ABOUT US
A Global Media Outlet
Electric State Radio Worldwide
Uniting the World Through Music
The Electric State is a collective of electronic music lovers, and our innovative history runs all the way back to 1990. What we bring to our listeners is more than just music… it’s a personalized experience from our hearts to yours. Submerge yourself in the Electric State community where all are welcome!
The founder of Electric State Radio, Joseph Villa’s EDM roots link back to the early 1990s when he was a key member of a rave group called Global Underworld Network and World Evolution (WE). Other members of Global Underworld included Branden Powers, Chris Howland, and Nicholas Luckinbill, today of Insomniac.
The internet was booming in 1990. The unparalleled connectivity offered by this new frontier fueled the conglomeration of several counterculture groups in San Diego, CA. Street artists, urban music artists, DJs, tech nerds, hackers, and free-spirited hippies came together to spawn the creation of the rave and music festival culture we know and love today.
Staff Bio - Joseph Villa
The founder of Electric State Radio, Joseph Villa’s EDM roots link back to the early 1990s when he was a key member of a rave group called Global Underworld Network and World Evolution (WE). Other members of Global Underworld included Branden Powers, Chris Howland, and Nicholas Luckinbill, today of Insomniac.
The internet was booming in 1990. The unparalleled connectivity offered by this new frontier fueled the conglomeration of several counterculture groups in San Diego, CA. Street artists, urban music artists, DJs, tech nerds, hackers, and free-spirited hippies came together to spawn the creation of the rave and music festival culture we know and love today.
Denizens of these groups, including the members of Global Underworld, converged at a location called the Loft located on 6th and Broadway in San Diego, CA. The Loft had a cultlike feel where everyone shared a devotion to several key tenets: peace, love, harmony, health, spirituality, and caring for one another and the world we live in. They were also united by their passion for electronic music, though they had no idea the impact they would have in laying the foundation for today’s EDM scene.
Pre-1993, Global Underworld had orchestrated several smaller raves in private, secret warehouse locations, including Universary, Lilly Put, Wild Kingdom, Eden, and Opium. Buoyed by those raves’ popularity, the group decided to dream bigger. They threw an outdoor rave and music festival in the early 1990s in Mexico, the first event of its kind. It was a resounding success that shaped the destiny of EDM and the rave scene across the world.
Global Underworld Network was responsible for creating the spiritual, fantasy-oriented atmosphere that characterizes EDM festivals today. Their largest and most notable outdoor music festival was called Narnia, which was covered by MTV and Spin Magazine and drew thousands of rave-goers to Southern California. From the early 1990s to mid-1997, Narnia was the biggest outdoor rave festival in the nation, maybe the entire world.
Despite their success, Global took a big hit in 1996. It turned out that the landowner who had leased the space for that year’s Narnia rave didn’t actually own the land, and the festival ended up canceled. The last Narnia was thrown the following year at Snow Summit in Big Bear, CA. It was a success, but the group broke up shortly after.
Joseph went on to other ventures, including founding Electric State Radio. Branden moved to Las Vegas and made a name for himself as an entertainment director for Hard Rock and Caesars Palace. Nick carried on with Los Angeles-based EDM producer and Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella, staying true to the foundation set by the Loft community in the early 1990s.
Electric State is very thankful to Pasquale and Nick, who have kept this remarkable movement and community alive all these years. Joseph would also like to honor and give credit to all those street teams, artists, hippies, tech crews, DJs, and everyone else who was involved in promoting and celebrating EDM and rave culture in those early days.
We hope you enjoy Electric State Radio and Media because it’s not just another radio outlet: it’s something a bit more special, made for the EDM festival community by someone who was there at the beginning.
Kevin Wild is a multi-talented musician, DJ, and producer most well-known for being 1/3 of trio Bad Royale.
Debuting in the summer of 2015 and in just 7 short months Bad Royale released two, 5 track EP’s with Buygore and two, 5 track EPs with Mad Decent , and a plethora of heavily supported official remixes and bootlegs. Having immediately racked up over 30 million online streams, Bad Royale received critical acclaim from every major media outlet in Dance music from DJ Mag to Dancing Astronaut to BBC Radio 1 and Apple’s Beats1.
Since 2015, Bad Royale has collaborated with acts such as Major Lazer, Diplo, Steve Aoki, Meghan Trainor, T-Pain, Aloe Blacc, and many more.
In 2017 they signed a record deal with Polydor/Interscope records as well as created a sub label, Rude Mood, with the ability to upstream to their parent label, to promote music in the Caribbean and help local artists find international success.
Kevin’s experience and guidance is essential in our day to day.
Casey manages Electric State’s new business development, A&R, and the day to day operations that come with operating a media company and record label.
In Casey’s free-time he enjoys creating music under the alias “KC Francis“.
Tyler is Electric State’s photographer responsible for all festival and event content coming out of the state of Arizona. Tyler is extremely hardworking, dedicated, and is deeply passionate about capturing the moment.
With a diverse range of instrumental skills, music production, audio engineering, and event production, Chase has made significant contributions both onstage and behind the scenes. Co-producing tracks played at renowned venues like Sound Nightclub, Coachella, and CRSSD, he showcases his dedication to the electronic music realm.
As an Artist Relations specialist at Electric State, he channels his passion into cultivating meaningful connections. Music is not only his inspiration but also the foundation for cherished relationships that make Electric State his true musical home.
TAFARI is the creative director of electric state as well as the founder and designer of his brand TAFARI WORLD. His mission is to inspire creativity and believes that no matter the form or medium of art, we all have the ability to tap into our creative frequency. Throughout his journey as an artist, he has found his main source of inspiration from his passion for music.
Chris brings with him over a decade of experience in the music industry. Chris was introduced to the scene when he was hired to pass flyers out to upcoming events in Chicago. When that got old and Chris grew hungry for more he moved out to California where he began assisting in hosting events. While learning how to facilitate and handle events he then stumbled into artist management. The thought of helping smaller artists land label deals, distribution and collaborations really is something he feels strongly about.
