Joshua Leary (born 11 June 1989), better known by the stage name Evian Christ, is an English electronic music producer, DJ, songwriter and
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
ist from Ellesmere Port, UK. He is signed to
Tri Angle Records,
Warp
Warp, warped or warping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books and comics
* WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher
* ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!''
* Warp (comics), a ...
and
Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
’s publishing house
Donda
''Donda'' is the tenth studio album by American rapper Kanye West, released through GOOD Music on August 29, 2021, with distribution handled by Def Jam Recordings, his last release with the label. West recorded much of the material at multiple ...
and record label
Very Good Beats. He released his debut
mixtape
A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...
''Kings and Them'' in 2012 and gained prominence as a collaborator on West's 2013 album ''
Yeezus
''Yeezus'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on June 18, 2013, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West gathered a number of artists and close collaborators for the production, ...
''. He released a further EP on Tri Angle, ''Waterfall'', in 2014.
In August 2015 he pulled out of
Reading Festival
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...
after claiming to have been detained by security staff at the Leeds sister festival.
Life and career
Leary grew up in the small town of Ellesmere Port, near
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. He began making music after playing around with vintage keyboards belonging to his father, who initially made
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
-influenced synth music before becoming a
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
DJ in the late ’90s.
At 19 he produced a selection of
J. Dilla
''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
-influenced soul edits, and intended to release them until the label he had partnered with went out of business. While training to be a primary school teacher at Edge Hill University, Leary produced the eight tracks that would make up his debut mixtape, Kings And Them. Made music in his garage on Cubase.
In December 2011, he posted three of the tracks on YouTube under the name Evian Christ, apparently only for his friends to hear. They were discovered by Dummy Magazine and other music blogs, which led to a search for his identity.
After the tracks blew up, Leary responded to a message from Tri Angle Records founder Robin Carolan, who signed him to the label. In February 2012, Tri Angle released Kings And Them, a free mixtape compiling his musical output thus far. Days after, Leary made his live debut at a Tri Angle showcase in London alongside Balam Acab, Romy xx, and The Haxan Cloak. Directly after graduating from his education program, Leary left the UK to tour in America. In July 2012, Tri Angle rereleased Kings And Them as a limited edition 12" EP featuring remastered versions of mixtape tracks "Fuck It None Of Y’All Don’t Rap," "Thrown Like Jacks," "Drip," and "MYD."
In 2013, Kanye West reached out to Leary to produce material for his then-upcoming record ''
Yeezus
''Yeezus'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on June 18, 2013, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West gathered a number of artists and close collaborators for the production, ...
''. West flew him out to Paris, where he worked with in-house engineers and producers to create the album track "I’m In It." By the end of the year, West signed Evian Christ to his publishing house, DONDA. In the same year, Leary attended the
Red Bull Music Academy
The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a world-traveling series of music workshops and festivals that was founded in 1998 by Red Bull GmbH. The main five-week event is held in a different city each year. The public portion of its program is a festiv ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Leary released his debut EP, Waterfall, in March 2014. He also announced work for the follow-up to Yeezus, and hosted a set of club nights called TranceParty in the UK. In 2015, collaborated with artist David Rudnick to create a temporary art installation at London's ICA, and expanded TranceParty, with the fourth edition taking place in Liverpool, London and Sheffield.
In August 2016, Leary produced "Pneumonia," the second single from rapper
Danny Brown
Daniel Dewan Sewell (born March 16, 1981), better known by his stage name Danny Brown, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He has been described by MTV as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory".
In 2010, after amassing s ...
's critically acclaimed fourth studio album,
Atrocity Exhibition.
The single was officially released on August 19 through
Warp Records
Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, A ...
.
Style and influences
He was always inspired by his dad's trance DJing and then went on to discover R&B and hip-hop through MTV Base. Later, he stumbled upon experimental
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
and
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
through Grouper,
Tim Hecker
Tim Hecker is a Canadian electronic musician, producer, composer, and sound artist. His work, spanning atmospheric ambient albums such as ''Harmony in Ultraviolet'' (2006), ''Ravedeath, 1972'' (2011) and ''Virgins'' (2013), has been widely cr ...
and
Ben Frost
Ben Frost (born 1980) is an Australian-Icelandic musician, composer, record producer, sound designer, and director.
Life
Born in Melbourne, Australia, and based in Reykjavík, Iceland, since 2005, Frost composes minimalist, instrumental, a ...
.
He tends to describe his music as deconstructionist, using samples from mainstream rap artists such as
Tyga
Michael Ray Nguyen-Stevenson[Micheal Ray Stevenson ...](_blank)
and combining them with his own dark,
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
beats.
Discography
Extended plays
*''Duga-3'' (2013)
*''Waterfall'' (2014)
Mixtapes
* ''Kings and Them'' (2012)
Production discography
2013
Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...
– ''
Yeezus
''Yeezus'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on June 18, 2013, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West gathered a number of artists and close collaborators for the production, ...
''
* 6. "I'm in It" (produced with Kanye West, Dom Solo, Noah Goldstein,
Arca, and
Mike Dean)
The Alchemist
An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy.
Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to:
Books and stories
* ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho
* ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Ben ...
and
Oh No – ''
Welcome to Los Santos
The music for the 2013 action-adventure video game ''Grand Theft Auto V'', developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games, was composed by The Alchemist, Oh No and Tangerine Dream in collaboration with Woody Jackson. The game is the ...
''
* 6. "20's 50's 100's" (King Avriel featuring
A$AP Ferg
Darold Durard Brown Ferguson Jr. (born October 20, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Ferg (stylized as A$AP Ferg), is an American rapper from New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Aside from his solo career, he is a member of the hip hop collec ...
) (produced with Oh No)
2014
Tinashe
Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe ( ; born February 6, 1993), known mononymously as Tinashe, is an American singer, dancer, and actress. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Tinashe moved to Pasadena as a child to pursue a career in entertainment. Her notab ...
– ''
Aquarius
Aquarius may refer to:
Astrology
* Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign
* Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages
Astronomy
* Aquarius (constellation)
* Aquarius in Chinese astronomy
Arts and entertainment ...
''
* 10. "Indigo Child (Interlude)"
2015
Le1f
Khalif Diouf, known by his stage name Le1f (), is an American rapper and producer. He also founded the record label Camp & Street, with Boody, DonChristian, and Chaz Requina. As a gay rapper he's garnered attention for his musical and perform ...
– ''
Riot Boi
''Riot Boi'' is the debut studio album by New York-based rapper Le1f. It was released on November 13, 2015 on XL and Terrible Records. The album features contributions and production work from artists such as Evian Christ, Junglepussy
Shayna M ...
''
* 6. "Umami/Water" (produced with
Lunice
Lunice Fermin Pierre II (born May 15, 1988), better known by his stage name Lunice, is a Canadian record producer and DJ from Montreal. He is one half of the duo TNGHT along with Hudson Mohawke.
Biography
Lunice is the son of a Filipino mother an ...
, Le1f, Aron, and Boody)
*3. "Grace Alek Naomi" (produced with Boody)
2016
Travis Scott – ''
Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight
''Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight'' is the second studio album by American rapper Travis Scott. It was released on September 2, 2016, through Grand Hustle Records and distributed by Epic Records. It exclusively premiered through Travis Scott and ...
''
* 1. "The Ends" (produced with
Vinylz
Anderson Hernandez (born September 2, 1989),Rys, Dan (July 11, 2013)"‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ Behind The Scenes: Five Producers Who Helped Craft The Album". ''XXL (magazine), XXL''. Accessed on July 11, 2013. professionally known as Vinylz, ...
, Daxz,
WondaGurl,
OZ)
Danny Brown
Daniel Dewan Sewell (born March 16, 1981), better known by his stage name Danny Brown, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He has been described by MTV as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory".
In 2010, after amassing s ...
– ''
Atrocity Exhibition''
* 9. "Pneumonia"
2017
Cashmere Cat
Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...
– ''
9''
* 2. "Europa Pools" (produced with
Cashmere Cat
Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...
)
Yung Sherman – ''Innocence v2''
* 2. "I D C - Evian Christ Remix" (produced with Yung Sherman)
2020
* 1. "Ultra - Evian Christ"
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christ, Evian
Living people
British DJs
British dance musicians
British electronic musicians
Place of birth missing (living people)
1989 births
Electronic dance music DJs