Born in Gainesville, Florida, Django Haskins' musical journey has taken him to some strange corners of the world. A childhood in a family of musicians exposed him to Cole Porter, the Beatles, Dylan, Motown, Thelonius Monk, the Replacements, and Elvis Costello to name a few, and created in him a deep-seated love for pop music in its many forms. After a string of middle- and high-school bands with such bound-for-glory names as The Music Butchers and The Robot Bunnies From Hell, Django headed north to study literature on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line. He then set off for China, living in Hangzhou teaching English, and performing his songs at the local pub. It was a crucial experience for his development as a songwriter, as he recounts, "I gained a lot of insight into what makes a song work with an audience that can't understand a word...it takes away all opportunities for in-references, clever lyrics, etc. and boils it down to melody, rhythm, feel, and sound. And when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what goes into it; it's the sound that hits you or doesn't."

Continuing with his penchant for Third World bases of operation, Django relocated to New York City in 1996. After the release of the album Folding Stars and a series of increasingly successful solo shows at NYC downtown institutions such as CBGB's Gallery, the Bitter End, the Fez, and the Mercury Lounge, Django formed Django & the Regulars with Byron Isaacs on bass and Neil Nunziato behind the drums. With the Regulars, Django teamed up with legendary producer Don Fleming (Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub, Pete Yorn) as well as NYC producer Andrew Holander and Mike Daly (Whiskeytown) to record another album of his tunes, Laying Low and Inbetween in 2001, which garnered an impressive amount of radio play and critical acclaim and was subsequently picked up by NYC indie label ModMusic Records for national distribution and use in several TV & film projects.

Django's third solo album, overeasysmokemachine was recorded in NYC with Andrew Hollander producing and Robert Smith engineering (David Bowie, Rickie Lee Jones), with some additional recording in Django's newly adopted home base of Chapel Hill, NC with Dan Bryk and Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five) at the mixing board. The album was recorded with the Regulars but also includes several solo acoustic tracks, presenting a more complete picture of Django's music as it is heard by live audiences on him many tours throughout the U.S. and Europe. Following on the heels of this collaboration, Django formed a band together with Robert Sledge, NC songwriting icon Snuzz, and drummer Jason Fagg called International Orange. Within a year, the band had played over 100 shows, released an EP, and was awarded top honors as "Best New Rock Band" in the Triangle area before putting it on hold in the spring of '05.

Not one to ever stand still, Django had then already formed his own musical collective to create a darker, orchestral pop sound - dubbed The Old Ceremony, this band has featured some of the best players in the area on violin, accordion, cello, sax, trumpet, vibes, organ, piano, bass, and drums. The Old Ceremony's debut album was released in late 2005, to excellent reviews and strong radio play. You can hear the album on iTunes or at theoldceremony.com. TOC's followup, Our One Mistake, was released nationally on NYC indie sonaBLAST Records in October 2006. It reached the top half of the CMJ Top 200 radio charts, and was selected as one of PASTE Magazine's TOP 100 Albums of 2006.

Live shows are the laboratory in which Django's new compositions are sculpted into shape and his classic tunes are given a new life night after night. It is the mark of a true artist that, no matter how good the records are, the live shows are always indescribably better, and are different each time. This is what Django's fans know and everyone else will soon understand. Until then, by all means pick up the records and find out what you've been missing.

Dr. Jake McCann, PhD. New York City, 2007