Brian Transeau

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Brian Transeau
BT holding an M-Audio Ozonic keyboard
BT holding an M-Audio Ozonic keyboard
Background information
Birth name Brian Wayne Transeau
Also known as BT
Born October 4, 1971
Rockville, Maryland, United States
Genre(s) Electronica, Trance, House
Occupation(s) Producer, DJ, composer
Years active 1995 - Present
Label(s) Perfecto Records, Reprise Records, Headspace Recordings, Nettwerk, DTS Entertainment
Website http://www.btmusic.com

Brian Wayne Transeau (born October 4, 1971 in Rockville, Maryland) is an electronica musician, better known by his stage name, BT. He has been called the "Father of Trance" for his pioneering in the trance genre [1],[2] and "Prince of Dance Music" for his multi-instrumentalist skills [3], and in recent years he has gained additional fame for producing Hollywood film scores.

When recording with other artists, BT has used the aliases Kaistar, Libra, Dharma, Prana, Elastic Reality, Elastic Chakra, and GTB.

BT is known in production circles for his signature technique, the stutter edit, also known as the BT stutter [4],[2],[3]. This technique consists of taking a small sample of a sound and then repeating it in a musical as well as mathematical way.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Transeau showed an early aptitude for music, playing the piano from the age of two [5] and mastering the works of Chopin and Bach by the age of six [6]. As an adolescent, he heard electronic music and began to love it. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts for one year before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles, California [citation needed].

[edit] Music career

BT moved back to the Washington, DC area where he grew up and collaborated there with his friends Ali and Sharam of Deep Dish in the early 1990s. Transeau's productions were not popular in the United States, 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 to the delight of crowds. Sasha bought Transeau a ticket to London, where BT witnessed his own massive success; several thousand clubbers responded enthusiastically when Sasha played his song[7]. He was soon signed to Oakenfold's record label.

In the early years of BT's career (roughly 1995-2000), he pioneered the trance genre, which was less hyper and more soothing than most other types of dance music. Despite the fact that he is not truly a DJ and doesn't claim to be[8], BT has often appeared on the lists of the world's top DJs. In 2005, he ranked 82nd on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ list [9], up from 92 in 2004[10]. Additional rankings were 83rd in 2003[11] and 76 in 2001.[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." [7]

[edit] Ima

Instantly popular, BT's 1996 album Ima helped shape the future of the burgeoning progressive house scene as it merged with, and later came to define, the trance music style. Notable on Ima was a collaboration with singer/songwriter Tori Amos called "Blue Skies", which was released as a single and subsequently rose to the top of the dance charts.

[edit] ESCM

While Ima was comprised solely of the "progressive" sound, 1997's ESCM was more experimental (although it still produced several big records for the electronic dance music scene). The album featured more complex melodies and more traditional harmonies along with a heavier use of vocals. 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 England, Australia and Japan [4].

While "Lullaby for Gaia" and "Remember" (both featuring Jan Johnston) are code trance music, other tracks find their way into the canons of other electronic sub-genres that were emerging in the mid-nineties. Loosely speaking, "Love, Peace, and Grease" is breakbeats, "Orbitus Terranium" is considered house, "Flaming June" (the most well-known song from the album [7]) and "Nectar" are examples of hard trance. The most experimental track on the album is "Solar Plexus" which is easily divided into two parts. The first part is dark and suspenseful with a raging crescendo chorus, and features gritty vocals that proclaim "I burn!" in the chorus. This half of the song has been featured in numerous film trailers, including Blade 2 and Hellboy. The second half of the song is slow and introspective, with a single piano and slowly building electronic accents. The vocals in the second half are clear and quiet to the point of obscurity.

[edit] 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 [citation needed] with the popular "Hip-Hop Phenomenon", in collaboration with Tsunami One. The LP moved into less experimental music and was somewhat worrying to some fans on the artist's message boards.[citation needed] The strong hip-hop influence on "Madskillz-Mic Chekka" and "Love on Haight Street" was the cause of this worry as hip-hop and trance are essentially complete opposites in style [citation needed]. "Smartbomb" provided the missing link between BT's previous work and this new rap-infused work, as it bore a strong resemblance to "Solar Plexus Part 1" and included a lyric sample from "Love on Haight Street". The album hits a spectrum of genre-work. "Shame", "Satellite", and "Running Down the Way Up" lean towards the alt-rock, while "Godspeed" and "Dreaming" fall into classic trance ranks. "Never Gonna Come Back Down" (featuring vocals by Mike Doughty) was the most popular single from the album, and appeared on the Gone in 60 Seconds soundtrack in radio edited form. "Mercury and Solace", while failing to achieve the commercial success of "Never Gonna Come Back Down", is the most commercially remixed song from the album (http://folk.uio.no/ulfb/odd/btdisc.htm). Jan Johnston sang vocals on this track and others, with Kirsty Hawkshaw also making significant vocal contributions to "Running Down the Way Up" and "Dreaming".

[edit] Emotional Technology

The original versions of many tracks that were to be released on the followup 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 MacLachlan and Peter Gabriel which were never duplicated.

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 popiest of all of his work. The big 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 [4]. The rest of the album fairly escapes genre labeling [citation needed], 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 [citation needed].

[edit] 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 newborn daughter, Kaia, who sat on his lap throughout most of the song writing process. Animated videos were created to accompany each song [13]. 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.” [6]

Unlike his last two albums, which featured vocals on almost every track, this album has none whatsoever. 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.

An hour-long video interview with BT focusing on This Binary Universe is available on the DivX Stage6 BT channel.

[edit] Collaborations

Shortly after Movement in Still Life, BT produced NSync's 'Pop'. With this song, one of NSync's biggest hits ever, he introduced the "two-step" style and his trademark stutter vocals to the masses [6]. An instrumental version can be heard/viewed here.

BT provided vocals on the DJ Tiësto single "Love Comes Again"-- in exchange, Tiësto remixed BT's song from Emotional Technology, "Force of Gravity." BT recently contributed vocals to Tiësto's track "Break My Fall."

Upcoming collaborations:

[edit] Film scores

In recent years, BT has moved into film scoring, creating the scores for Go (1999), Under Suspicion (2000), Driven (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), Stealth (2005), Underclassman (2005), Look (2006) and Catch And Release (2007). He produced the score for the 2001 film Zoolander but then had his name pulled from the project. His tracks for the film were finished by composer David Arnold [7]. His score for the film Monster (2003) has received particular acclaim [4].

Transeau has also done the score for 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 [8].

[edit] Live performances

Unlike many artists working in electronica, Transeau frequently performs his music live. For New Year's Eve 2001, he performed at a Los Angeles block party with Paul Oakenfold and Deep Dish [14].

In 2004, he did a very popular "last night of summer" concert at BT Tower (named for British Telecom).

BT is currently (December 2006) on tour in support of This Binary Universe in a dual-headliner tour with Thomas Dolby.

[edit] Software

BT has written his own software for his latest album, called BreakTweaker. He will be releasing 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 [15]. Both BreakTweaker and StutterEdit were scripted by BT at the command-line level [6].

In addition to his "BT Stutter" edit, BT's signature sound is also achieved by means of a method of sound manipulation called granular synthesis using Karlheinz Essl's REplay PLAYer software where sounds are broken apart into tiny pieces and rearranged to create very chaotic and wild soundscapes[9]. BT is one of the direct pioneers of time correction techniques [10]. 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 above a 64th note. He is writing a book on stutter editing and time correcting and has included a chapter on nano-correcting[11].

[edit] Personal life

BT has a young daughter, Kaia, as well as a girlfriend, Ashley. He lives and composes his works in his Los Angeles home studio in the neighborhood of Los Feliz. The studio has eight terabytes of storage space for music, leading BT to say, "Basically, my house is a hard drive." [4] The house/studio was designed by the master architect Frank Gehry, who famously designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Kaia can speak in English, Spanish and sign language and has inspired tracks on BT's latest record [15].

BT announced on "The Dawn and Drew Show"[12] podcast on November 13, 2006 that he will soon be moving to Berkeley, CA. The main reason in finding a better environment to raise Kaia.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles and EPs

  • "The Moment of Truth" (1995) (As Brian Transeau)
  • "Relativity" (1995) (As Brian Transeau)
  • "Loving You More" (1996) (vocals by Vincet Cavello)
  • "Embracing the Sunshine" (1996)
  • "Blue Skies" (1996) (vocals by Tori Amos)
  • "Love, Peace and Grease" (1997)
  • "Flaming June" (1997)
  • "Remember" (1997) (vocals by Jan Johnston)
  • "Godspeed" (1998)
  • "Mercury and Solace" (1999) (vocals by Jan Johnston)
  • "Dreaming" (2000) (vocals by Kirsty Hawkshaw)
  • "Smartbomb" (2000) (vocals by Rascoe)
  • "Never Gonna Come Back Down" (2000) (vocals by Mike Doughty)
  • "Shame" (2001) (vocals by BT)
  • "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)" (2003) (vocals by BT and JC Chasez)
  • The Technology EP (2004)

[edit] Unreleased Tracks (known to exist)

  • "Beta" (1995)
  • "Hand in Hand" (1995)
  • "Flesh" (featuring Jan Johnston) - 5:44 Demo (1996)
  • "Flesh" (featuring Jan Johnston) - Original 10+ minute BT Version (1997)
  • "Cry To The World" (from The Real World Sessions with Sasha) (1998)
  • "The Warrior Song" (from The Real World Sessions with Sasha) (1998)
  • "Dakane" (from The Real World Sessions with Sasha) (1998)
  • "Lemon Balm & Chamomile" (1999)
  • "Far From Goodbye (aka Later My Love)" (2000)
  • "Down" ("Never Gonna Come Back Down" instrumental) (2000)
  • "Waiting For The Sun" (featuring Jan Johnston) (2000)
  • "Rust" (featuring Jan Johnston) (2000)
  • "Mission Impossible" (theme) (2000)
  • "Paris" (original version) (2002)
  • "Malta" (2005)
  • "Idea 3" (2005)
  • "Armageddon" (2005)
  • "g o [d]t" (2006)

[edit] 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".
  • 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.

[edit] Film appearances & scores

[edit] Remixes

[edit] Video game appearances and scores

[edit] Sample CDs

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

[edit] Aliases and Pseudonyms

  • BT
  • Prana
  • Elastic Chakra
  • Elastic Reality
  • Libra
  • Dharma
  • Kaistar
  • GTB (Guy Oldhams, Taylor, & Brian Transeau)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roland US Community Article
  2. ^ Peter Arnberg Article
  3. ^ Jive Magazine Review
  4. ^ a b c d Keyboard Magazine Article
  5. ^ LA City Beat
  6. ^ a b c Costa Communications Press Release
  7. ^ a b c Remix Magazine
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2005
  10. ^ DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2004
  11. ^ DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2003
  12. ^ DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs 2001
  13. ^ BTs' Last FM site
  14. ^ MTV News Article
  15. ^ a b Progressive Sounds

[edit] External links

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