ’ing duo. Donnie would go on to get a job DJ’ing in the suburbs while Aaron moved to the city to get his first gig.

Aaron was DJ’in in bars soon after the move. He got a job at a bar in Chicago just after his 20th birthday. It was here that his appreciation for Hi-Energy would flourish and grow. Artists he never thought he would like soon became part of his nightly sets. Artists like Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Mark Farina and Quartlock would be among records Aaron would pull for playing. Being a kid who did like disco, it wasn’t difficult for Aaron to take to HI Energy and open up his ears to find some great production in these tracks. He seemed to have a weakness for cover version, as long as they were well thought and well produced and didn’t loose what he calls “The integrity of the original”. He also learned a lot about producers, labels and the mechanics of mixing. Which would help as the 80’s ended, and the 90’s began.

In 1992 Aaron would start what would be his longest residency at a nightclub. He would work at Hunter’s until 1999 as the main DJ/Music Director. During this time, Aaron would fulfill another dream job of working at a record store when he started working at Super Dance Records, a DJ specialty record store, in Arlington Heights. Aaron’s love of music as well as knowledge of the “classics” and his feel for what was a good record would help Aaron to become an assistant manager at Super Dance where he stayed until 2003. Aaron always considered himself lucky for his jobs and that working in a record store gave him an advantage. By getting the newest music as it came out, he could be playing something long before it became popular or overplayed. He still hadn’t given up on the remixing idea, and had even started to do re-edits on his computer, but he was still more concentrated on DJ’ing and the record store.

In 1998 Aaron would feel like he came full circle when he got a job at a nightclub called The Mission in Elgin. This particular nightclub was owned and run by none other than Dave Medusa who, in the 80’s, owned Medusa’s where Aaron spent many a Saturday night dancing away with friends. The Mission wouldn’t just become Aaron’s new home, it would be the birthplace of his alter ego, DJ DropOut. Aaron’s tastes in music in the late 90’s started going towards Trance and Progressive. Both these styles were known for having these “drop outs” with intense build ups that Aaron just loved. Hence the name DropOut. It seemed every track Aaron played from 1999 on, had at least one of these drops with the intense build up.

With the new name came new opportunities and soon Aaron found himself playing along side of DJ Psychobitch and Teri Bristol. Two of Aaron’s idols from back in the Medusa’s days. Psycho & Teri were resident’s at Chicago’s most famous nightclub, Crobar. Spinning with these two great ladies led to an opportunity to do a guest spot at Crobar, which led to a twice a month gig in the Mezzanine at Crobar. During this time not only did Aaron do guest spots at many of Chicago’s hot spots like Red No 5, Tranist, Vision, Rive Gouche and Excalibur, he also did mixes for Q101’s Sonic Boom show and Energy 92/7.5’s mix show. But ask him his favorite experience of that time and he will tell you that it is without a doubt the time that he spun on stage at Crobar with Val (Psychobitch) and Teri Bristol for Teri’s birthday. Being on stage, looking out at the sea of faces and watching them move to the music he was playing is something that Aaron will never forget.

Aaron retired from club DJ’ing in 2004. While he does come out of retirement once in a while to do a “reunion” party at The Mission, he has decided that he wants to be more involved in the production end of music as well as get back to his radio roots. Any one who follows his shows can tell his tastes in music are as wide as the grand canyon. Aaron has often said, “My friends always tell me that I am the only person they know of that can go from listening to Depeche Mode to Pink Floyd to Nat “King” Cole to Ministry to Rick Astley to Neil Diamond to, well, you get the idea. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”