Getting his start in Chicago’s late 90s House Music scene, Kyle Douglas cut his teeth at underground parties and raves. His first time DJing to a live audience was actually one state over at Purdue University, when his fraternity threw a rave. He had joined an electronic music club, called Purdue Beats Society and let his exploration begin. Back way before Twitch was even a thing, he was learning how to stream using FTP sites and IP addresses. All along, taking notes from his early influencers like Justin Long, DJ Heather, Mark Farina, Derek Carter, DJ Sneak, Roy Davis Jr., Mark Almaria, and more.
In 2006, Kyle submitted a mix to an online weekly radio show called MyHouseYourHouse (MHYH) and soon after got a slot as a resident DJ. His show was every Thursday, 6-10pm local time, and he would stream globally - mostly to Europe/UK as MHYH was founded in the UK. He played until 2019, when the site shut down, and then started playing again when the site was rebooted during the pandemic in 2020. People needed a creative outlook and he was excited to jump back in with his MHYH family.
He also was a regular at Winter Music Conference in Miami from 2002-2011, getting to integrate with the House Music community in other spaces, with DJs from all over the world. During this same time, he was living in NYC. When he was living in NY/Brooklyn, he was affiliated with the SOUP crew as a resident DJ. The NY sound had a lot of different flavors; it was more tribal and soulful. It had different kinds of soul vs. Chicago, African House, Tribal House, etc. In NY, he was introduced to Black Coffee, Club Shelter, and PS1 events. He remembers there were always really good events in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, and the never ending nightlife of NY that allowed him to get in front of many audiences.
Many people don’t know this, but Kyle’s “day job” is as a civil engineer. As such, he’s moved around a bit and been able to be part of many active House Music markets. After NY, Kyle moved west for work. There in NorCal, he met the North Bay Collective (NBC) crew and did many events with them, particularly the Pure Vision campout, a private boutique festival. There he met some of his closest friends and best talents, Mac Skinner, Tim Brown, and Ornette. In NorCal, Kyle found himself influenced by the Sunset crew, Wicked crew, Miguel Migs’ “Salted” night, and the more laid back west coast sound.
As a DJ, Kyle is always trying to stay sharp and abreast of new sounds, new DJs, and new producers. He’s constantly searching for that record that is rare that no one else has, and is a true selector at his core. He enjoys experimenting with live drum machines and sequencers during sets so he can record the vinyl on the fly and remix it live. As a co-founder of HCR, he’s interested in doing mainly vinyl releases, so he’s dedicated to knowing all the nuts and bolts it takes to get the music pressed and recorded to vinyl, released, and all. He can mix by ear on vinyl, which is a unique talent. It's funny sometimes when people think he’s on digital at events because it’s such smooth mixing, but then they walk up to the booth and realize he’s on wax and they're pleasantly surprised.
Now that he’s focusing on production again, there’s a lot of different synthesizers, whether hardware or software, that he’s interested in playing around with. It’s important to him to work at creating his own sounds and not just grabbing someone else’s sound, always honing the audio engineering and mixing sounds to lay them in the correct space of a track.
Producing and having a record label is an attempt to regain his identity as an artist in a way. He had a handful of very challenging years after putting his whole soul into another label, which he happily did, but when it all went fubar during the pandemic for him, he realized he needed to put more energy into himself and his craft. He also saw the label as the next logical step in his music career. It’s his “next calling,” and he deserves to be seen. Based on what he’s been through, he wants others to be seen, too. Sometimes really talented artists, either new or experienced, often get overlooked at clubs and beyond. There are a ton of gems out there and him and his business partner, Jenn Sturgill, want to give those people a chance. HCR is all about that familial feel and that’s the whole point of it all.
