Tim Bran
Tim Bran has had a remarkable few years, developing international recognition as a producer and mixer. An essential part of Youth's production team, he has spent the last few years producing albums as glorious as The Verve’s last album “Forth” and mixing radio singles for La Roux’s huge hits “In For The Kill” and “Bulletproof”.
Tim has had a long, varied and successful career in the music business. It all began humbly enough in Guernsey, where aged 17, he converted an old German communications bunker into his own music studio. Here he honed his keyboard and guitar skills, as well as engineering skills, before being called upon by Island Records to become their in-house producer at the legendary 'Bunker Studios' in London. Here Tim worked with some of the most intriguing alternative musicians of the day, including the eccentric genius Julian Cope. Tim left the Bunker to play bass and keyboards with Julian full time and it was during this phase Tim hooked up with Greg Roberts and the pair became Dreadzone.
Dreadzone quickly built up worldwide acclaim as pioneers of a fusion of dub/reggae with the new sounds of techno that fired the dance generation of the early 90s. Signed initially to Creation Records and the later on Virgin Records, the band had several successful albums including ‘360 Degrees’ and 'Second Light' which spawned the hit single 'Little Britain'.
In the mid-90's, Tim co-founded a music technology company called Rocket Network. It enabled real time musical collaboration over the internet and was pioneering in its day. This kept him busy until the end of 2002, when the company was sold to Digidesign, creators of ProTools.
Tim was now free to return to his real passion of music. He quickly returned to the studio and began releasing material under the moniker of Subsonar, further musical explorations in the field of dub and electronica. Freshly signed to Youth's label Liquid Sound, it wasn't long before Youth called on Tim's extensive programming and musical skills and he quickly became a fully signed up member of the team. Tim has since worked on many of Youth's productions, programming for the likes of Paul McCartney, The Delays, Embrace, Primal Scream, The Charlatans, The Infadels and Mumm-ra amongst others. This pairing is still going strong today.
Tim Bran has an ongoing working relationship with Richard Ashcroft. Over the summer of 2011, he and Richard have been hard at work at Richard’s home studio , crafting early recordings of what is sure to be his next studio release. Tim entered the production premier league by co-producing and mixing the recent Verve album 'Forth'. Tim's role in making the record relied hugely on his skills as arranger and editor, helping craft the prodigious output of the band into the resulting track listing. Described as a stunning return to form, the band's first studio recordings in over ten years, features the stunning singles 'Love Is Noise' and 'Rather Be'.
A large part of 2011 has been devoted to working with Pulse on the “Studio In Session” sessions, soon to be televised on MTV and beyond. Tim (and fellow Big Life client Clive Goddard) were tasked to record and mix three bands, performing three tracks over the course of one day, working alongside such production luminaries such as Tony Visconti, Andy Gill, Youth and Jamie Hince. The pace was frantic and the results electric! Featured artists include Razorlight, Foster The People, Ellie Goulding, Morrissey, Hard Fi and The Kills.
Over the last few months he has also found the time to mix singles for hipster newcomers Neon Indian, working with Alice Gold on her recent Carling commercial sync, mixing tracks for Erratic Man, and producing ex Ou Est La Swimming Pool front man’s new project - Ghost. Tim is currently mixing the next Drums single and tracks for the hugely anticipated new Scissor Sisters album.
As mentioned above, Tim is an integral part of Youth’s team and over the past five years, they have made many records together. A recent highlight has been Tim’s work with Youth on The View’s last critically acclaimed album “Bread And Circuses”. Recorded in London’s classic Brit Row studios, it features the majestic single “Grace”. The band have been touring constantly over the summer to support it’s release. Tim mixed the album with Clive Goddard.
In 2009 and Tim worked on a huge variety of artists (alongside Youth) as his programmer, keyboard player and vocal producer. From Kirsty Almeida’s jazz infused tunes on her Decca debut “Pure Blue Green” to the Charlatans last offering “Who We Touch”, Tim adds so much value with his programming ideas and keyboard skills. Also in 2009 Tim played an intergral role on the beautiful new album from one of Belgium’s most respected artists – Ozark Henry. Entitled “Hvelreki”, it was a huge success in his native Belgium on release and garnered much acclaim on its roll out across Europe. Tim mixed the album.
You can also hear his mixes on the Arno Carsten’s LP “Wonderful Wild” on Sony, on tracks for the forthcoming Allan Pownell album for Universal, on Kirsty Almeida’s album and tracks for electronic darlings Performance.
Discography
| Title | Artist | Label | Credit |
| In It For The Kill | La Roux | Polydor | Radio Mixes |
| Bulletproof | La Roux | Polydor | Radio Mixes |
| Bread & Circuses | The View | Sony | Programmed/Mixed |
| Polish Girl/Hex Girlfriend | Neon Indian | COOP | Mixed |
| Who We Touch | The Charlatans | TBC | Programmed |
| Pure Blue Green | Kirsty Almeida | Decca | Programmed/Mixed |
| Hvelreki | Ozark Henry | PIAS | Programmed/Mixed |
| Wonderful Wild | Arno Carstens | Sony | Programmed/Mixed |
| Forth | The Verve | Parlophone | Co Produced/Mixed |
| Paul McCartney | Fireman | MPL Recordings | Programmed |
| Forthcoming LP | Raygun & The Adjitators | Sony BMG | Produced/Mixed |
| Everything's The Rush | Delays | Fiction Records | Programmed |
| Universe In Reverse | Infadels | Wall Of Sound/PIAS | Programmed |
| Riot City Blues | Primal Scream | Columbia Records | Programmed |
| Cool Accident | Subsonar | Liquid Sound | Wrote/Produced/Keys/Mixed |
| Born Into This | The Clut | Roadrunner Records | Programmed |
| This New Day | Embrace | Independiente | Programmed |
| East Of The River Ganges | The Kumba Mela Experiment | Liquid Sound | Keyboards |
| The Dream | The Orb | Liquid Sound | Wrote/Produced/Keys/Mixed |
| Streetcore | Joe Strummer | Hellcat Sound | Programmed |
| Heartland | Client | Metropolis | Programmed |
| Peggy Suicide | Julian Cope | Island Records | Programmed |
| Beyond Light | Transmission | Malicious Damage | Wrote/Produced/Keys |
| Surrender | Kylie Minogue | Deconstruction | Produced/Mixed |
| With A Twist | Alison Limerick | BMG | Produced |
| Second Light | Dreadzone | Virgin Records | Wrote/Produced/Mixed |
| 360 Degrees | Dreadzone | Creation Records | Wrote/Produced/Mixed |
▶ The Verve | Love Is Noise