Meet Red Eye of Audiophile Deep/ It’ll Do/ Beauty Bar in East Dallas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Red Eye.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I come from a very musical family. Both classically trained and self-taught. But the most important influence probably came from my uncle who was a DJ in the 70’s and 80’s. Whenever we’d visit, I was always drawn to his immense record collection. Disco was the first music I remember being drawn into to. As I got older, I spent a lot of time sneaking out and going to clubs I was too young to get into. Starck, Sparx, 2826, Prism, Clearview, Primitive, Monopolys. I was mostly into industrial/new wave/EBM/euro stuff until my exposure to house music by Mike “Go-Go” Dupriest at Starck. So it was about 1988 when my attentions began to focus more on techno, acid house, and the more punchy forms of house music. I became chummy with Jeff K from 94.5 (KDGE radio) by attending his gigs at various clubs and events. This was right about the time that the first generation of rave/techno culture began to hit Dallas on a large scale. So we would do warehouse parties, illegal parties, club nights, and what have you around the city and the outskirts. About this time, 94.5 offered Jeff a Saturday night on-air dance music mixshow. Which he asked me if I would be interested in assisting him with. This later blossomed into me becoming sort of his on-air sidekick, which got my name known to the public outside of our circle. It was during this time when I released my first record along with DJ A1 (who now works for Erykah Badu) under the name NASA Project. None of us had any idea that the record would see such international/rave culture success. But it blew up.

After doing that for a while, Greg Watton offered me a position at Club One. That ended up becoming my first residency. During my time at One, I would do three more well received remix projects. Including one for NYC club kid/Heatherette fashion line co-founder, Richie Rich. After I left One, I went over to Minc which turned into another great residency and another spot that became THE club for electronic/underground music. Afterwards, a few years went by where I wasn’t really doing a residency anywhere. I was traveling a lot, playing one-off nights around the country and popping up on people’s records doing vocals or remixes or whatnot. Eventually, Brooke Humphries, whom I had known since the 80’s, brought me on to play at her new spot, Beauty Bar. After that took off, she decided she wanted to open It’ll Do. But she would only do it if I said I’d be a part of it. So we did that, then that took off. It was then when I met Jimmy Freer. He had been coming to the club and liked what I played. He offered me the A&R position and partnership at an offshoot label he was starting up called Audiophile Deep. I said sure, why not. So that brings us up to the present. Seven years later still at Beauty Bar and It’ll Do. Also doing my thing at Audiophile Deep, while still producing and doing vocals for folks in the international underground/electronic music community. Also been doing some events overseas in Ibiza, Belgium, London.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It was a lot smoother than the DJ’s and producers have it now. Back then, everyone and their mom wasn’t calling themselves a DJ/producer. It wasn’t glamorous. It cost a lot of money to get into and maintain. So I had it pretty good specifically because of my timing. You could get noticed easier then. But yes, there were some lean times for sure. I’ve slept on floors, moved back home with the folks, lived with friends, couch surfed. All the typical “life of an artist” trappings, I’ve experienced them all. Choosing to be an artist, especially an artist that goes against the status quo will always provide you with a decent amount of real-ass struggle.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Audiophile Deep/ It’ll Do/ Beauty Bar – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
At Audiophile Deep, I am the A&R director. What that means is I am the person that decides what artists/tracks/remixers we sign on to the label for release. We specialize in dark disco, electro, acid house, techno, indie dance, nudisco, and quirky electronica.

Saturday nights, I am the resident DJ at It’ll Do club where I present pretty much the styles featured on the label. Thursday nights, I have a night at Beauty Bar called “Night Moves” where I focus on classic and new disco and classic house music.

Outside of that, I’m in the studio doing work for various labels all over the world and here domestically.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the immediate future, I plan to focus more energy on the label. We are really hitting our stride right now and are at the point where the artists we want to work with also want to work with us. It takes a while to start getting “yes’s” instead of “too busy with other projects” from a lot of these folks when asking to work with them. But it looks like we stuck it out long enough to see it happen.

Also, I have some new work coming out with Kink (Bulgaria), M.A.N.D.Y. (Berlin), my side project Lavish Habits, and a new project I’ve started with William from Ancient Deep called R.E.A.D. (an acronym for Red Eye and Ancient Deep) And of course DJ’ing till no one want s to hear me anymore LOL.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.apmg.io
• Email: djredeyedallas@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/djredeyedallas
• Facebook: facebook.com/djredeye
• Other: mixcloud.com/djredeyedallas

Image Credit:
Aaron Fairooz

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