Derek Beres is one of the leading figures in international music in America, working in numerous facets of the industry, from journalist and DJ to producer and presenter. He has written for dozens of magazines covering the traditional and digital realms of global music and has toured internationally, playing alongside some of the most important figures in the scene today. Well versed in international music, he is equally adamant about world cultures, devoting his life to the path of yoga, Eastern philosophies and world mythology.

As journalist, he has written for MTV Urge, The Village Voice, Paste, Urb, Remix, XLR8R, Relix, Tricycle, Afropop and more, reviewing hundreds of CDs and conducting over 450 artist interviews. He spent 2.5 years as Managing Editor of Global Rhythm where he helped usher new strains of world electronica, as well as paying homage to the traditional folk sounds of the planet. Global Beat Fusion: The History of the Future of Music, his book about the new mythology being created by global electronica, was published in 2005. He was the Content Creator for Musica Fresca, a national tour featuring Yerba Buena, Voltio, Akwid and Radio Mundial, sponsored by Yahoo! Telemundo. He is currently the world music columnist for PopMatters.com.

Alongside writer Dax-Devlon Ross he created Outside the Box Publishing in 2005. They have published four books in 2007, including Tangled Web: The Best Music Tour You Never Heard Of, about his photojournalistic voyage across America, and a book of essays co-written with Ross, A Staircase of Words: Volume 1, Essays. He is also working on Mysterious Distance, a novel, and Yogatheism: The Gods of Yoga or There Is No God, his first philosophy book comparing the theories behind yoga and atheism.

Beres is a Yoga Instructor, certified in Thai Yoga Massage and the Budokon teacher's program with Kancho Cameron Shayne. His focus on integrating the various spiritual traditions and mythologies of the world shines through in his physical classes, as well as writing, in which he points out underlying themes within the global search for meaning in life. He currently teaches eleven weekly classes at Equinox Fitness. He launched a new site dedicated to exploring natural foods and global music with Jill Ettinger, InnerContinental, in January 2007. In the realm of lecturing, Beres is a powerful and animated speaker; his many appearances include both editions of the progressive Mythic Journeys conference in Atlanta, as well as colleges such as Harvard, the University of Alabama and NYU.

A 1997 graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Religion, Beres entwines the mythological with the modern, showing how digital music is the first true global folk music as artists everywhere employ computers in their sonic creations. Global Beat Fusion blurs the lines between sacred and profane, highlighting today's ritual ceremonies within club context. As NPR stated, it “is not a book about music alone. It's about a growing worldwide community that's searching for shared experience without politics or corporate involvement. And it could fill many different slots on the bookshelf.”

As DJ, Beres tours internationally with GlobeSonic Sound System alongside Fabian Alsultany (GlobeSonic Entertainment) and Bill Bragin (Director of Joe's Pub at the Public Theater). His first DJ-mixed CD, Moving Stillness, was released on <One World Music, and he recently produced a remix album by Malian artist Vieux Farka Toure. The trio has produced countless shows, playing alongside the likes of Jamiroquai, Transglobal Underground, Ojos De Brujo, Zuco 103, Sidestepper, Brazilian Girls, The Gipsy Kings, Karsh Kale, Yerba Buena, Antibalas, Tabla Beat Science, Aterciopelados, Cheb I Sabbah and The New Deal at venues such as Berlin's House of World Culture, Paris' Ethnotech, Beirut's Strange Fruit Megaclub, Vancouver's Alibi Room, Recife Brasil's Abril Pro Rock festival, Amsterdam's Boom Bar and New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, Nokia Theatre, BAMCafe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Celebrate Brooklyn, Makor, Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall, Spirit, Global Rotation at Shine, Halcyon, Open Air and Galapagos. Beres was also a resident DJ of Kollektiv alongside Karsh Kale, and appeares regularly at the legendaryTurntables on the Hudson parties.

In 2001 Beres co-founded EarthRise Arts alongside painter Craig Anthony Miller, and their Infusion parties are known to blur the lines between music venue, art gallery and theatrical performance. In the world of theater, his play Burning Trees was featured in 2002's Hip-Hop Theater Festival, produced by Danny Hoch.

Just as Beres is a syncretistic artist, his writing has been inspired by numerous sources. He is a fan of Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, Mircea Eliade and Carl Jung, as well as lyrical writers such as Jose Saramago, John Steinbeck, Thomas Mann and Pablo Neruda. Global Beat Fusion further crosses lines between poetry and academia; pulling from a world of intellectual scholarship, Beres works his studies into daily life in an accessible, thorough and enjoyable manner. Knowing mind and body to be one and the same, his devoted yoga practice translates a wealth of experience onto page, approaching the physical and mental with meticulous care, discipline and fun.

For more information visit him on the web.