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Aurelio Voltaire

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Voltaire
File:Voltaire(Musician).jpg
BornJanuary 25, 1967
Havana, Cuba
Occupation(s)Singer, Songwriter, Writer, Animator, Director, and Teacher/Professor

Voltaire (Born January 25, 1967, Havana, Cuba), is a novelty musician in the goth scene who takes his stage name from the pen name of the famous French Enlightenment writer François-Marie Arouet. In addition to his musical career, Voltaire is a professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York, an artist (with comics, cartoons, and stop-motion animation), and has also done work as a director.

Youth

At the age of ten, Voltaire was inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), and began animating on a super 8 camera. By piecing together snippets of information from fanzines, he eventually was able to teach himself how to make foam rubber animation models and animate them. He got his first job as an animator at the age of seventeen with Parker Brothers.

Musical Career

Voltaire’s music has strong roots and connections to European Folk as well as other influences such as the goth scene. However, due to its originality and the fact it could be called unique, many listeners find his music hard to classify. Although it has a sound reminiscent of European Folk music, many people claim it to be Darkwave; perhaps as this is a label often given to many other artist from Projekt Records. Others say that a better term would be Dark Cabaret. Voltaire describes his own music as- 'Music for a parallel universe where electricity was never invented and Morrissey is the queen of England.' He claims that bands and artists who influenced his music are- Rasputina, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Cab Calloway, and Danny Elfman.

The first band that Voltaire played in was called First Degree which he participated in during junior high school. At this age, he was a fanatic of Duran Duran but eventually started to flow into the Darkwave scene, which included such bands as Depeche Mode and The Cure.

As an adult, Voltaire formed a band which included a violin, a cello, drums, and himself as the vocalist and the acoustic guitar player. Within a year, Projekt Records signed them and by June of 1998 they released their first album called The Devil's Bris. Two years later their second album, Almost Human was released.

One of Voltaire’s popular hits is BRAINS!, a song written for Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, aired in the episode Little Rock of Horror. Cartoon Network asked Voltaire to write another song for The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and it is expected that this new episode will be aired in the near future.

As an avid fan of Star Trek, Voltaire frequently attends science fiction conventions (such as I-CON and Dragon Con) and released a four track E.P. called Banned on Vulcan. It was a set of comedy recordings poking fun at characters from the show.

On the side, Voltaire is also the lead vocalist of an NYC based New Wave quintet known as The Oddz.

Band Members

Although often credited and pictured as a soloist, Voltaire has a band. The current lineup is:

  • Voltaire-Vocals/Guitar
  • Gregor Kitzis-Violin
  • Matthew Goeke-Cello
  • George Grant-Bass
  • Glenn Sorino-Drums
  • Stephen Moses-Drums
  • Grisha Alexiev-Drums

Television

Voltaire was able to land his first directing job in 1988 with MTV. He created the stop-motion tour of the hellish Garden of Earthly Delights which ending up winning several awards, one of which was a Broadcast Design Award but he is most known for his Hieronymous Boush-inspired station ID's for MTV. He has also made morbid station IDs for clients such as Cartoon Network, USA, and the Sci-Fi channel (who has featured his song When You’re Evil along with the IDs).

Besides his work with commercials, he has made short films and series such as Rakthavira and Chi-Chian. Chi-Chian is now a 14 episode stop-motion animation series on the Sci-Fi Channel's website. Before that Chi-Chian started out as a graphic novel series that included 6 issues (published by Sirius Entertainment) which eventually evolved into the stop-motion animation series.

He currently teaches stop-motion animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, as well as animating, directing and singing.

Art and Writing Career

In addition to Chi-Chian, Voltaire has also produced a graphic novel series called Oh My Goth!, also known as OMG!, started out as his own little religious tracts inspired by Jack Chick. It started as 8 page booklets which included him being chased by minions of Satan as they would try to prevent him from playing his next show. These short pieces would often lead to information about his next show. After two issues of the Chi-Chian series were published, he convinced Sirius Entertainment to publish his Oh My Goth! series, which included four issues that where later molded into a graphic novel. Voltaire has also made a sequel to the OMG series called Oh My Goth! Humans Suck!

In addition to those, Voltaire has also produced a DEADY series as well as releasing books such as What is Goth? and Paint it Black.

In early 2004, for his DEADY graphic novel, Voltaire sighed a deal with Toy2R. The first toy that was created was a 2-inch posable DEADY key chain for the company's "Qee Bear". It was released at San Diego Comic Con. The figure ended up selling out at the Con and because it did so well, the second figure was created in January 2005 which was an 8-inch DEADY figure.

Books

  • Voltaire (2002). Oh My Goth! Version 2.0. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1579890474
  • Voltaire (2003). Oh My Goth!: Presents the Girlz of Goth!. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 157989061X
  • Voltaire, Chris Adams, David Fooden (2003). Chi-Chian: The Roleplaying Game. Aetherco/Dreamcatcher. ISBN 1929312032
  • Voltaire (2004). Deady the Malevolent Teddy. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1579890830
  • Voltaire (2004). Deady the Terrible Teddy. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1579890776
  • Voltaire (2005). Deady the Evil Teddy. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1579890814
  • Voltaire (2004). What Is Goth? - Music, Makeup, Attitude, Apparel, Dance, and General Skullduggery. Weiser Books. ISBN 1578633222
  • Voltaire (2005). Paint It Black - A Guide to Gothic Homemaking. Weiser Books. ISBN 1578633613

Discography

Releases

Compilations

Tracks by Voltaire also appeared on these compilation albums.

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