The French/American NYC natives Beverly Chills (a.k.a. Ben Kumar and Jean “SquareJean” De Looz) have been heavily involved in house and electronic music since 1998. Trained guitarists (Jean in classical and Ben in jazz) since the age of 12 and avid fans of all sorts of music in general, the two began DJing while still in high school, enticed by the sounds bubbling up from the underground dance music they heard in their meanderings between Paris, New York, and the occasional Spanish metropolis. They became heavily absorbed in the styles of Carl Cox, Doc Martin, Frankie Bones, Underworld, and Daft Punk, and deeply fascinated by the power of the DJ over the crowd, decided it was their turn to try to take a shot at being that ever-popular social element, the DJ.

Shortly thereafter, during their stints at their respective universities (Jean in Daytona Beach and Ben in Philadelphia), they quickly assessed the DJing scene on their campuses, built up their chops, and got straight to work. By their third and fourth years in college, two sets of Technics SL 1200s deep, they were DJing radio shows, house parties and downtown clubs alike, experimenting with the smooth funky dubby disco house sound that created an irresistible vibe in their sets and won them campus-wide recognition. Ben started a Philly-based event production crew (Caiman Productions), and worked internships at Mute Records and Zomba Music Publishing in New York, as well as Worship Recordings in Philadelphia. Ever the musicians, early in 2002, Kumar & SquareJean started writing their first house compositions, influenced by organic percussion and brass vibes found on labels such as Siesta, Catalyst, and Electrik Soul.

After graduating and making their ways back to NYC, the two childhood friends re-united and formed the DJ duo known as Beverly Chills in the summer of 2003 and started doing what they had been practicing for years to do. Now active DJs in the NY scene, Ben & Jean have since then been steadily rocking their patented melodic blend of sweet sounding, jazzy funked-out West Coast/East Coast sound across the city, from the dens and lounges of the Lower East Side to Soho, the Meatpacking District and beyond. Drawing on influences from Onionz, Dizzy, and Ben Watt, and having recently played alongside industry hotshots such as JT Donaldson and Johnny Fiasco at the Sullivan Room, the duo is pleased to announce the birth of an upcoming Red Flavored 12" and a homemade 10 tracker.

Following their multi-faceted appreciation for the global reach of music, Beverly Chills’ compositions comprise a true grooving mosaic of sounds: African tribal rhythms; glassy, jazzed out complex chords; filters; emotional, moving bass lines, retro-logic keyboards, yet chunky, motion inducing drums and percussion--a mosaic that oscillates between the idealism of expressed feelings and the practicality of a thumping, driving rhythm. Always working on a new track, they hope to continue pushing their musical house sound to the masses. As far as they’re concerned: if it ain’t harmonized, it ain’t monetized.