Celldweller

Celldweller

Celldweller is a Detroit, United States based band that was created by Klayton (formerly created music as the 90's project Circle of Dust), who writes all of the music and performs the majority of vocals and instruments on studio recordings. Celldweller has previously performed live with Klayton (vocals, guitar, keyboard, percussion, programming) and a full line-up of backing musicians. The band's general sound can be described as industrial rock that incorporates elements from Nu metal, techno, trance and breakbeat.

History

In 1999, Klayton released a 250-copy limited edition of a self-titled EP featuring 5 tracks ("Symbiont", "Own Little World", "Fadeaway", "Beginning of the End", "Kemikal"). The first three tracks were demos of songs that were later completed and released on the self-titled debut CD. The last two tracks are available on the LP The Beta Cessions.

The self-titled debut LP Celldweller was released in 2003 on record label Esion Media (currently known as FIXT Music) and Position Music after being sold exclusively via the internet on Celldweller's own website and CD Baby, then later on iTunes. The album debuted at #17 on Billboard's Internet Sales Chart. In 2004, the album took home five awards at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards, winning Album of the Year, Producer of the Year, Industrial Album of the Year, Metal Song of the Year ("One Good Reason", the instrumental version of which is available on the Need for Speed: Most Wanted soundtrack) and Best Industrial Song ("Switchback"), and also took runner-up in Best Industrial Song (to its own song) with "Stay with Me (Unlikely)" and Best Rock Song with "I Believe You".

Every song on Celldweller has been licensed at least once for a movie, video game or another form of media with titles including Doom, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Supercross, XXX: State of the Union, Spider-Man 2, Constantine, Catwoman, The Punisher, Paycheck, Timeline, Mindhunters, National Security, Bad Boys II, Redline (film), Project Gotham Racing 3, NHL 2003, Enter the Matrix, XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association, The Hills Have Eyes 2, Crackdown, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Pimp My Ride. This is a feat that has only been accomplished by only two other artists; Moby and The Crystal Method.

A two-disc LP titled The Beta Cessions was released in 2004. The first CD contains new recordings (such as a re-recorded version of the final Circle of Dust song "Goodbye" and an earlier alternate version of the song "Switchback" with different lyrics) as well as remixes and demo versions of songs from the debut album. The second CD includes instrumental versions of every song from the debut album.

On October 4 2005, Celldweller released "Frozen (DJ RiB Mix)" and "Goodbye (Klayton Revision)" to iTunes and other companies that sell music over the internet. Although artwork was made for the release, there was no official CD release. The remix of Frozen is available on "Dark Trance vs Neo Goth V1 / Nonstop Mix" (2005).

On November 8 2005, Celldweller released "Shapeshifter" to iTunes and other companies that sell music over the internet. This song features the vocals of alternative rap group Styles of Beyond. Although artwork was made for the release, there was no official CD release. The song is also available on the in-game soundtrack for Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005). There is also an instrumental version of Shapeshifter available entitled "Transistor".

On April 24 2006, Celldweller released "Tragedy" to iTunes, BuyMusic, Napster and several other companies that sell music over the internet. Tragedy was originally performed by The Bee Gees and spent two weeks at #1 in 1979. Although artwork was made for the release, there was no official CD release for this single. An instrumental version of the song was also available for purchase.

On November 2 2006, Celldweller released "Switchback (Klayton Revision)" and "Own Little World (Remorse Code Remix)" to iTunes and Rhapsody. The Remorse Code Remix was done by Celldweller's sound engineer, Thomas Covert, (Mixing, Sound Design, and Synthetic Elements) and Bret Autry (Vocals, Guitar, and Drum Programming). An instrumental version of each remix was also released. Although artwork was made for the release, there was no official CD release.

Celldweller is currently working on his second album. A video statement by Klayton indicated that the album, originally slated to come out in the summer of 2006, would more likely be delayed to sometime later in the year. The known tracklist includes: "Blackstar", "Tainted", "Tragedy", "So Long Sentiment", "The Lucky One", "The Tide", "The Best It's Gonna Get", "Baseline", "Shapeshifter", "Pursuit of the Hunted", and "Eon." Of the fifty songs he has written, Klayton has narrowed it down to about eleven or twelve that will go on the album. Despite his comment that the album would be released by 2009, sources indicate the album will be released late 2007 or early 2008. An excerpt of an instrumental version of "Baseline" was uploaded to the band's MySpace page on April 9, and a small clip of the track has been used in a commercial for Spider-Man 3.

Style

Celldweller's music is extremely multi-faceted; while it can largely be considered as industrial metal, Celldweller wanders into a large spectrum of musical genres - as an example, the song "The Last Firstborn" has various extreme (but consistent) changes between metal, anthem trance and goa trance.

The Celldweller live show is a "fusion of performance art, rave culture, and the raw energy of a rock show", rather than the standard rock performance. Each show is a complete audio/visual experience with projected video and lighting designed to be part of the music.

The name "Celldweller"

The name "Celldweller" is derived from one of Klayton's earlier projects, Brainchild. On Brainchild's Metamorphosis album, one of the tracks is titled "Helldweller". After the album was released, his musician friends joked about the inordinate amount of time he spent in his studio, and as a play off "Helldweller" started calling him "Celldweller". He began using the moniker as producer on Argyle Park's Misguided album (he also participated in this project under the aliases "Deathwish" and "Dred"), released in 1995. His first track recorded as Celldweller (at the time spelled as two words: Cell Dweller) was an ambient reworking of "The Abyss", an instrumental originally recorded by Christian metal band Stryper. Klayton's version of the song was included as the intro on a tribute album to the band, Sweet Family Music: A Tribute to Stryper, jointly released by Liquid Disc and Flying Tart Records in 1996.

The meanings of both Celldweller's name and lyrics have been a topic for much debate. Celldweller's official statement is that the name "Celldweller" refers to both "personal and cultural bondage" as well as the way that Klayton closes himself off from the outside world at times. Klayton typically no longer explains the meanings and purpose behind his music and chooses to let listeners decide for themselves.

Beta Cessions II speculation

It is also rumoured that some of the recordings done for the second album will end up on a different release.

"If things work out the way I'm anticipating, you will all be able to get a whole full discs worth of unreleased songs when the Beta Cessions II comes out. (I make no promises, but simply offer potentially false hopes.)"

- Klayton, November 13 2005

"There are actually only 4 songs to date that are definitely making the next Celldweller CD. 'The Way She Wants To Die', 'Blackstar' and 'Tainted' are in. Then there is that mysterious 70's disco song I covered that will most likely be the fourth track to make it. Now, there are another 4 tracks that I think will make the cut but need more work before that can be determined. Then I'll have 2 more songs to create or flesh out to finish the track list for the disc. This currently leaves around 16 tracks for 'The Beta Cessions 02' (or whatever it will be called.) The reality is that I won't complete all of those either but rather pick the best of the bunch to finish for the TBC 02."

- Klayton January 28 2006

Discography

• Celldweller (EP, 1999, Self-released / Esion Media)
• Celldweller (LP, 2003, FIXT MUSIC / Position Music)
• The Beta Cessions (2xLP, 2004, FIXT MUSIC / Position Music)
• Frozen/Goodbye Remixes (EP, 2005, FIXT MUSIC Web release)
• Shapeshifter (EP, 2005, FIXT MUSIC Web release)
• Tragedy (EP, 2006, FIXT MUSIC Web release)
• Switchback Vinyl (EP, 2006, Baroque Records)
• Switchback/Own Little World Remix EP (EP, 2006, FIXT MUSIC Web release)
• Symbiont Remixes 2001 (EP, 2007, FIXT MUSIC Web release)
• Take It & Break It Vol. 1: Own Little World Remixes (2xLP, 2007, FIXT Music / Position Music) tentative release date 6/1/07

Live Band

• Klayton - Vocals, Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Eyris, Programming

[Previous Live Band Members]

• Kemikal - Bass, Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Backing Vox
• Dale Van Norman - Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Backing Vox
• Cais - Acoustic & Electronic Drums, Percussion
• Kenny James - Acoustic & Electronic Drums, Percussion
• Del Cheetah - Guitar, Keys, Percussion

External links

• Official MySpace page
• Purevolume

Klayton - Vocals, Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Eyris, Programming [Previous Live Band Members]

Kemikal - Bass, Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Backing Vox Dale Van Norman - Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Backing Vox Cais - Acoustic & Electronic Drums, Percussion Kenny James - Acoustic & Electronic Drums, Percussion Del Cheetah - Guitar, Keys, Percussion don't forget Chris G aka tweety