What once started out as a hobby, has now turned into a career. For over a decade, producer JP ‘the Beat Digga’ Nebres has been involved behind the scenes in the Northern California music scene.
It all started in 1992 when he signed a record deal with Scotti Bros. in LA, and a publishing deal with BMG Music. His then group, Renaissance Of Chaos, toured the west-coast, playing with the likes of groups that dominated the radio in those days, including Color Me Badd, Chubb Rock, Sir Mix A Lot, Lighter Shade Of Brown, and Das EFX. The group’s hit song, ‘Dedicated To My Girl’, climbed the playlist charts of radio stations all over the west coast, including the bay area’s own 107.7 KSOL, Hot 97.7, and 106 KMEL, LA’s Power 106, Sacramento’s 102.5 KSFM, San Diego’s Z90, San Antonio, El Paso, and Arizona to name a few. But after a year and a half of touring the US West Coast, JP quit the group. Tired of the endless traveling and performing, discouraged by the unethical practices of the industry people that surrounded him, JP refound his passion for music by doing what he loved to do most.
Writing and producing in the studio.
This would become his sanctuary. This would be the place where he would dedicate the rest of his career.
Since then, JP has written, produced, engineered, and remixed for many artists including DnH, Roger Troutman (of Zapp), Ace High, Mr. Mixx (formerly of the 2 Live Crew), Digital Underground, Kai, Innerlude, Don Cisco, Baby Beesh, JT (of N2Deep), Jocelyn Enriquez, M:G, Rasta, Sir Elegance, Plado, and Mad Skillz, to name a few.
As one of the main producers for Pinay’s debut album, "Inevitable", JP spawned 2 billboard-charting records; the 1997 Pinay summer-smash, "Is It Real", and the uptempo remix for the timeless ballad, "Next Time".
His songs have appeared in numerous full-feature films including the first Filipino-American independent movie, "The Debut" (starring Dante Basco), and the Showtime original picture, "A Class Of His Own" (starring Angela Bassett and Lou Diamond Phillips).
He is also the writer and producer of the theme song for the 2001 WUSA World-Champion San Jose Cyber-Rays (US Professional Women’s Soccer team).
On the audio-technical side, he has worked for two Grammy-award winning companies, Apple Computer and Digidesign (creators of the industry-standard Pro Tools). At Apple, he worked in the Multimedia group pushing next-generation Macs to the limit. At Digidesign, he worked alongside with Rocket Networks to usher in Pro Tools 5.2; the first version of Pro Tools that allowed musical collaboration via the internet.
Finally, after working for both major and independent record labels for the majority of the 90’s, and after sitting behind a desk clicking away at audio-computer applications, JP co-founded Planet Hype AMD with Glenn Gutierrez and Matt Villacarte for one reason and for one reason only.
For the love of music.
"It’s funny, I’ve been doing this for so long, yet I’m still no where near where I want to be. I’ve been knocked down in every way imaginable in this industry.", says JP, "yet still I continue my musical journey. You’d think that after all of the negativity that’s happened to me over the years, that I would’ve quit by now. But I refuse to. This music thang is and always will be in my blood."
The reluctance to go down, the passion for music are what drove him to start Planet Hype AMD with his two partners. Today, aside from being a co-founder of the company, he also is serving as the main producer of Pinay’s upcoming album, "What Now", and co-producer of Ace High’s to-be-named album.
The journey continues.
