McCarthy has been the lead vocalist of the EBM band Nitzer Ebb since its formation in 1982. He released his a solo album, Kill Your Friends in 2012.
He worked in collaboration with DJ and producer Terence Fixmer as Fixmer/McCarthy, and with musician Cyrusrex as DJM/REX. McCarthy, Cyrusrex, and Nitzer Ebb bandmate Bon Harris formed the music collective Blackline along with such musicians as Paul Barker of Ministry, Mark Walk of Skinny Puppy, and Depeche Mode touring musician Christian Eigner.
McCarthy met future Nitzer Ebb drummer, David Gooday at ten years of age while skateboarding in Chelmsford and met the band's keyboardist, Bon Harris, through Gooday.[1] Harris and Gooday attended the same school as McCarthy, although they were a year older.[2] The young men would attend disco and funk nightclubs, such as Goldmine on Canvey Island, at times sneaking in while underage.[1]
McCarthy is responsible for most of the band's lyrics.[8] His performance style, particularly in the early years of Nitzer Ebb, frequently involved repetitive chants and energetic live performances.
Mike Boehm of the Los Angeles Times described a 1989 Nitzer Ebb performance as an "interesting show, thanks largely to McCarthy's athletic, pumped-up performing style and the punk-influenced fervor of his yowling. With short, tousled hair, angular looks and jerk-to-the-beat movements, he resembled Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, minus Mothersbaugh's way of sweetening technological music with pop hooks."[9]
In a review of a 1992 Nitzer Ebb performance, New York Times journalist Jon Pareles wrote: "[Nitzer Ebb's] songs rant about hopelessness or explore dark impulses, with chants that are just barely melodic above dank grids of electronic sound," and added, "when Mr. McCarthy sings a melodic line, he dips into a baritone register that echoes Jim Morrison. But more than most of Morrison's descendants, he seems immune to pretensions of Romantic poetry; he stares at brutal, murderous impulses without the buffer of flowery metaphor. And as he rants, he offers catharsis to an audience eager to slam its frustrations away."[10]
In a 2018 PopMatters article, Hans Rollman wrote: "To watch one of Nitzer Ebb's early videos -- "Murderous", say, or "Join in the Chant" -- is to be left breathless at the angry passion and sheer physicality of the energy expressed on the camera. Ironically, McCarthy explains, the frenzied body movements and violent passion expressed by the band, and especially by McCarthy himself, was a reaction against the stage fright he felt when they first began performing. He was only 15 at the time."[11]
Subsequent to the band's 1995 album, Big Hit, Nitzer Ebb disbanded.[12] They reformed in 2006, released two more albums, and continued to tour into the 2024, before McCarthy had to take a break due to health reasons.[13][14]
Collaborations and solo work
In 1992, McCarthy worked with Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode on his then side-project, Recoil, providing the vocals for "Faith Healer", the first single on Recoil's third album Bloodline.[15] McCarthy also worked with Recoil on the follow-up album Unsound Methods (1997), performing on the tracks "Incubus" and "Stalker".[16]
McCarthy has collaborated with French techno producer Terence Fixmer under the name Fixmer/McCarthy.[12] The pair were introduced by producer Seth Hodder at Novamute Records, who had previously done work with Nitzer Ebb.[12] Fixmer/McCarthy's debut album Between The Devil, was released in 2004.[12] The duo released the album Into The Night in 2008, and Selected Works -- a compilation of unreleased tracks created from 2003 to 2016 -- in 2016.[17][18] They also released the standalone singles "So Many Lies", "Chemicals" and "Let it Begin" between 2016 and 2019.[19][20][21]
In 2012, he released his first solo album, Kill Your Friends as Douglas J. McCarthy, on Los Angeles–based label Pylon Records.[22] In a review of the album, Luke Turner of The Quietus said: "McCarthy and his producer, DJ Mark Bell, have taken his voice – estuarine, sneering, threatening, seductive – to interesting new places."[22]
McCarthy provided vocals on the 2013 EP Noise by Swiss DJ and producer Headman (alias of DJ and producer Robi Insinna) and also collaborated with LA-based musician Cyrus Rex under the moniker DJM/REX.[7][23] In 2013, DJM/REX opened for Depeche Mode at a performance in France and toured the US with Skinny Puppy in 2014.[7]
Personal life
McCarthy first moved to the US in 1995, initially settling in Los Angeles before moving to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, near Detroit.[24] There, he lived with his second wife, Carrie Martin, who had grown up in Grosse Pointe and whom he had met backstage at St. Andrew's Hall in 1989, while he was still married to his first wife.[24]
McCarthy later returned to England, taking a break from musical performance. He lived in Cambridge while studying design and film, and worked for a time in advertising, before returning to the US and settling in Los Angeles, where he lives with his third wife, filmmaker Hazel Hill McCarthy III.[1][3][11][25]
Health issues
McCarthy was hospitalized in 2021 during Nitzer Ebb's US tour, prompting a break from performing.[26] He returned to the stage in 2023, but in 2024, the band announced that he was taking a break from performing due to the effects of cirrhosis "after years of alcohol abuse."[14][26] McCarthy wrote: "I will not be performing any live shows as Nitzer Ebb, Fixmer/McCarthy, or any other vehicle until such time I can do so safely and stress free for myself and the amazing people I have around me who continue to stand by my side in full support of getting me better."[14]
^Popson, Tom (30 April 1989). "Nitzer Ebb May Never Be Well Done But It's A Little Less Raw". Orlando Sentinel. p. 6. ProQuest277408707. Retrieved 18 October 2024. The members of Nitzer Ebb - vocalist/percussionist Harris, vocalist/percussionist David Gooday and singer Douglas McCarthy - released their first single, "Isn't It Funny How Your Body Works?," on an independent British label in 1985. Following a few more independent singles, they signed with Mute Records in the U.K. and Geffen Records in America and released their first LP, That Total Age, in 1987.
^Hilburn, Robert (30 July 1990). "Depeche Mode: Hints of Change". Los Angeles Times. p. F10. Retrieved 18 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com. Nitzer Ebb, the opening act on the tour...though its style is far darker and more aggressive than Depeche Mode's.
^ abRollmann, Hans (8 October 2018). "Nitzer Ebb: Three Decades of Pounding Beats and Smashing Stereotypes". PopMatters. ProQuest2119866947. Retrieved 18 October 2024. For several years McCarthy parted ways with producing music, at least as a career. By the end of the 1990s, Harris had moved to Chicago, and McCarthy was still living in Detroit, playing music and considering starting a new band. But then he decided to go back to school instead. McCarthy returned to England and enrolled in university to study film and design. He eventually wound up building a second career in advertising.
^"Recommended Releases: RECOIL - 'Bloodline'". The Guardian. 23 April 1992. p. 32. Retrieved 18 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com. The third guest vocalist, Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb, imbues Alex Harvey's 'Faith Healer' with a characteristically sinister vocal...
^Campbell, Chuck (6 January 1998). ""Unsound Methods": Recoil". Santa Maria Times. Scripps Howard News Service. p. 9. Retrieved 18 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com. Gruff-voice Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb is at the helm of the haunting "Incubus" as well as "Stalker," where his throaty sound is countered by Wider's agitated brew of percussion, humming notes and dialogue bits.
^ abGraff, Gary (23 June 1995). "Suburban Detroit scores with Nitzer Ebb singer". Detroit Free Press. p. 74. Retrieved 18 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com. ...since moving to the Detroit area last August... McCarthy, 28, who lives in Grosse Pointe Farms with his wife, Carrie... McCarthy's path to Detroit began in 1989, when he was introduced to the former Carrie Martin backstage at St. Andrew's Hall... McCarthy was married, but he and Martin kept in touch. When his marriage broke up, "she was there for me." The couple lived in London until last May, when they moved to Los Angeles. "We hated it there," McCarthy says, "so we came back with a view to figuring out where we'd go next. We ended up staying. The family ties and familiar faces were very nice, especially after the harsh realities of living in Los Angeles."
