Beats from the Crypt: Early Works



Metaform (born Justice Aaron) is an American music producer, musician, and songwriter. He first gained notice with the release of his debut album Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, which was constructed entirely from samples. Metaform grew up in Los Angeles in a musical household. His father played Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, and Ravi Shankar records, while his mother listened to Whitney Houston and Curtis Mayfield. His parents divorced in 1988 and soon after he moved to San Francisco with his mother and three sisters. He spent the year 1998 as an intern at Spark Studios in Oakland, California, in which time he had worked with E-40, Tone Capone, and Scarface. He spent the year 1999 shipping records for TRC distribution at which time he delved deeper into the already buzzing Bay-Area Hip-Hop scene. From 2000-2005, he worked as a freelance sound engineer and worked with many high-profile acts including: DJ Jazzy Jeff, Afrika Bambaataa, Pharcyde, Hieroglyphics, Living Legends, Goapele, Zion-I, and many others. He graduated from San Francisco State University in 2005 before moving back to Los Angeles and then to Tokyo. Metaform began playing piano at age 7, guitar at age 13 and at age 16 he started a heavy metal band with two classmates; they mostly played Metallica and Slayer covers. At age 18 he joined the now defunct San Francisco punk rock band, The Breakouts, as rhythm guitar and they played several club shows in San Francisco. After the The Breakouts, Metaform met 4X-ampL (who now resides in Montreal) in an audio engineering class. The two quickly became friends and formed the rock group Team USA (along with Casten on drums) and Metaform played guitar and contributed vocals. Later, Metaform and 4X-ampL formed the electronica duo Razed High. During this time Metaform was known as Hai-Ding, a play on words in that he was in hiding and working on what would later become Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. www.metaformonline.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.