Halo

Brian Varga grew up in Chicago, the birthplace of house music, and by 16 was tagging the city with the graffiti name Halo, the alias he'd carry into music. He worked at the record store Hip House, a job his longtime friend DJ Sneak helped him land, spending his teenage years steeped in the influence of Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy's late-night loft parties, and the visitors he met at the shop began booking him to play their parties after hearing his mixtapes.

He later worked a three-year A&R stint at Moody Records, connecting him with producers around the country, before settling in San Diego, where in 1999 he formed H-Foundation with Eric Galaviz, known as Hipp-E. The duo built a reputation as one of the few American production teams to break into the UK tech-house scene, holding a residency at London's Fabric and catching the attention of the Chemical Brothers, who brought them in to remix "Come With Us."

H-Foundation released their first mix CD, Nite:Life 02, on NRK Sound Division in 2001, followed by their full-length debut, Environments, on Astralwerks in 2003. Halo has also released music on his own label, Surface Recordings, and toured internationally, playing clubs in London, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Brazil.