BT (musician)

BT
BT in 2019
BT in 2019
Background information
Birth nameBrian Wayne Transeau
Also known as
  • Prana
  • Elastic Chakra
  • Elastic Reality
  • Libra
  • Dharma
  • Kaistar
  • GTB
Born (1971-10-04) October 4, 1971 (age 53)
Rockville, Maryland, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)DJ, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, record producer and audio engineer
Years active1989–present
Labels

Brian Wayne Transeau (born October 4, 1971), known by his initials as BT, is an American musician, DJ, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, and audio engineer. An artist in the electronic music genre, he is credited as a pioneer of the trance and intelligent dance music styles that paved the way for EDM,[1] and for "stretching electronic music to its technical breaking point."[2] In 2010, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album for These Hopeful Machines.[3] He creates music within myriad styles, such as classical, film composition, and bass music.

BT holds multiple patents for pioneering the technique he calls stutter editing.[4][5] This production technique consists of taking a small fragment of sound and repeating it rhythmically, often at audio rate values while processing the resultant stream using advanced digital processing techniques.[6] BT was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for his song "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)", recognized as using the largest number of vocal edits in a song (6,178 edits).[1][4][7] BT's work with stutter edit techniques led to the formation of software development company Sonik Architects, developer of the sound-processing software plug-ins Stutter Edit and BreakTweaker, and Phobos with Spitfire Audio.[6]

BT has produced, collaborated, and written with a variety of artists, including Death Cab for Cutie, Howard Jones, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Madonna, Markus Schulz, Armin van Buuren, Sting, Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, NSYNC, Blake Lewis, The Roots, Guru, Britney Spears, Paul van Dyk, and Tiësto. He has composed original scores for films such as Go, The Fast and the Furious, and Monster, and his scores and compositions have appeared on television series such as Smallville, Six Feet Under, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.[1][8][9][10][11] He was commissioned to compose a four-hour, 256 channel installation composition for the Tomorrowland-themed area at Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in 2016.[12]

  1. ^ a b c Tyler Gray, "Would You Want to Hear This New Circa News Sound Whenever News Breaks?" Fast Company, October 3, 2013.
  2. ^ Curtis Silver, "BT Talks These Hopeful Machines, Math and Inspiration," Wired, February 2, 2010.
  3. ^ BT, "First-Time Nominee: BT (Part One)," Grammy.com, January 18, 2011.
  4. ^ a b Clayton Perry, "Interview: Brian Transeau – Singer, Songwriter and Producer," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 26, 2011.
  5. ^ Method and Apparatus for Digital Audio Generation and Manipulation, Patent #793587911551696; Time Varying Processing of Repeated Digital Audio Samples in Accordance with a User Defined Effect, Patent #814549611807214.
  6. ^ a b Cosmin Lukacs, "Interview With BT aka Brian Transeau," Archived February 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Trance Sound, September 10, 2010.
  7. ^ DJ Ron Slomowicz, "21 Records That Made Me Happy to Be a DJ," Archived October 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine About.com. Accessed August 3, 2014.
  8. ^ David Battino, Kelli Richards, The Art Of Digital Music, Backbeat Books, 2005, p. 10
  9. ^ Damon Fonooni, "Embracing BT," Archived June 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Lunar, 2002.
  10. ^ Steph Evans, "Earmilk Interview: BT," Earmilk, August 20, 2013.
  11. ^ "New Episodes of 'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' to Feature Music by Mark Isham, BT & Bear McCreary". Film Music Reporter. January 9, 2018.
  12. ^ Newman, Melinda (June 16, 2016). "Meet the Composer Who Wrote the Music for Shanghai Disneyland's Tomorrowland". The Hollywood Reporter.