Fevertech

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Fevertech at work.

Influenced in childhood and adolescence by progressive rock, new wave, and hip-hop, Fevertech began programming and producing groove-heavy electronic music in 1999, at a relatively late age, 32, with minimal experience as an amateur party DJ. His early works were sample-driven in the spirit of the 90s big beat era, peppered with electro and hip-hop influences similar to the works of Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and The Chemical Brothers. But while said contemporaries enjoyed commercial success, having advanced through the ranks of rave culture and traditional phases of the recording industry, Fevertech found himself on the wave of a new generation of musicians and producers establishing a virtual presence on the explosive World Wide Web. By 2001, Fevertech had become well known among Internet savvy artists and listeners, achieving record download statistics and multiple top-10 chart positions on mp3.com. The album “Trouble in the Mix” was the top selling electronic music CD on mp3.com for nearly a month following it’s release on Fevertech’s thirty-fourth birthday in November, 2001, and the title track was the number one hard house track for several weeks.

Trouble in the Mix, released 2001.

“Trouble in the Mix” marked a sharp departure from the use of familiar radio-ready breakbeat samples as Fevertech began to favor original synthesis and collaboration with his peers: those involved in the Internet-centric electronic music culture. “Trouble in the Mix” included four collaborations with members of the Florida band, D’YEA, as well as a remix of a vocal house track by another mp3.com personality, Vebah. Overall, “Trouble” remained a collection of tripped-out party music, with a few moments of artistic clarity, most notably “Downtime,” Fevertech’s subtle expression of confusion and disdain in the wake of 9/11, featuring utterly bizarre lyrics by Gene Heinous. Other tracks attempted to cross genres and break rules as Fevertech tried to find his own voice among the banging percussion and heavily processed robotic vocals that have become his trademark sound.

During this period, Fevertech launched EASN, the Electronic Artists Support Network, which was just one of hundreds if not thousands of online organizations intended to bring unsigned electronic artists together for collaborative purposes on all fronts: music, promotion, and morale. Members were selected carefully and enjoyed a growing network of support until it was as if the bottom briefly fell out of the Internet in the early 2000s. In the wake of the original Napster’s demise and the financial struggles of mp3.com, many independent artists who had built their reputations and fan base via the Internet were left treading water. EASN dissolved slowly during this period, but Fevertech had established key relationships with a number of artists by this time.

Fevertech during a Midnight Frenzy broadcast.

He spent the year following his minor success online collaborating with other artists, remixing, and writing his next full-length release, “Emortality.” By the time this album was complete in the autumn of 2002, mp3.com was no longer a mainstay for fans of independent talent. In spite of intense traffic to the site, financial pressures had forced mp3.com to begin featuring commercial artists, thereby largely disrupting the character of the website – it was no longer the domain of unsigned artists. Fevertech moved his online presence to Ampcast.com, where he released “Emortality.” Fevertech soon thereafter launched a weekly Internet broadcast called the Midnight Frenzy on Ampcast’s radio network. The underground show featured multiple on-air personalities, live interviews with electronic artists, and a disorderly virtual party atmosphere bolstered by stomping breakbeat, hard house and trance, on-air calls from listeners, games with prizes which were rarely delivered, and a real-time chat session that typically suggested most at-home listeners were either intoxicated or on home arrest.

During a broadcast of the Midnight Frenzy in 2003, chat became angry and inappropriate and Frenzy followers became divided over the minor scandal. Fevertech voluntarily left the Ampcast network and soon launched SonicRaider.com with partner, friend, and fellow artist, Jonas Heath, aka “Sonic One,” formerly of Evil Death Moths. The Midnight Frenzy continued on the SonicRaider network for two years before Fevertech ultimately gave up the weekly broadcast, though he still remains a presence at SonicRaider.com. Fondly dubbed “SR” by its members, SonicRaider has at times been the electronic music community that EASN had failed to remain.

Throughout his involvement with the Midnight Frenzy broadcast, Fevertech continued to write music and remix works by other artists. More than ever, he gravitated to electro, progressive, and industrial influences, always carving out a unique sound, if not always entirely pleasing to the ear. His taste for buzzing and banging has seemed to intensify, yet his most recent work is arguably the most melodic Fevertech music to date. His work continues to center around sounds and themes that strive to tie the past to the future to define the present. Tracks such as “IDK” and “Be a Machine” defy tidy categorization while expressing both enchantment and fear toward technology and human destiny.

[edit] Fevertech at Work: 2006 and Beyond

Fevertech occasionally previews and releases new work online, at either the official Fevertech.com website, or at the Fevertech MySpace page.

In 2006, under his real name, James Wolfensberger, he partnered with vocalist, multimedia sampling engineer, and graphics artist Darick Chamberlin to form Precious Wreckage. Precious Wreckage productions are arguably far more lyrically complex than Fevertech's typical solo work, with Fevertech often processing Chamberlin's capable vocal performances into beat-driven stutter edits, layered with weird effects, but usually forward and prominate in the mix in "lead vocalist" form. In Precious Wreckage, bizarre production seems to take a backseat to substantive songwriting.

Also in 2006, Fevertech joined with long-time friend Jonas Heath (Sonic One) under the name "Duel Kore." Having collaborated on remixes in the past, the duo met for some studio time and produced "Devil on Wheels," released online along with an official Duel Kore website and MySpace presence suggesting more work to follow. The production style of Duel Kore seems to tame Fevertech's penchant for electro minimalism, bending more to the fuller atmospherics of Sonic One, but laced with Fevertech's trademark production stunts: robotic vocoding, odd breaks shifting genres, and often scorched synthesis.