Los Angeles is a city built on reinvention, which makes it a natural home for electronic music. Every new track is a chance to reshape an idea or combine a couple of influences, and to get closer to a sound that feels personal.
Everything I make as Eddie Zar is rooted in EDM. I’m a Los Angeles producer and DJ, and I’m drawn to progressive house, melodic house, future rave, techno, and trance. What connects those styles for me is melody and atmosphere riding on rhythm and energy, the combination that makes electronic music feel larger than the speakers playing it.
The Beginning
I started producing in 1998 with FruityLoops, making loops while I was in college. At the time, the possibilities felt almost endless. A computer could be a studio and a sketchbook at once, and an instrument too. I could build drums, shape melodies, experiment with arrangement, and keep changing an idea until it became something completely different.
I came back to music production seriously in 2016. The technology had evolved by then, but my reason for making music was the same. I still wanted to create records that could move people physically while giving them something emotional to hold onto. The longer version of that story is in Finding My Sound.
Melody Comes First
Great electronic music can be technically impressive, but technique alone isn’t enough. I want a track to have a memorable musical idea. It might be a synth phrase or a chord progression, a vocal moment, even a bass rhythm, but something has to give the production an identity. I’ve written more about that in what makes an EDM melody stay with you.
That’s why progressive house and trance are still important influences for me. Both styles understand anticipation and let emotion build over time. A melody can begin quietly and gather energy, and by the time the full arrangement arrives it feels enormous.
Future rave and techno bring a different kind of power. They can make a track feel direct and physical, like it was built for a large system. I enjoy finding the point where that force meets the emotional side of melodic electronic music.
Developing a Sound in Los Angeles
Los Angeles is full of different musical worlds. Pop, hip hop, dance music, film scores, underground club culture, and global influences all exist close to one another here. That environment encourages experimentation. It also makes originality more important, because listeners have heard almost everything.
For me, developing a sound means carrying the same instincts from track to track, without forcing every record into the same formula. I want strong melodies and clear emotional movement. I want rhythms that create momentum, and production that can feel polished without losing its personality.
Some ideas belong in progressive house. Others lean toward future rave, techno, trance, drum and bass, or a broader dance sound. I’m not trying to defend a narrow category. I want each record to feel intentional and clearly connected to the way I hear music.
The Studio Is Where Identity Gets Tested
A producer’s identity comes out of thousands of small decisions in the studio. Writing a biography or choosing genre tags won’t create one.
In practice that means deciding which melody is worth developing and how long the tension should stay unresolved. It means checking whether the bass supports the emotion or competes with it. Is the drop actually powerful, or is it only loud? And does the track still communicate when the volume is low? That last question is the idea behind The Drive Home Test, where I check a mix away from the studio.
Those questions matter more to me than chasing a trend. Trends can be useful sources of inspiration, but they shouldn’t replace judgment. The strongest ideas usually appear when a producer understands current production and stays connected to personal taste.
Growth Without Losing the Core
My sound has changed because I’ve changed. The tools are better and my ears are more experienced, and I understand arrangement and mixing more deeply than I used to. The core motivation is still recognizable, though. I want the music to lift people.
That lift can come from a progressive chord sequence or from the tension of a future rave build. It can come from the hypnotic focus of techno, or the emotional release of trance. Different forms can serve the same purpose.
Growing has meant keeping my earlier influences and understanding them well enough to transform them. Every finished track becomes part of that education, and every unfinished idea can still teach me something about taste and patience, or about creative direction.
What Comes Next
I see Eddie Zar as a Los Angeles EDM project that keeps evolving. The music can move between progressive house, melodic house, future rave, techno, trance, and other corners of electronic music while keeping melody and energy at the center.
The plan from here is simple. I’ll keep building and refining, and keep making music that feels alive.