Chris Fortier is an American
DJ and founder of the Balance Record Pool as well as co-founder and owner of
Fade Records. Fortier's DJing covers a range of styles from dark progressive to minimalist techno. He is well known for being a central figure in the development of
electronic dance music in the United States as both a DJ and founder of the Balance Record Pool.
Chris Fortier grew up in
Melbourne, Florida, moving to
Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
to attend the
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...
.
Until he discovered
house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
, Fortier's primary hobby was surfing.
He began DJing in 1990 in Orlando where he was influenced by other Florida DJs such as
Kimball Collins and
Dave Cannalte.
After performing with
DJ Icey
DJ Icey, (born Eddie Pappa), is an American DJ, electronic music producer, and remixer, credited by Allmusic as having helped to "jump-start the increasingly fertile dance scene in and around Orlando, FL, during the '90s." ''E, the Incredibly Stra ...
,
Kimball Collins set Fortier up as resident DJ at the
Aahz nightclub.
In 1993, Fortier was introduced to Neil Kolo, who had been producing music for 5 years.
They found they had chemistry and became the duo Fade, releasing "...For All the People" on their newly founded label Fade Records in 1994.
In 1996, Fortier founded the Balance Record Pool, a
record pool
A music pool or DJ record pool is a regionalized and centralized method of music distribution that allows DJs (disc jockeys) to receive promotional music to play in nightclubs and other events such as weddings, festivals and on the radio. Record l ...
designed to help North American DJs to spread electronic music.
Balance won the
International Dance Music Awards for best record pool in 2005 and 2006.
The Balance Record Pool and
Jimmy Van M's DJ booking agency making up Balance Promote Group.
In 1998, when submitting a bootleg remix of
Sarah McLachlan's song "Plenty" to her record label, Fortier was offered the chance to remix the
Delerium song "
Silence" featuring McLachlan.
Their remix was released on
Nettwerk and sold over one million copies.
Fade Records began to expand to productions not exclusively by Fortier and Kolo, including helping launch the career of
Steve Porter.
Fortier helped Porter develop his production abilities and Porter helped introduce Fortier to the mixing software
Pro Tools.
In 2000, Fortier began his residency at
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 ...
club
Twilo, playing alongside
Dave Seaman.
After being in contact with EQ / Stomp regarding distribution of their records in the Balance Record Pool, Fortier was given the opportunity to mix the seventh entry in their ''Balance'' series.
For ''Balance 007'', Fortier used
Ableton Live to mesh songs together, similarly to
Sasha.
Discography
*1998: ''Atmospherics: The Breaks'' (StreetBeat Records)
*1999: ''Trance America'' (Engine Recordings)
*2002: ''Bedrock 3'' (
Bedrock Records)
*2004: ''Audio Tour'' (
Fade Records)
*2005: ''Balance 007'' (EQ / Stomp)
*2007: ''As Long as the Moment Exists'' (EQ Recordings)
*2007: ''The Album We Never Released That We Are Now Releasing'' as Fade (Fade Records)
References
External links
Official Website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortier, Chris
Club DJs
American house musicians
Remixers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
University of Central Florida alumni