The sound of BT
BT — born Brian Transeau, Oct. 4, 1971 — grew up outside Washington D.C. where the first evidence of his musical talent manifested in a mastery of composers such as Chopin and Bach by age six. A great break in musical direction came when he heard electronic music as an adolescent. “This is what my heroes Debussy, Stravinsky and the like were looking for. Technology-based music is the only idiom that packs such infinite sonic possibilities. After being introduced to artists like Cabaret Voltaire and Depeche Mode, I turned my back on classical music for quite a while.” BT’s sense of individualism also inspired his scholastic decisions. He dropped out of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1990 to shop his electronic music around Los Angeles. Many doors were slammed in his face because few understood his unique sound, but he refused to compromise his vision. He returned to the D.C. area and launched Deep Dish Records with long-time high school friends, and recent Grammy award winners, Deep Dish.
Within the year, BT’s first releases garnished the attention of English dance pioneer Sasha, who gave BT his first taste of stardom and the rewards of dance culture. “The first venue he took me to was a barn in Brighton, England,” BT recalls. “It was the most amazing party. Three thousand people were sweating and crying over my songs like Embrace the Future. I had found my people.”
BT’s mix of epic and classically inspired journeys and beats quickly took on the name Trance, and became one of the most popular and dominant electronic music genres played in clubs from London to Tokyo and New York. BT’s talent and persistence had finally paid off and he later released his epic albums “Ima,” “ESCM” and the wildly diverse “Movement in Still Life” featuring the hit single, Never Gonna Come Back Down. His fourth studio album (with guest artists such as Stewart Copeland of The Police) was “Emotional Technology” (2003) followed by his 2006 release, “This Binary Universe,” reviewed by Keyboard magazine thus: “In a hundred years, it could well be studied as the first major electronic work of the new millennium. It’s that good.”
BT adds: “To marry melody, harmony and memorable songwriting with the most bleeding-edge technology possible is my passion. These are the things that excite me.” BT has also gained a reputation as a talented and versatile film composer. He scored movies such as the blockbuster hit The Fast and the Furious, Doug Liman’s Go, Under Suspicion starring Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman, and Monster with Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci. BT’s musical explorations, progressing well ahead of the curve in digital sound composition and programming, necessitated the creation of his own software company, Sonik Architects, in support of his expanding vision. Two new programming applications, Break Tweaker and Stutter Edit, both prototyped by BT himself in cSound and Supercollider (two command line-based music-scripting languages) will be commercially released under the Sonik Architects banner later this year.
We have been receiving many e-mails asking about this artist, who actually played in Manila about eight years back in a small, stealthy club appearance. Will he make it back to our shores soon? Stay tuned to “Beat Generation” to find out.
And when will Manila have a phenomenal club scene like Europe’s? Let’s add this to our Santa’s wish list; maybe it will happen.
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For comments and suggestions feel free to e-mail me at rickydaker@gmail.com.
