Born and raised in Southern California, Marbs was shaped by a deep love of music, art, and counterculture. His journey into electronic music began in high school and crystallized after two pivotal sets—Lee Burridge at Lovefest and Plastikman live—which inspired the deep, hypnotic sound he’s known for today.

As a founding member of Desert Hearts, Marbs has been instrumental in shaping the brand’s identity—on and off the dancefloor. While widely recognized for his DJ sets and moody, driving productions, he’s also the behind-the-scenes architect of the Desert Hearts Festival. As the festival’s director, he oversees everything from logistics and production to creative direction and curation, helping evolve a grassroots gathering of 200 people into one of the world’s most iconic boutique festivals.

To expand the brand’s sonic range, he launched Desert Hearts Black, a sub-label and event series focused on deep, melodic techno. As a producer, Marbs has delivered multiple chart-topping releases, including the Torus EP (#1 on Beatport), Clean Slate Glow, and The Devil’s Love.

Equal parts artist, visionary, and builder, Marbs remains the backbone of Desert Hearts—embodying its ethos of House, Techno, and Love with relentless creativity and heart.

Just as rave culture was making its first waves in the UK in 1988, a mad English kid named Lee Reynolds rode his BMX bike across the Atlantic to Los Angeles, carrying with him dreams of big air and sunny skies. He was as wild then as he is now, it’s just that on two wheels, Reynolds’ lack of abandon resulted in broken bones, not broken beats. In 1992, he limped off the ramp one last time and soon found himself lost to electronic psychedelia, and thusly one of the West Coast’s finest DJs began his path to the Desert Hearts movement and the hysteria he now conjures with every performance. 

Now, a quarter century later, Reynolds has a lifetime’s worth of experience bringing the weird and the wonderful to the dancefloor. He earned his chops up and down the West Coast in the dance scene’s dustier institutions––Moontribe, Moonshake, LiB––That’s where he developed his endlessly wide palate, penchant for mysticism, and an understanding that a dance party should be a spiritual experience. 

“When I DJ, I want people to feel ecstatic, in a zone, in the moment, like the only thing that matters is the dance,” he says. “I don’t want to play music that people can dance to, I want to play music that makes people dance. I want it to sound like aliens are about to land on the dancefloor.”

In 2011, It was an encounter with a plucky bunch of San Diegans barely out of their teens that was the calling Lee Reynolds had spent his whole life working towards. Alongside Mikey Lion, Deep Jesus, Marbs, and Porkchop, Reynolds formed Desert Hearts and the rest is history in motion. Over the past three years of bi-annual renegade ragers and relentless touring, “Papa” Lee Reynolds has developed into the patriarch of the fastest growing and most visible cultural movement in all of stateside dance music.

“My real role in Desert Hearts is more on a spiritual level, making sure we spread a positive message and do the right thing,” says Reynolds. Wise words, maybe, but behind the decks, Reynolds is a maniacal presence as he channels his past lives, tastes, adventures, and perspectives into a dancefloor magic that captures you upon first beat and does not release: House, techno, acid, and breaks, they’re all conjured up in a plume of purple haze and that little mad bastard is at the center of it all. 

Dance music now is so often about fast rises and immediate gratification, but Lee Reynolds’ story is a reminder that some beats taste better when slowly fried over the course of 25 years. “I’ve been obsessed with this shit forever and I’ve always believed the madness was coming,” says Reynolds. Well, the madness has commenced, and it seems like it’s here for good––and Lee Reynolds is conducting the score.
- Jemayel Khäwåja

just a guy making psychedelic house music.

tune in to tune out.

come experience the wonder and joys of sound exploration.

Contact: info@kylewatsonmusic.com
Studio Vids: www.patreon.com/kylewatsonmusic

since sound is, may as well play with it ...

♥ Desert Hearts Records Boss ♥
Bookings ~ Americas and Australia: jon@liaisonartists.com
Management: t.gould@deserthearts.us
PR: mfrieser@infamouspr.com

Part mythical desert harlequin, part modern soul conductor, Mikey Lion is more than a DJ––He’s a freak of nature and an energy controller. The San Diego-native has earned a dusty mystique over the past few years as the center of the Desert Hearts movement and as a house and techno provocateur with a stage presence that suggests he will ride this wave all the way to the top. If there's one thing Mikey does well, it's get the party started.

Lion, real name Michael Leon, has brought the mothafuckin' ruckus to the stages of Lightning in a Bottle, the dustiest storms at Burning Man, and The Do LaB at Coachella, earning nods from Claude VonStroke, Jamie Jones, and Green Velvet in the process. In doing so, Lion and his signature top hat have developed a boisterous voice in the House & Techno scene with strong tribal, hip-hop, and psychedelic elements.

But it all started with Wu-Tang and Daft Punk. Lion first found his way behind the decks as a thirteen year old kid, scratching underground hip-hop records religiously after school. At Coachella as a seventeen year old, he witnessed that legendary Daft Punk performance on the same night he tasted his first dose of psychedelics. The show had such a monumental impact on him, he gave up Hip-Hop and became a House DJ the very next day.

After honing his craft with weekly marathon DJ sessions at Sala Razzmatazz in Barcelona, Mikey was introduced to Burner culture at Lightning in a Bottle, 2011. It was at his first Burning Man in 2011 that he found a community calling and merged forces with his brother Porkchop, life long friends Marbs & Deep Jesus, and the inimitable Lee Reynolds to form The Desert Hearts Crew.

In November 2012, Desert Hearts began as a seedy, 200-person renegade gathering deep in the Mojave Desert. The intrepid crew barely survived a set of extreme weather conditions and unfortunate circumstances, but that first party sparked a fire. The entire point of that first Desert Hearts was to create as much love as humanly possible, and now that same gathering has evolved into the darling of the West Coast house and techno scene. The Bi-annual festival is capped at 3500 attendees in order to create the best possible vibe. Built upon beautiful people getting as weird as possible to deep and trippy house and techno, Desert Hearts has already achieved iconic status in the North American Festival Scene. 

Desert Hearts has given rise to a family of thousands and it's safe to call it a bonafide movement of love. And while Desert Hearts Records launched in 2014 as a totally-free record label, pushes the sonic aesthetic of the scene, the crew’s busy international calendar of bookings has the DH message spreading far and wide. At the center of it all is Mikey Lion, the dusty prince of desert hearts, a beacon of weird far and wide, and one of this generation’s most compelling agents of love.

DEMOS: https://tstack.app/desert-hearts-records

Desert Hearts is a tribute to House, Techno, & Love. 

What started as a renegade gathering in the Mojave has blossomed into a movement celebrating love, life, and music. With the annual Desert Hearts Festival holding down the roots of the movement while the DH Crew circles the globe, Desert Hearts Records provides the soundtrack as our family spreads as much love and positive energy as humanly possible. House, Techno, & Love... We Are All Desert Hearts.

Label run by @mikeylion
Management - matt@slntmachine.com

Female vocalist specialising in glitchy dubstep, folktronica and laptop folk. Contact: soundmousemusic@gmail.com 

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