The exception is "Wash Away Your Tears", first released in a sped-up, tougher form on Solar Sampler. The highs and lows of navigating his new fatherhood is what Estornel poured into the record, a deep dive of ambient electronica, breakbeats and melodies, with dub and techno flourishes and guest vocalists. "And people don’t realize it puts a lot of pressure on your relationship as well, it's basically a test." "It wasn ’t as important to me any more to travel as much or do as many gigs or to have a hit record," he says. The arrival of his son, to wife Christine Mooneyhan - herself a producer as Maars and one half of Odd Parents - changed all that. Three years ago Estornel was riding high as Maceo Plex, releasing a string of hits through his Ellum Audio label, touring extensively and partying nearly as heavily. "It’s taken years to get to the point where they want to go with it." "I kind of learnt from other A&R's I've worked with that you don't want to jump into it so quickly, the fan base have a certain sound they want to hear," he says. It was, admits Estornel, a way of slowly getting his fans used to the idea that something significant was on its way, albeit something quite different to the dark, brooding house heard on the EPs. The Solar project has been a long time coming, teased by two releases in the past two years, Solar Sampler, boasting hit "Solar Detroit", then Journey to Solar. Estornel's take on sleazy, soulful deep house was more accessible than anything he'd released as Maetrik, and his popularity as Maceo Plex soon usurped all his other aliases combined. It wasn't going anywhere." Estornel put out his first album as Maceo Plex, Life Index, in 2011 on Lazarus' Crosstown Rebels label.
"I knew the Maetrik name had grown stagnant even though I was getting better as a producer. "Luckily I was considered Dallas’ youngest DJ, and promoters were interested in promoting that, I guess, so I got started really quick." By 19, he was producing experimental techno and IDM under a few different guises, the main one being Maetrik, then in 2010, shortly after moving from Dallas to Valencia ("everybody was moving to Berlin and it just seemed a bit cliche to me"), Estornel sent a bunch of tracks to Damian Lazarus, who was into the music but wanted Estornel to do a re-brand. Two years after Estornel's father bought him a set of Technics turntables, at 16 he was a regular fixture at raves and parties around the city, playing a mix of electro, breaks and techno. "In Dallas, the downtown area was kind of a ghost town, there was nothing to do, you had to come up with something that was out of this world." "When you’re that isolated, you tend to come up with concepts for your music that don’t pertain to your surroundings," he says. Just as industrial Detroit was a breeding ground for the extraterrestrial imaginings of producers like Jeff Mills and Juan Atkins ("I think he’s the best producer to come out of Detroit - ever"), culturally-depleted Dallas provided similar inspiration to a young Estornel. In the years since, he's become one of the most respected and popular producers on the scene, creating dance floor destroyers of unusual emotional heft the sort to inspire rumination and even tears as much as dancing. And who could blame him? It’s a particularly spectacular gig, but Estornel's been no stranger to moments like these since assuming the Maceo Plex alias in 2011. His fans are vocal, crying, "We love you Maceo!", and behind his rose-tinted sunglasses, Estornel appears to be enjoying the rock star moment. Later that night Estornel will ascend the cobbled streets flanked by his wife and management team as the crowds part for the biggest name on the bill, closing the event with a back-to-back with Tale of Us. On the day of our entrevista, though, he's performing at the International Music Summit's 10th anniversary closing party, a killer, if all too brief evening of hour-long back to back sets featuring the likes of Dixon, Miss Kittin and Seth Troxler, held at Dalt Vila, the magnificent fortress and UNESCO World Heritage Site sitting atop Ibiza Town.
They're only too eager to serve the American-born, Barcelona-based producer better known as Maceo Plex, but, "Estamos haciendo una entrevista," he reminds them with a smile.Įstornel is a guest of the resort, launching his Mosaic residency at the nearby Pacha on Tuesday night. In the plush, zen-white lobby of the Pacha Group's Destino resort in Ibiza, overlooking the hotel's paradisiacal ocean-facing outdoor pool, Eric Estornel chats amiably in Spanish with staff.