Piers Baron (musician)

Piers Baron
Birth name Piers Baron
Born 29 October 1983 (age 31)
Origin Oxford, England
Genres Soundtrack
Occupation(s) Film composer, record producer, songwriter, musician, Remixer
Instruments Synthesizer, keyboards, electric guitar, Roland 808
Associated acts Nike Snowboarding
Breakbeat Kaos
Website Facebook

Piers Baron (born 29 October 1983) is a UK-born, Los Angeles-based award-winning Film Composer, Record Producer and Musician. he is best known for his Drum and Bass DJ/Producer work as "Baron" and his pioneering Original Score's for Skateboard & Snowboard movies, most notably Nike Snowboarding's "Never Not Part 2".[1][2] He is one half of Pop band BLEITCH [3]

He has won multiple awards for his scoring work.

Drum and bass

Working under the name "Baron" he began producing and rose to recognition quickly in the drum and bass Genre after remixing Total Science's Drum and Bass track "Nosher", the track became a classic and he became a sought-after Remixer, Producer and DJ in the Drum and Bass genre.

He later joined forces with Adam F, Pendulum & DJ Fresh's Seminal Record Label Breakbeat Kaos, He was known for his out-and-out dancefloor tracks, later releasing "At the Drive In", a deeper and more powerful track than his previous work, which would set the tone for his forthcoming productions. His Drum & Bass records were a regular feature on the BBC Radio 1 shows of Annie Mac and Zane Lowe.

As "Baron" had a large amount of UK dance chart success achieving 7 Top 10 and 6 Top 3 Hits, two of which being Number One.

Score Work

Flip Skateboards Extremely Sorry Skateboarding Movie

He spent 2006/7/8/9 working with Flip Skateboards creating an original (non-Drum and Bass) soundtrack for their DVD Extremely Sorry, which was released in Fall 2009. Prior to the release of the movie Baron relocated to Los Angeles

In August 2009 Flip released an Extremely Sorry web trailer, officially announcing that Baron had made an original soundtrack for their forthcoming skate film. The press release that accompanied the trailer caused a huge internet stir, registering itself as one of the top music stories for that week.

Release details for the Flip Skateboards Extremely Sorry Soundtrack surfaced in late September 2009, released on USA based label Volcom Entertainment the Soundtrack featured Baron collaborating with a wide range of musical artists including Lemmy of Motörhead, Dave Lombardo of Slayer, Jim Lindberg of Pennywise, Stephen Mcbean of Black Mountain, Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Mike Conte of Early Man, Mack Winston and ((sounder))

On 15 June 2010, Extremely Sorry won the coveted Transworld Skateboarding Award for Best Film, Baron and Geoff Rowley made a speech in which they thanked all contributors to the soundtrack album

On 2 September 2010, at the annual LA Skate Film Festival Baron won the award for best soundtrack for his work on Extremely Sorry. Flip also won best movie for Extremely Sorry.

Baron.ft.Black Mountain – The End of the Beginning from the Extremely Sorry soundtrack is featured in the video game Tony Hawk Shred[4]

Volcom Snowboard movie 9191

Baron entered the studio in April 2010 to begin scoring Volcom's snowboarding movie 9191.

The movie is a year in the life of snowboarder 'Gigi' Rüf', the production deadline for this movie was a lot tighter than his previous work and required a rigorous work schedule. This was the first movie in the history of the genre to feature a completely Original Soundtrack

Once again Baron collaborated with a select group of artists including Hesta Prynn, Dave Lombardo of Slayer, Oliver Ackermann of A Place To Bury Strangers, Jamie Blake, Mike Conte of Early Man and Snowboarder Jamie Lynn

9191 was released on 13 September on iTunes and 28 September on DVD. The movie was released to highly favourable reviews, crediting both the level of riding in the movie, Jake Price the director's artistic presentation of the riding and Baron's original soundtrack.

On 5 October 2010, Baron was awarded at the ESPN Snowboard Picture Awards for Best Soundtrack.

On 9 December Baron won two awards at the Summit Action Sports Film Festival for Best Movie and Best Soundtrack.

In June 2011, Ty Evans and Spike Jonze used "Bury Your Bones" for their 3D skateboard film Unbeleafable 3D.

"Bury Your Bones" was featured in Canadian TV series Being Human.

As of August 2013, Baron began crediting his work under his real name Piers Baron.

Nike Snowboarding's "Never Not Part 2"

In March 2013, Piers Baron began scoring what would be an industry first Documentary about the struggle, pay off, pain and psychology of Professional Snowboarding. Directed by Per Hampus Stalhandske and featuring an original score, the movie documented the Nike Snowboarding pro team in their most candid moments, from the streets to the most remote mountaintops. At 43 minutes and all instrumental, the score was Piers Baron's longest and most detailed to date.,

"Never Not Part Two" was initially released as a free podcast via iTunes; it charted at Number One in ten countries and Top Ten in fourteen in the first week of release.

On 5 October, "Never Not Part Two" received the Best Documentary award at "The Reels" Film Festival in France.[5]

BLEITCH

He is one half of electronic pop band BLEITCH with Madelyn Deutch. The band released their debut single "This Is Our Youth" in July 2014 and their follow up single "Paint By Numbers" in May 2015.

Awards

Selected production and writing credits

Collaborations

UK chart success

He has had three top 75 hits in the UK:

In November 2006, he scored a number 1 on the UK Dance Chart with his track "Drive In, Drive By", he had also debuted at number 1 previous to this with his collaboration with Pendulum. He has had six Top 3 and seven Top 10 Hits in the UK Dance Chart.

Drum and bass remixes

References

  1. ↑ http://snowboardmag.com/the-daily-shake/nike-snowboarding-never-part-2-soundtrack
  2. ↑ http://www.methodmag.com/content/never-not-making-music-piers-baron-itw
  3. ↑ http://livefastmag.com/2014/10/art-crush-bleitch/
  4. ↑ http://www.ost.co/128-tony-hawk-shred.html
  5. ↑ http://onboardmag.com/snowboarding-events/other-snowboarding-events/the-reels-2013-nominees-winners-and-review.html