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ioneering a tribal, funky, upbeat and uniquely American sound, Hipp-E and Halo, better known as the duo H-Foundation, became one of the biggest


acts of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s with tracks such as the classic, groovy, reggae chat filled ‘Hear Dis Sound’. At their peak, they were known as the ‘Kings of the West Coast sound.’ But though happy to be described with that title, it was somewhat misleading.


“We were living on the West Coast, and there really wasn’t a lot of stuff coming out. We had been working really, really hard, pushing it, so it just got labeled as ‘West Coast house,” says Halo, aka Brian Varga. However, since he grew up in Chicago, and Hipp-E, partner Eric Galaviz, in Denver, their sound wasn’t a pure representation of the West Coast rave scene’s legacy but an amalgamation of influences including Chicago house, disco and Detroit techno.


Now, after an almost six year break, the duo are working together again, and with a new label, an upcoming tour with Soma Records’ Slam, and an ever expanding production company, the future is looking brighter than ever for the two.


In the early ‘90s, Eric met Brian through one of the main rave promoters in Chicago and hit it off.


At the time, Brian was working at a record store, and using his sampler the two spent hours sampling records and tweaking rhythms, inspired to create a record they could call their own. “I had a few pieces of studio equipment, and we started working on drums and beats. We were just all about the music.” Eric remembers.


But when their first release was immediately picked up by some of the biggest artists around, they knew they were on to something. “At that point we said, ‘we just want to keep doing it.’” The two began to hone their dubby style, writing tracks specifically for their favorite labels – such as Siesta, Moody and NRK – and dialing their sound in as tightly as possible, pounding low end driven groovers exploding from club speaker stacks. “We would make a track specifically to go in a direction,” Eric says on this tailored approach. “I don’t know what would have happened if it didn’t go in that direction – we probably would have been really let down!”


But the process worked and the two tapped into a sound that, before the advent of minimal house and electro in Europe, was the dominant underground house sound around the world.


“Even today we’re not doing 20 tracks and sending them to all these different labels in the hope that someone likes one. If we like a label, we’ll do a track for you,” Brian says. “We were really very lucky and very blessed in the sense that, everything that we started to do, even from back then, was very well received, and that’s what really pushed us to keep it going.”


Their success took the two to places that they’d never imagined. “It was intense. We were crazy busy back then. I mean, a guy from Denver playing around the world. It was insane,” Eric remembers. But it wasn’t necessarily their productions that landed them in the right spots. “Our first gig in Europe was at Fabric,” he says on the iconic nightspot in England’s capital, London. “We met the Fabric guys down in Miami and they didn’t even really know our productions. Our productions were really an add on.”


That wouldn’t be the case for long. Soon they two scored an Essential Mix on the UK’s national Radio 1, mixed the ‘Fabric 07’ compilation, becoming residents


at the club, and had a string of hits for the Glasgow techno label Soma, which led up to their 2003 debut album ‘Environments’.


This produced lauded singles such as the squelchy ‘New Funk Theory’ and vocal anthem ‘Tonight’, remixed in 2011 by Wolf + Lamb.


Then, all of the sudden, they were gone.


“We were spending so much time together. We had so many commitments to each other at the time – more than my wife, his girlfriend, my kids,” Eric explains. “I was starting a family, he was not starting a family [laughs], which is huge.” On top of differing family obligations, the two started to drift away from each other musically, Brian heading into deep, vocal territory, while Eric moved in a harder direction, so finally the two decided it was time to cool things down. “It was natural for us to go ahead and say, ‘okay, let’s give it a rest.’”


From there, Eric tried to keep the H-Foundation name alive with a few remixes, though after they didn’t see the success he wanted for the name, he knew it was time to move on. Instead, he began his Denver-based promotion company, Roots Entertainment, while Brian continued working with and running various record labels, including his personal project, Surface Recordings, and both continued to DJ. “We were really lucky in the sense that, prior to H-Foundation, we had really good histories as DJs in our own right. Always when we did H-Foundation, we were Hipp-E and Halo, so we were always pushing our DJ names,” Eric says.


The two even tried getting back into the studio a few times over the years, but things still didn’t click then. Finally, they decided to go on tour last year, which included a return to Room One at Fabric, and both agree it was like nothing ever changed. Well, except they’re a little older.


“Now when we play, we have these kids who say, ‘man, I can’t believe I’m here playing with you guys, we were going to your parties back in the day!’” “So that brought a whole new stepping stone,” Brian says. In fact, it’s this new crop of artists that have helped push the two back in the right direction. “I think half the reason we’re driven to get back into the studio is we’re inspired again. It’s a credit to the music industry at the moment,” Eric remarks. But the newest generation of artists aren’t the only people happy to have the duo back.


“A lot of the feedback is from good friends of ours who are like, ‘it’s about time you guys got back together again,” Eric remarks, though they admit that if things hadn’t gone quite this smoothly, the two probably would have “tucked our tails between our legs and run!” But so far they’ve prepped track for Halo’s own Surface Recordings, as well as done an H-Foundation remix for Hector on Subb-an and Adam Shelton’s One Recordings, and both worked on new tracks or remixes for one of their longest supporting labels, Siesta Recordings, itself an important part of the West Coast legacy.


As for going forward in 2013, they both explain that aside from a few dates in Europe, the WMC, a hopeful Soma Records party at DEMF and the tour with Slam, they’ll probably be devoting most of their time to the studio. “We’re really excited but as you know, the touring can take away from all your studio time. You go on a three week tour, come back and want to sleep for a month,” Eric half-jokes. And if anyone knows the rigors of touring, it’s these two house originals. CHANDLER SHORTLIDGE


/ HEAR DIS SOUND


/ NEW FUNK THEORY


/ TONIGHT REMIX WOLF + LAMB


djmag.com 029


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