FAREOH

Music has been central to Fareoh’s life for as long as he can remember. He learned to play guitar at the age of nine, and loved punk rock, but never committed to any exclusive genre allegiances. “I was always just listening to new stuff,” he says. Born Ian Spurrier, the New York-born DJ and producer taught himself the ins and outs of digital production and honed a sound of his own: a combination of progressive and electro, with the songcraft of rock and pop. Blogs are alight with excitement about the complex yet melodic sound of this 20-year-old newcomer’s productions: various original tracks and carefully crafted remixes like his single “Feathers” with Archie and his take on mentor Kaskade’s “Lessons in Love”. Fareoh was chosen by Kaskade to open for him on 2012's Freaks of Nature tour, hitting large-scale venues nationwide. “I want to follow in Kaskade’s footsteps and represent America; represent these young DJs.” For the intensely visual thinker, Egyptian iconography and imagery has an obvious appeal. “I’ve been in love with Egyptian culture since the second grade,” he says. “I used to beg to go to the museum to see all the different artifacts and hieroglyphs.” An early Internet screen name included the word “Pharaoh,” so Fareoh simply decided to spell it out phonetically. Pharaoh - which translates into “Great House” - originally referred to extraordinary palaces of Egyptian kings. Our contemporary association immediately connotes “Ruler”. Both definitions are apropos in witnessing Fareoh’s reign over a pulsating room of revelers on any given night.