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Industry | Music & Entertainment |
---|---|
Founded | March 2010 |
Founder | Blaise Bellville Thristian Richards [1] |
Headquarters | London, England |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Blaise Bellville (CEO) Thristian Richards (host) [2] |
Parent | DICE |
Website | boilerroom |
Boiler Room is an online music broadcaster and club promoter based in London, United Kingdom. It hosts predominantly dance music events, focusing on underground genres, in locations internationally, and broadcasts the shows live over the internet.
It has regular operations in London, Amsterdam, New York City, Berlin, Lisbon, São Paulo, Mexico City, Tokyo, Sydney, Lima, and Los Angeles and produces about 30 to 35 new shows each month. [3] [4] By 2016, Boiler Room had hosted shows in around 100 cities worldwide. [5] [6] Its music programming originally focused on dance music such as garage, house, techno, dub but eventually expanded to include grime, hip hop, classical, and jazz. [7] [8] [9]
In March 2010 Blaise Bellville asked Thristian "Thris Tian" Richards and Femi Adeyemi, the founder of NTS Radio, to record a mixtape for his online magazine platform. This led to the creation of Boiler Room. [10] [11] [12] The name 'Boiler Room' and initial idea came about from an overheard conversation in a bar in Hoxton Square. The first Boiler Room session was recorded using a webcam duct taped to the wall of a disused boiler room, and the session was broadcast live online on Ustream. [13] [14]
During this period, Boiler Room developed their format of filming a DJ facing the camera, a projected visual backdrop of the Boiler Room logo overlaid on old rave video footage, with Time Out noting: "the artists are, after all, the sole attraction at Boiler Room: attendees are positioned behind the decks in a bedroom DJ style set-up so that the selector is always the main figure in view." [15]
Boiler Room's first session in March 2010 turned into a weekly show, becoming a Ustream "Supported Channel" and getting widespread press recognition, with coverage from the BBC, Fader,Time Out, Hypetrak, and Dummy Magazine, who noted that "from a small room in Dalston to a globe-spanning brand, in just over a year Boiler Room has emerged as one of the most important broadcasters in underground music." [16] [17] [18] [19]
In its first year in 2010, Boiler Room featured performances from mostly electronic musicians and DJs including Theo Parrish, Jamie xx, SBTRKT, Hudson Mohawke, Jamie Woon, Mount Kimbie, Falty DL, James Blake, and Ben UFO. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] London based record labels Young Turks and Hessle Audio, as well as hip-hop collective Livin' Proof, hosted Boiler Room takeovers in 2010. [20] [23] [25] Radiohead hosted a Boiler Room takeover in October 2011, featuring sets by Thom Yorke, Jamie xx, Caribou, Lone, and Illum Sphere. [26]
Boiler Room first began international shows in August 2011 with a run hosted in Germany by Michail Stangl, a Russian-born music curator and DJ. [27] [28] [29] [30] Shortly thereafter, Boiler Room expanded in the United States, starting with broadcasts in Los Angeles headed up by Sofie Fatouretchi Royer, [31] [32] [33] [34] an Austro-Iranian artist and musician.
The early focus on the underground music scene and electronic music in London has broadened. It has hip hop, jazz, experimental, classical, world music and talk-based podcast formats. [35] [36]
2014 was defined by a push into classical music, launched with German prepared pianist Hauschka, [37] and followed by broadcasts from St. John's Church in Hackney featured Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Julia Holter. [38] A broadcast within the Pula Arena in Croatia [39] saw Nils Frahm perform. [40]
Boiler Room has partnered with music festivals including SXSW, Sónar, Dimensions, Dekmantel and Nuits Sonores. [41] [42] [43]
Boiler Room launched in China with a show in Beijing in April 2016 followed by a show in Shanghai with Disclosure in May 2016. [44]
Boiler Room's first full-length documentary, on Atlanta based collective Awful Records, launched in June 2016. [45] Boiler Room has since continued producing TV shows and documentaries aimed at telling stories tied to the people, artists and culture. [46] This includes shows like Gasworks, a 20-minute, grime-focused talk show starring Alhan Gençay & Poet. [46]
In 2018, Boiler Room launched '4:3', a platform for film, documentary and music videos, with Amar Ediriwira as its creative director. In 2019, the first 'Boiler Room Festival' was announced in Peckham, London. [47] The event showcased a different underground scene each day, across contemporary jazz, rap, and dance genres. [48]
Despite posting a net operating loss of £6,633,752 in 2018 and a loss of £1,299,656 in 2019, [49] Boiler Room received £791,652 from Arts Council England via the Culture Recovery Fund scheme in October, 2020. [50]
In 2021, ticketing platform DICE bought Boiler Room for an undisclosed sum, after raising $122 million. [51] [52]
In 2018, Boiler Room received a number of award wins and nominations:
A number of notable musicians and cultural organisations have worked with Boiler Room to celebrate key releases and other one-off events.
Boiler Room broadcast Run the Jewels live in 360° format December 2015 before the technology was widely available.
DJ EZ's 24-hour DJ set on the 27 and 28 February 2016 which raised over £60,000 on behalf of Cancer Research UK was also broadcast live on Boiler Room. [63] [64] [65] [66]
Skepta celebrated the release of album Konnichiwa with an album launch party arranged with and streamed by Boiler Room live from Tokyo in May 2016. [67] [68] [69] [70]
Notting Hill Carnival's Rampage, Deviation, Aba Shanti-I, Channel One, Nasty Love, Saxon Sound, King Tubbys, Gladdy Wax and Disya Jeneration soundsystems were broadcast live by Boiler Room in August 2016, totalling 42 hours video coverage. Part of the live coverage was also broadcast by partners The Guardian,Time Out, Noisey, Thump, SB.TV, NTS Radio, and the Deviation and Rampage soundsystems. [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80]
In January 2024, Boiler Room held their first event in the Pacific with a show in Rarotonga - organised in collaboration with DJ Lady Shaka and her Pacific music collective Pulotu Underworld. Boiler Room has stated that this event is the first in a series of events based in the Pacific. [81]
Charli XCX's February 2024 Boiler Room performance, titled "Partygirl", held in a 400-person cap venue in Brooklyn, New York, received approximately 37,000 RSVPs, [82] the largest in Boiler Room's history. The set featured guest DJs A. G. Cook, Doss, Easyfun, George Daniel of The 1975, and was attended by celebrities such as Julia Fox, Dasha Nekrasova, Aquaria, and Addison Rae, among others. The event was covered in various publications, including Paper , V , NME and GQ . [83] [84] [85] [86]
The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean Carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966 on the streets of the Notting Hill area of Kensington, over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Charlotte Emma Aitchison, known professionally as Charli XCX, is an English singer and songwriter. Born in Cambridge and raised in Start Hill, Essex, Charli XCX began posting songs on Myspace in 2008 before entering the London rave scene. She signed a recording contract with Asylum Records in 2010, releasing a series of singles and mixtapes throughout 2011 and 2012. She later featured on "I Love It" with Swedish duo Icona Pop, with the song becoming her first number-one in the UK and receiving global success. Her debut studio album, True Romance (2013), was released to positive reviews but failed to meet commercial expectations.
Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted Andersen, known professionally as MØ, is a Danish singer and songwriter. In 2012, she signed a recording contract with Sony Music Entertainment, releasing her debut extended play, Bikini Daze (2013), and her debut studio album, No Mythologies to Follow (2014).
English singer Charli XCX has released six studio albums, five mixtapes, three extended plays, one live album, one soundtrack album, one remix album, two DJ mixes, 48 singles, and 13 promotional singles. In 2007, XCX began recording her debut album on a loan granted by her parents. Titled 14, after her age at the time, it received only a restricted public release. Two singles, "!Franchesckaar!" and double A-side "Emelline" / "Art Bitch", were released in late 2008 under Orgy Music. In June 2012, Charli XCX released her first mixtape, titled Heartbreaks and Earthquakes, a one-track file consisting of eight songs. A second mixtape, titled Super Ultra, was released in November of the same year. Charli XCX's major-label debut studio album, True Romance, was released in April 2013, and peaked at number 85 on the UK Albums Chart. While failing to appear on any main album charts internationally, the album reached number five on the Heatseekers Albums chart in the United States and number 11 on the ARIA Hitseekers chart in Australia. The album spawned five singles—"Stay Away", "Nuclear Seasons", "You're the One", "You " and "What I Like". In 2012, Charli XCX was featured on Icona Pop's song "I Love It", which peaked at number one in the UK and reached the top 10 in various countries including the US, Canada, Ireland and Germany.
"Fancy" is a song by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea featuring British singer Charli XCX, taken from the former's debut studio album, The New Classic (2014). It was released on 17 February 2014 by Def Jam Recordings as the fourth single from the album. "Fancy" was described as an electro-hop, electropop, and pop rap song. It was written by Azalea and XCX, composed and produced by production team the Invisible Men, alongside additional producers the Arcade. It was leaked under the title "Leave It" in December 2013.
Strange Desire is the debut studio album released by American indie pop act Bleachers, led by guitarist Jack Antonoff. The album was released on July 11, 2014, through RCA Records, and produced the singles "I Wanna Get Better", "Shadow" and "Rollercoaster".
"Boom Clap" is a song by English singer Charli XCX, released as the first single from the soundtrack album of The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and is also featured on her second studio album, Sucker. There are two existing mixes of this song: the first and original one is heard in the film, the film's soundtrack, and the music video shot in Amsterdam; the second mix is heard on the music video shot in Japan and in Sucker.
Sucker is the second studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released on 15 December 2014 by Asylum and Atlantic Records. The album was met with positive reviews from critics, praising its throwback style, and ended up being included on many year-end lists for best albums of 2014. Sucker spawned the singles "Boom Clap", "Break the Rules", "Doing It" and "Famous".
Sophie Xeon, known mononymously as SOPHIE, was an English music producer, songwriter, and DJ. Her work is known for its brash take on pop music and is distinguished by experimental sound design, "sugary" synthesized textures, and incorporation of underground dance styles. It would help pioneer the 2010s hyperpop microgenre.
PC Music is a record label and art collective based in London and run by producer A. G. Cook. It was founded in 2013, uploading its first releases to SoundCloud that year. Artists on its roster have included Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, Danny L Harle, Easyfun, Namasenda, and Planet 1999. The label's releases have been showcased on the compilations PC Music Volume 1 (2015), Volume 2 (2016), and Volume 3 (2022). Following a decade-long run, since 2024 the label is now only dedicated to archival projects and special reissues.
Alexander Guy Cook is an English music producer and the head of the now-closed UK record label PC Music. Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, Finn Keane, Danny L Harle and Felicita. He formed the one-off project QT with musician Sophie and performance artist Hayden Dunham, producing the 2014 single "Hey QT".
"Drop That Kitty" is a song by American singer Ty Dolla Sign featuring British singer Charli XCX and fellow American singer Tinashe, who all wrote the track with its producers Stargate and Cashmere Cat. It was released as digital download in the United States on February 17, 2015, originally intended as the first single from Free TC but was later scrapped. Sign raps the track's main verses, while XCX sings its chorus and Tinashe its bridge and pre-chorus hook. The lyrical content in the song serve as a four-step dance instructional and contain several sexual euphemisms and innuendos. It discusses a scenario of meeting someone attractive in a club and communicating basest desires to them, while extolling the virtues of physical flexibility.
"Famous" is a song by English singer Charli XCX, released as the fourth and final single from her second studio album, Sucker (2014). A music video for the single was released 23 March 2015.
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"Gone" is a song by British singer Charli XCX and French singer Christine and the Queens. It was released on 17 July 2019 as the third single from Charli XCX's third studio album Charli. The music video was released alongside the track.
"Ringtone" is a song by American experimental musical duo 100 gecs, composed of Dylan Brady and Laura Les, from 100 Gecs' debut studio album 1000 Gecs (2019). Its remix, included on their remix album 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues (2020), features vocals from British singer Charli XCX, American rapper Rico Nasty, and British singer Sarah Bonito of the indie pop band Kero Kero Bonito. The song is a remix of "Ringtone". The song's production is glitchy with "80's video game-inspired blips" and uses heavy bass and Auto-Tune.
How I'm Feeling Now is the fourth studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released on 15 May 2020. Released eight months after her previous LP, Charli (2019), the album was conceived in the span of six weeks during the COVID-19 lockdown in a "do it yourself" collaborative process with her fans. Charli XCX, A. G. Cook and BJ Burton served as the album's executive producers.
Crash is the fifth studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released on 18 March 2022. It was her last album to be released under her record contract with Asylum Records. Charli announced the album title, release date, and artwork on 4 November 2021. Her website was also updated with information about the album's 2022 tour. The album was preceded by the four singles "Good Ones", "New Shapes" featuring Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek, "Beg for You" featuring Rina Sawayama, "Baby" and two promotional singles, "Every Rule" and "Used to Know Me", the latter released as the fifth single in April 2022.
George Bedford Daniel is a British drummer, record producer, and electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of pop band the 1975, as part of which he released five albums that topped the UK Albums Chart. His songwriting and producing partnership with the band's Matty Healy made him the co-recipient of multiple awards and nominations including two Ivor Novello Awards including Songwriter of the Year and four Brit Awards. He has also been co-nominated twice for the Mercury Prize and once for the Grammy Awards. He released his debut single, "Screen Cleaner", in August 2024.