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Daniel Miller | |
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| Birth name | Daniel Otto Joachim Miller |
| Born | 14 February 1951 Marylebone, London, England |
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| Years active | 1968–present |
| Labels | Mute Records |
| Website | www |
Daniel Otto Joachim Miller (born 14 February 1951) is a British music producer and founder of Mute Records.
Miller is the son of two Austrian-Jewish refugees from Nazism, Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller, born into a family of actors. [1]
Miller studied film and television at the Guildford School of Art (now University for the Creative Arts) from 1969-1972, where he became interested in synthesizer music. [2] By the end of the 1960s, he became frustrated with rock music's lack of experimentation and became interested in the sound of German bands like Can, Faust, Neu! and Kraftwerk. [3] Miller worked as a DJ in Switzerland before returning to England at the height of punk, which he enjoyed due to the energy and do-it-yourself attitude of the music. He later became interested in the electronic music scene, with bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, which inspired Miller to create his own music. Using money from film editing and working long hours, he gathered enough money to buy a cheap miniKORG 700S synthesizer and a TEAC four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder [2] leading to the creation of the band, The Normal. [3]
After returning from a live tour, Miller found a pile of demo tapes on his doorstep. [4] Because he had included an address on the 'Warm Leatherette' single cover, people had wanted to do a similar small-scale deal with Mute. The turning point for Mute Records came when Miller listened to a tape by an artist called Fad Gadget and liked what he heard. [4] In 1979, Mute Records began releasing singles by Fad Gadget including 'Back to Nature', the follow-up to 'Warm Leatherette'. In 1980 Miller started working with the synth-pop band Depeche Mode who would soon have commercial success. By 1982, with the success of Depeche Mode and their former member Vince Clarke's new synth-pop duo Yazoo, Mute had grown from an underground label run by Miller from his North-West London flat to a label releasing international hits. [2]
Miller recorded two songs, "T.V.O.D." and "Warm Leatherette". The latter was inspired by J. G. Ballard's novel Crash . He called it The Normal to demystify and make it very bland and completed the package by setting up a record label for the release, Mute. He had researched how to make a single so he got some test pressings. Not knowing anything about retail or distribution he approached Rough Trade Records in Portobello Road, London. Originally a record outlet, Rough Trade had expanded into a label and distribution network. Miller took a test pressing into the shop to see if they would be interested in buying a box of them. Rough Trade Records boss Geoff Travis went to the back of the shop with Miller and played "Warm Leatherette". They loved the recording and helped him press 2000 copies of the single. "Warm Leatherette" was released in May 1978 and sold out very quickly. [3] After receiving critical acclaim for the project Miller decided to explore further. He had been helping out at the Rough Trade Shop when he was given an offer of live work. Not wanting to perform alone, he formed a duo with the late Robert Rental who was recording material in a similar style at the time. The live event was hosted by DJ Colin Faver and included Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. After that event, Miller and Rental took on a Rough Trade tour supporting Stiff Little Fingers. Miller and Rental went down very badly; Stiff Little Fingers were a traditional punk band supported by two people with synthesizers and a backing tape. [4]
Another early Mute signing was the synthpop band Silicon Teens, with four imaginary band members: Darryl (played by Frank Tovey), Jacki, Paul, and Diane. The recordings were all recorded by Miller himself and engineered by Eric Radcliffe, who would later work on many other Mute releases. [5] An album titled 'Music for Parties' was released in 1980 and consisted of classic rock 'n' roll songs, like 'Memphis, Tennessee' and 'Just Like Eddie', done in an upbeat synthpop style. The Silicon Teens gave an insight into Miller's idea of an all-synthesiser teenage pop group. [6]
Duet Emmo was a one-off collaboration between Daniel Miller, Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert spawning an album and single, both titled 'Or So it Seems' in 1983. Lewis and Gilbert were both members of Wire until 1979 when the band split up. All three had been friends for a long time. They had all been using Blackwing Studios, and had shared the same engineer, Eric Radcliffe. An initial project had been suggested in 1980 but the success of Depeche Mode and Yazoo had kept Miller busy until the end of 1982. Lewis and Gilbert had both been releasing their own material under the name Dome. Duet Emmo was an anagram of Mute and Dome. [7]
With fellow Depeche Mode music producer Gareth Jones, Daniel Miller has released a few remixes under the name Sunroof. Starting with a remix of "Oh Yeah" for the 1997 Can remix album Sacrilege , there has also surfaced remixes for Neu!, Kreidler, Pizzicato Five, Goldfrapp, Faust, MGMT, Charles Wilp, Ellis Island Sound, Future Bible Heroes and To Rococo Rot. [8]
The Sunroof debut album, Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 1, was released in May 2021. [9]
In 2017, Miller co-authored Mute: A Visual Document (Thames & Hudson) with Terry Burrows. An illustrated hardback book that detailed the history of Mute Records, it was named Book of the Year by both Rough Trade and Electronic Sound magazine.
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the lineup of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists of Gahan and Gore.
Yazoo were an English synth-pop duo from Basildon, Essex, consisting of former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke (keyboards) and Alison Moyet (vocals). The duo formed in late 1981 after Clarke responded to an advertisement Moyet placed in a British music magazine.
Cabaret Voltaire were an English music group formed in Sheffield in 1973 and initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk, and Chris Watson. Named for the Zürich nightclub that fostered the early Dada movement, the band are often characterized as among the most innovative and influential electronic acts of their era.
Martin Lee Gore is an English musician and songwriter. He is one of the founding members of the electronic music band Depeche Mode and is the band's main songwriter. He is the band's guitarist and keyboardist, and occasionally provides lead vocals. Gore possesses a tenor singing voice which contrasts with lead vocalist Dave Gahan's dramatic baritone. He is also known for his flamboyant and (sometimes) androgynous stage persona. Gore has also released several solo albums and collaborated with former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke as part of VCMG.
Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Inspiral Carpets, Moby, New Order, Laibach, Nitzer Ebb, Yann Tiersen, Wire, Yeasayer, Fever Ray, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yazoo, and M83.
Construction Time Again is the third studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 22 August 1983 by Mute Records. It was the band's first album to feature Alan Wilder as a member, who wrote the songs "Two Minute Warning" and "The Landscape Is Changing". The album's title comes from the second line of the first verse of the track "Pipeline". It was recorded at John Foxx's The Garden studios in London, and was supported by the Construction Time Again Tour.
The Normal is the recording artist name used by English music producer Daniel Miller, a film editor at the time, who is best known as the founder of the record label Mute Records.
Francis John Tovey, known also by his stage name Fad Gadget, was a British avant-garde electronic musician and vocalist. He was a proponent of both new wave and early industrial music, fusing pop-structured songs with mechanised experimentation.
Ultra is the ninth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 14 April 1997 by Mute Records. It was the band's first album following the departure of Alan Wilder. Wilder's departure and lead singer Dave Gahan's drug problems, which culminated in a near-fatal overdose, had caused speculation that Depeche Mode was finished.
Andrew John Fletcher, also known as Fletch, was an English keyboard player and founding member of the electronic band Depeche Mode. In 2020, he and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
"Warm Leatherette" is a song by Daniel Miller's project the Normal, released in 1978. Grace Jones recorded a well-known cover of the song in 1980.
"Enjoy the Silence" is a song by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode. Recorded in 1989, it was released as the second single from their seventh studio album, Violator (1990), on 5 February 1990. The song is certified Gold in the US and Germany. The song won Best British Single at the Brit Awards 1991.
Gareth Jones is an English music producer and engineer notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Wire and Erasure.
D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle is the second studio album by English industrial band Throbbing Gristle. It was released in 1978 by their Industrial Records label.
1 + 2 is the debut album by Recoil, released in August 1986. The CD and cassette version were released two years later with Recoil's second release, Hydrology.
Stephen John Pearce, commonly known as Stevo, is a British record producer and music industry executive, best known as the owner of indie record label Some Bizzare Records.
Robert Donnachie (1952–2000), known under the stage name of Robert Rental, was a British pioneer of the post-punk DIY industrial electronic music scene in the United Kingdom.
Some Bizzare Album is the first album issued by Some Bizzare Records. It was released in 1981 as a sampler of the label's musical ethos. The acts were not signed exclusively to the label at the time.
Blackwing Studios was an English recording studio, most notable for early Depeche Mode and Yazoo recordings in the early 1980s.
Machine Soul: An Odyssey Into Electronic Dance Music is a compilation album released by Rhino Records on March 14, 2000. The album explores electronic dance music through various genres and received positive reviews from critics including AllMusic, Entertainment Weekly, and Uncut.
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