On August 16th 2013 BT’s ninth artist album “A Song Across Wires” has been released via Armada Music. BT’s newest accomplishment takes you on a 79 minute, 12-track voyage through genre-bending compositions, soaring vocal anthems and timeless instrumentals. The follow-up to his 2010 Grammy-nominated “These Hopeful Machines”, features collaborations with some of EDM’s heaviest hitters, including Nadia Ali, ARTY, Tritonal and Emma Hewitt. We collected all important information of this masterpiece for and and talked also with BT about his new album and his music career! Enjoy!
TranceAttack: First of all, congrats for the release of your new album “A Song Across Wires”. How long did you work on the album and what can the listener expect?
BT: Well, I worked on this album over the course of the last 3 years and I was recording conterminal 2 other pieces “Nuovo Morceau Subrosa“ and „If The Stars Are Eternal So Are You And I“. I kind of gave myself some free range to write whatever kind of music I wanted to write during that time period and experimental things ended up on “IF THE STARS ARE ETERNAL” and ambient music ended up on “NUOVO MORCEAU SUBROSA”, and then dance music ended up on “A SONG ACROSS WIRES”.
I am very proud of this album and of these songs in particular, and I am just incredibly infused by the Fan response to them. I knew that my Fans are gonna love this record, because they were always asking me to make dance music and I never wanted to just make a record of just dance music and this was the first time I ever really genuinely wanted to do that. So I knew that my fans are gonna be excited about this, but their reaction to it has been truely overwhelming. I feel really greatful and really proud. I probably listened to the record 150-200 times since we’ve had the final copy of it and I like it more and more the more I listen to it, so that’s a really good personal sign, it’s not somethig I can usually do with my records.
TranceAttack: For “A Song Across Wires” you worked together with a lot artists, like Tritonal, Stephan Dabruck, Adam K or tyDi? That’s a real difference to your previous albums like “These Hopeful Machines” or “If The Stars Are Eternal So Are You And I”. Was this consciously planned by you or did it just happen?
BT: Well, it is and it isn’t a lot of the same people are on these hopeful machines. I love working with different singers and producers. It brings unique perspective to music-making to that process. It was a really exciting thing to do. I had a lot of fun working with different people on this record for sure.
TranceAttack: Responsible for trance classics like “Mercury And Solace”, “Dreaming” and of course “Flaming June” there was a long time you concentrated on other genres in music. Especially between 2001 and 2006 you were very active as composer for soundtracks. What was the decision for you to “come back” to the trance genre?
BT: It’s interesting you cite that period 2001-2006. I found trance to be extremely mundane during that time period and a lot of that had to do with trance being this kind of that polo reaction to what was happening in dance music at that time, which was things like “tech house” and “minimal” becoming so popular. Trance was literally like a swear word in 2000. The new swear word or insult term in music is “trouse”. It used to be “trance”, but now it’s ‘trouse’ – That’s new dance music insult.
That being said, at that time to me it is pre-boring in trance. A lot same idea, production don’t sound that good. People are using compression. And the knowledge on how to make records is very rudimentary at that point and it’s kind of like an off period for that music. That being said I wrote a lot of music in that style during that time period … from “Force Gravity from Emotional Technology” to “Gods Beat destroying that time”. It’s not like something I ever went off, but I think that maybe I was sort of bored of it and so it was the beginning of me starting to score films etc. The thing that made me be sort of interested in dance music in general, not necessarily trance, is that some of the new methodologies and ideologies that have come from base music and the attention to detail and how incredible some of the productions are and that community and how evocative some of the young producers works are right now and that is that reignited a spark in me for my love of dance music.
TranceAttack: In all these years you’re worked together with nearly everyone of the “who is who” in the music scene and especially in the trance scene. Is there still a person left you would love to work with?
BT: There are many people I would love to work with. I am not sure I can think of someone that is a trance artist, but I would be really like to work with the ‘Current String Quartet’. I’ve been a fan of hers since I am a kid. Who else? There are so many bands I like to work with. I love the Australian band ‘Rufus’. I think they are awesome!
TranceAttack: You have a classical music education, playing the piano since you’re 3 years old. What do you think about the technical development of music production, through which more and more people want to make money with making music – especially in the electronic genres of music – even being able to read a single note or play an instrument?
BT: Do you think it’s important to understand your craft and I would say YES to that. You can make money winning the lottery, that doesn’t make you good at anything, right? If you want to have a career in carpentry, you have to learn how to make beautiful cabinets with your hands and it’s the same thing as music. Sure, you can watch a hundred youtube tutorials and get lucky and make something that makes it to the top ten, but at the end of the day what have you added to your own life, to others lives…
I always try to think about what the ultimate end goal is in anything that I do or in the lives of my family… if you are trying to make money, I don’t know why you would wanna do that in music. It’s a bad field to make money in. If you are authentically trying to make music you should set some clearly defined goals that fall outside of selling records or performing to large audiences, but what you should be thinking about is what you can add outside of that I think personally.
Thanks for the interview! Take Care. Bye.
TranceAttack: Thanks for the interview and we wish you all the best for the future!
Connect with BT:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bt
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bt
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheBTchannel
Website: www.btmusic.com
Get your copy on iTunes: bit.ly/13T1m3H
Get your copy in the ArmadaShop: bit.ly/BT_ASAW_Shop
Download the Extended Versions on Beatport: bit.ly/BT_ASAW_Ext_BP
Take a listen to the tracks of “A Song Across Wires” here:
1. BT – Skylarking
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2. BT, Fractal & JES – Letting Go
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3. BT & Adam K – Tomahawk
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699546″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
4. BT, Fractal & Bada – City Life
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699547″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
5. BT, tyDi & Tania Zygar – Stem The Tides
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699548″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
6. BT, tyDi & JES – Tonight
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699549″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
7. BT, Stefan Dabruck & Christian Burns – Love Divine
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699550″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
8. BT & Aqualung – Surrounded
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699551″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
9. BT – Vervoeren
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699553″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
10. BT, Tritonal & Emma Hewitt – Calling Your Name
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699554″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
11. Arty, Nadia Ali & BT – Must Be The Love
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699555″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
12. BT feat. Dragon, Jontron & Senadee – Lifeline
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/105699557″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Grab your copy here!
