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BT (musician)

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BT

Brian Wayne Transeau (born October 4, 1971, in Rockville, Maryland) is an American music producer, composer, audio technician, singer and songwriter better known by his stage name, BT. He is a pioneering artist in the electronic genre. As a producer, he has produced and composed for multiple Hollywood film scores and had multiple radio hits (both in US and abroad).

BT is known in production circles for his signature technique, the stutter edit, also known as the BT stutter[citation needed] and pioneering techniques that are widely adopted in other idioms of music.[1][2] This technique consists of taking a small sample of a sound and then repeating it rhythmically.

Early years

A music prodigy, BT started playing the piano at the age of two. At age thirteen he learned classical licks.[3] As an adolescent, BT was introduced to the music of New Order and Depeche Mode. He received his first formal training in electronic sound synthesis by mowing lawns and buying synthesizers. [citation needed] He went on to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, on early admissions but soon dropped out to pursue a music career in Los Angeles.[3] He would later receive an honorary degree from the school.[citation needed]

Music career

In the early 1990s, BT moved back to the Maryland and began collaborating with friends Ali "Dubfire" and Sharam of Deep Dish.[4] BT's productions were not yet popular in the US, and he had no idea that he had become a sensation across the Atlantic, where UK DJs like Sasha and Paul Oakenfold were regularly spinning his music for crowds. Sasha bought BT a ticket to London, where BT witnessed his own massive success—several thousand clubbers responded enthusiastically when Sasha played his song.[5] He was soon signed to Oakenfold's record label, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers.[6] BT's songs "A Moment of Truth" and "Relativity" became hits in the UK, and it was during this time in that BT met Tori Amos.[6]

In the early years of BT's career (roughly 1995-2000), he became a pioneering artist in the trance genre. Despite the fact that he is not truly a DJ, and does not claim to be one,[7] BT has often appeared on the lists of the world's top DJs. In 2006, he ranked 73rd on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ list. In 2005, he ranked 82nd,[8] up from 92 in 2004.[9] Additional rankings were 83rd in 2003 and 76 in 2001.[10][11] More recently, in DJ Times, BT was ranked as America's second best DJ, as voted by fans.[12]

BT has said of his musical background, "I'm not the traditional type of dance music artist. I'm not a DJ. I come from a classical music background. I attended the Berklee College of Music, and I played in punk bands."[5]

Ima

A massive sensation in the UK that spawned multiple top 20 singles, BT's 1994 album Ima defined a genre of music that has come to be known as progressive house and or trance[citation needed]. With its theme of nature and technology it spawned a vernacular which other electronic music artists continue to pull from more than 15 years later[citation needed]. Another prized collaboration with singer/songwriter Tori Amos, "Blue Skies," was subsequently released and helped the album gain notice in America.[6] The title, "Ima" ("今"), is the Japanese word for "now."

ESCM

This album featured more complex melodies and more traditional harmonies along with a heavier use of vocals.[13] The tone of the album is darker and less whimsical than Ima. The album, as a whole, is much more diverse than BT's debut album. The LP was a hit in Britain, Australia, and Japan.[5]

The biggest hit from ESCM was the trance classic, "Flaming June,"[13] a collaboration with German trance meister Paul Van Dyk. Van Dyk and BT would collaborate on a number of works including the unreleased "Namastai" as well as Van Dyk's remix of BT's "Blue Skies" and "Remember." "Remember" featured Jan Johnston on vocals. BT and Van Dyk also remixed the Van Dyk classic "Forbidden Fruit." This album spawned numerous chart singles as well as 2 US billboard dance #1 songs[citation needed].

Movement in Still Life

BT released his 1999 album Movement in Still Life and continued his previous experimentation outside of the trance genre. The album, his third, features a strong element of nu skool breaks, a genre he helped define with the popular "Hip-Hop Phenomenon,"[14] in collaboration with Tsunami One aka Adam Freeland. The strong hip-hop influences on "Madskillz-Mic Chekka" and "Love on Haight Street" combined with memorable vocals created a body of work that is continually referenced in pop and electronic music culture today[citation needed]. The album hits a spectrum of genre-work. "Smartbomb" is a mix of funky, heavy riffs from both synthesizers and guitars woven over a hip-hop break and includes a lyric sample from "Love on Haight Street". "Shame" and "Satellite" lean toward an alt-rock sound, while "Godspeed" and "Dreaming" fall into classic trance ranks. "Running Down the Way Up", a collaboration with fellow electronic act Hybrid, features sultry vocals heavily edited into a progressive breakbeat track. "Never Gonna Come Back Down" (featuring vocals by Mike Doughty) was BT's first radio hit in America and propelled the sales of the album to over 300,000 Sound Scanned copies in the US[citation needed].

Emotional Technology

The original versions of many tracks that were to be released on the follow up to Movement in Still Life were stolen from BT's studio during a burglary around Christmas of 2001. $75,000 worth of equipment was stolen. The 11 lost tracks included collaborations with Sarah McLachlan and Peter Gabriel which were never duplicated.[citation needed]

The album that replaced the lost tracks was Emotional Technology, released in 2003. It featured more vocal tracks than BT's previous fare, including six with vocals by BT himself. Emotional Technology was BT's least experimental album to date, and many consider it the "poppiest" of all of his work. The biggest single from the album, Somnambulist, draws heavily from the breakbeats and new wave dance of New Order and Depeche Mode, whom BT has cited as major influences.[1] The rest of the album fairly escapes genre labeling, from the dark guitar work of Circles, to The Only Constant is Change which is reminiscent of Satellite, the album blends genres and changes genres in mid-track. The single "Somnabulist" holds the Guinness World Record for most vocal edits in a single track, with 6,178 in the album version.[15]

This Binary Universe

BT's fifth studio album, This Binary Universe, released in 2006, is his second studio album released in 5.1 surround sound, the first being the soundtrack to the motion picture Monster.

The album features a mix of many genres, including jazz, breakbeats, and classical music. Three songs feature a full 110-piece orchestra. BT has said that the album has a lullaby-like quality, inspired by his daughter, Kaia, who sat on his lap throughout most of the song writing process[citation needed]. Animated videos were created to accompany each song.[16] The videos are included in a DVD packaged along with the CD.

Keyboard Magazine declared of the album, “In a hundred years, it could well be studied as the first major electronic work of the new millennium.”[17]

Unlike his last two albums, which featured vocals on almost every track, this album contains none. The tracks also change genres constantly throughout. A good example is "The Antikythera Mechanism", which starts off almost lullaby-like, complete with a piano, acoustic guitars and reversed beats. Halfway through the track, the song explodes with a 110-piece orchestra, followed by a section of breakbeats and ending with the de-construction of the orchestra.

Through the months of November and December 2006, BT toured the album with Thomas Dolby opening. This three-piece band set featured many instruments created by BT himself[citation needed], as well as introduced his live Stutter Edit plug-in that was to be released in 2007. The concert also featured a live slideshow of images from the online website DeviantArt as a backdrop.[18][19]

The Stutter Edit as well as Break Tweaker are both software plug-ins created by BT's company, "Sonik Architects" which will be made available in 2010[citation needed].

These Hopeful Machines

In January 2009 BT began to use Twitter to update his fans on the progress of his new album.[20] BT has described the album as "very focused, glitchy beats, lots for a dancefloor, amazing mixes and great guitars." On October 1, 2009, BT made known that this new album would contain 12 original tracks via a crypogram posted on his tumbler page.BT's Tumbler Page

On December 10, 2009 BT announced via his Twitter page that his new album will be called "These Hopeful Machines".[21] The album will feature 12 songs on 2 discs.[22]

An MP3 exclusive version of These Hopeful Machines will be offered by Amazon which will include a bonus track titled "Feed the Monster" and the track "Always" remixed by Chicane


Track Listing[23]

Disc 1

  1. Suddenly (08:06)
  2. The Emergency (10:39)
  3. Every Other Way (11:22)
  4. The Light Of Things (10:48)
  5. The Rose of Jericho (07:44)
  6. Forget Me (09:38)

Disc 2

  1. A Million Stars (12:25)
  2. Love Can Kill You (05:22)
  3. Always (06:13)
  4. Le Nocturne De Lumiere (11:39)
  5. The Unbreakable (10:25)
  6. The Ghost In You (07:57)


Amazon MP3 Exclusive

  1. "Feed the Monster (feat. Charlotte Martin)"
  2. "Always (Chicane Remix)"


Guest Vocalists/Collaborations:

Remixers:

On June 9 BT's single "The Rose of Jericho" was released on Beatport. Six remixes have been announced for this song.[citation needed]

On June 18, 2009, British electronic musician, composer, and producer Nick Bracegirdle a.k.a. Chicane announced in an official blog that the new and fourth Chicane artist album (2010) may well feature collaborations with BT, as well as Armin van Buuren [citation needed]. Furthermore, Bracegirdle has finished a Chicane remix of 'Always', it was first played in a set by Chicane's Co-producer, James Hockley at Chicane's gig in London, December 2009.[24]

Armin van Buuren's remix of BT's track "Every Other Way" is featured in the Universal Religion 4 compilation CD, which was released on September 28, 2009.[25].
'Every Other Way' was released as single on December 22nd, 2009.

It's first official single 'Suddenly' was be released January 12th, 2010.

Collaborations

Upcoming collaborations:

Live performances

Unlike many fellow electronic music artists, Transeau frequently performs his music live with a band. In August 2000, he headlined the E-Pavilion at EndFest. For New Year's Eve 2001, he performed at a Los Angeles block party with Paul Oakenfold and Deep Dish.[31]

In 2004, he played a very popular "last night of summer" concert at BT Tower (named for British Telecom). On August 6, 2006, BT performed at the Campus Bash for WWDC 2006, the last bash to be held at the Apple Inc. campus at 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, California.

On August 11, 2006 he performed the opening performance to a sold out show featuring DJ Tiësto at The Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey.[32][33]

BT in December 2006 toured in support of This Binary Universe in a dual-headliner tour with Thomas Dolby.

BT performed at the second to last night at the AXIS nightclub in Boston on September 14, 2007. He opened with "Let it Be" by the Beatles and flowed into hard progressive trance.

BT performed a charity event in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 15, 2007 called (Not so) Silent Night. Mike Doughty (M. Doughty of Soul Coughing and BT's track "Never Gonna Come Back Down") opened with his debut house set, receiving a very positive response from the crowd.[citation needed]

BT performed at Rehab, the renowned pool party at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, on July 27, 2008.

BT performed at The Estate in Boston, MA on October 17, 2008. The same club where Tiësto has played two nights in a row as well as Armin van Buuren playing once perviously in 2008.

BT performed at Trance Energy in Sydney Melbourne and Perth on the 9th, 10th and 11th of April 2009 as well as the official Melbourne Trance Energy after party at the club Room680

BT performed at iPhoneDevCamp on July 31, 2009, at Yahoo!'s headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA

BT performed at Perfecto Vegas (Palm's Rain nightclub) on August 1, 2009.

BT performed at Skylab 2009 on August 15, 2009 near Denver, CO.

BT performed at Metrolpolis on September 4, 2009 in Edmonton, AB, Canada.

BT was a part of the Full On Ferry: Masquerade (Ferry Corsten's event) in front of 13,000 people in Ahoy', Rotterdam, The Netherlands on October 17, 2009.

Software

BT has written his own software called BreakTweaker for his latest album. He was intending to release it in 2007 under his software company, Sonik Architects. He plans to then come out with a line of tools and plugins specifically aimed at musicians and DJs, including his signature stutter edit.[34] He has a team of developers now working on delivering a feature-complete product leaving him free to focus on higher level architecture and development.

In addition to his "BT Stutter" edit,[6] BT's signature sound is also achieved by means of a method of sound manipulation called granular synthesis, where sounds are broken apart into tiny pieces and rearranged to create very chaotic and wild soundscapes.[35] BT is one of the direct pioneers of time correction techniques.[36] Time correction is a method by which a producer takes a series of samples with random occurrence (such as rain) and time corrects each individual hit according to a rhythmic and mathematical grid, much like the BT stutter. The result is that the seemingly random pulses take on a rhythmic form as well as a developing pattern, but retain their chaotic and unpredictable character.

Transeau has developed his own method of time-correcting which he calls "nano-correcting," which is correcting any note shorter than a 64th note (he often edits to the 1,024th and 2,048th notes). He is writing a book on stutter editing and time correcting and has included a chapter on nano-correcting.[36]

[37] Sonik Architects also released a portable remixing application for iPhone and iPod Touch called Sonifi.[38]

Personal life

BT performing "Flaming June" at Ultra Music Festival '08

BT has a daughter, Kaia Nui Transeau.

On January 11, 2008, ABC news reported that BT's three and a half year old daughter, Kaia, had been abducted by her mother during a planned visit. The date of the abduction was specified as December 19. It was also reported that Kaia had spoken to her father over the phone at least once, saying that Duffy had hit her and she was scared by her mother's behavior.[39] Duffy was arrested with Kaia in Santa Monica, California, but charges were withdrawn. The matter was settled in family court.[40][41]

Scores

BT began scoring films in 1999 with Go. Since then he has scored over ten films, including Stealth and The Fast and the Furious. In addition, he produced the score for the 2001 film Zoolander, but had his name removed from the project. His tracks for the film were finished by composer David Arnold.[42] He also produced the score for the 2003 film Monster, earning him particular acclaim.[1]

Transeau has scored the video games Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas (2000), Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (2002) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (2004).

BT has even ventured into television, creating the scores for the TV series Kevin Hill in 2004 and for Tommy Lee Goes To College for NBC in 2005. He also executive-produced the Tommy Lee series, the idea for which he actually developed and sold to NBC.[7]

Film appearances and scores

Video game appearances and scores

Discography

Main article: BT discography

Albums

Singles and EPs

Compilations

  • R&R (Rare & Remixed) (2001) - A two disc mix album showcasing BT's remix work, rare songs from his early career and previously unreleased tracks, most notably "Sunblind".
  • Still Life In Motion (2001) - A collection of remixes and edits of songs off of Movement in Still Life.
  • 10 Years In the Life (2002) - Disc 1 is a collection of rare songs, remixes and edits of Transeau's songs, showcasing Transeau's progression as an artist over the span of a decade. It notably includes his very first track ever recorded, "The Moment Of Truth". Disc 2 is a mix album and features remixes and rare tracks done by BT, including remixes of Madonna, DJ Rap, The Crystal Method and Deep Dish. Most of the rare tracks by BT are under the names of his many aliases. The booklet that comes with the CD features stories by BT about the making of each track on both discs, as well as a series of comments about his early career, remixing, scoring films and producing music in general.

Remixes

Sample CDs

  • Breakz from the Nu Skool (2002)
  • Twisted Textures (2002)
  • 300 Years Later (with Nick Phoenix) (2005)

Aliases and Pseudonyms

Awards and nominations

  • 2007 America's 2nd Best DJ[43]
  • 2008 Nominated America's Best DJ[44]
  • 2009 DJ Mag Top 100: DJ #120 of the world [45]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Keyboard Magazine Article".
  2. ^ "Apple - Pro - Profiles - BT, p. 1".
  3. ^ a b Romero, Dennis (August 7, 2003). "Engineering 'Emotional Technology'". Los Angeles City Beat. Retrieved December 6, 2009. {{cite web}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= (help)
  4. ^ "Hyperreal.org".
  5. ^ a b c "Remix Magazine".
  6. ^ a b c d e "Twenty-First-Century Prototype".
  7. ^ a b "The world at his fingertips - The Boston Globe".
  8. ^ "DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2005".
  9. ^ "DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2004".
  10. ^ "DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2003".
  11. ^ "DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2001".
  12. ^ "America's Best DJ 2007".
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h "Miami New Times".
  14. ^ "Lunar Magazine interview".
  15. ^ Somnambulist
  16. ^ "BTs' Last FM site".
  17. ^ "KeyboardMag".
  18. ^ "DeviantArt Presents BT and Thomas Dolby".
  19. ^ Images and accounts from the tour to date can be seen at dA Presents. dAPresents on deviantART
  20. ^ http://twitter.com/BT
  21. ^ http://twitter.com/BT/status/6532304916
  22. ^ http://twitter.com/BT/status/3155131834
  23. ^ http://nettskinny.com/story/20091210/bt-returns-long-awaited-sixth-album-these-hopeful-machines-feb-2-new-single-suddenly-
  24. ^ http://web.me.com/jameshockley/jameshockley_/blog_/Entries/2009/12/18_great_gig_on_saturday_.html
  25. ^ http://supra.armadamusic.nl/news/2009/08/2832/
  26. ^ "JIVEMagazine.com".
  27. ^ "BT: 'King Of Dirty Pop' - News Story Music, Celebrity, Artist News". {{cite web}}: Text "MTV News" ignored (help)
  28. ^ "Millennium Dome".
  29. ^ "BT Music".
  30. ^ "TV Guide".
  31. ^ "MTV News Article".
  32. ^ "Atlantic City Hotels Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa". {{cite web}}: Text "Atlantic City Casinos" ignored (help)
  33. ^ "The Borgata presents TIESTO, Fri Aug 11".
  34. ^ "Progressive Sounds".
  35. ^ "IGN: BT Goes Into Stealth Mode".
  36. ^ a b "Sonic Surgeon - interview with electronica and pop whiz BT".
  37. ^ "Twitter 15/03/09 2:50pm".
  38. ^ BT's twitter feed, June 2, 2009
  39. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4116855&page=1
  40. ^ 3-year-old Boyds girl back with her father
  41. ^ With Child Safe, Custody Battle Begins Anew
  42. ^ "List of films scored by BT".
  43. ^ "Americas 2nd Best DJ 2007".
  44. ^ "Nominated Americas Best DJ 2008".
  45. ^ "DJ Mag 2009".
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