Bryan Charles Hollon, aka Boom Bip, is a producer and musician who experiments with many different genres and has developed a sound of his own. His music is mostly instrumental, but over the course of his career he has collaborated with several vocalists. He is currently signed to Lex Records, which, until 2005, was a division of Warp Records in the United Kingdom. He has also had releases on the U.S. based label Mush Records. Boom Bip is also known for the remix work that he has done for many artists on several different record labels. Some of those artists include Amon Tobin, Hot Hot Heat, Mogwai, Four Tet, M83, Danny Elfman, Pet, and Super Furry Animals.
Biography
Hollon is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio but has relocated to the city of Los Angeles, California. His career began as a DJ on Cincinnati's WAIF and also as a DJ at a small club there called Ripley's hosting an evening of jazz, hip-hop and electronic music. He soon hooked up with New York producer DJ Osiris and Robert Curcio to produce "The Low End Sequence EP", named after his evening at Ripley's. Not long after that he met rapper Doseone in the local clubs and open mic nights and they collaborated on their first album titled Circle for Mush Records. This album grabbed the attention of John Peel (who heralded Boom Bip as a "modern day Captain Beefheart" after his first Peel Session) and Gilles Peterson in the UK and soon they were a name in the British Underground Rap and Electronic scene.
The attention eventually led to Tom Brown, of Warp Records, asking Hollon to complete his first solo album for Lex Records. The album, Seed to Sun, was released in 2002. Boom Bip was invited back to record a second Peel Session, which was ultimately included on his next album, a remix compendium entitled Corymb (2004). The album also included a string of remixes by his contemporaries, including Boards of Canada, Mogwai and Four Tet.
Hollon then moved to Silverlake in LA in order to start work on his next album, Blue Eyed in the Red Room (2005). Concerning this latest album Boom Bip said
This album was started on a clean slate, in a new place, with new inspiration [...] You can hear that in the songs, the fear, excitement, loneliness and comfort that I've felt for the past year. With Seed To Sun I was in rut and a lot of dreaming and sadness were expressed in that album.
In a return to his earlier style, Hollon also played every instrument on the album himself, and used absolutely no samples in the process. Explaining the reasons behind this, Hollon said:
I wanted the listener to get a sense of what is going on inside my head and my environment as much as possible. Samples are a detour from that connection. Samples express what you like, but it's someone else's idea and product. To really connect with the listener it was essential that I play everything. While making the record I had the live show in mind the entire time. The new songs are 98% live instrumentation and have energy, structure, chord changes and dynamics. Not loop-based or beat-based like tracks in the past.
In 2007 Boom Bip formed the partnership Neon Neon with Gruff Rhys, with whom he had originally collaborated with on his album Blue Eyed in the Red Room. Their debut single Trick for Treat was released in July 2007, and their debut album Stainless Style the following year, on March 18 2008.
Live
Boom Bip usually tours as full four piece live band including drums, guitars, synths and many gadgets and machines. He has played many large festivals including: Pukkelpop, Coachella, Glastonbury, Transmusicales, the Dedbeat Festival, and London's Ether Festival. He has toured with Super Furry Animals, Mice Parade, Interpol and others in the United States. He has shared the stage with the likes of Sonic Youth, The Cure, Mogwai, etc. Boom Bip and his touring bands have played some of the world's most famous venues such as Pompidou Centre in Paris, Sydney Opera House, Walt Disney Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Victor Vaserely's Foundation and many others.
Discography
Solo: Albums/EPs/Singles
- 2002 - Seed to Sun
- 2002 - "Mannequin Hand Trapdoor I Reminder"
- 2004 - Corymb
- 2004 - "Morning & a Day EP"
- 2003 - "From Left to Right"
- 2005 - Blue Eyed in the Red Room
- 2005 - "Do's & Don'ts"
- 2007 - "Sacchrilege EP"
Solo: Break Records
- 2000 - Doo Doo Breaks Volume 1
- 2002 - Doo Doo Tones
- 2003 - Doo Doo Breaks Volume 2
with DJ Osiris
- 1998 - "The Low End Sequence EP"
with Doseone
with Daedelus
with Busdriver (coproduced with Nobody)
with Gruff Rhys
External links
