DJ Times Magazine - FEATURE INTERVIEW

FEATURE INTERVIEW

BT’s “This Binary Universe” Explores Experimental Electronica & Opens the Door to a Video Wonderland

Published in the October 2006 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 19 - Number 10
By Emily Tan
Live Photos by Paresh Rana

     Hollywood, Calif.—Much has been written about Brian Transeau, undoubtedly one of electronica’s most musically gifted and technologically savvy DJ/producers. In fact, aside from Richie Hawtin and very few others, the man professionally known as BT is probably years, if not eons, ahead of the pack.
     With big-room trance hits like “Flaming June” and “Remember,” his music endures. And for the EDM production world, his groundbreaking stutter edit—a tiny sample repeated in a very musical fashion—remains his trademark. His remixes take on an epic feel and one generally more musical than much of the beat-and-bassline fare that works most dancefloors. As a DJ, he’s traveled the world—most recently finishing a tour with Paul Oakenfold.
     And true to his traditional musician background—yes, he attended Berklee College of Music for a time—BT has moved onto a very successful career in scoring videogames and films. His score for the Oscar-winning film, “Monster,” is one of the most aching musical backdrops you’ll ever hear.
     But, as always, Transeau yearns for more artistic avenues, and it’s this relentless curiosity that propels him. Hence, this time out, we find BT creating his own instruments, conducting a 110-piece symphony orchestra, and recording his latest album, This Binary Universe (DTS), in surround sound with eyebrow-raising visuals on DVD.
     Video, it seems, is BT’s new frontier. For the project, he assembled an all-star cast of visual artists to interpret his music and the results are an arresting assault on the senses, but one that triggers emotions and thought, as alive on a dancefloor as in a home theater. A video interpretation of “Dynamic Symmetry” gives the viewer an omniscient view of deep space, while “”See You On The Other Side” presumably offers a glimpse into the great beyond—the very moment of human expiration and the otherworldly fantasia that follows.
     Granting DJ Times a private preview of his latest work, BT welcomed us into his home in California’s Hollywood Hills for an evening amongst friends, family and his tight-knit crew. Remarkably, for this high-tech musical wizard, BT’s most insightful track is the ode to his two-year-old daughter, “Good Morning Kaia.” Who knew being a dad was so cool? Roll tape...

DJ Times: You told DJ Times back in February that you were almost done with your album, This Binary Universe (DTS Entertainment), for which you composed and recorded specifically for surround sound.
BT: The DVD-CD was released on September 1st. The whole thing is high-definition. Honestly, what’s so exciting about this project is that it’s a really new thing: it’s part-film, part surround-sound recording. The music’s really specific, but unique. There are three tracks where I conducted a 110-piece orchestra in Seattle. Then there’s the track, “The Anhtkythera Mechanism” [named after an ancient Greek device believed to be the first analog computer], where I’m playing cello, glockenspiel and a six-string banjo.

DJ Times: You are a traditional musician, in addition to being a DJ and producer. Besides playing instruments, what’s special about this album?
BT: It’s a concept piece that also works in a club. There are seven compositions ranging from 10- to 14-minutes in length and accompanied by seven films by a variety of bleeding-edge filmmakers, animators, and even one by a children’s storybook author. So, it’s a thing that works on many levels and it’s designed to work visually and sonically, together in tandem.

DJ Times: As a DJ, how are you performing this album live?
BT: This record is a combination of classical music…those are the parts I recorded with an orchestra...

DJ Times: How’d you get your hands on a 110-piece orchestra?
BT: It was when I was filming the movie, “Stealth,” that I got to film classical pieces. I finished scoring that film and we had some time left over, so the orchestra agreed to do some more stuff with me. It’s part angular, micro-sound that can be very glitch-y IDM stuff, like Autechre-type stuff, and jazz rhythm. There’s nothing in 4/4, but instead, there are pieces in 9/8-time, 13/8, 7/4 and other really weird meters. That’s basically what it is: It’s classical harmonies plus glitch-y, modern, electronic music and jazz rhythm. It’s really unique.

DJ Times: How did the album come to be?
BT: When it started, I wrote a piece called “Dynamic Symmetry” and played it for my friend, Patty Jenkins, who directed “Monster.” She’s like, “This is a whole album!” I’d never anticipated someone saying something to me like that. I play my music for my friends. I went and started writing another track, “The Internal Locus,” then I realized this was a sound I wanted to make into an album. I wrote it over the course of six months.

DJ Times: Did the visuals take a long time to create?
BT: The visuals took forever! It’s the opposite of when I’m scoring a film. When you’re scoring a movie, the visuals are already created, and I write the music to it. What was special about this was that I played the music for someone like [visual designer] Scott Pagano, and for him to go, “Whoa!” It’s so fun because it’s the same for me when I play my music for people and they’re like, “I can see the visuals in my head!” There’s a track called “1.618,” which is what scientists call, “God’s fingerprint” or “divine proportion.” That refers to the proportion that is everywhere in nature, like the proportions in the human skeleton, the spacing of pine-cone leaves, the ratio of female honey bees to male bees in a nest, and stuff like that.

DJ Times: Sounds like “The Da Vinci Code”...
BT: Yeah, totally! I was actually kind of pissed when that movie came out…I’m like, “Oh no, now everyone’s going to know about it!” [laughs]

DJ Times: How important are visuals to you as a DJ?
BT: Visuals are incredibly important to me as a DJ. I actually didn’t realize how important they were to me until doing this project. We’ll do a handful of videos before we do the next album. We can have an incredibly high production value as videos.

DJ Times: How did you interpret “divine proportion” on the track, “1.618?”
BT: Well, I decided to base a whole piece of music and rhythm and harmony on this ratio. Scott, too, based the visuals on this ratio. He’s also done the same with computer graphics.

DJ Times: You had leading visual artists create images for each track as they interpreted your music?
BT: Exactly.

DJ Times: What’s Scott Pagano’s background?
BT: He did a ton of visuals for “Spiderman,” “X-Men”…and he freaked out over the music. Out of the box, it’s just really exotic. He went and wrote these beautiful, evocative treatments and we made this thing together.

DJ Times: Did you completely give the music over to the visual artists and let them run wild, or did you give them direction as to what kind of visuals to create?
BT: I did give them visual direction in a huge way. The last piece I did, track number seven, was “Good Morning Kaia.” With the exception of that piece, we sat and we wrote very detailed treatments—like storyboards—of exactly what we wanted. The first track is so exciting, I’m bugging out!

DJ Times: You’re still excited about the album?
BT: I’ve wanted to do this for 10 years! The first track on This Binary Universe, there are no instruments on it; the piece is written completely in a computer program in Csound. The whole track, “All That Makes Us Human Continues,” is written in code, which is what I’ve always wanted to do. Check this out! [BT presents an endless list of computer commands on a screen.]

DJ Times: It’s Greek to me…
BT: Well, it was a goal of mine to compose in that realm because it’s exactly what classical composers used to do when they were away from their instrument. You’d write and write and write and just let the voices come.

DJ Times: You mean to say, instead of composing a track musically—with notes and beats in a chosen meter arranged in bars and measures—you composed it as a computer program?
BT: Yeah! The program name is Csound. My professor from [the University of California at] Berkeley taught me, Dr. Richard Boulanger. He was the first person ever in America to get a doctorate in computer music.

DJ Times: You did storyboards for each track?
BT: Yeah, we did treatments for each visual piece. The first piece, this kid Mondi from CalArts [California Institute of the Arts] wrote the entire visual piece in code to “All That Makes Us Human Continues.” He actually made storyboards of what he wanted the thing to look like…and I told him where I really wanted the track to move. Then, with track number two, “Dynamic Symmetry,” it’s an amazing artist called Jeff Nentrup who drew all these characters for me. Each one of the characters represents different parts of a person’s psyche.

DJ Times: The visuals for that track remind me of Salvador Dali. Besides clubs, where are you performing these tracks?
BT: To give you an idea…we’re performing in New York City at the Guggenheim Museum, and we’re gonna perform all over the place at art galleries and in concert halls, in addition to clubs.

DJ Times: Did you compose this album specifically for surround sound from the very beginning?
BT: Yes, I wrote it for surround sound. Two years ago, I started a software company called Sonik Architects. The drum machine I used is called Break Tweaker, which comprises all of the drum sounds on this album—all of the micro, rhythmic drums.

DJ Times: Will the software be available for purchase?
BT: Next year, people can buy it.

DJ Times: You have mentioned that you wanted to be really precious about this project—that you didn’t want to simply turn it over to some record label. You’d wanted to maintain complete control over this project and that was a key factor in the album’s being done.
BT: Yes, I did this entire thing on my own, completely outside of any label. I was 100-percent committed to it. This whole project has been a complete labor of love.

DJ Times: What is your philosophy regarding technology in the role of the DJ?
BT: Well, there’s certainly some incredible stuff happening in that arena. You have companies like Pioneer coming out with stuff like the DVJ-X1 that are amazing. Roland is making pieces that are part music boxes, part performance visuals. We’re gonna see the lines blur between the DJ and the VJ so that you’ll see people doing both things at once. Insofar as how technology changes stuff, I just look at it and go, “What I love and wanted to happen is happening!” The tide is changing because of the technology, and I think that’s a really awesome thing because it’s empowering the DJ to experiment. The DJ is becoming more of a live remixer, much more than just a “disc jockey” in the traditional sense.

DJ Times: How do you see the future of DJing?
BT: I think it’ll be really promising, absolutely. I’m excited to see interfaces that are more and more geared to live remixing, like the new Allen & Heath Xone:3D mixer with MIDI and all of the buttons and sliders built to control Ableton live.

DJ Times: People used to give you grief when you were DJing with a laptop...
BT: You know what it is about DJs? You hear this even from the most prominent DJs who say DJing with a laptop is soulless. That’s the kind of person I’d love to sit down with and show what we’re doing. If you’re a phenomenal DJ, like Carl Cox, somebody like Carl who’s doing something amazing with CDJ-1000s as turntables, when he sees what he can do with Ableton and a controller made for it…he’s gonna freak out! This is what tipped it for Sharam from Deep Dish.

DJ Times: Do you see DJing moving farther and farther away from just playing good records?
BT: Check this: Say, you’re playing a breakbeat from Meat Katie, then you’re playing a cappellas from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and then you’re playing a Deep Dish synth line…and then you write your own bassline, all at once. You’re making something completely live that’s brand-new! People who make music will understand. This new kind of DJing/live remixing will appeal more to DJs who are also musicians. If you don’t make music yourself, but you DJ, that’s also an art form unto itself. But for people who see this DJ technology—like Traktor or Ableton Live—you realize you can create electronic music on-the-fly, and that’s empowering.

DJ Times: Do you think the traditional vinyl turntable will eventually die out?
BT: The thing I think will never go away about turntables is turntablism, because turntablism is a very complete and idiomatic art form unto itself. People who are turntablists have elevated vinyl to the status of a melodic, percussive instrument. It’s a completely different thing with turntablists. But…I’m super-excited about the future of the DJ and how technology’s going to impact DJs.

DJ Times: Did you record This Binary Universe completely in your own studio?
BT: Yes, my studio’s called Binary Acoustics. Everything, except for the orchestral stuff, was recorded in my studio.

DJ Times: Did you actually conduct a symphony orchestra?
BT: Yeah! I conducted the orchestra with Kaia under my arm. [laughs]

DJ Times: What are some of the visual equipment and software your team used on This Binary Universe?
BT: I know that Scott Pagano uses multimedia software called Maya and a lot of guys used [Apple’s] Final Cut Pro, which is a Mac visuals program, to make this stuff. It’s really specific, the applications they’re using.

DJ Times: Besides art galleries, what are some other venues where you’ll be performing?
BT: We’re also planning on showing it in a movie theater as a film in New York City, for example. We’re going to 12 cities and showing the DVD as a movie.

DJ Times: What is your DJ booth set-up at the moment?
BT: I’m using a Pioneer DJM-800 mixer; I have a 17-inch Powerbook from Mac; a MOTU Traveler FireWire audio interface; an M-Audio O2 keyboard; Ableton Live; and my own plug-ins which are coming out next year.

DJ Times: Are you using that D-Beam contraption for controlling stutter edits, anymore?
BT: [laughs] Sometimes we use the hand-built, custom D-Beam...

DJ Times: Who are some producers you’re into?
BT: Some of the people whose work I’ve really followed over the last couple of years are Meat Katie and Dylan Rhymes. Now, I’m totally into Trentemøller. Nobody can touch his sound. He’s from Copenhagen.

DJ Times: You released This Binary Universe on DTS. Who are they?
BT: DTS is the surround-sound company that now has a label of surround-sound releases. They’re known mainly for installing theater sound systems.

DJ Times: Name one of the best gigs you’ve played lately?
BT: Back in July, I played at Red Rocks in Denver…that was a great show, but there are so many good ones.

DJ Times: What can fans look forward to?
BT: We’ve been going out and showing the DVD as a film in major cities across the country. I’m gonna show the film and then DJ afterwards. In October, I’m going out with a four-piece band. Scott Pagano’s going to be performing visuals live in 360-degrees. It’s gonna be insane! Then there’s going to be three of us playing live instruments.

DJ Times: The majority of DJs aren’t musicians...
BT: [laughs] I’m going to be playing circuit-bent instruments and computers, and this thing that I made in my living room—the thing with the cello and guitar strings.

DJ Times: From your perspective, do you feel there’s something missing from the DJ industry right now?
BT: I don’t know. I feel that what is present is a real resurgence in the dance-music community in the U.S.

DJ Times: That’s optimistic.
BT: Yeah, I’ve been feeling it over the last eight months. Like, I’m going to Texas and I’m playing weird, angular techno, and there are 3,000 people going nuts! [laughs] It’s coming back. I feel like, it’s all love, right now. It’s getting good again.

For his new record, BT adds glitch to traditional instrumentation.

BT's Toys
AMD Opteron dual-core computers Apple Power Mac G5 dual-core 1.5-gig computer BT’s own circuit-bent instruments Camel Audio Cameleon 5000 synth plug-in Camel Audio CAmelPhat multi-effects plug-in Casper Electronics (various) circuit-bent instruments Circuit-bent Barbie guitar Csound Cycling 74 Max/MSP audiovisual software Dave Smith Instruments Poly Evolver analog rack synthesizer Emagic Logic Audio Fender Rhodes electric guitar Glockenspiel Highly Liquid circuit-bent Roland TR-707 Highly Liquid circuit-bent Speak & Math Highly Liquid Glitchdesk circuit modifiers M-Audio Ableton Live M-Audio iZotope Trash distortion processor M-Audio iZotope Vinyl virtual simulator M-Audio O2 keyboard MOTU Traveler FireWire audio interface Native Instruments Traktor Palm Guitars PC Audio Labs dual Opteron quad computers Peterson Strobosoft tuner Pioneer DVJ-X1 Roland V-Synth analog modeling synthesizer Six-string banjo Sonik Architects Break Tweaker plug-in Sonik Architects Break Tweaker virtual drum machine Sonik Architects Stutter Edit plug-in Sonik Architects Stutter Edit virtual beat synthesizer Symbolic Sound Corporation Kyma sound-design software Yamaha five-string electric bass guitar