DJ EBAR stands at the forefront of New York City’s house music scene as a veteran DJ/producer/remixer since 1990, and he shows no sign of slowing down. Both in his DJ sets and in his prolific studio productions, he is an ambassador of a lusty, deep, underground, youthful and hypnotizing brand of house music that continues to turn the heads of various crowds around the world. Fans range from electronica’s most jaded intelligentsia in Europe, to the debaucherous all-night revelers in New York, to the style-hungry glitterati of Asia, to the average listener that has been initiated into the dance music scene by EBAR’s innovative yet accessible sound. This is supported by a glance at the names that have shared the DJ booth with him: Josh Wink, Louie Vega, Kevin Hedge (Blaze), Tony Humphries, Jon Cutler, Matthias Heilebronn, Kaskade, Lisa Shaw, Andy Caldwell, Barbara Tucker, Tiesto, Moby, Markus Schulz, Sunshine Jones (Dubtribe) and countless others. “I’ve always felt that a person’s level of involvement with music falls somewhere into a continuum – Passive, Active, Obsessive, DJ, Musician, Composer. On the low end, you are impartial, but a bit higher up, you have amassed enough musical knowledge to publicly present music as a DJ” muses the Manhattan-based artist. He has been doing just that for 18 years as a true jetset international DJ, spinning his unique brand of music to the heaving dancefloors of the world’s top clubs including Cielo (New York), Rumor (Boston), Spundae (Los Angeles), Tantra (Miami), Sullivan Room (New York), Folies Pigalle (Paris), BED (New York), Nikki Beach (Miami, Cabo San Lucas), and the wild all-night beach parties of southern Thailand, to name a handful. “As you continue growing and developing your relationship with music, you can eventually work your way up to highest end of the spectrum - composing your own creations… which hopefully other people like as much as you do!” he continues with a laugh. As an accomplished and highly regarded producer and remixer, EBAR has a long list of respected releases on some of the world’s most heralded house music labels including King Street Sounds, West End Records, Peng Records, RCA, Sony Music/Columbia, and his own popular imprints Sifted Recordings, Central Park Recordings, and Quarterlife Records New York. Remix credits range from underground heroes Ananda Project to commercial hit artists Boomkat and Deborah Harry (aka 80’s icon Blondie).
It was at the tender age of four when EBAR observed his grandmother, a conservatory-trained classical pianist, playing elaborate sonatas and delicate concertinas on her beloved piano. After sufficient pleading, his mother agreed to start him on piano lessons under one condition – he had to complete ten years of classical training before having the option to quit. He accepted, tried to quit a month later, but was forced to keep his promise. Ten years later, he emerged from childhood as a pianist with a firm knowledge of the art and mathematics of music, but also a hunger for something beyond his classical theory roots. He quickly found it and migrated to the world of jazz. Four more years followed of training in jazz/blues improvisational theory, notes of which still color and influence his deep house DJ sets and productions to this day.
It was during this period that he started discovering the foundations of house and techno music in his native Chicago in the late 1980s. Stark, hypnotic new sounds were emerging from the cold drum machines of Cajmere, Terry Mullan, DJ Hyperactive and other underground artists. Clubbing in downtown Chicago became a weekly ritual, and it was only a matter of time until EBAR discovered his next instrument – the turntable. It was on a snowy night in 1989 that EBAR approached the DJ late one night and asked what it would take to move from being an active listener to the next level – to being a DJ. “She showed me the basics of using turntables and mixers, told me to go practice hard, and sent me to Gramaphone Records to start building my vinyl music collection”, which is exactly what he did. A gift of two Technics 1200s from his big brother got EBAR on the way, and in 1990 he had his first DJ gig to a packed laser-infused warehouse rave in downtown Chicago. EBAR started playing more and more in the Chicago underground circuit and continued developing his style while rocking US and international dancefloors throughout the 1990s. He went on to live in Florida, Paris (France), Phoenix, and finally landed in New York City in 1999.
It was in NYC that EBAR began to take studio production much more seriously. He built his own studio and production unit, Twilight Technologies NYC, and moved on to write various hit records in the underground deep house scene. EBAR began teaching himself the most elaborate and mysterious production techniques, and mastering the instruments and engineering methods that enable him to produce a highly polished and detailed sound. What immediately set EBAR apart in his high-quality productions was his studio ethic of painstakingly building all the elements of his tracks from scratch: the drums, basslines, melodies, even the organic instruments, all written in MIDI – virtually no samples or preexisting loops. “In today’s world of cut & paste laptop producers, these techniques are not commonly practiced. If many producers today are slapping together collages, I’m still painting landscapes – and mixing my own paint!”
In parallel to all of this, EBAR’s assumed his next role as record label boss. He co-founded Sifted Recordings in 2002 to create a direct channel for his productions, and along with partner Ramie Burns oversaw over 28 releases that came out of the prolific and experimental label. Many Sifted releases have hit the prestigious Balance top 40 chart as well as numerous other US and international charts, featuring such artists as DJ Donovan, DJ Dimension, Blunted Funk and many others.
In 2005, EBAR became a partner with Satellite Records CEO Scott Richmond in the famous deep house label Central Park Recordings. Comprised of such soulful house music luminaries such as Ron Trent, Osunlade, Tortured Soul, Alix Alvarez, Sandy Rivera and Jon Cutler, Central Park is considered by many to be one of the highest quality soulful house music labels in the world. The accolades are too numerous to list, but suffice it to say that any deep house DJ worth their mettle has more than a few Central Park records in their box.
In early 2008, EBAR teamed up with New York DJ Alex Pearce to found his third label, Quarterlife Records New York, and the new imprint is already spawning hit underground records at a blinding pace (see http://www.beatport.com/label/Quarterlife+Records). Quarterlife Records focuses on finding, releasing and pushing a distinct spectrum of sounds from the dance music underground - on one end, the pounding beats of tough, gritty in-your-face electro house music… on the other end, the smooth, sophisticated, intelligent polished beats of progressive and tech house… and the narrow niche in between. Quarterlife is already home to such diverse international artists as Bit Crushers, Royal Sapien, DJ Eco and Pete van Riot and garners support from the likes of Noel Sanger, Andy Moor and Flash Brothers.
It was also in early 2008 that EBAR realized he had begun to split in two as an artist - on one side, continuing to DJ/produce underground house music as DJ EBAR, and in parallel, producing and DJing the grimy club beats of electro/tech house and progressive house music. It was time for a second alias to harbor his electro house identity, and Indicant was born (see www.indicantnyc.com). EBAR released his first self-titled record as Indicant as the debut release on Quarterlife Records New York, unveiled in much fanfare at a release party at Cielo in NYC in January of 2008 (see www.youtube.com/quarterlifenyc). Accompanying this launch will be guest DJ sets on Frisky Radio and DI.FM, plus a string of original and remix releases on independent and major labels.
+remix or production inquiries: eric [at] ebarweb.com
+DJ bookings: nicole [at] argusnyc.com
+demo DJ mixes: full length mp3 files
+upcoming events:
+BBC interview:
+Cielo (New York) interview and DJ footage:
