Paavo Stubstad was born in Ojai, CA in 1985. From an early age he was encouraged to expand his mind musically; he began piano lessons at the age of 5 and violin lessons at the age of 8. After starting high school, it became too overwhelming to focus on his musical training as well as his studies, so he quit his music lessons altogether. However, the absence of official music teachers didn’t stop him from constantly experimenting on the piano and keyboard; before long he was coming up with compositions on his own. In 2002, Paavo attended a boarding school in the UK. During his spare time he experimented with the sequencer FruityLoops 3.0 (Now FL Studio 7) on his laptop. In the beginning it was just fun experimenting with the software’s capabilities, but before long he began taking his music composition more seriously. A friend suggested the artist name “Ignite”. As Ignite, he focused on melodic and progressive Trance, as well as some ambient and break-beat compositions. The Ignite project lasted from 2002 until spring 2007. During that time two full length albums were released; The Mad Notes and Nocturne, as well as an EP titled Cryptic Power EP. The spring of 2007 brought about change for Paavo and he decided the Ignite alias no longer fit him. Thus, Malachyte was born. The Malachyte project focuses on the spiritual elements of Goa Trance, the haunting sound of Forest Trance and the uplifting beat of Psy-Trance, while still staying true to Paavo’s melodic style. Later the same year, the idea to start a music label emerged. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.