Xenomania
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Xenomania are one of the UK's leading pop production houses, put together by writer and producer Brian Higgins. Members of the Xenomania writing and production team include Nick Coler, Giselle Sommerville, Miranda Cooper (who shares co-writing credits in nearly all Xenomania-written tracks), Lisa Cowling and Tim Powell.
Xenomania have produced some of the catchiest and most successful pop songs of the past couple of years, including tracks for Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Kylie Minogue, Cher and Steps. In particular, all 13 of Girls Aloud's top ten singles have been produced by them. Girls Aloud's manager, Louis Walsh, is a big fan of their work.
They were also scheduled to work with Britney Spears, but the song they submitted, "Graffiti My Soul" was decided as not appropriate for her 2003 album In The Zone; the track was later featured on Girls Aloud's second album. It has, however, been confirmed that Xenomania are working on with Spears on her upcoming album, due for release in early 2007 (see 2007 in music).
Brian Higgins found early success producing hits for Dannii Minogue, which led him to work with Cher on her single "Believe". Although the single out-performed all expectations and won him three Ivor Novello awards, when London Records was sold in the late 1990s, he found himself without a label, so he decided to set up Xenomania as an independent production company. In an interview with the BBC, Higgins described the choice of the word "Xenomania" as meaning "an openness and love of all cultures and influences".
In 2003, out of the 12 albums released by singers from the reality TV show Operación Triunfo, 9 had at least one track produced by Xenomania, most notably Hipnotizadas by Lunae.
2006 will see Xenomania working with more of the UK's finest Pop acts. In Summer 2006 they will work with Sugababes on tracks for the group's 'Greatest Hits' collection (out November 2006) and towards the end of the year studio sessions with Girls Aloud for their 4th studio album and Louise Redknapp for her new album.
[edit] Brian Higgins/Xenomania Production credits
- Abs - Xenomania co-wrote and co-produced "Miss Perfect" and "7 Ways" in 2003.
- Alexis Strum - Brian Higgins and Nick Coler co-wrote "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" with Alexis, later covered by Rachel Stevens
- allSTARS - Xenomania remixed "Things That Go Bump In The Night" and "Back When" in 2002.
- Ant & Dec - Xenomania remixes "Better Watch Out" in 1996.
- Bananarama - Brian Higgins co-wrote "Middle Of Nowhere" with the duo for their 2005 album, Drama.
- Melanie Blatt - Xenomania co-wrote and co-produced the single "Do Me Wrong" in 2003.
- Blondie - Xenomania remixed "Atomic '98" to promote Blondie's Atomic - The Very Best of Blondie in 1998.
- Cher - Brian Higgins co-wrote "Believe" in 1998 and remixed a version for the single. He also wrote and co-produced "You Take It All" for her 2001 Living Proof album.
- Dannii Minogue - Brian Higgins co-wrote and co-produced "All I Wanna Do", "Heaven Can Wait", "If It Moves", "It's Amazing" & "Movin' Up" for Dannii's 1997 Girl album. Xenomania provided remixes the singles "Everything I Wanted", "All I Wanna Do" and "Disremembrance".
- Frank- Xenomania have produced and co-written most of the songs for the band from this Channel 4 drama series including the first single, I'm Not Shy (a cover of the track by Mania) which will be released in late Spring 2006.
- Girls Aloud - Xenomania were recruited by Girls Aloud's manager Louis Walsh to co-write and co-produce the majority of Girls Aloud's music. They had co-writing and co-production credits on more than half the tracks on their 2003 Sound Of The Underground album including all singles released from it: "Sound Of The Underground", "No Good Advice" and "Life Got Cold". Xenomania produced the single "Jump" which was taken from the movie Love Actually. Xenomania were given full control over Girls Aloud's second album 2004 What Will The Neighbours Say? and Xenomania credits appear against all the tracks included, including all singles: "The Show", "Love Machine", "I'll Stand By You" and "Wake Me Up". Xenomania worked with Girls Aloud on their third album, Chemistry, producing all the tracks on the album again. They again produced songs for Girls Aloud in 2006 for their greatest hits album, The Sound of Girls Aloud.
- Jem - Brian Higgins co-wrote "Falling For You" for her Finally Woken album in 2005.
- Katrina and the Waves - Xenomania provided a remix of the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest entry "Love Shine A Light".
- Kylie Minogue - Xenomania wrote and produced the single "Giving You Up" for Kylie's Ultimate Kylie Greatest Hits album and the b-side "Made Of Glass" in 2005. An additional track was worked on during these sessions titled "Loving You" which remains unreleased and unfinished, but was leaked onto the Internet.
- Lene - Xenomania gave the former-Aqua singer "Here We Go" back in 2003 for her debut solo album, "Play With Me". The album flopped disastrously, but "Here We Go" didn't sink with the rest of the LP - chancing a second life as a Girls Aloud album track on "What Will The Neighbours Say". Another Xenomania song called "We Wanna Party" appears on Lene's album.
- Mania - Xenomania members Niara Scarlett and Giselle Sommerville formed a duo in 2004 and released the single "Looking For A Place". Xenomania wrote and produced the single and its b-side "If You Need A Good Girl". An album was planned, but never saw the light of day. Tracks for the album included: "Looking For A Place", "Close", "Money In My Pocket", "L.O.V.", "Baby When You Go" and "I'm Not Shy" and would have all had Xenomania involvement. A track called "DNA" was also available for free download from their now defunct website.
- Martine McCutcheon - Xenomania remixed "I'm Over You" for her 2000 single.
- Moonbaby - An early collaboration of Miranda Cooper (aka 'Moonbaby'), Brian Higgins, and Matt Gray. Here We Go and Deadlines and Diets are two songs which were originally recorded by Moonbaby. They also recorded a song named Kitsch Bitch Cool.
- New Order - Xenomania worked with New Order on their 2005 Waiting for the Sirens Call album.
- Saint Etienne - Brian Higgins remixed the track "Burnt Out Car" in 1996, produced "Stormtrooper In Drag" in 1997 and co-wrote "Action" and "Shower Scene" for their Finisterre album in 2002. Xenomania co-produced and co-wrote "Lightning Strikes Twice" and "Stars Above Us" in 2005 for their Tales From Turnpike House album.
- Savage Garden - Xenomania remixed the 1997 single "I Want You".
- Rachel Stevens - Brian Higgins co-wrote the track "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" with Alexis Strum and Xenomania co-wrote and produced "Funny How" for her 2005 Come And Get It album.
- Steps - Xenomania remixed the 2001 single "Chain Reaction". This wasn't commerically available.
- Sugababes - Xenomania have co-written and co-produced the #1 hits "Round Round" and "Hole In The Head" for the Sugababes. The former of these was from their 2002 Angels With Dirty Faces album, and the title track from this album was also a Xenomania production. They also worked on "In The Middle", "Situation's Heavy" with former B*Witched singer Edelle Lynch and "Twisted" for Sugababes' Three album in 2003, along with the b-sides "Who" and "Someone In My Bed". In 2005, Xenomania worked on "Red Dress" and "Ace Reject" featured on the Sugababes' album Taller In More Ways.
- Texas - Xenomania worked with Texas on the tracks "Can't Resist", "Cry", "Get Down Tonight", and "Bad Weather" for their 2005 Red Book album.
- V - Xenomania worked with V on their tracks "Hip To Hip" "Angel", and "Fools".
