Like A Star

Growing up in Peterborough, NH, a small town in north eastern US, Alister Johnson aka DJ Catalist, drew his first influences from the sounds of hip-hop producers DJ Premier, RZA, Pete Rock & Large Professor. Armed with a turntable and Cool Edit, an audio sampling program popular in the day, he soon began making hip-hop beats of his own.

Alister has given his special touch in production to remixes for artists such as Feist, Hird w/ Yukimi Nagano, LAL, Layah Jane, Voice, to name a few. When he is not working on tracks for other artists, Alister is making music with a team of writers at The Hive for television shows and commercials.

As Catalist, Alister has produced for local MCs Louwop the Dirty General and Scot Free; but he is perhaps best known for his production efforts on the 'unofficial' remixes, the DJ Catalist re-edits, of Nina Simone, James Brown, Love, Ruth Brown, and Billie Holiday. These demo versions have been circulating among DJs around the world, and have been playlisted by the likes of Quantic, and Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio One..

His debut single, "Like A Star" (Do Right) features the vocals of Vancouver based Alonzo as well as local artists Chris Rouse & Leonie Griffiths. In fact, Alister loves this song so much that he has created 3 versions, all of them unique and outstanding - take your pick.

Whether he is creating music for television commercials, or music for a hip-hop MC to spit their best over, Alister has become one of the fastest uprising artists to look out for in 2006. Stay tuned for more from this multitalented and diverse producer