RIP Keith Flint of The Prodigy

The sad news a few days ago was that Keith Flint of The Prodigy has been found dead at age of 49. Apparently he took his own life 😦

The Prodigy was an influential EDM band from the 90’s. They came to the scene in 1992, but it wasn’t until their 3rd album in 1997 that they hit it big. I remember the track “Firestarter” being played on the radio when they didn’t even have a record deal. Madonna’s label jumped on it and offered them $1 Million. This was unheard of for electronic music band in those days.  Even today it would be surprising for an EDM act to get paid so much.

Although they are best known for the track “Firestarter,” I like their second single from the album “The Fat of The Land” much better, called “Breathe.”  Here you can watch the video.

I used to go to a lot of EDM shows and have seen many EDM acts in the late 90’s to early 2000’s, including Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method and Junkie XL, who made similar music to Prodigy. But for some reason I never saw The Prodigy live.

Interesting thing is that Keith took his own life on day 3/3/19. Those that produce electronic music know that “303” or “Roland TB-303” is well known sought after vintage synthesizer from the 80’s that was used by the Prodigy.  Many are wondering if there was any connection to Keith taking his life on this day or just a coincidence!

RIP Paul Allen

Article by Pierre Zarokian.

Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen,  died today from cancer.  Allen had announced earlier this month that the disease, which he had been treated for in 2009, had returned.  He was one of my inspirations as the Microsoft co-founder, becoming one of the richest people in the world and owner of an NFL (Seahawks) and NBA (Trail Blazers) team.

It’s sad that he never got married or had any kids. With estimated net worth over $20 Billion he has said that he will leave majority of his wealth to charity.

Allen and Gates founded Microsoft Corp. in 1975. Microsoft’s big break came in 1980, when IBM Corp. decided to move to personal computers. IBM asked Microsoft to provide the operating system.