FADE
was formed in the summer of 1993 when Neil Kolo,
a young studio engineer, introduced himself to
Chris Fortier, a young resident DJ at the infamous
"Marz" club in Cocoa Beach, FL, and
passed on a tape of some of the material he had
been working on. Chris, very enthused by what
he had heard, expressed his interest in the idea
of working together and learning about how to
produce tracks of his own like the ones he had
been playing up and down the East Coast of America.
The two instantly clicked and a friendship was
formed. Two years later, the pair released their
first record titled "...For All The People".
They Floated a few one-sided promos out to gauge
reaction. Meanwhile, a second track was completed,
"All I Got". The two tracks were then
combined as a double A-sided release, which was
the first release on FADE Records, the label that
Chris owns and operates.
"All I Got" caught the attention of
UK duo Chris & James, who helped it get signed
to Mushroom Records where James was working as
an A & R representative. In August of 1995,
Fade released two new singles, "So Good"
and "Separation". The Two Tracks recieved
massive support from some of the biggest DJs around
including their biggest inspiration, SASHA. The
records became underground hits and quickly sold
out. Soon after, Glasgow's Limbo Records signed
the duo for a multi-album record deal in February
1996.
This success opened the door for the boys to move
into the realm of remixing. First, they did remixes
for friends John Debo and DJ Icey. This gave them
more exposure and experience and led to remixes
for Stress records and Sony's S3 label.
The Summer of 1996 brought new challenges. Now
they were going to get a chance to work on more
vocal oriented songs. One such song was Sam Mollison's
"Cry". When finished, the "Cry"
remix set a new standard for Fade and the quality
of tracks they could produce. Dave Seaman heard
"Cry" and quickly added it to his Essential
Mix for England's Radio 1 FM and his Renaissance
Volume 4 mix compilation on Network Records.
With this surge of noteriety, DMC's Guy Ornadel
contacted Chris & Neil to remix Future Force's
"What You Want" for DMC's Remix Culture.
Rising to another level, Fade delivered one of
the progressive anthems of 1996 winning Remix
and Remixer of the Year in Australia. This gave
way to the chance to remix Marathon's "Movin"
and Viola Wills "It's My Pleasure",
two of the guys all time favorite tracks, as well
as getting the chance to remix another big influence,
BT, for his song "Quark".
1997 saw the boys getting attention from major
labels for remixes, as well as writing and producing
their own more vocal based material under the
guises of Fade and Nutribe. They released their
first vocal track with singer Dauby Talles called
"No Resolve". This was another pinnacle
in their rising carrers. "No Resolve"
saw heavy play from John Digweed on the Northern
Exposure 2 Tour, climbed as high as #12 in the
Cool Cuts Chart and has become a Florida club
anthem. In April and May of 1997, Chris was on
a DJ tour throughout the UK with Jimmy Van Malleghem
and John Digweed that covered such superclubs
as Cream in Liverpool, Sugarshack in Middlesborough,
Lush in Ireland and Digweed's own Babealicious
in Brighton.
1998 saw Chris and Neil further expanding their
horizons by doing remix work for more Indie style
bands and artists like Sarah McLachlan and Delerium.
The Delerium which features Sarah McLachlan on
vocals and has been tearing up clubland since
the first time heard at Renaissance in Ibiza when
John Digweed dropped it at the closing party.
Sasha quickly rang up for a copy and the tune
soon became an anthem for the pair at every gig
including Twilo. It even had Sasha opening and
closing his sets with it at Cream and Tyrant.
With the rest of clubland searching for it, Delrium
debuted and #5 in MixMag Update's Buzz Chart and
will be appearing on the Northern Exposure 3 CD.
This has truly been the high point for Chris and
Neil in their ever rising careers. 1998 also saw
Fade, the label, moving forward with the release
of two CD compilations. The first was a mixed
CD by Chris entitled "Atmospherics"
which was released in conjunction with StreetBeat
Records in Miami. The second was a Fade Record
Label collection of work including a number of
unreleased remixes and original productions. This
CD is called "Sanctuaries" and is the
launch release of the newly signed distribution
deal Fade has with Universal Music in the USA.
Currently the guys are in the studio working toward
the completion of their debut LP for Limbo Records.
Chris also has plans to push the Fade label more
in 1999 by licensing more tracks from around the
world and more CD compilations. Neil is putting
the finishing touches on his solo project LP called
"Transmissions" to be released in the
Spring of 2000. |