While forging a career path for himself as a professional in the music industry Jeff Straw aka DJ F has worked as a DJ, saxophonist, retail music buyer, producer, remixer, licensing and marketing director. Jeff received his Bachelor’s of Music from University of Miami’s Music Engineering program in 1996.
His current position as Director of Music Licensing and Marketing at the digital powerhouse INgrooves allows him to stay on top of trends in music. It also gives him access to hundreds of thousands of songs from some of today’s most exciting artists and labels. He acts a music supervisor for interactive games, pitches music for film and tv placements, ad campaigns and internet projects. He handles the creative side of the business as well as the negotiating and contractual sides.. He is INgrooves’ certified Topspin expert and pilots all the campaigns run through INgrooves.
Jeff is one of the founding members of Test Press San Francisco. Test Press is the grass roots organization dedicated to culminating local SF talent and giving new producers a chance to having their music heard and critiqued by a panel of industry experts.
Jeff is also a voting member of NARAS and has been on craft committees for them, as well as serving on San Francisco’s electronic music committee. He is also an ASCAP writer.
As a panelist Jeff has participated on the Independent Label Forum at the 2005 WMC and again in 2008. Jeff spoke about music licensing at the 2007 Summer Music Conference in San Francisco. He has also given several music business lectures at Pyramind, a production and engineering school based in SF. The NARAS event Post Vinyl featured DJ F in his own studio production forum to discuss tips and tricks that he has developed. Most recently he spoke for NARIP at an extensive panel focused on how to earn more money with your songs.
As a producer and remix artist, DJ F has over 20 releases available. As a remixer he is creative and musical no matter what the genre… DJ F has recently released downtempo remixes for Hawke aka Gavin Hardkiss, Romanowski and Sutro; breakbeat remixes for Girls on Film and Artemis; and house remixes for Ethan Klein and the Etch Brothers both co-produced with Rick Preston and one for Tila Tequila. 2009 saw the release of a Mephisto Odyssey vs. DJ F release, as well as remixes for Divasonic and Girls on Film.
To represent his hometown in 2004 DJ F released the compilation Destination Lounge San Francisco, the first release for the label Revive the Soul. The critically acclaimed two disc set was compiled and mixed by DJ F, and includes two of his own productions as well. The second volume of the series DLSF2 was released in 2007. In 2003 DJ F dropped his debut production full length CD – Only One on his own label Breakshop Studios. As a saxophone player he has had the pleasure of playing and recording with SF’s finest house djs including Late Night Sneaky, Rick Preston, Julius Papp, M3, Garth, Jeno, and J-Boogie. He has recorded for labels such as OM Records, Revive the Soul, Ideal Muzik, Sweet Groove, Housetown, and RTFM. He also played lead sax for the 15 piece disco band Superbooty for 12 years.
Previously Jeff was the retail buyer for dance music, vinyl and hip hop for San Francisco’s Virgin Megastore. There he turned the stores modest vinyl business into a dance music force in San Francisco. In the face of a declining retail market his enthusiasm and dance music knowledge kept the department thriving during his tenure. He also hosted (and DJ’ed) several exciting in-store and cross promotional events with superstar artists such as Deep Dish, Crystal Method, Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto and Mark Farina to name a few.