DJ Klever aka Josh Winkler was born on the fourth of July in 1977, the son of famous blues musician, Juke Joint Johnny. Josh distinctly recalls going to his father’s shows at a young age and listening him jam out on the harmonica. At the tender age of four, he received his very first drum set, a “manimall” Muppet Show kit that he practiced playing until the skins busted.
Josh spent most of his adolescence like any all-american kid: baseball, grinding curbs, and eating apple pie. He lived to sneak out at night and hit Atlanta's local skate spots where he caught a healthy reputation for his competitive spirit and pushing big tricks.
At the age of sixteen, Josh’s competitive passion for both tricks and music met the almighty turntable and Klever was born. Growing up with a hip hop background, Klever studied djs like Premier, Cash Money, Afrika Bambaataa and Jazzy Jeff for their mixing and scratching arrangements.
In 1997, Klever started competing in every local competition possible where he began practicing with the Third World Citizens - Faust, Shorty, Shotgun, Craze, and T-Rock. In 2000, Klever seized the national DMC championship title and while at the international DMC competition, he was inducted into the world famous Allies crew, which consisted of renowned turntablists Craze and A-Trak. He began traveling the globe a lot with Craze. Shortly after, the two released the cult classic “ Scratch Nerds.” Klever began to produce prominent break record’s for battle djs and producers. In 2001, Klever successfully defended his national DMC title. He then represented the states in London for the international title. Later that year, he also won the national ITF title in San Francisco.
Beyond his accredited mastery as a turntablist, Klever has developed a healthy reputation as “tomorrows dj”. Klever has established his name throughout the dj circuit for his crowd-roaring routines and mix sets. Being born and raised an ATLien, his signature style (on and off the decks) moves crowds in every direction from his roots of crunk, booty, and hip hop to the sweaty sounds of electro, dance-rock, b-more, new-wave, hard rock, and anything worthy to make you rock with finesse.
In the past 5 years, Klever has been performing his signature sets non-stop around the world (Taiwan, England, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Australia, Japan, etc). He consistently amazes crowds and party-goers from 60 to 60,000 at world renowned venues such as Miami’s Mansion, Amsterdam’s Paradiso, NYC’s Roxy and Irving Plaza, Fabric in London, and many more.
He has released several mix CDs obtaining notoriety from culture heavy hitters such as Turntable Lab and Tablist magazine. He also two immensely popular battle break records with DJ SHOTGUN (former dj for Goodie Mob), Dirty South Breaks and Get Crunk Breaks. He has also done remixes for Cool Kids, The Carps, Kill the Noise, Steed Lord to name a few.
Not only audibly, Klever’s skills have been featured in numerous DVDs: the film Scratch (a DJ documentary awarded at the Sundance Music Festival, A-Trak’s “Sunglasses are a Must”, Stanton’s – “Step-By-Step” (instructional), “Tableturn’s - A Great Day In Turntablism”, the 2000 & 2001 USA/World DMC Championships, the 2001 ITF USA Championships, 2002 & 2003 USA and JAPAN ALLIES Invitational All Star Beatdown, and the upcoming ALLIES (untitled) self produced DVD.
Klever is presently working on collaborative projects that encompass the street culture lifestyle through music art and fashion. Between touring nonstop and his dedicated lab time, Klever is the dj to watch.
