Kevin McKay Artist Bio

Scottish DJ, producer and label owner Kevin McKay has a discography that spans the last 20 years. He has produced everything from world-renounded dance tracks to cult underground productions and been playlisted by a wide range of djs from Andy Weatherall to DJ Sneak.

He produced and mixed every track on Mylo’s platinum album “Destroy Rock & Roll” – including the 4 top 40 singles “Drop The Pressure”, “Destroy Rock & Roll”, “In My Arms” and “Muscle Car” and the UK Number 3 hit “Doctor Pressure”. He was behind the Linus Loves album “Stage Invader” with its singles “The Terrace”, “Night Music” and the UK top 40 hit “Stand Back”. In the 90s, as one half of Muzique Tropique he has remixed Jori Hulkonnen, Larry Heard, Two Lone Swordsmen and Cassio (amongst others) and under his own name his remixes for artists such as Romanthony, Mateo Matos and Vince Watson have been caned by a-list djs like Kiki, Matthias Tanzmann and Laurent Garnier.

Kevin started his journey into production DJing in Glasgow in the 90s. Hanging out at the Sub Club he was inspired by local DJs Harri and Slam and their soundtrack of Nugroove, Italo House and Balearic Beats. He began collecting 12″s from local stores 23rd Precinct and Raw Records and spent his nights making mixtapes to pass around the local bars and shops. He soon picked up a residency at The Tunnel playing alongside guests such as Sasha, Masters At Work and Roger Sanchez. It was at one of his residencies he met Andy Carrick. Carrick was making dance music and asked for Kevin’s help in making his music more DJ-friendly. They put together a 4 track EP and, failing to get a record deal, Kevin decided to apply to the Prince’s Trust for the funding to self-release. His first label, Muzique Tropique launched in December 1994. Its debut release – the McKay/Carrick penned “Prelude To The Storm” – sold 2000 copies and the label was off and running.

By the end of 1996, Muzique Tropique had built up heavyweight DJ support with international players like Danny Tenaglia, Roger Sanchez, Deep Dish and Andy Weatherall counting themselves fans. Demand was growing from distributors for more material than McKay & Carrick could produce so Kevin set up Glasgow Underground to release music from themselves and fellow Glaswegians DJ Q and Harri as well as music from Mateo & Matos and Romanthony – friends he’d met working for Muzik magazine.

Over the next 7 years Glasgow Underground released 38 albums and over 100 singles and firmly established itself as one of the key British house music labels of the era.

In early 2002 a demo appeared at Glasgow Underground from a young producer called Myles MacInnes. It had one stand-out track – “Destroy Rock & Roll”. Over the next two years MacInnes became Mylo and he delivered an incredible 120 demos from which Kevin selected the best 14. MacInnes handed over the protools sessions and Kevin got to work producing and mixing, replacing samples with original performances and creating the 500,000 selling album named after the stand-out track from the first demo.

As well overseeing the music, Kevin also set up the label to house the new project organising everything from the first 7″ to the international network of major and independent partners that made Mylo a big name around the world.

In 2007 Kevin met another young Scottish producer called Grum. In him he saw the same qualities he saw in Mylo and set up the Heartbeats label to release his productions. Since then Grum has gone on to become an internationally renowned DJ and producer. His debut album “Heartbeats” was one of US iTunes electronic albums of the year, his singles have been played on BBC radio 1 hundreds of times and he has remixed everyone from Lady Gaga to Dirty Vegas. His new album “Human Touch” will be released later this year on Heartbeats.

In 2011, Kevin returned to his first love, the house sound of Glasgow Underground. Of the relaunch DJ Magazine stated – as they made new Glasgow Underground signing Small Pyramids’ “I Want Blood” on of their singles of the year – “It sure feels good to have them back. Kevin McKay’s Glasgow Underground label has been revived in 2011, and luckily, his impeccable taste and A&R skills remain intact.”

Since then the label has gone on to release productions by Romanthony, Dixon, Gerd, Oliver $, PBR Streetgang, Laura Jones, Gavin Herlihy, Andre Crom, Ejeca and Andres alongside a core of new Glaswegian talent such as Mia Dora, Mash, Barrientos, Those Beats and Kevin himself. Their releases regularly feature on BBC Radio 1 and in the Beatport top 100.

2014 sees more a-list dance music talent joining the roster with releases featuring Claptone, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Leftwing & Kody, Alex Arnout, Mosca, Metodi Hristov, Jimmy Edgar and Freeform Five. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.