Steve Fabus

Steve Fabus is an American disco, hi-NRG and house music disc jockey from Chicago, known for popularizing the 1970s version of the tea dance style of Sunday disco dancing, as well as the gay bathhouse sound of San Francisco, emphasizing emotional R&B vocals and slower tempos. Fabus has served residencies at the San Francisco nightclubs the I-Beam, the Trocadero Transfer and The EndUp, at the New York City River Club and Tracks, and in Los Angeles at Probe, Axis and Asylum. He has deejayed major circuit parties, private parties and international festivals. He co-founded Go BANG!, a disco revival party in San Francisco. He has been a resident deejay at Hothouse. He regularly mixes for the Burning Man group Comfort & Joy.

Career Fabus was born and raised in Chicago, where he grew to appreciate the R&B music of artists such as Stevie Wonder and Etta James. In Chicago, he was intrigued by unusual dance music such as Hamilton Bohannon's "Bohannon's Beat" that he heard at Dugan's Bistro, a gay club with music spun by Louie DeVito, Fabus's first major career influence.

San Francisco 1975–1983 Fabus relocated to San Francisco in 1975 and kept mixing house parties; at one of these, he met the Cockettes, led by the effervescent Sylvester. His style was known as "sleaze", a kind of mid-tempo music mix with uplifting or romantic vocals. Fabus felt that the bathhouse scene was more relaxed and freeform, allowing him to play music with a tempo around 90–100 beats per minute (BPM). He later said, "With the music, you could get intimate, you could get spacey." He was chosen by disco promoter Rod Roderick to headline the Boiler Room in 1977, a massive private party. His bathhouse contacts led to a residency at the I-Beam, newly opened by Bob Wharton and Sanford Kellman as San Francisco's biggest disco. Fabus deejayed there during 1977–1978, emphasizing the R&B and soul side of disco music, with vinyl releases from Salsoul, Prelude, Casablanca and West End Records.

Fabus was hired to mix at the Trocadero Transfer, a new club styled after 12 West in New York City. "The Troc" was the first San Francisco discotheque to be allowed to stay open all night, bringing Manhattan-style dance parties lasting many hours. Other clubs followed suit, and San Francisco became the center of the West Coast gay disco scene.

New York 1983–1988 Fabus was invited to New York City to mix vinyl at Tracks and the former 12 West which was operating as the River Club. He stayed current with his peers at The Saint and Paradise Garage. He worked in New York to develop an eclectic musical style, incorporating the new house music along with European tracks and more. Fabus said, "I would say there were more developments and different directions established in the ’80s than in any other decade of dance music. It was arguably the most musically diverse decade." He mixes regularly for Comfort & Joy, a queer-themed Burning Man organization hosting activities in San Francisco.