Douglas McCarthy

Born in Barking, East London in September 1966,{{cite magazine |last=Turner |first=Luke |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/03/the-return-of-pop-perverts-nitzer-ebb-if-people-arent-looking-at-the-stage-it-still-can-be-sexual |title=The return of pop perverts Nitzer Ebb: 'There was always a lot of sexual energy' |magazine=The Guardian |date=3 January 2019 | accessdate=October 18, 2024}}{{Additional citation needed|reason=Current cited reference from The Guardian confirms McCarthy's age, but not his full birth date.|date=October 2024}} McCarthy grew up in the county of Essex, the son of a sheet metal worker.{{cite magazine |last=Mayo Davies |first=Dean |date=15 August 2012 |title=Douglas J. McCarthy |url=https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/2105/douglas-j-mccarthy |magazine=AnOther |access-date=18 October 2024}}{{cite magazine |last=Turner |first=Luke |url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/bakers-dozen/douglas-mccarthy-nitzer-ebb-interview-favourite-music/ |title=Gold Gold Gold Gold Fire Fire Fire Fire: Douglas McCarthy's Favourite LPs |magazine=The Quietus |date=24 July 2019 |accessdate=18 October 2024}} His father exposed him to classical artists such as Elgar, Bach and Strauss, as well as contemporary artists such as Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra.

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. Harris and Gooday attended the same school as McCarthy, although they were a year older. The young men would attend disco and funk nightclubs, such as Goldmine on Canvey Island, at times sneaking in while underage.

As he got older, McCarthy listened to such artists as Showaddywaddy, Slade and Roxy Music. He also cited Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft as early musical influences, and Fad Gadget, Siouxie Sioux and Nick Cave as influences on his performance style as Nitzer Ebb's frontman.

{{Main|Nitzer Ebb}}

McCarthy, Harris and Gooday founded Nitzer Ebb in 1982 and held their first musical performance at the Chelmsford YMCA.

The band was signed to Mute Records in the UK, and Geffen Records in the US, and released their first studio album That Total Age in 1987.{{cite news |last=Popson |first=Tom |date=30 April 1989 |title=Nitzer Ebb May Never Be Well Done But It's A Little Less Raw |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/277408707 |work=Orlando Sentinel |page=6 |access-date=18 October 2024 |id={{ProQuest|277408707}} |url-access=subscription |quote=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.}} They opened for Depeche Mode during the European leg of their Music For The Masses tour and joined the European and North American legs of their World Violation Tour, further exposing Nitzer Ebb to an international audience.{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/nitzer-ebb-depeche-mode-mute-records-ebm/ |title=The Ebb and Flow of Nitzer Ebb |last=Paoletti |first=Ariana |date=24 September 2013 |website=Vice |access-date=18 October 2024}}{{cite news |last=Hilburn |first=Robert |date=30 July 1990 |title=Depeche Mode: Hints of Change |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176153699 |work=Los Angeles Times |page=F10 |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Nitzer Ebb, the opening act on the tour...though its style is far darker and more aggressive than Depeche Mode's.}}{{cite web |url=https://hero-magazine.com/article/13339/introducing-djmrex |title=Douglas J McCarthy and Cyrusrex collide in LA |last=Gorton |first=Thomas |date=2 December 2013 |website=Hero |publisher=Boutique Mags |access-date=18 October 2024}}

McCarthy was responsible for most of the band's lyrics.{{cite news |last=Jarvey |first=Paul |date=7 June 1990 |title=Nitzer Ebb dances into center ; British rock duo forge ahead while their music keeps changing |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/268398558/ |work=Telegram & Gazette |location= |agency= |page= |access-date=18 October 2024 |id={{ProQuest|268398558}} |url-access=subscription |quote=Harris' partner, vocalist Douglas McCarthy, writes most of the lyrics, but both members, along with their producer, Flood, are free to change things.}} 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."{{cite news |last=Boehm |first=Mike |date=14 Apr 1989 |title=POP MUSIC REVIEW Band Evokes Orwellian World Nitzer Ebb Produces Harsh, Industrial-Strength Techno-Rock Sounds at Club Postnuclear |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/280742561 |work=Los Angeles Times |page=3 |access-date=18 October 2024 |id={{ProQuest|280742561}} |url-access=subscription}}

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."{{cite news |last=Pareles |first=Jon |date=13 February 1992 |title=Pop and Jazz in Review |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/428394042 |work=The New York Times |page=C22 |access-date=18 October 2024 |id={{ProQuest|428394042}} |url-access=subscription}}

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."{{cite news |last=Rollmann |first=Hans |date=8 October 2018 |title=Nitzer Ebb: Three Decades of Pounding Beats and Smashing Stereotypes |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2119866947 |work=PopMatters |access-date=18 October 2024 |id={{ProQuest|2119866947}} |url-access=subscription|quote=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.}}

Subsequent to the band's 1995 album, Big Hit, Nitzer Ebb disbanded.{{cite magazine |last=Turner |first=Luke |url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/fixmer-mccarthy-interview-nitzer-ebb-terence-fixmer/ |title=Repeating, Shouting, Pointing: Fixmer/McCarthy Interviewed |magazine=The Quietus |date=19 April 2017 |accessdate=18 October 2024}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=26937_0_2_0_C |title=Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) delivers backing vocals on new Nitzer Ebb track 'Once you see' |date=6 November 2007 |url-status=dead |website=Side-Line magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622071942/http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=26937_0_2_0_C |archive-date=22 June 2008 |access-date=18 October 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://xsrock.com/nitzer-ebbs-douglas-mccarthy-on-hiatus-from-band-with-cirrhosis-of-the-liver-lists-alcohol-abuse-as-cause/ |title=Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy On Hiatus From Band With Cirrhosis Of The Liver…Lists Alcohol Abuse As Cause |date=20 March 2024 |website=XS Rock |access-date=18 October 2024}}

On June 11, 2025, the band announced that McCarthy had died. {{Cite web|title= Douglas McCarthy has Passed Away | url=https://www.instagram.com/p/DKxs1EvsE4q/|access-date=2025-06-11|website=instagram.com}}

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.{{cite news |date=23 April 1992 |title=Recommended Releases: RECOIL - 'Bloodline' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/260297709 |work=The Guardian |page=32 |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=The third guest vocalist, Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb, imbues Alex Harvey's 'Faith Healer' with a characteristically sinister vocal...}} McCarthy also worked with Recoil on the follow-up album Unsound Methods (1997), performing on the tracks "Incubus" and "Stalker".{{cite news |last=Campbell |first=Chuck |date=6 January 1998 |title="Unsound Methods": Recoil |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/446939054 |work=Santa Maria Times |agency=Scripps Howard News Service |page=9 |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=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.}}

McCarthy collaborated with French techno producer Terence Fixmer under the name Fixmer/McCarthy. The pair were introduced by producer Seth Hodder at Novamute Records, who had previously done work with Nitzer Ebb. Fixmer/McCarthy's debut album Between The Devil, was released in 2004. 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=31470_0_2_0_C |title=Flood joins Nitzer Ebb to complete first album in a decade |date=5 February 2008 |url-status=dead |website=Side-Line magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906064430/http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=31470_0_2_0_C |archive-date=6 September 2013 |access-date=18 October 2024}}{{Discogs release|8984454|Selected Works 2003-2016|type=album}} They also released the standalone singles "So Many Lies", "Chemicals" and "Let it Begin" between 2016 and 2019.{{Discogs master|1051483|So Many Lies|type=single}}{{Discogs master|1369619|Chemicals|type=album}}{{Discogs master|2753297|Let It Begin|type=album}}

In 2012, he released his first solo album, Kill Your Friends as Douglas J. McCarthy, on Los Angeles–based label Pylon Records.{{cite magazine |last=Turner |first=Luke |url=https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/douglas-j-mccarthy-kill-your-friends-review/ |title=Douglas J. McCarthy - 'Kill Your Friends' |magazine=The Quietus |date=9 January 2013 |accessdate=18 October 2024}} 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."

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.{{cite magazine |url=https://thequietus.com/news/headman-douglas-j-mccarthy/ |title=LISTEN: Headman VS Douglas J McCarthy |magazine=The Quietus |date=2 July 2013 |accessdate=18 October 2024}} In 2013, DJM/REX opened for Depeche Mode at a performance in France and toured the US with Skinny Puppy in 2014.

McCarthy first moved to the US in 1995, initially settling in Los Angeles before moving to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, near Detroit.{{cite news |last=Graff |first=Gary |date=23 June 1995 |title=Suburban Detroit scores with Nitzer Ebb singer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/99249646 |work=Detroit Free Press |page=74 |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=...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."}} 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.

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 lived with his third wife, filmmaker Hazel Hill McCarthy III.{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/adult-detroit-house-guest-project-dorit-chrysler-douglas-mccarthy/ |title=Detroit UnADULTerated: It Was the End of Times, It Was the Best of Times |last=de la Garza |first=Maximilian |date=24 February 2015 |website=Vice |access-date=18 October 2024 }}

McCarthy was hospitalized in 2021 during Nitzer Ebb's US tour, prompting a break from performing.{{cite web |url=https://www.side-line.com/nitzer-ebb-frontman-hospitalized-no-shows-are-cancelled/ |title=Nitzer Ebb frontman Douglas McCarthy enjoys successful comeback after health problems |author=Bernard - Side-Line Staff |date=3 November 2023 |website=Side-Line magazine |access-date=18 October 2024}} 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." 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."

He died on 11 June 2025, aged 58.[https://www.brooklynvegan.com/nitzer-ebbs-douglas-mccarthy-has-died-at-58/ Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy has died at 58]

As solo artist

• Kill Your Friends (2013)

With Nitzer Ebb

{{main|Nitzer Ebb#Discography}}

With Recoil

• Bloodline (1992)
• Unsound Methods (1997)

As Fixmer/McCarthy

Albums

• Between The Devil (2004)
• Into The Night (2008)
• Treibwerk (2012)

EPs and singles

• Destroy/Freefall (2003)
• And Then Finally (2006)
• So Many Lies (2016)
• Chemicals (2017)
• Let It Begin (2019)

As DJMREX

• EP1 (2013)
• EP2 (2015)

With Black Line

• Treason, Sedition, and Subversive Activities (2017)
• Sedition EP (2019)

{{Reflist}}

{{Nitzer Ebb|state=expanded}}

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Category:1966 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:English male singers

Category:Electronic body music musicians

Category:Singers from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

Category:Nitzer Ebb members

Category:People from Barking, London