It's 1982, the school park is rocking, and a young DJ from Queens is setting the party off with a couple of turntables. That is how Onionz tells his own origin story. Born Andrew Venegas, he learned music first from his father, Victor Venegas, who played upright bass with the kings of Latin jazz: Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. Before he was ten Onionz was playing percussion alongside him, at times on stage with Candido, Steve Berrios and Paquito D'Rivera. For him, DJing has always been about transformation: taking the rhythm and making it change without a seam.

In 1994 he founded Electrik Soul Recordings, and in 1997 he formed Onionz & Master D with Mike Mandel, building a sound on solid beat loops, south-of-the-border percussion and heavy bass. Time on the road in more than 30 countries has led to over 100 studio projects, including work with the 6400 Crew circle of Tony Hewitt, Halo, Hipp-E and Joeski. To keep it fresh, as he puts it, "you just have to continuously create and consistently rock it."

On Red Melon they remixed Dano & Tony's The Crawl for the 1998 EP, their Electrik Soul remix sitting beside the pitched-down original and the phaser-soaked Phazer Dub.