Xopher aka Christopher Olson was born and raised in Golden, Colorado. After high school, he joined the US Army and served 6 years in the Air Cavalry as a helicopter Crew Chief. Service duty stations included Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, Germany, Bosnia and Hawaii. Following his service he worked at Honolulu International Airport as a helicopter mechanic and began studying Aeronautics at Embry Riddle university. Upon graduation, he moved to Maryland where he modified aircraft for the US Marines. Xopher's passion for electronic music began during the new wave era in the 1980s with bands such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Yaz, Alphaville, Kraftwerk and Front 242. During his military service, he studied music theory and composition and began developing tracks using Cakewalk, a Roland XP-80 and an AKAI S5000 Sampler. Xopher is currently a DJ and music producer in Washington, DC., specializing in "uplifting" or "emotional" trance. His Current influences include Ace Da Brain, Pervading Call, Simon O'Shine, Arctic Moon, Ahmed Romel, Andy Blueman, Alex MORPH, Matt Bukovski, Illitheas, Infite, John O'Callaghan, Laker and Mahilov, Neptune Project, Philippe El Sisi, Temple 1, C Sharp, and Smith & Pledger. Xopher uses a pair of Denon DN-S3700 turntables to mix his uplifting trance sessions where they are edited in Audacity and posted as Podcasts for free on iTunes. For production, Xopher uses Ableton Live with various plugins. Favorites include Sylenth, Synthmaster, Tone2 Synths, Lush-101, Rob Papen and NI Komplete Synths. Xopher also has a full time job as a program manager on Marine Corp Helicopter development and a part time job as a University Instructor.