I, David Nazaruk, was born at a very early age to my parents Michael and Lily Nazaruk. My father was from Ivano-Frankivsk in the western region of Ukraine and my mother was born in the west end of Derby in Derbyshire.

My father was the chairman of both the Ukrainian Scouts in Great Britain and the Ukrainian Social Club in Derby where he would organise and MC at many cultural meetings and events. He even hosted a visit from HRH Prince Charles in 1976! As a baby, I would often be placed on the stage in my Moses basket and I suppose you could say this was where my love for music began (it has never left me!).

On my third birthday I was presented with a drum kit, an accordion and a mandolin. I was then soon encouraged (forced actually) on to the stage with three other children to play music for cultural evenings. This included providing backing music for the Ukrainian dance group and choir as well as providing music at social gatherings such as dances and concerts. When performing for Saturday evening dances we were plied with copious amounts of crisps and lemonade as payment for our services!

I later joined the Young Ukrainian Orchestra and Dance Group that my father had formed in Derby. This continued until, at the age of 12, I joined a Ukrainian dance band who were all 10 years my senior. We played a wide variety of music from waltzes, tangos and foxtrots to rock and pop music. We had a nightclub residency in Birmingham every Wednesday evening, followed by three further bookings at the weekend. We played cabaret and working men's clubs and even travelled to Paris for some performances.

My father had to explain on many occasions why I was always falling asleep in class at school. His response would be along the lines of, in his Ukrainian accent, “I’m not surprised, he had three bookings at the weekend and did not get to bed until 2am by the time they got back from Gloucester”!

My teenage years took me in a different direction: playing in several rock bands. First I joined The Tourists (not the ones you are thinking of) and warmed up for both The Jaggs and Sham 69. However we were forced to change our name when we received a notice of pending legal action from a young lady by the name of Annie Lennox - so we became The Lazers. Next I joined Arctic Charter and then a local funk outfit from Derby by the name of Ffresh (yes, that’s not a typo, two ‘f’s). I continued to play my drums and sing in bands for many years.

During this time I went on to further education where I met my future wife Angela. We have been together since 1978 and have been happily married for 32 years (well I have anyway!). We are blessed to have three fantastic children Alex, Sofia and Lukyn, not forgetting Mr Tino Marino who has been living with us for over eight years! He has not paid a penny in rent nor contributed to any of the household bills. I did confront him about this issue but he just barked at me and ran off to chase another squirrel! Yes, he is a little Parson Russell.

After college I then took another different direction, fronting ‘The Mazeppa Cossaks’ for a short while before I formed my own Ukrainian dance group ‘The Kozaks’. We performed for about three years, regularly appearing on popular TV shows and travelled extensively both in the UK and internationally. Our live shows took in such venues as Grosvenor House in Park Lane, London and Stringfellow’s Nightclub; we even appeared at WOMAD (World of Music & Dance) festival in Reading. This was a surreal, yet enjoyable, time as I had to always speak with a Ukrainian accent. As that isn’t how I normally speak, this allowed me to introduce an element of humour in to the act.

I have been self-employed for 33 years. During this time I have owned a few different small businesses, one of which was a production company where I composed and produced music for television. I was fortunate enough to have worked on commissions for ITV, BBC and Sky. One fairly large commission was the music I composed and performed for Central News, which was played on TV several times a day for three years.

This afforded me the opportunity to attend university where I attained a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Studies. Fittingly (and somewhat humorously), my thesis was a multimedia piece aptly named ‘The Digital Maestro’, which examined the use of computers in creating and composing music. I then went on to Keele University where I qualified as a teacher, which led to numerous posts teaching Music and ICT.

One of my favourite jobs was teaching music to the wonderful students at ‘The Royal School for the Deaf’. I took in my 4Kw Logic Pro rig, which consisted of 2 x 18” bins and 2 x 15” tops, along with my Roland electronic drum kit. Through vibration, the students could feel the music. It was such a lot of fun and a wonderful experience. I still think back fondly today on what a rewarding challenge it was.

Whilst teaching music I began to develop an interest in DJing, which I shared to teach and entertain my students. I would also often use humour to engage the interest of these students, frequently bursting into a spontaneous rap switching between different accents, to either diffuse a situation or just to put a smile on their little faces. I soon began to be asked to provide discos for the schools, which was my introduction to becoming a mobile DJ. DJing quickly became a passion, and was a great form of stress relief from teaching. Although I have been involved in the entertainment industry for most of my life (52 years to be exact) I didn’t start DJing until 2003. So some may say I am still a ‘newbie’, but I am always keen to learn and improve.