The Story So Far...
Trance is a creative soul that's on an adventure into many unknowns... Perhaps it is just those things that are what makes life interesting.
He speaks his mind through his music and lyrics. His focus tends to lean in a humanist/spiritual domain, with elements of philosophy, politics, and self-realization. Trance writes from conscious observation, and introspection. He also writes about, from and with love.
So let's delve into the creative realm...
Trance has been surrounded, influenced, and immersed in music all his life.
He started playing an instrument at around 3 years of age. At the time, his father's double-keyboard organ (complete with bass pedals, which remained out of reach for a year or two) was the only option. It proved to be his first experiment and exposure to creating diverse sounds as that Farfisa organ had options such as basic rhythm and instrumental accompaniment. The composer within had been awakened.
Throughout his formative years, TB grew through several styles of keyboard instruments, as well as picking up skills with drums and percussion, woodwind instruments, and finally, his voice. Later he added various guitars into the blend.
By his mid- to late teens, Trance had begun composition of full songs and arrangements. As with most artists, the music and lyrics serve as avenues of expression. For Trance, this resulted as both emotional and observational content, providing a much needed avenue to share thoughts of (and on) love, pain, society, humanism, philosophy and spirituality in its various forms.
Trance's studio projects are quite diverse in style and concept. His flare for the eclectic continues to expand as recordings develop.
His first major project was Runaway. With the advent of major shifts and progress in recording (studio) technology, Trance embraced the digital platform, utilizing software and hardware to begin the intense learning curve toward creating formidable music.
He had decided, for many reasons, to simply do all the work himself. His mentor in the early days was Darryl "DT" Taylor, at what would become the studios at RMG Entertainment in Kelowna, BC, Canada. Trance dove in head over feet, often spending 16+ hour days in the "Cave". Having watched sunrises turn into sunsets, and back again, Runaway was finally born by the fall of 2001.
Since then, the song ideas continue to "arrive" and Trance continues to strive for strong, passionate and meaningful music. He regularly has at least two different album projects in development, as his genre-defying methods need room to expand. Part of his efforts included a remixed alternative to songs from Runaway, while adding the "Revisited" to the album title. The songs were taken in a new direction, adding a largely electronic/dance spin for the most part.
Trance has worked with Okanagan filmmaker Neil A. Wentworth on numerous independently produced projects. His Movie Musica album features songs created specifically for the feature-length film Brothers Assassin. Having worn several hats in the production of the film, Trance had found another creative outlet. He continues to pursue acting today.
Trance moved forward with more introspective and observational works as well as occasionally dipping into the "not-yet-recorded" catalog. The result was Wander, his next studio project, completed in 2003.
To this project, he decided to add his rendition of the Elvis Presley classic, Can't Help Falling in Love. The idea grew from the months (in 2002) when he'd decided to see where he could take some of the oldies and remake them in TB style. Having grown up in a household where the "King" was frequently heard and admired, the influence was strong.
[Back in '02: Strangely enough, a fellow artist's manager heard some of TB's work on Elvis songs and suggested he participate in the Elvis Festival (now an annual event in Penticton (South Okanagan)). While he didn't wear any jump suits (nor "bling") or really sound like any of the other tribute acts, Trance enjoyed a unique experience at the festival, and performed his own renditions (including his produced backing tracks) live and interactive.]
The Wander album also spawned somewhat of an anthem with the song JoyRide. That composition alone evolved into several alternate versions.
Naturally, Wander... Another Path was soon to follow. Again, the idea was to take (most of) the songs and remake/remix them to add that electronic/dance/pop flare.
Continuing on the electronic-genre path, Trance decided it was time to finish another instrumental album. Opus Instrumentalus: Vibrations would be added to that series.
The album plays out rather thematically, almost as if it were a film score. This wasn't his intention, but certainly a benefit of coincidence. Again, Trance wanted to combine a number of different colours and flavours to the mix to make a diverse compilation that would entice the listener to get into the album as a whole, not just a song or two.
Vibrations has been quite positively reviewed, and several songs from the album have made their way in to various media productions.
Into 2004 and 2005, Trance began work on an album that was primarily guitar-based music. The tone is more somber than Wander, and quite a bit more serious both in lyrics and music. Some of the songs will remain "as recorded" and acoustic. Fleshwound is due out in 2007 and should stand out from the rest of his previous works nicely.
[Back in '02 & '03: Trance has worked with several other recording artists as producer. He met Carly Thomas (the Gypsy Butterfly) at RMG and ended up completing her first full album, Diversity. His other major efforts were with Canadian-Italian pop/rocker Cristo Crudo. They all remain close friends. The "3 Talents" went to New York in the fall of 2003 to attend an international music festival.]
In the meantime, efforts and focus returned to the Elvis Presley project. Having worked on a number of Elvis classics in the past, TB wanted to finish a full-album edition of his own renditions. Countless hours later, Elvis Revisited would be completed, in the fall of 2006.
Lots more to come...
~ ~ ~
Trance now resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he continues his groovy journey.
What about the logo?
Well, the logo is many things in one. "Coincidentally" it is more than I thought it was originally. I see it as a cross (a symbol of multiple meanings) melded with half a heart. This, to me symbolizes our connection to All That Is, or the Universe, Love or Life. It's also the letters "t" and "b". The left side is a "plus" sign, and the right side is a musical "flat" note in notation. Of course, there are ways you too can observe or interpret it as well. :)