| BT | |
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BT in 2011 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Brian Wayne Transeau |
| Born | October 4, 1971 Rockville, Maryland, U.S. |
| Genres | Electronica, Film score, New Classical |
| Occupations | Producer, Composer, Singer |
| Instruments | computer, piano |
| Years active | Early 1990s - Present |
| Labels | Perfecto Records, Vandit, Reprise Records, Headspace Recordings, Nettwerk, DTS Entertainment, 405 Recordings, Black Hole Recordings, New State Recordings |
| Website | http://www.btmusic.com, http://www.sonikarchitects.com |
Brian Wayne Transeau (born October 4, 1971) is a Grammy-nominated American music producer, composer, audio technician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter better known by his stage name, BT. He is an artist in the electronic genre. BT has produced and written for artists such as Paul Van Dyk, Peter Gabriel, 'N Sync, Sting, Blake Lewis, Tori Amos and Tiesto. As a film composer he has worked on films such as The Fast and the Furious and Monster.[1]
BT is known for using a production technique he calls the stutter edit. This technique consists of taking a small fragments of sound and then repeating it rhythmically. BT was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for his song "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)". This song was recognized as using the largest number of vocal edits in a song (6,178 edits.) [2] BT's work with stutter edit techniques led to the formation of software development company Sonik Architects and the development of the sound-processing software plug-in Stutter Edit. The company also released a music remix app for iPhone called Sonifi.
In 2010, BT was nominated for a Grammy Award for his studio album These Hopeful Machines under the category "Best Electronic/Dance Album".[3]
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BT was born in Rockville, Maryland. At an early age, he studied music at the Washington Conservatory of Music.[4] He went on to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.[5][6]
In the early 1990s, BT moved back to Maryland and began collaborating with friends Ali "Dubfire" and Sharam of Deep Dish.[7] BT's productions were not yet popular in the US, and he had no idea that he had become popular 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 success—several thousand clubbers responded enthusiastically when Sasha played his song.[8] He was soon signed to Oakenfold's record label, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers.[9] BT's songs "A Moment of Truth" and "Relativity" became hits in the UK, and it was during this time in which BT met Tori Amos.[9]
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.[10] 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."[8]
BT's 1995 debut album Ima was a progressive house effort featuring collaborations with Vincent Covello & Tori Amos, as well as the opening track, "Nocturnal Transmission", being featured in The Fast and the Furious. The title, "Ima (今)", is the Japanese word for "now".
This album featured more complex melodies and more traditional harmonies along with a heavier use of vocals.[11] 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 biggest hit from ESCM was "Flaming June,"[11] a collaboration with German trance meister Paul Van Dyk. Van Dyk and BT would collaborate on a number of works including "Namistai" (found on the later album Movement In Still Life) 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."
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,"[12] in collaboration with Tsunami One aka Adam Freeland & Kevin Beber.[13] 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 and acoustic guitars heavily edited into a progressive breakbeat track.
BT's fourth studio album 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. 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 "Somnambulist" holds the Guinness World Record for most vocal edits in a single track, with 6,178 in the album version.[14]
BT's fifth studio album, This Binary Universe, released in 2006, is his second album released in 5.1 surround sound, the first being the soundtrack to the 2003 film Monster.
The album features a mix of many genres, including jazz, breakbeats, and classical music. Three songs feature a full 110-piece orchestra. Animated videos were created to accompany each song.[15] 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.”[16]
Unlike his previous 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. The concert featured a live slideshow of images from the online website DeviantArt as a backdrop.[17][18]
BT's sixth studio album, These Hopeful Machines, was released on February 2, 2010. The album featured guest vocalists/collaborators Kirsty Hawkshaw, Jes Brieden, Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel and Christian Burns. The album also features collaborations with Andrew Bayer ("The Emergency") and Ulrich Snchauss ("A Million Stars"). To date, this album contains the most singles released from any BT album, with 8 of the 12 tracks released as singles. Early official remixes were made by Armin van Buuren, and Chicane. These Hopeful Machines was nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award in the Best Electronic/Dance Album genre.[3] A remix album, titled These Re-imagined Machines was released in 2011. These Humble Machines, an un-mixed album featuring shorter "radio edit" versions of the tracks (similar to the U.S. version of "Movement in Still Life") was also released in 2011.
During the production of "This Binary Universe," Transeau wanted to program drums in surround sound, and found that software tools to accomplish this weren't readily available. He decided to develop his own, and formed his own software company, Sonik Architects, and his own drum surround software called BreakTweaker. BreakTweaker was originally intended for release in 2007, with later plans to release additional tools and plugins specifically aimed at musicians and DJs, including his signature stutter edit.[22]
In 2009, he launched his software company Sonik Architects with Sonifi, the company's first product for iPhone and iPod Touch.[23]
In December 2010, Sonik Architects was acquired by software and music production company, iZotope Inc.,[24] and at the Winter NAMM Show in January, 2011, the "Stutter Edit" plug-in, based on BT's patented technique of realtime manipulation of digital audio [25] was released by iZotope, Inc. and BT.[26]
BT has a daughter, Kaia Nui Transeau.
On January 11, 2008, ABC news reported that BT's daughter had been abducted by her mother during a planned visit.[27] The mother was arrested, but charges were withdrawn and the matter was settled in family court.[28][29]
BT began scoring films in 1999 with Go. Since then he has scored a dozen 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.[30] He also produced the score for the 2003 film Monster, earning him particular acclaim.[16]
Transeau has scored the video games Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas (2000),("Kimosabe" in Need For Speed Underground- PlayStation) Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (2002) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (2004).
BT has ventured into television for Tommy Lee Goes To College for NBC in 2005. He executive-produced the Tommy Lee series, the idea for which he developed and sold to NBC.[10]
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