Douglas McCarthy RIP | The Quietus

Douglas McCarthy, vocalist for electronic body music pioneers Nitzer Ebb, has died. The band’s Instagram account issued a short statement saying “It is with a heavy heart that we regret to inform that Douglas McCarthy passed away this morning of June 11th, 2025. We ask everyone to please be respectful of Douglas, his wife, and family in this difficult time. We appreciate your understanding and will share more information soon.”

Born in Barking in 1966, McCarthy was part of the London diaspora that moved down the Thames estuary to populate Essex in the mid-twentieth century. The son of a metal worker, McCarthy lived on Canvey Island until his parents moved the family to the Chelmsford area. Nitzer Ebb were formed by McCarthy, drummer David Gooday, Bon Harris and Simon Granger not long afterwards, inspired by the records they were discovering in the town’s Parrot Record shops, and the disco and funk sounds heard at Canvey Island’s Goldmine nightclub, which McCarthy would attend while underage.

The first incarnation of Nitzer Ebb was powered by a drum called John hammered out by McCarthy’s dad, rehearsals taking place in Bon Harris’ mum’s house. Early gigs did not go well – the band were unpopular with the conservative nightlife around them. As McCarthy told tQ’s Luke Turner in The Guardian in 2019, ““I realised we had to have our own identity. The takeaway basically was: ‘Fuck everyone.’” Nevertheless, Nitzer Ebb got a break when a gig was seen by Scott, Aitken & Waterman producer Phil Harding, who offered them studio time. With the new influence of Hi-NRG being played in London’s gay clubs, Nitzer Ebb went on to sign for Mute, releasing their debut album That Toal Age in 1987. They went on to release a succession of albums that evolved to incorporate guitars, with the Constructivist imagery of their early years complemented by their lifelong obsession with skateboarding. In this, they influenced anyone from the likes of Nine Inch Nails to the pioneers of Detroit techno.

McCarthy, arguably a master of Essex self-deprecation and fast wit, once described is modus operandi as “shouting and pointing”. This in the early years through the 90s was done in shorts and t-shirts. More recently, he would wear suits, slick-backed hair and aviators, an astonishing presence akin to encountering the evil Terminator at a rave.

After Nitzer Ebb split in 1995, McCarthy embarked on a series of collaborations, working with ex-Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder on his Recoil project, and most significantly with techno producer Terence Fixmer on Fixmer / McCarthy. Their Between The Devil album from 2004 is an overlooked classic that crosses the boundary between the energy of Nitzer Ebb, electroclash and techno. He released a solo album, Kill Your Friends, in 2013. Nitzer Ebb reformed in 2006 to tour and record and, post-Covid, their gig at London’s Lafayette in April 2022 suggested that their influence on techno artists from Objekt to Regis and Perc might be about to connect with a whole new generation. Sadly, shortly afterwards McCarthy was forced to pull back from touring for health reasons.

Reflecting on his childhood in his Quietus Baker’s Dozen in 2019, McCarthy said “Music for me has a symbolism around the weekend. Dad and I were twitchers, I had my Young Ornithologists Club enamel badge, and we would get up super early, go out, cut samphire on the mudflats of Canvey Island, and go home. Dad would play Elgar really loud and cook samphire and offal. On a Sunday he’d go into a more Bach and Strauss; classical would transgress into Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, a bit of “Fwank”, then Sunday night telly. It was a routine. That’s where I got the idea that music was there to set the mood for everything you were doing, you can dictate the atmosphere by the music you’re playing… as a six-year-old listening to Elgar on Canvey Island.”