Narrative Interview with Brian Transeau

Monday, March 26, 2012 Pin It

BT: The Binary Terrestrial

BT has been an inspirational figure for a lot of producers today. With his stutter edits and mystical producing traits, he has shaped his musical empire uniquely. His production wings span not only inside EDM (like collaborations with Paul van Dyk or Tiësto or AvB), but outside the EDM realm too.

Trance Hub took an opportunity to explore the legacy that’s BT. We caught up with the man to map his binary mind and try to go beyond his gray visions. Presenting a narratory wordscape:

Build Up

On the evolution of EDM music…

I think it’s amazing. I’ve watched what’s now called EDM evolve over the year. In the early days was called electronic music, and prior to that was called electro-acoustic music. To watch all of that grow and develop over the course of my lifetime has been an incredible experience. What’s great is how much the sound of the music has changed. People find new stylistic modalities, people find new families of sounds – there’s so much happening. It’s been one of the most exciting things in all of music. I was talking about this the other day on Twitter – Carlos Castaneda called it "the quickening" – we’re in this exponential slope in terms of what’s happening now in the EDM scene.

On top 5 generation defining tunes…

So for right now:
"Point Line Curve" by Curtis Rhodes
Skrillex’s Remix of "Cinema"
The last Matmos release
"She Just Likes To Fight" by Four Tet

Peak

On the growth of EDM in USA in last few years…

It’s extraordinary and the real tipping point was the hip-hop community entering into the fray. Without naming names, you have hip-hop artists bringing attention and awareness of electronic dance music to a wide-audience. This window that’s opening up is when you’ll see legit dance artists on American media.

On the philosophy of life and music…

My philosophy on music – I think that the strength of music to mobilize and to awaken and to unify people regardless of socio-economic, sex, creed, race, origin is as profound as it ever was – if not more so now. And because we live in a time when there’s a lack of authenticity, things that are truthful in the music and arts speak very deeply to people in a profound way. My goal, in my music and in my life, is to be additive to the human narrative – and contribute however small a ripple to the fabric of the human experience.

Breakdown

On his biggest nightmare as a musician…

I think now as someone that’s an instrumentalist one of the things that is hard is maintaining operating systems. I find it really challenging to keep my gear working (the older synthesizers) and keeping my operating systems current is like a full time job. There’s so much to play around with that my job is fun.

On the people he met in and out of the EDM industry…

I personally have witnessed the transformative interpersonal effect of music throughout my career and life. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with like-minded luminaries particularly within my idiom of music. The experiences I’ve had are too numerous to list here. Suffice it to say there’s some amazing people. Some of those people are Sasha, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, Justin Timberlake and friends of mine who are directors like Patty Jenkins – these are people who’ve had a profound influence on my experience with music and have depended my appreciation.

Stutter Edit

Best Influences: My most significant influence as a composer is Debussy – hands down.

Best Musical Instrument: My favorite instrument is the piano to compose – but the guitar is also one of my favorites because I know much less about it so it’s rife with happy accidents.

Favourite EDM Festival: Either EDC, the White Room Party in Singapore or Sunburn.

Favourite Fan Country: Some of the places where I’ve had the most amazing response are in Korea, Australia, Mexico and in India. Those are some of my favorite places for fans.

Best Innovation Seen: Stutter Edit – but I’m biased.

Dreams or Imagination: Imagination

Twitter or Facebook: Twitter

Outro

On being so inspirational on Twitter and his fans…

I feel honored to be an inspiration on Twitter. I love interacting with people on Twitter. It feels like an authentic way to communicate in the digital age.

On his upcoming album(s) in 2012…

This is going to be a huge year of music for me. I have two albums coming out in May and June. One is a follow up to ‘This Binary Universe’. I’ve deeply enjoyed doing this follow up – experimenting with different instruments, beats – really getting into the music. It’s called ‘If The Stars Are Eternal So Are You And I’. I also have an electronic ambient album called ‘Morceau Subrosa’ which is essentially a beat free album. There’s a lot of cool stuff I’ve done on C-Sound for this album and it also incorporates a number of instruments that I purchased on my trip to India.

I’m also in a band with Christian Burns. Think a record that came straight out of 1983. Similar to the work of Human League and Depeche Mode.

Finally I’m working on the follow-up to ‘These Hopeful Machines’. I’m well in-progress on that. So a lot of new music from me.

For more info related to Brian Transeau check out the following links:
www.btmusic.com
www.twitter.com/BT
www.facebook.com/BT
www.youtube.com/TheBTchannel

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