who is phargeaux?

phargeaux is an American born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and electronic musician. In live performance contexts phargeaux integrates his original self-produced tracks into DJ sets, with live performance of vocal leads and sporadic fills played on the Akai EWI, a MIDI Wind Controller instrument. His music has been described as “pounding psychedelic message music for the Festival Generation.” He was introduced to EDM, Dubstep and contemporary Electronic Music Festival experiences through his two sons, as they became teenagers and began to attend events like the Vans Warped Tour, the Lakes of Fire regional Burning Man event and later Summer Camp, Lost Lands and other major destination festivals with them. He is currently an active attendee and supporter of major Festivals like Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan and the Damian Lazarus curated Day Zero Festival in Tumum Mexico.

His most recent release, popz, is an integration of his thirty-five year career as Enterprise Technology professional, focused on AI since 2004, and his experiences and self-admitted fascination with Electronic Music. His style, compositions and lyrics are informed both by an early background as a classical, theater and choral singer and classical and orchestral musician. Growing up as a treble singing in a professional annually touring RSCM styled Episcopal choir, in his personal life, as Peter Harlan, he has continued a lifelong practice of choral singing as both a professional choral section lead in church choirs and in community ensembles, including the Yale Russian Chorus. As a student he studied the clarinet, bassoon and saxophone, attending the prestigious National Music Camp at the Interlochen Arts Academy as a bassonist. phargeaux currently performs, as Peter Harlan, in an Evanston based vocal ensemble, Coriolis Acapella, singing both bass and baritone parts. 

He records, produces, distributes and performs electronic music exclusively as his EDM/Festival/Performance persona phargeaux and under his own “phargeaux music” record label. His early work as a solo artist included a piano/vocals American Songbook album titled “Zuzu’s Petals,” produced with collaborator and pianist Doug Hammer in 2002. phargeaux has posted an intention to republish a remastered and enhanced version of that record in early 2026, as phargeaux, entitled “kroonz.” Before learning the technologies with which he currently writes and produces, for over a decade he experimented with LiveLooping techniques, developing a multi-layered vocal sounds that persists in his current work. Some of that earlier work, including “sketch” versions of work on his most recent popz album, can still be found online. 

phargeaux grew up primarily in the care of his mother, in the New England area, and credits her entirely with his work ethic and organizational skills. His father, a New Orleans native, was an accomplished operatic bass/baritone singer, brass player and drummer and career Naval officer. As midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy he turned down a four year full tuition scholarship offer from the Juilliard Conservatory. While spending significant time in New Orleans during his formative years, phargeaux was raised largely in New England, with “Boston Brahmin” roots on his mother’s side extending back to post-colonial era celebrity polymath Nathaniel Bowditch. 

As Peter Harlan, his given name and civilian persona, he is currently researching and writing an historical fiction novel about the life his great great grandfather Charles Pickering Bowditch. Charles Bowditch was an early environmental conservationist and “Gilded Age” era venture capitalist who was an early investor in AT&T and board member for fourteen years. He was also a significant sponsor of early Meso-American Archeological research and expeditions, amassing a large library of the contemporary authoritative scholarship (donated to the Harvard Peabody Museum) and personally authoring three books on Mayan Numerology, Culture and Calendaring. Despite his roots in both the South and in New England, phargeaux has been lived in the Chicago area for most of his adult life. When not touring, he currently lives and works in Racine, Wisconsin.