Dance music maestro BT will drop his fourth album, Emotional Technology, next spring. 'N Sync's JC Chasez, actress Rose McGowan, the Roots, Gang Starr's Guru and Scott McCloud of Girls Against Boys have all contributed to the effort.
BT, whose real name is Brian Transeau, says he amassed about forty new tracks this year and is holed up in Los Angeles whittling them down to an album's length. Scheduled to make the cut are such tunes as "Dark Heart Dawning" (featuring cellist and electronic artist Caroline LaVelle), "The Great Escape," "Force of Gravity" (featuring, Chasez), "Knowledge of Self" (featuring Guru), "Tao of the Machine" (featuring the Roots), "A Last Moment of Clarity," "Paris," and "Super Fabulousness" (featuring McGowan and McCloud).
"I wanted to get someone to do a vocal that wasn't a singer, and my friend was like, 'Dude! You should talk to Rose,'" BT says of his introduction to the Charmed actress and Marilyn Manson's ex. "We got together and she starts singing me jazz standards. I'm like, 'This isn't what I planned, but you've got a really cool voice.' We wrote that song together. It's sort of tongue in cheek with a lot of Eighties references in it. And I've never done a song that's got three singers -- I'm singing on it, Scott's singing on it and Rose is singing on it. We've all got different parts, but it's a really cool tune. Rose keeps saying, 'Dude! I wanna wear parachute pants and gummy bracelets and feather my hair and have big pink lip gloss in the video. And I'm like, 'That shit sounds good to me.'"
Despite some pop-friendly guests, BT wants to kick off the Emotional Technology campaign in the clubs. "I really want to stay with the people that have supported me all along," he says. "Record-label people get all excited: 'Oh this song's great for radio. Let's make a video and let's go to fucking [L.A. radio station] KROQ.' And I'm like, 'Hang on a second. Let's put a record in the club and really stick with the core audience, because I wouldn't be doing this shit if they weren't still there."
BT is currently choosing his first single. "Paris" is a frontrunner, and he expects the Chasez-fronted "Force of Gravity" to be the follow-up. "When people hear it, no one believes it's him," BT says of the 'N Sync singer. "He's just got an incredible voice. The vocals are very treated, and it's so not anything to do with anything ['N Sync] have ever done. I've been ending my DJ sets with it, and people have gone kind of cuckoo."
JOLIE LASH
(December 23, 2002)