“The citizen may take a bride, but it is the rifleman who takes a lover. Ultimately we all must choose either the myth or the mountain.”

The origins of Montreal born DJ-producer-incipient Teutonic legend Tiga lie to the vague and troubling East, where he was weaned on the nefarious milk of the notorious 1980s Indian club scene. “To the unforgiving eye,” he says of the sybaritic night-kingdom, “a world of filth and decadence is revealed. For example, I’m fairly certain that more than a few club owners had an unsavory arrangement with the man who brought the folding chairs. I was at once appalled and enraptured. After that, I had no choice in the matter.”

By 1990, Tiga had returned to Montreal, prodigiously night-wise and unsatisfied with the existing local club scene (calling it “the plumage of a bird I cannot bring myself to want.”) With the help of a core group of friends, he began to throw a series of small parties infused with the sense of dead-eyed ennui gleaned from a past littered with acid whores and crazed Indian gamblers. Other innovations which Tiga introduced to Montreal party culture include guest DJs, intense street promotions featuring rival gangs of street acrobats, color flyers, multi-dj sets and leading the supplicant crowd through the innermost corridors of one’s soul.

It was this heady time of dizzying innovation and ravenous sexual ambition, which culminated in the birth of 1993’s “Solstice,” generally, considered to be Montreal’s first genuine rave. (A year earlier, a hyper-prescient Tiga staged “Eclectricity,” the first online rave, a project whose utter failure remains a source of bafflement: “It broke my heart, given my views on diversity… I am, I feel, a very interactive person.”) Tiga has since helped to orchestrate no less than ten major events, including “The Orb Live”, “Pure” and the very first North American appearance of continental illusionist Jean-There.

In 1994, Tiga bought DNA Records, a small medical data concern, and parlayed it into Montreal’s premiere electronic music boutique.

In 1996, Tiga privately sang about the death of actor and poet Tupac Shakur.

That same year, the Montreal dance community found a haven for the boldest feats of dance, where fools are in love with mystery and sex-valor is prized above all else. In addition to its place among the pantheon of urban groove centers, on weekdays it rents out its facilities, at a very reasonable rate, to a local program dedicated to teaching homeless men to dance properly (“I just think it’s an important project”, Tiga said at the time).

In 1998, Tiga started Turbo Recordings as an outlet for his wild man organ escapades but he soon found a host of other artists who were willing to be paid to record for him. Turbo has released over 20 albums, 2 samplers and 12 vinyl twelve inches as well as secured global distribution with Prime, Intergroove and Caroline. Notable releases include Peter Benisch’s “Soundtrack Saga”, Christopher Handlebar’s “To a Time of Asia” and Tiga’s own “Mixed Emotions” and “American Gigolo.”

By 2001, however, overwork and media saturation began to show their strain, as evidenced by Tiga’s hysterical outburst at a fashion photographer during a promo shoot:

“I’ll sit for your venal cigarette pictures, but I will not indulge you in your game of ‘Eyes! Lies! Surprise!? I dare you, coward — call out your cloakmen! What are you waiting for? The truth?!”

Following a month spent riding horses and caring for his voice, Tiga entered the studio with producer Zyntherius “Jori” Hulkonnen and a singular vision: “electro, but mainly about my eyes.” The result, a searing rendition of his former Mother Mio bandmate Corey Hart’s solo smash “Sunglasses at Night,” challenged dancers and seduced critics alike, yet Tiga is coy when asked about its impact, particularly in Germany: “‘Sunglasses’ is a sinless child, a gleaming medallion. But is also a trick, a trick of memory. You must understand — on a whim, we revealed the hidden fire of Europe.”

But fires need tending and lumber. And so be advised of the onslaught of Tiga-powered releases, both recent and forthcoming. They are his craft, his life, his living craft-fire.

In 2003, Tiga took his conqueror’s tools to the streets with a heralded mix CD for !K7’s DJ Kicks series and an ethereal reading of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre”, which became a stalwart success across the globe. The video, which can be seen at http://www.eyeballnyc.com/recentwork/tiga/, is a revelation of neo-urban dazzle-do, courtesy of the puppet wizardry of Tiga’s brother, the Lord of the Marionette.

More recently, Tiga has been gracious enough to lend his wind-shattering vocals to Richard X’s “You (Better Let Me Love YouX4) Tonight,” as well as “Heartbreak/Ananda”, by Beyer & Lenk (Adam Beyer and Jesper Dahlback) and Rik Stamina’s “Dancing Inside You.” His remix work on Alex Kidd’s “Come With Me”, Neon Judgement’s “TV Treated”, Scissor Sisters’ cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”, “Da Hype” by Junior Jack and Robert Smith, Peaches’ “Shake Yer Dix” and Soulwax’s “E Talking” comprises a merciless Crimson Romance, lapping at the shores of eternity.

Tiga’s smash single, “Pleasure From The Bass”, a two-fisted jackal that drew a line in the dancefloor sand, was released in 2004 on PIAS and left scores of club DJs desperate to pack Tiga’s musical foxhole.

2005 saw mixes for Depeche Mode, The Vests, Moby, LCD Soundsystem, Mylo, Philippe Zdar, Chelonius Jones, Drama Society, Thomas Andersson and hundreds of others.

“You Gonna Want Me”, the smash duet with Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame set the earth on fire in October and cleared the way for Tiga’s full-length album of original material, Sexor, released on PIAS in Febuary 2006, which is nothing short of a clarion call for the emergent Nation-Man.