Friction Shift has been making music since 1992.  While the production value has drastically improved, the content has not.

Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Spiro was introduced to computer music by his high school jazz band teacher in 1989. He studied music synthesis and technology at New York University in 1991, and was a regular Wednesday night reveler at Disco2000 in the legendary converted cathedral on 6th Avenue known as the Limelight. He made weekly Friday night pilgrimages to Caffeine in Eastern Long Island, and his first Storm Rave in a Brooklyn tractor warehouse that year set him on the musical course that he follows to this day.

Seeking a more immersive music education, he moved to Boston in 1992 to study film scoring at Berklee College of Music. At that time, he experienced the Ultraworld and Primary events in the early New England rave scene. 

He returned to New York in 1995, and quickly became one of the early pioneers of the East Coast rave, house, techno, and breaks scene, with seminal releases on Caffeine, Definitive/Plus8, Grinning, and his own label, I.M.U.R.Me Records.

After a detour into the jam band scene in the early 2000's, Spiro was one of the first resident DJ's at Alex and Allyson Grey’s original Chapel of Sacred Mirrors on West 27th Street. He went on to become a founding member of Brooklyn’s mythic “Freek Factory,”  sharing stages with Bassnectar, Random Rab, and The Glitch Mob long before they were filling coliseums.

In 2016, Spiro relocated to the Big Island of Hawai‘i and invested eight years into the cultivation of a vast ethnobotanical collection, and the study of plant alchemy. Now, encouraged by friends, and inspired by the medicine and the land he stewards, he has returned triumphantly to music production, blessing local dancefloors, private events, and online followers with DJ sets, live instrumental sessions, and impeccably curated mixes that span many genres.

Spiro's DJ sets are never rehearsed or prepared ahead of time, always generated in the living moment. Beyond dance floors, he weaves sound in ceremony, holding space for entheogenic journeys with his partner, a professional therapist certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Together they founded The Order of the New Eleusis (The ONE)—a sacramental plant medicine church devoted to healing, awakening, and remembrance.

Under the moniker Apollo Santo, Spiro is currently working on three full-length albums of original dance music, and new remixes for David Starfire, Savej and Dros. He is authoring what will be a groundbreaking serialized drama for HBO or AppleTV, and composing immersive ambient soundscapes for ceremonial and meditative spaces. His new musical works will be released on his new label Rhodium Recordings, available via Beatport, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and Bandcamp. His extensive back catalog can be found in the links below.

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