Music:
When I was about 14, I started with rock music, especially Guns n' Roses. For a while nothing else existed for me, then I got some CDs from classmates with really interesting trance (Trance Nation '95) and hardcore (Thunderdome VII, IX, etc.) music, this got me started in the direction of electronic music.
After that I discovered drum & bass, which will always be one on my favorite genres, but I try to keep an open mind and listen to as many different kinds of music as I can. If you check out my friend list it gives you a taste of the diversity of my musical taste.
Because of this open-minded approach I produce various kinds of music, from trance and happy hardcore to drum & bass and breaks. Most of my stuff tends to be on the dark and/or heavy side, no happy tunes to whistle during the day. That's not a conscious choice, it just happens to be this way.
Tech:
I started making music way back in 1997 with the state-of-the-art Fast Tracker II. :) After that I was hesitating, trying several applications (e.g. Cubase VST, Fruity Loops, Reason 2, Cubase SX), but I eventually ended up with using Ableton Live.
As far as plug-ins and studio equipment goes, I've built up a studio, that's more than enough for me at the moment (except for the monitoring, but that shall be improved in the near future).
