We stumbled upon this artist when going through our SoundCloud feed rather recently. Luckily, other Chicago homies of ours are keeping it real and reposting great tunes. It makes it even sweeter when the musician we discover happens to be from the greatest city on earth. You know where we’re talking about…

What first intrigued us about AJ Navilio, who also goes by the stage name Big Sandz, was the content contained in his brief bio on The Cloud. It reads, “An electronic music producer pursuing the truth behind everything and sharing what he finds through his sound.”

This blew us away. Rarely do we find other endearingly passionate existentialists like ourselves, who are interested in one of the few things that seems to matter these days: the truth. Although, kind of a funny concept for a music producer to be concerned with, right?

Wrong.

Music is the most popular and accessible means we have of escaping reality, and the musician is our guide out into the ether and onto the unknown. Who else would you want piloting your proverbial ship into the abyss? Obviously someone who has the experience, not only musically but intellectually. These are the human beings capable of truly lifting off of the weight of reality from your weakened shoulders. These are the people who pour all their experiences, feelings, hopes, dreams, aspirations and all of their soul into an engrossing musical experience for the listener. These are the artists we love to listen to here at Rager Onions, and Big Sandz is assuredly one of these artists.

When he is not producing insanely complex, melodic and chilled-out transgenre beats, AJ Navilio is filling his position as Co-Owner of Rage Face Records, a Chicago-based dubstep, electronic and house label. This is actually the very same label that houses Enoptix, another Chicago EDM group who we happened to interview sometime ago.

AJ credits the sound and evolution of his music to the combination of his prior musical experiences playing piano, sax and guitar (all before starting to DJ at age 17) and his desire to expand his mind/mental awareness through activities like mediation. Big Sandz thrives on the world’s energies and loves to shape people’s thoughts, experiences and feelings through the music he produces and releases at Rage Face Records.

Below, we’ve included a few jams that we know will get you going on this dreary winter Monday.

#ChiTownLove

#ThinkI’mGonnaPLUR!