Celldweller

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Celldweller
Celldweller.
Celldweller.
General information
Genre (s) Synth rock , industrial rock , nu metal , dubstep , techno , trance , drum and bass , breakbeat
founding 1999
Website klayton.info
Founding members
Vocals, guitar, synthesizer
 Klayton
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar, synthesizer
 Klayton
Former live members
Bass, electric guitar, keyboard, background vocals
 Kemikal (2004-2006)
Guitar, keyboard, clock instruments, background vocals
 Dale Van Norman (2004-2006)
Drums, clock instruments
 Caise (2004-2006)
Bass, electric guitar, keyboard
 Bret Autrey (Blue Stahli) (2010-2013)

Celldweller was founded in New York City , New York (moved to Detroit , Michigan immediately afterwards ) and is the music project of the American Klayton, who also works as a producer, remixer and DJ. Klayton is a composer, singer and also plays most of the instruments himself in the studio recordings for his project. In general, Celldweller's music style can be described as Synth Rock , with elements of Industrial Rock , Nu Metal , Dubstep , Techno , Trance , Drum and Bass and Breakbeat also being present. Celldweller songs can often be heard in films, trailers, TV shows, and computer games.

Surname

According to Klayton, the name Celldweller developed during the time when he was still living with his parents. Back then he spent a lot of time in the basement making music, so his mother started calling him Cellar Dweller (basement dweller ). In the following years this changed to the nickname Cell Dweller , as he had spent a long time almost exclusively in the studio for an album of his former project Circle of Dust . The song Helldweller from the aforementioned project probably also had an influence on the development of the name Celldweller. Under this pseudonym he later created more songs until he released his first EP as a solo project under this name (but now written together).

Band history

Celldweller & The Beta Cessions

In 1999 Klayton first released a limited edition of his self-titled EP under the name Celldweller, which contained five tracks ( Symbiont , Own Little World , Fadeaway , Beginning of the End and Kemikal ). The first three tracks ultimately came on his debut album, but they differed from those on the limited EP. The other two tracks were later released on his LP The Beta Cessions .

His debut album Celldweller was released in February 2003 by the music label "Position Music" and some songs were sold exclusively, first on the Celldweller website, then on CD Baby and later via iTunes on the Internet. The album quickly reached number 17 on the "Billboard Internet Sales Charts". He also received several awards such as "Producer of the Year" and "Album of the Year" for the debut. Many of his pieces have been used for films, video games and other media carriers over the years.

In 2004 Celldweller released the double album The Beta Cessions . The first CD contained remakes of earlier tracks and songs from "Circle of Dust" completed by Celldweller, such as: B. Goodbye . An alternative version of Switchback was also included. The second CD contained instrumental versions of all the tracks on Celldweller's debut album .

Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 01

In mid-December 2008 Klayton released the album Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 01 . This is not the announced second studio album by Celldweller, but a work consisting mainly of instrumental pieces. The songs have been written along with the pieces for the upcoming album over the past two years. Since these songs appeared to be more suitable for Klayton for use in film, television, commercials and video games, he publishes this first selection as his own compilation. As the title of the work suggests, this release was only the first of several instrumental albums especially for film music. Among the 22 tracks is Pursuit of the Hunted , a previous candidate for the upcoming album, as well as some bonus versions of Birthright . The final version will only be heard on Wish Upon a Blackstar .

Wish Upon a Blackstar

Work on Wish Upon a Blackstar , Celldweller's second album, began in 2005 . Between 40 and 50 demos were written in the initial phase, from which the best were then selected in the further course. Since it was foreseeable early on that the creation process would take a long time, the idea of ​​releasing parts of the album early came up. That is why four parts of the LP, each with two titles, were released early, so that the new songs were available to the fan base shortly after they were completed. There will be seven more new songs on the entire album, so the album consists of 15 tracks and an intro. The first chapter was published on August 25, 2009, chapter number 4 came out on June 28, 2011. Until the release of the full album, all chapters were only available as a download. A “Deluxe Edition” of the individual partial publications also contains demos for the respective songs as well as audio comments on the creation of these. The complete LP was then released on June 12, 2012, almost three years after the first partial release and almost 1 year after the 4th chapter. A deluxe edition of the full album also has an alternative track order that has been prepared as a continuous mix and also contains an outro. At times, a subsequent release of The Beta Cessions 2 was also in discussion, which should again contain remakes and unreleased tracks from the Wish Upon A Blackstar era . The idea was dropped, however, some demos from that time can be found on the anniversary version of the debut album instead .

The Complete Cellout Vol. 01 & Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 02

A complete remix album from Celldweller has also been available since December 16, 2011. The tracklist consists on the one hand of songs edited by Klayton himself, which were mainly intended for the live show, as well as a number of remixes by other artists. All Celldweller remixes on the album - apart from the unreleased intro - have been released separately beforehand. In addition to the complete Cellout EP (three previously released remixes), this also includes the new Goodbye version, the So Long Sentiment remix and Blue Stahlis Birthwrong . The other pieces on the work are all remixes from the Wish Upon a Blackstar album. Originally, these remixes were to be found on a separate release, Remixed Upon a Blackstar . In return he asked artists, of whom he had already remixed one of their works, to edit a song from his new album in return. In the end there should be a remix for every track by Wish Upon a Blackstar . It can be assumed, however, that this album was put on hold in favor of The Complete Cellout and that the existing tracks were integrated into the current release. From the original list of participating artists, there was still BT , who at the time had not yet made a remix. This was then submitted as a separate single on October 22, 2013. Together with Seamless, BT has created a more experimental version of Unshakeable .

As suspected after the first instrumental album was released, Klayton also released another instrumental album in the Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head (SVH) series. Just like Wish Upon a Blackstar , this work was also split into three chapters and released. The first part was released on June 10, 2010, from July 24, 2012 the complete album with a total of 19 songs was available. Four of the pieces were already known. These were part of two specially put together music packages made up of known and unreleased material that were exclusively available online for a few days each. Two of the pieces on the CD are remixes of already known songs from the first two albums. The End is another version of Welcome To The End from the debut album, How This All Began is based on Gift For You from the album Wish Upon a Blackstar . The song Adrift On Celestial Seas is the first purely atmospheric and to date longest song by Celldweller with a length of exactly 20 minutes.

Celldweller 10 Year Anniversary Edition and Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 03

For the tenth anniversary of the first Celldweller album, it was re-released as an anniversary edition. The songs remained untouched, but the artwork on the CD was completely renewed. In the standard version this album contains all known tracks from the first album plus the song Uncrowned , which was originally supposed to be on the Celldweller album. The song was written back in 2000, but then removed from the tracklist because it did not fit into the album concept. For the anniversary album, the demo was taken up again and the song was produced from scratch in order to be able to fully exploit the better technical possibilities. The deluxe edition consists of two CDs. The first CD contains the well-known album, the second CD consists of a collection of various pieces. In addition to the two new songs Uncrowned and Ghosts, there are also some demos by Celldweller on the disc. In addition, well-known and a new remix ( The Last Firstborn Remix ) by Klayton and remixes by other artists are part of the second CD.

Since July 13, 2013, the first chapter of Soundtrack for the Voices has been available in My Head Vol. 03 and consists of four titles. As already known, more chapters will follow before the complete album can also be purchased in physical form on CD.

Blackstar novel & soundtrack

Klayton's new project not only includes a new music album: it is primarily a science fiction novel called Blackstar , which was written by author Josh Viola (The Bane of Yoto) on behalf of and with the ideas of Klayton becomes. In the announcement for the novel, Klayton himself explains how the idea came about:

"Wish Upon a Blackstar" is a conceptual album and the visuals surrounding it were there to help tell the story. I've had bigger ideas and stories to tell, but that was difficult to do through just song lyrics and concept art. I've been looking for ways to take the story further & that's exactly what's happening.

“Wish Upon a Blackstar” is a concept album and the accompanying artwork should help tell the story. I had bigger ideas and stories to tell, but that was difficult to do with just lyrics and concept art. I've been looking for ways to take the story further & that's exactly what is happening. "

This story should not only be told with the help of the novel. A soundtrack for the book specially created by Klayton is also intended to tempt the reader to delve even deeper into the created world. The creation of the novel and music were closely linked. During the creative phase there was a lively exchange between the two artists, which led to the novel being heavily inspired by music and vice versa. In the case of the novel, the musical influence can also be extended to the other works of Klayton. References to Klayton's work are repeatedly made in the story. There is also a very direct connection between the story and the Scandroid side project by Klayton and Varien. The sound of Scandroid is described as New Retro and its style is based on the synthesizer-heavy music of the 1980s . The fictional characters of the band and their music appear directly in the novel and are integrated into the story. In a separate text, which is also written by Josh Viola, the characters are introduced and the background to the formation of the band in the Blackstar world is explained. The novel and soundtrack are both divided into three parts; each new section of the novel is followed by a further soundtrack. When the entire novel is published, the complete soundtrack album will be released. Blackstar Act One: Purified and Blackstar Act Two: Awakening novel and soundtrack are already available. Both the book chapters and the songs are initially only available digitally, i.e. as an e-book or MP3 album. Both sections of the novel consist of around 100 pages, the soundtrack contains 5 or 6 titles.

End of an Empire

End of an Empire is Celldweller's third vocal album. In the first part of a video documentary about the creation of the new work, Klayton explained that the title topic was not about a bygone era, but about the collapse of a future empire. The complete album contains several themes, each of which has its own musical and visual concept. In the documentary, Klayton explains what musical approach he took for the album:

“I knew that based on the way 'Wish Upon a Blackstar' turned out, the visuals, the music were cleaner. And I knew that [for] "End of an Empire" [...] my mind was heading in a dirtier direction. I wanted it to be more aggressive, I wanted it to be louder, dirtier, nastier. [...] ”

“I knew from the way 'Wish Upon a Blackstar' had developed that the visualizations, the music, were smoother. And I was sure that I wanted to get more angular and angular for 'End of an Empire'. I wanted to make the album more aggressive, louder, dirtier and nastier. [...] "

Klayton considered starting the album with the question of what was the end of an Empire . Therefore there is a title track in this album, which should also reflect the atmosphere of the entire album. The track also mentions the four main motifs: Time , Love , Dreams , Death . As is known, each of the motifs is published individually as a chapter of the album, also to give fans quicker access to the new material. The first chapter Time was released on September 1, 2014. The last part Death was released in July 2015. Each part consists of 2 songs and 3 so-called Factions , which are shorter, more experimental pieces. Klayton had already indicated that the entire album will probably only consist of the main songs and that the factions will form another album. In the respective chapters there are also remixes of the songs by different artists and the instrumental versions of all titles.

Remixes

On April 21, 2008, a Celldweller remix of Pendulums Propane Nightmares was released. The remix is ​​on the "Deluxe Edition" of the new album In Silico by Pendulum.

On the out brought on 12 January 2010 Single Suddenly from BT is also a Celldweller remix . Together with four other remixes, this single is only available as a download in the USA .

In the summer of 2011, two more Celldweller remixes came on the market. First on July 19th, a remix of Live The Life by J. Scott G. and Adam Lambert on the single of the same name. In addition, a month later, on August 22nd, the remix of the song It's Too Late by JES followed ; again on the corresponding single from the original.

Celldweller's version of the song A Lesson Never Learned was even released on November 1, 2011 as a separate and first single from Asking Alexandria's remix album Stepped up and Scratched . With the Creatures (Beast Remix) by Motionless in White , another remix of a song by a metalcore band was released on March 13, 2012 .

On September 14, 2012 he released a remix of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and AFI's Miss Murder’s as “Miss Murder's Personal Jesus (AFI & Depeche Mode Klash-Up)”. The song premiered on the Alternative Press website.

On May 28, 2013, the Celldweller remix of I See Stars' Filth Friends Unite was released on the album Renegades Forever . Shortly after, on June 10, 2013, another remix of Motionless In White was released on the Deluxe Edition of Infamous . It is the song America , which was edited by Klayton in close consultation with the front man of the band.

Live show

At the first live shows shortly after the release of the debut album, Klayton was supported on stage by several musicians. In retrospect, however, Klayton expressed great displeasure with the Celldweller live concept and the tour itself. He seriously considered stopping touring as Celldweller. At the beginning of 2010, however, Klayton announced on his website that he had taken up the idea of ​​touring again. However, there will no longer be a classic rock concert, but rather a “one-man multimedia show”; But he is not all alone, as he is supported by Bret (Blue Stahli). The current concerts see themselves as a "live remix session". Here Klayton and Bret only play certain parts of the song live. The portion that comes "off the tape" is also illustrated visually. From the fall of 2010 to the summer of 2011, Klayton performed repeatedly, mainly in North America. In 2012 Klayton played sporadic appearances around the world with a DJ set. The DJ set consisted mostly of his own songs or remixes and for some of the songs he sang live or played the lead guitar . At the end of March 2013, the first and only two appearances in Europe were in Sheffield and Munich . Further appearances are not planned as Klayton wants to concentrate on his current projects.

Others

In the spring of 2006 Celldweller covered Tragedy , a former hit song that was released by the Bee Gees in 1979 . So far, the track has only been available on iTunes together with an instrumental version , but was originally intended to be included on Celldweller's second album. However, the announcement of the track list of the upcoming album showed that Tragedy will not be released again after all.

In June 2007 Klayton founded his own label "FiXT". Immediately after the founding, several other independent artists were signed, and many participants were also recruited through the Celldweller Remix Competition . The aim of the label is on the one hand to make the songs produced by the artists known for film and television, so to speak as the film producers' “procurement point” for new music. On the other hand, to present their music to a wider public.

There have also been some collaborations with other artists in recent years. At the end of 2005 the song Shapeshifter was released in collaboration with the rap formation Styles of Beyond . On November 16, 2010, the soundtrack of the video game Dead Rising 2 came out with the title song Kill the Sound specially written for it by Klayton . Nivek Ogre, the singer from Skinny Puppy, also has a guest appearance on the track. In the video game itself you can also hear a number of other Celldweller songs; however, they cannot be found on the soundtrack. Celldweller also contributed some new songs for the sequel Dead Rising 3 . The three songs from the soundtrack created by Klayton are also available as a separate EP for download. Tommy Noble and Celldweller's single Meteorite came out on April 2, 2012. The music genre of the song can be classified in the field of Electro House , with Klayton providing the vocals and the guitar track. Other separately released remixes of Klayton's own songs include "Switchback" (Klayton Revision), "Own Little World" (Remorse Code Remix) and "Goodbye" (Klayton Revision). The Space & Time EP includes four new remixes and the album song Unshakeable and was released on December 11, 2012. Except for the remix by Tough Guy , all tracks are originally from the Wish Upon a Blackstar album. The song Gift For You was edited by KJ Sawka from Pendulum . Space & Time is a version of Unshakeable that was created by Klayton himself.

Celldweller Remix Contests

As early as 2001, two years before the first Celldweller album was released, the audio tracks of the song Symbiont were made available for remixing on MP3.com . After the site was closed, the remixes were only released in 2006 together with the news about a new remix contest: Under the name Take It & Break It Remix Competition , a large number of songs from the debut album were released and were available for everyone to remix. The newly created works could then be uploaded to the specially set up website and the best, selected by a fan vote, were published on CD. From the Cell Weller Remix Competition which was created in 2008 then Fixt Remix Competition , now only the audio tracks of songs by Celldweller, but also other bands of the fixes labels are no longer provided. In addition, the remixes can now also be downloaded directly for free. All titles published in the individual chapters of Wish Upon a Blackstar have also been uploaded to the Fixt-Remix page. In the summer of 2012 it was announced that the remix project would be abandoned. Therefore, the last tracks were no longer released for remixing.

Discography

Studio albums

  • Celldweller (EP, 1999, Position Music)
  • Celldweller (LP, 2003, Music position)
  • The Beta Cessions (LP, 2004, Position Music)
  • Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 01 (LP, 2008, Fixt Music)
  • The Complete Cellout Vol. 01 (LP, 2011, Fixt Music)
  • Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 02 (LP, 2012, Fixt Music)
  • Wish Upon a Blackstar (LP, 2012, Fixt Music)
  • Celldweller 10 Year Anniversary Edition (LP, 2013, Fixt Music)
  • Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 03 (LP, 2013, Fixt Music)
    • Chapter 01 (download only) (2013, Fixt Music)
  • Blackstar (Original Score) (LP, 2013, Fixt Music)
    • Act One: Purified (download only) (2013, Fixt Music)
    • Act Two: Awakening (download only) (2014, Fixt Music)
  • End of an Empire (LP, 2015, Fixt Music)
    • End of an Empire (Chapter 01: Time) (2014, Fixt Music)
    • End of an Empire (Chapter 02: Love) (2014, Fixt Music)
    • End of an Empire (Chapter 03: Dreams) (2015, Fixt Music)
    • End of an Empire (Chapter 04: Death) (2015, Fixt Music)
  • Offworld (LP, 2017, Fixt Music)

Live albums

  • Live Upon a Blackstar (LP, 2012, Fixt Music)

Singles and EPs

  • Switchback (single, 2003, position music)
  • Frozen / Goodbye Remixes (EP, 2005, Position Music)
  • Shapeshifter (EP, 2005, Position Music)
  • Tragedy (single, 2006, position music)
  • Switchback / Own Little World Remixes (EP, 2006, Position Music)
  • Kill The Sound (single, 2010)
  • Cellout EP 01 (EP, 2011, Fixt Music)
  • Goodbye (Klayton's 2012 Mix) (Single, 2011, Fixt Music)
  • Elara (single, 2012, Fixt Music)
  • Meteorite - Tommy Noble + Celldweller (Single, 2012, Fixt Music)
  • Tough Guy (single, 2012, Fixt Music)
  • Zombie Killer (EP, 2013, Fixt Music)
  • Salvation Code - Scandroid (Celldweller & Varien) (Single, 2013, Fixt Music)
  • Datastream - Scandroid (Celldweller & Varien) (Single, 2013, Fixt Music)
  • Empty Streets - Scandroid (Celldweller) (Single, 2014, Fixt Music)
  • Aphelion - Scandroid (Celldweller) (Single, 2014, Fixt Music)

Remixes

Remix albums

  • Tragedy Remixes (LP, 2006, Mental Madness)
  • Symbiont Remixes 2001 (EP, 2007, Fixt Music)
  • Take It & Break It Vol. 1: Own Little World Remixes (LP, 2007, Fixt Music / Position Music)
  • Take It & Break It Vol. 2: Frozen Remixes (LP, 2007, Fixt Music / Position Music)
  • Take It & Break It Vol. 3: Switchback Remixes (LP, 2008, Fixt Music)
  • The Last Firstborn Remixes (download only) (LP, 2009, Fixt Music)
  • I Believe You Remixes (download only) (LP, 2009, Fixt Music)
  • Fadeaway Remixes (download only) (LP, 2009, Fixt Music)
  • Welcome to the End Remixes (download only) (LP, 2009, Fixt Music)
  • Under My Feet Remixes (download only) (LP, 2009, Fixt Music)
  • Afraid This Time Remixes (download only) (LP, 2009, Fixt Music)
  • Louder Than Words Remixes (LP, 2011, Fixt Music)
  • So Long Sentiment Remixes (LP, 2011, Fixt Music)
  • Eon Remixes (LP, 2011, Fixt Music)
  • I Can't Wait Remixes (LP, 2012, Fixt Music)
  • The Best It's Gonna Get Remixes (LP, 2012, Fixt Music)

DVDs

  • Live Upon a Blackstar (2012, Fixt Music, also Blu-Ray)

Awards

Klayton / Celldweller received five "Just Plain Folks Music Awards" in 2004

  • "Album of the Year" - Celldweller
  • "Producer of the Year" - Klayton
  • "Best Industrial Album" - Celldweller
  • "Best Industrial Song" - Switchback (with Stay with Me (Unlikely) in second place)
  • "Best Metal Song" - One Good Reason
  • "Best Hard Rock Song", fourth place - fadeaway
  • "Best Rock Song", second place - I Believe You

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ask_celldweller EP.02: Thanks Mom. Youtube.com/celldweller
  2. ↑ a b 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards - Founder's Awards. jpfolks.com
  3. ↑ a b 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards - Song Winners. jpfolks.com
  4. ↑ a b 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards - Album Winners. jpfolks.com
  5. ↑ Celldweller Film / TV Credits. ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. celldweller.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.celldweller.com
  6. ↑ Wish Upon A Blackstar - Letter From Klayton celldweller.com
  7. ^ Comment under Wish Upon a Blackstar. fixtstore.com
  8. ↑ a b Ground Zero. ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. celldweller.com, February 23, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.celldweller.com
  9. ↑ Celldweller 10 Year Anniversary Edition, Video Announcement. fixtstore.com, June 10, 2013
  10. ↑ a b c Blackstar Announcement. ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. celldweller.com, February 25, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.celldweller.com
  11. ↑ Interview with Klayton and Josh Viola about Blackstar. ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. djz.com, December 27, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.djz.com
  12. ↑ Scandroid Origins. (PDF) salvationcode.com, December 23, 2013
  13. ↑ a b Ask Celldweller EP.17: What is love? youtube.com/celldweller, October 14, 2014
  14. ↑ Start of an Empire: Episode 01: Beginning of the End. youtube.com/celldweller, March 20, 2015
  15. ↑ Song premiere: Celldweller, “Miss Murder's Personal Jesus (AFI & Depeche Mode Klash-Up)”. Alternative press
  16. ↑ Klayton interview with FEARNnet. fearnet.com, December 10, 2008
  17. ↑ Fixt Remix has closed. fixtremix.com, July 1, 2012