Chicane (recording artist)

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Chicane is a pseudonym used by English electronic musician and record producer Nick Bracegirdle. He was born on 28 February 1971,[verification needed] in London.

Chicane is known for the singles "Offshore", an Ibiza dance anthem included in thousands of compilations in both chill-out and dance form; "Saltwater", which featured vocals by Clannad member Máire Brennan and is ranked among the best-ever trance-singles; "Autumn Tactics"; and especially the #1 smash hit "Don't Give Up", which features vocals by Bryan Adams. His other hits include the fast-paced "Halcyon", and the dance melody "Love on the Run" featuring the vocals of Peter Cunnah, former D:Ream singer.

In addition, Bracegirdle also worked under the alias Disco Citizens, producing a handful of less radio-friendly, vocalless tracks with a stronger progressive house sound. Working with singer Vanessa St. James and producer Mr. Joshua, Bracegirdle was part of the Mr. Joshua Presents Espiritu project, known for the song "In Praise of the Sun", released with both English and French vocals.

Bracegirdle's body of work for other artists includes working as a producer for Bryan Adams and Cher on her album Living Proof. He has also done a number of remixes for artists such as Everything but the Girl, Billie Ray Martin, Bryan Adams and Enigma. In addition, he composed music for the PlayStation game Formula One.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] The beginning

While having trained in classical guitar and piano at an early age, Bracegirdle's earliest influences in electronic music came from early melodic composers such as Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis, and synthpop pioneer Vince Clarke.[1] A further influence was the dance hit "Anthem" by the house music group N-Joi; all this convinced him to pursue the creation of melodic dance music, and by the age of 12 he was making music in studios and sending out demos to record labels.[2]

[edit] "Offshore" and initial success

Eventually, Bracegirdle founded his own record label, Modena Records, which holds the rights to all his songs, which are then licensed to other labels for release and distribution. A partnership with Leo Elstob produced the first Disco Citizens single, "Right Here Right Now", in 1995, as well as the first Chicane single, "Offshore", in 1996. "Offshore" would be the first of Chicane's many releases on independent UK dance music record label Xtravaganza Recordings, then-newly founded by DJ and Bracegirdle's college friend Alex Gold.[3] It reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart (and #1 on other UK-based charts compiled by Mixmag, Record Mirror, and others),[4] the top 40 in multiple European countries,[5] and #5 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts in 1997 upon re-release.[6] Its inclusion on numerous Ibiza-themed trance music compilation albums[7] (such as Café del Mar) attest to its popularity in the nightclubs on the island, one of the worldwide epicenters of club music.

"Sunstroke", the follow-up single, attained similar levels of popularity and chart numbers. A third single, "Offshore '97" (a separate item from the re-release of "Offshore") was actually a mashup of "Offshore" with the vocal track from the Power Circle song "A Little Love, a Little Life", mixed by producer and DJ Anthony Pappa. Originally a bootleg, it was turned into an official release, credited to "Chicane with Power Circle".[4]

Following these releases, the first Chicane album, Far from the Maddening Crowds, which included multiple versions of the previously-released singles and new songs, was released in September 1997. Additional singles that followed were "Lost You Somewhere", the Benelux release "Red Skies", and the non-album single "Strong in Love", for which Bracegirdle used vocals by British singer Sylvia Mason-James (after discovering that she was the vocalist on the Paul Oakenfold/Steve Osborne remix of "Lemon" by U2)[3] and first collaborated on production with Ray "Madman" Hedges (producer for B*Witched and Boyzone).

[edit] Collaborations and more hits

1999 saw the release of "Saltwater", a song based on Maire Brennan's vocals from "Theme from Harry's Game" by the Celtic band Clannad. The version of the vocals used in "Saltwater", however, was a new recording by Brennan herself. It surpassed all previous Chicane singles thus far, reaching #6 on the UK charts and #1 on all five major UK dance charts.[5]

Following remix work on Bryan Adams's "Cloud Number Nine", Bracegirdle offered Adams the vocal position on the song "Don't Give Up". The vocals Adams recorded were subsequently heavily processed through a vocoder so as to play down his rock music vocal style; in fact, the vocal credit was initially not publicized when the single was sent to Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 program Essential Selection.[8] On the show, Tong made the song his first "Essential New Tune" selection of the new millennium.[9] It was also Chicane's biggest hit, debuting at #1 on the UK charts (and notably replacing "American Pie", Madonna's #1 single of the previous week),[10] reached #3 on the US dance chart and #1 on Australian and Russian charts, and made other charts across Europe as well.[5]

The subsequent album Behind the Sun was a certified gold album by BPI certification, while "Don't Give Up" was certified silver.[11]

[edit] Difficulties

For the next two years, Bracegirdle became engaged in a lawsuit with Xtravaganza, which ended in Chicane's departure from the label and signing on with WEA for the release of the next album, Easy to Assemble.[12] Originally scheduled for 2003, the album's release was preceded by the lead single "Love on the Run", followed by a single of "Locking Down". However, the album was not actually released afterwards in most major countries, though about a hundred promotional copies had been circulated to the music press and radio. The album was rumoured to have been held back from public release to be re-worked, but the promotional album became victim to peer-to-peer file sharing services and was consequently downloaded for free en masse. This obviously diminished its value for the record company as a viable investment for release. This album, however, marked a conscious departure from the traditional Baeleric Chicane sound into a more Daft Punk-like sound, as well as experimentation with guitar sources.

Nevertheless, in 2005 Burning Vision Entertainment produced a music video for the song "Something Wrong" from Easy to Assemble, to form part of a Chicane EPK that was put together at the time. The main female actor in the video is Nick Bracegirdle's wife Nadia.

[edit] A return

Eventually, April 2006 saw the release of a new single, "Stoned in Love", on Globe Records through Universal Music Group, featuring singer Tom Jones on vocals. (Press Release). At the time of the announcement the song was also played twice by Pete Tong.[13] [14]

The track has received substantial UK TV promotion in the run up to the week of release, featuring semi-live performances on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The New Paul O'Grady Show as well as Tom Jones and Nick Bracegirdle interviewed on Channel 5 News. When Nick was asked in the 5 News interview where he had been since "Don't Give Up" he replied that he had been "basically stuffed" by the internet bootlegging of the album Easy to Assemble.

Trainspotters may have noticed that when "Stoned in Love" was sung live by Tom Jones on The Jonathan Ross show it was in a lower key than the CD release. Jones appears to use his entire vocal range in this lower key. This may suggest that the CD version contains processed vocals which have been shifted higher in pitch, and hence at least partly explain why the vocal sounds younger and different to the classic Tom Jones sound (Madonna's vocals were similarly pitched higher on "Like a Virgin" to achieve a younger vocal). Jones also admitted to have recorded the verses consciously without vocal vibrato to be more in keeping which a dance orientated track. On this track Chicane has moved yet further towards embracing electric bass and guitars, but underpinned with Chicane melody, progressions and keyboard elements.

In February 2007, however, Chicane departed from Universal as well, with the follow-up single "Come Tomorrow" and yet-to-be-named album still unreleased; according to the official website, these will now be independently released through Modena itself. Final studio production on the album is apparently underway and is expected to be released in Summer 2007.

[edit] Music

[edit] Style

Bracegirdle describes Chicane's music as being strongly influenced by the relaxed, summer atmosphere of Ibiza, where he was taken on holidays as a child.[15] The first two Chicane albums are known for atmospheric, ambient melodies and shifting moods and tempos, particularly Far from the Maddening Crowds, which has been called "a soundtrack for an average day".[16]

Bracegirdle's career took a turn following the release of Behind the Sun, at which point he stated desires to focus on being a recording artist and producer, starting with planned work on Adams' then-upcoming studio album. (However, Adams would not release another studio album until 2004.) Bracegirdle also put remix work on hold at this point, reportedly turning down Jean Michel Jarre, Moby, and both Kylie and Dannii Minogue.[17] The music that followed also changed; in more recent interviews, Bracegirdle has noted that he is consciously moving away from the influences of Ibiza in his songwriting — calling it a return to his "song writing background" as opposed to dance music.[18][19]

Far from the Maddening Crowds and Behind the Sun were both primarily recorded at Chicane's personal recording studio, Modena One (sharing the name of his own record label),[1] located at his parents' house.[2] Co-producers who worked on these albums are Leo Elstob, Salt Tank, Ray "Madman" Hedges, and Martin Brannigan. Tomski was commissioned to program the opening tracks ("Early" and "Overture") on both albums and contributed snippets and sounds to other tracks. However, Bracegirdle has stated that he works alone when in his own studio.[2] In April 2006, a reference to "Modena 2" appeared in the liner notes to the "Stoned in Love" single, suggesting that a new studio has been constructed.[20]

[edit] Live

Chicane also performs live concerts as a full-fledged band, with a full suite of musicians, including vocalists, guitarists, drummers, and flutists, as well as Bracegirdle himself on keyboards.[8] Justine Suissa, who provided vocals on "Autumn Tactics" from Behind the Sun, toured with the band in 2000.[21] UK trance producer Tom Jankiewicz (Tomski) was a frequent musical collaborator with Chicane from 1995 to 2003, and he also played keyboards in the band during that period. During April 2006 Tomski has programmed keyboard sounds for Chicane's live concerts. [22] Session drummers in the band, notably, have included Shovell from M People and David Barbarossa from Bow Wow Wow.[23]

Though the band's singers usually substitute for the higher-profile original vocalists due to the latter's other recording commitments, there have been exceptions; for example, both Maire Brennan[2] and Bryan Adams performed live with the band in Ibiza in 2000. The former took place at one of the annual Ibiza festivals held by MTV at the turn of the 2000s,[8] while the latter took place at a heavily-promoted concert hosted by Xtravaganza on August 4 at Privilege Ibiza, which was attended by over 7000, including Bono and Noel Gallagher.[9]

Chicane has also played at major European music festivals, such as the Glastonbury Festival and Creamfields in England[15] and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark,[24] as well as Red Square in Moscow.[25]

Chicane is known to perform remixes (specifically, the "Tomski vs. Disco Citizens" remixes) live, as shown by a track listing from Chicane's January 22, 2000 performance at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany.[26] This is unusual in that remixes, as products of audio editing, and not generally considered instrumental performances in their own right. At least some aspects of this are credited to Tomski himself, on stage.[22]

Bracegirdle also made a guest appearance live with Bryan Adams at the 2000 Slane Concert, as seen on Adams' Live at Slane Castle DVD.[27]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] Chicane

  • 1996 "Offshore EP"
  • 1996 "Offshore" #14 UK
  • 1997 "Sunstroke" #21 UK
  • 1997 "Offshore '97" (with Power Circle) #17 UK
  • 1997 "Lost You Somewhere" #35 UK
  • 1998 "Red Skies"
  • 1998 "Strong in Love" (with Mason) #32 UK
  • 1999 "Saltwater" (with Maire Brennan) #6 UK #31 AUS
  • 2000 "Don't Give Up" (with Bryan Adams) #1 UK #6 AUS
  • 2000 "No Ordinary Morning" / "Halcyon" (with Tracy Ackerman) #28 UK
  • 2000 "Autumn Tactics" (with Justine Suissa) with #44 UK
  • 2003 "Saltwater 2003" (with Máire Brennan) #43 UK
  • 2003 "Love on the Run" (with Peter Cunnah) #33 UK #50 AUS
  • 2003 "Locking Down"
  • 2004 "Don't Give Up 2004" (with Bryan Adams) #43 UK
  • 2006 "Stoned in Love" (with Tom Jones) #7 UK #43 AUS
  • 2007 "Come Tomorrow"

[edit] Disco Citizens

  • 1995 "Right Here Right Now"
  • 1996 "Footprint"
  • 1997 "Footprint '97"
  • 1998 "Nagasaki Badger"

[edit] Selected remixes

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Tracks: Nick Bracegirdle: Recording Chicane's "Don't Give Up". (May 2000). Sound on Sound. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d Tierney, Paul. Chicane. Top Magazine (retrieved from the Internet Archive). April 2000. Accessed March 29, 2006.
  3. ^ a b Interview with BBC Radio 1. (1998). Chicane.cc. Accessed April 7, 2006.
  4. ^ a b Chicane biography. Chicane.cc (Retrieved from the Internet Archive). Accessed March 17, 2006.
  5. ^ a b c Editorial - Chicane. (May 2000). Urbnet.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  6. ^ Artist Chart History - Chicane. Billboard.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  7. ^ Offshore. All Music Guide. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  8. ^ a b c Interview with BBC Radio 1. (February 2000). Chicane.cc. Accessed April 7, 2006.
  9. ^ a b Gill, Alexandra. Bryan Adams, king of rave?. Globe Interactive. August 22, 2000. Accessed March 29, 2006.
  10. ^ Zywietz, Tobias. Chart Log UK: Oliver Cheatham - Convert. (March 22, 2005). Chart Log UK. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  11. ^ Zywietz, Tobias. Chart Log UK: M - The Mars Volta. (March 22, 2005). Chart Log UK. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  12. ^ Barrie, Stuart (February 20, 2003), "Clubbing nation 192: No cheese please we are Chicane", Daily Record: 2
  13. ^ BBC Radio-1 - Pete Tong - Tracklisting, 24 February 2006. BBC Radio 1. Accessed March 29, 2006.
  14. ^ BBC Radio-1 - Pete Tong - Tracklisting, 10 March 2006. BBC Radio 1. Accessed March 29, 2006.
  15. ^ a b Shepherd, Stephanie. Samplings - Chicane - Carries Ibiza Sound Across the Pond. DJ Times. September 2000. Accessed March 29, 2006.
  16. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Far from the Maddening Crowds review. All Music Guide. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  17. ^ Chicane - Sound of the Sunset. Dotmusic (retrieved from Chicane.cc) (March 2000). Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  18. ^ Biography. Manifesto Records. Retrieved on 2006-04-20.
  19. ^ Chicane Interview. Ministry of Sound (April 18, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-30.
  20. ^ Chicane - Stoned In Love. Discogs. Retrieved on 2006-05-11.
  21. ^ Justinesuissa.co.uk. Accessed March 30, 2006.
  22. ^ a b [1]. Tomskimusic.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  23. ^ Amos, Chris. Chicane's Nick Bracegirdle. Bent.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  24. ^ Almind, Christian. Chicane. Roskilde Festival 2003 interviews. November 26, 2003. Accessed March 30, 2006.
  25. ^ Chicane biography. Chicanemusic.com. Accessed March 30, 2006.
  26. ^ Bootlegs: Live at Palladium, Cologne, 22.01.2000. (August 24, 2004). Chicane-Web. Accessed March 17, 2006.
  27. ^ Live at Slane Castle DVD credits. Bryanadams.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.

[edit] External links

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