Amit Duvdevani was born on 7 November 1974. He played the piano for nine years, starting at the age of seven, before taking a turn towards heavy metal and punk rock. Amit played keyboard and wrote most of the material for a local Haifa punk rock band Enzyme. Amit went to his first trance party in 1991, a week before being conscripted into the Israeli army (where he was first nicknamed Duvdev). He has more than once described this experience as life changing – from then onwards all he could think of was trance music. After he finished his national service, Amit spent a year in India (primarily in Goa), and finally decided to make music himself. He collaborated with a member of Shidapu on four tracks, though they were never released.In 1998, [a81635] and Duvdevani began playing together. At first they released a few tracks as Shidapu & Duvdev. These tracks were 'happier' and of the simpler side of trance. Later on, they formed the duo Infected Mushroom and started working on their first album.