Aquatherium

AQUATHERIUM No one imagined that the 5-year old kid banging out the “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme on the piano would end up making his own music one day. But looking back on his career as an artist and producer, Brendan McCarthy (B. McCarthy) can trace his creative origins to that early moment. Since that time he has been fascinated by future technologies and the creation of sound. Known for a style that interlaces soulful tones with more synthetic, “techy” sounds, Bay Area native B. McCarthy has been producing music for over a decade. He traces his funky, bluesy, psychedelic sound back to 70’s bands like the Steve Miller Band as well as New Wave groups like Yaz and Depeche Mode. And he remembers being shaken awake by Nine Inch Nails’ radical combination of industrial sounds with electro beats. But it might have been the Roland Company that had the biggest impact on his growth. Experimenting with keyboard synthesizers, Brendan soon became adept at using MIDI technology to combine and create new sounds. His creativity landed him an invitation to join San Francisco’s 3rd Floor Productions in 1993 and signaled the beginning of a career at the forefront of house music production. At the leading edge of what was about to become the San Francisco house movement, 3rd Floor Productions brought together such talent as Rasoul, DJ EFX, DJ Digit, Buck, Hardkiss, Single Cell Orchestra, and Spacetime Continuum. While there, Brendan produced remixes for major-label talent like Dee-Lite, Sting, Depeche Mode and Boy George. He recalls that everyone who was anyone came through the studio those days, making 3rd Floor instrumental in establishing SF as a center for house music. A move to the UK in 1996 provided Brendan with the opportunity to sharpen his identity as an artist. Playing in legendary spots like the Hacienda, the Ministry of Sound, Back to Basics and E-Werks, he became know for shaking down the timbers night after night. Not just a vinyl jockey, he performed live with drum machines, keyboards, samplers and turntables, bringing his exotic West Coast flavor to the heart of the Old County. At the same time, he continued to produce records for labels like Subwoofer, Strictly Rhythm, Bomba and Freshly Squeezed. Two years later, back in the States, Brendan released his first full-length album on Moist Records under the name Aquatherium. The first single, “Discoacidfunk” was released as a 12” and became an underground San Francisco hit, featured on numerous DJ mix CDs, including Jeno’s “Rising to the Top, Volume 1 and 2”. The year 2000 marked Brendan’s return to the Bay Area, which he found thriving on the rich foundation of house music that he had a hand in building. With a huge array of talented house labels, artists and producers to work with, Brendan was soon behind the mixing board again under the production name B. McCarthy. His releases on Moody Recordings and Leaf Recordings quickly began burning up the clubs, as did his remixes for Two Smoking Barrels (Terry Francis and Tony Hewitt) on Yoshi Toshi. After a brief hiatus in Hawaii, B. McCarthy is back doing what he loves. Always an innovator, he senses a change happening in the industry; people are looking for something new – a different style, new performance techniques, something fresher – and he’s looking to be the one to give it to them. So Brendan continues to work with the pace setters, who, like himself, are looking to move the industry forward.