Nicolas Matar

If it takes 30 years to make an overnight hit, then Nicolas Matar has truly come of age. The story of house music has run from the New York underground via Ibiza to Berlin and back around again many times over the past 30 years – and as the chapters have unfolded, our man has been there to turn the page.
Nicolas has been DJing since the tender age of 15. He got an early head-start from his father, an original member of Studio 54 and a denizen of the 70ʹs New York club scene. “Dad was a hobbyist DJ and he had an incredible collection of Disco, Funk and Soul records,” says Nicolas. “I grew up with a mini club in my basement. My parents used it to entertain their friends with my Dad behind the decks.”
Nicolas musical style is very diverse, encompassing everything from Deep House, Minimal House, Techno, to Disco. Nicolas is a selector who has been digging for music tirelessly his whole life. He was never a producer. “ In my opinon, Djing and Producing are two very different disciplines. I excel selecting music in the record shop, not creating original music in the studio.”
It is perhaps his greatest accolade that from 1996-2001, Nicolas was the resident DJ of the world-renowned Pacha in Ibiza. Nicolas credits those years during the golden era of House Music at Ibiza as the inspiration for his eventual return to New York to build nightclubs. “In those days, resident DJs would play 5 nights a week and they were not superstars. The DJ was not the focal point, it was the experience as a whole.”
In 2003, after spending six life altering years at Pacha, Nicolas moved back to New York City and opened his first Nightlclub, Cielo. It existed for 16 years and was the epicenter of the electronic music scene in North America. It was a celebrated DJ-driven venue which received numerous awards and accolades. Nicolas was the resident DJ of Cielo for sixteen years and mixed ten Cielo branded DJ compilatilons, including a Japan only series.
In 2013, Nicolas opened his second nightclub, Output, as a Berlin inspired underground dance club in the heart of Brooklyn, NY. The club dominated the Techno/House scene in North America during its 6 year run and won numerous awards and accolades. Nicolas was the resident DJ, performing weekly in his own club during these years.
Like most globetrotting DJs, Nicolas spins regularly in the US, UK, Spain, Brazil, France, Mexico, Peru, Netherlands, Italy, Estonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Finland, Canada, Singapore, Belgium, Korea, Hong Kong, Turkey, Japan, Indonesia and Switzerland. Nicolas has also been a fixture at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, performing for the last 15 years.