Brian Wayne Transeau is an American music producer, composer, audio technician, singer and songwriter better known by his stage name, BT. He is an artist in the electronic genre. BT has produced and written for artists such as Peter Gabriel, ‘N Sync, Sting, Blake Lewis, Tori Amos and Tiesto. As a film composer he has worked on films such as The Fast and the Furious and Monster.BT is known for using a technique he calls the stutter edit. This technique consists of taking a micro fragment of sound and then repeating it rhythmically. BT was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for his song Somnambulist. This song was recognized as using the largest number of vocal edits in a song (6,178 edits.) In 2009, he launched his software company Sonik Architects with the company’s first product for iPhone, named Sonifi.

The enigmatic producer, composer and audio whiz  decided to give us an  interview to talk about his new record These Hopeful Machines…

 Listening back to some of your classic material, a lot of it sounds fresh and relevant even now. Did you always aim to stay outside of particular trends, to do your own thing?

First of all, that’s a really kind question and I appreciate it. İ listen to what’s happening at any given time, but often it’s not what’s happening in electronic music as far as what informs my work. It’s more about what’s happening in my life. İn my own creative research, for example, I’m aware of what’s happening in dubstep and what’s happeinng with Deadmau5 and Kaskade and I love what they’re doing, but it’s not per se what’s inspiring my work right now. A lot of the “it” producers and people who copy what those “it” producers are doing is very disposable music. There are even songs that I like that are super rip-offs of Joel [Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5]. But for me personally, when I’m writing music, I’m trying to connect with something that’s really authentic in me and to get that out in the cleanest, most integrous way possible.

Tell us about the vocalist on your latest album, These Hopeful Machines. Did the singers have any actual input on the songs or did they just let you go at it?

When I write with someone who’s a singer, often we write with an acoustic instrument. Like on “Every Other Way” featuring Jes, we did that playing a classical Yamaha guitar I bought in Korea. We wrote that song with eight or 10 people here, and we sat and sang and the two of us sang together and I played guitar and we wrote that song in 15 minutes, but we played it all night long! İt was sort of a magical night. The next day, we recorded the vocals and Jes went away and then I made it into this 11-minute piece of music. A lot of times, I’ll record the vocals and I might end up re-singing it, or I’ll use the vocal that I recorded and took away. That’s usually how it works, by sitting with an acoustc instrument and just jamming.

Someone recently Tweeted,”I’d love to hear you guys try and do a classic BT track.’’ Do you believe your music is being copied by many producers? Do you regard your music being about more than entertainment?

Yes, for sure! I can spend hours naming thousands — literally thousands – of productions naming rip-offs of my music. Robert Miles came up to me in 1996 in Manchester at a music awards show where he’d just received an award and said, “I’m really sorry.” And shook my hand. İ’m like, “What?” He said that because his track, “Children,” is a copy of “Flaming June.” I’ve had that experience many, many times, where many relevant producers have come up to me and told me that they’ve copied something from this or that song of mine. That’s flattering to me. İ think that’s flattering. İ think music should be entertaining, but it should also be a purveyor and catalyst of communicating emotion. That’s what it is! Music is a language, an effective one, to communicate emotion because it transcends race, gender, culture. İ’d hope my music stands for communication of authentic, simple, bassline-driven emotional states.

Mike Monday recently told us, ”At every point of the process of writing songs, I tried to revisit how I write and think about music, which is probably why it’s ended up sounding so different. This is incredibly exciting for me as I think I’ve found a way of writing music which has the potential to be truly unique and original. Unfortunately in order to this, the other thing that does stand out in my mind is the hard work, because the process I went through in order to write some of it was particularly tortuous and long winded.” Do you feel your song writing skills have changed during the years? If so, in what ways?

I don’t’ think my songwriting per se has changed, but I think obviously my production techniques have expounded upon one another over the years, but in terms of songwriting, I’m still writing about the same basic things. I think songwriters in general – people who actually write songs, like Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Bob Dylan – they write at the same sort of themes throughout their whole life until they finally say the one thing they were trying to say, and then they close that chapter and they continue to write about other things that inspire them.

You recently told a beautiful story on Twitter which we would like our readers to revisit again. You wrote, “When I was 18, went into an A&R guy @ Sony’s office. Another kid with a demo and a dream. It took about 3 years to write and record I believed, because of the thought and integrity put into it, that a person of authority would regard this work with compassion and respect. I remember Bobby (real name) listening to 15 seconds of every song then saying “you music sucks, your songs suck, your voice sucks…” “…You’ll never make it in the music business get on a spelling show and get the fuck out of my office.” I just sank. I wore slippers & a bathrobe for a month and cried daily. An extraordinary blow. I was absolutely decimated. Years later we were premiering [the Academy Award-winning film,] “Monster.” A man came up to me and said, “BT, I’ve followed you for years. I love all your work, it’s amazing.” We spoke for a bit, I said, “Thank you so much, what’s your name?” He says, “Bobby.” I’ll never forget that moment. No words needed saying. Then&there I made the decision, if I ever make it, I will listen to others coming up. If you treat me w/ respect, I will listen to your work. If it’s thoughtful/ meaningful/interesting..I will tell others. I remember what if feels like to be the hand on the other end of that demo.’’

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned in your years in the label business and as a recording artist specifically?

Some of the lessons I’ve learned, are….a friend of my family’s named Frank, who’s now passed, lived a very long and full and healthy life. Thirty years ago, he was diagnosed with MS [multiple sclerosis]. He was the funniest guy I’ve ever met in my life! He’d tell this joke about going to the doctor, and the doctor would give him all this bad news and he’d tell the doctor that he was an asshole and he’d walk out! And then, the doctor died. I thought that was the funniest thing ever because Frank was so full of life. The music industry is like that. A lot of people pretending to give you a prognosis about what the music industry’s like, but they have no idea. If you’re able to just get tight enough, there’s not someone else who should tell you how you should be doing things. There’s not some trend or some label or some person that’s going to be able to tell you what you should be doing! You’re the only person who knows what to do. For people beginning, to be an artist is actually not to listen to people who are given authority.

http://www.btmusic.com/

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