Celldweller

Celldweller is a Detroit, Michigan-based Electronic Rock project that was created by multi-instrumentalist Klayton, whose real name is Scott Albert, former frontman and songwriter of the bands Circle of Dust, Argyle Park, Angeldust (with Criss Angel), and many more. Celldweller's music is multi-faceted, often labeled electronic rock and more commonly being described as a combination of rock and trance. Celldweller songs have frequently appeared in movies, trailers, television shows, and video games.

Precursors: Circle of Dust and Angeldust, 1997-2001
Klayton had gained a devoted cult following in the mid 90s because of his industrial metal band Circle of Dust. After the dissolution of that band, Klayton concurrently released both a posthumous collection of reworked Circle of Dust leftovers titled Disengage and an album for a new project, Angeldust, created in conjunction with illusionist Criss Angel. Both albums demonstrated Klayton's shift away from industrial metal and towards more electronic / modern industrial rock influences, incorporating richer electronic instrumentation and greater emphasis on melody. This change in style was a major step toward the sound that would come to define Celldweller's output. Klayton began creating songs for the Celldweller project in 1998/1999 and released a limited edition EP of three early Celldweller demos and two solo trance tracks, which quickly sold out. Klayton and Criss Angel parted ways in 2000 after three albums' worth of material had been completed, allowing Klayton to devote all of his time to Celldweller.

Eponymous debut era (1999-2008)
Klayton worked in earnest with producer Grant Mohrman (formerly of Leaderdogs For The Blind) on the debut Celldweller album, which was slated for release in February 2001. Unfortunately, various delays kept pushing the release date back. During this time, Klayton kept fans up to date with numerous Celldweller Logs through his website and via email and, in 2001, released raw files of the song "Symbiont" to give fans and fellow musicians a chance to remix Celldweller's music. Eight remixes were chosen and uploaded to the original Mp3.com, most of them making it to the top of the Electronic and the Electro-Industrial charts. All the exposure led to over 500,000 song plays on Mp3.com. The "Symbiont" remixes became a digital EP six years later.

The self-titled debut album saw release in early 2003 and debuted at #17 on Billboard's Internet Sales Chart. Celldweller included a guest appearance by Taproot drummer Jarrod Montague. In 2004, the album took home seven awards at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards, winning Album of the Year, Producer of the Year, Industrial Album of the Year, Metal Song of the Year ("One Good Reason") and Best Industrial Rock Song ("Switchback"), and also took runner-up in Best Industrial Song with "Stay with Me (Unlikely)" and Best Rock Song with "I Believe You". Later, the songs "Birthright" and "Switchback" were included in the list of Hard and Extreme Mode songs respectively for the popular iPhone OS game Tap Tap Revenge.

In 2004, Klayton put together a double disc release called The Beta Cessions. The first disc contained a re-recording of the last Circle of Dust song, "Goodbye", alternate mixes of "Switchback", the Klayton tracks from the initial Celldweller EP, and demo versions of debut Celldweller songs. The second disc contained the full debut album in instrumental form, with a few of the instrumentals being slightly edited. Klayton stated that he plans to release Beta Cessions to coincide with each of his major albums to collect outtakes, demos, and other rarities.

In the years following the release of the first Celldweller album, various remix EPs were released, culminating in the conception of the Take It & Break It Celldweller Remix Competition in 2006. Expanded off the fan remix concept that Klayton first toyed with in 2001 with the Symbiont remixes, the Take It & Break It competition saw the creation of its own website on which unlimited numbers of fans could register, download and remix the individual recording files of various Celldweller songs, and then submit their remixes. Three rounds of the competition were completed, with compilations of Celldweller remixes being released at the end of each round. In 2008, the Celldweller Remix Competition evolved into the FiXT Remix Competition where fans, remixers, and musicians have the opportunity to remix songs of not only Celldweller but other FiXT Music artists as well.

In December 2008, Klayton released Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 1, a collection consisting primarily of short, instrumental score-based compositions. The songs were culled from the hundreds of demos in Klayton's extensive archives and represented work that he felt was not suited for a premier Celldweller album but rather for theatrical use. Celldweller's management has sought to have these songs placed in media, like those on the debut album, and several have already been heard on film and television and in video games.

Wish Upon a Blackstar era (2009-current)
Writing and recording for the second Celldweller album has been underway since 2005. Originally slated to come out in the summer of 2006, the album has been delayed numerous times, with Klayton stating in late 2008 that "I would love to just tell everyone 'The album will be done by this date,' but I’ve learned my lesson on that one. It’s hard to predict when it will actually wrap up. I can tell you that I am thinking about alternative methods of releasing this album altogether, but I won't say anything until I’m ready to commit... that always gets me in trouble." In March 2009 Klayton announced that the title of the album is Wish Upon a Blackstar. Of 50 songs, he has narrowed it down to the 10 that will comprise the album. In a recent blog posting on his website, he elaborated on wanting to release the album in 'chapters' with each chapter consisting of 2 songs. In April 2009 Klayton revealed the tracks Blackstar would contain, and has also stated that many of the leftovers will be on the second vol. of The Beta Cessions: "In fact The Beta Cessions II (when I ever get around to working on those tracks) will be primarily new material and not a bunch of remixes and alternative versions of songs from the sophomore ... album". As of mid 2011, four of the five chapters of Wish Upon a Blackstar have been released, with the remaining chapter set to be completed concurrently with the 2011 Celldweller tour.

During the recording of Wish Upon a Blackstar Klayton also began work on his follow-up to Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 1. Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 2 will be released in the same manner as Wish Upon a Blackstar: as handfuls of tracks are completed, chapters of the full album will be released digitally until the full collection is complete and the album is released on physical media. Chapter 01 of SVH Vol. 2 featured four songs, including a 20 minute ambient piece (a first for Celldweller). Additionally, a Limited Edition CD of Chapter 01 was released on 7 December 2010 that contained a bonus short ambient track, "Distants".

In addition to working on Wish Upon a Blackstar and SVH Vol. 2, Celldweller kept busy on other fronts. He produced the remainder of the debut Blue Stahli album, appeared on the soundtrack of the Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 game Dead Rising 2 with a new original song, "Kill The Sound", as well as a selection of previously released Celldweller songs, and also did remixes for BT and Jes]].

Klayton confirmed in April 2010 that, for the first time in five years, he would be taking Celldweller on the road. The live band would consist of Klayton and fellow FiXT recording artist Blue Stahli. The first leg of the tour, in fall 2010, included shows at Triton Fest in New York City, Dragoncon in Atlanta, Georgia, and EBM Fest in Toronto. In November, 2010, Klayton announced that he is planning to release studio recordings of the alternate live versions of Celldweller songs played on the tour. The first of these releases, Cellout EP 01, is available as an iTunes exclusive, released on January 25, 2011.

On May 4, 2011, a 4-EP bundle was released via Groupees in a 72 hour only exclusive online sale with 20% of the benefits going to Red Cross for Tornado Relief. The EPs in the promotion were Cellout EP 01, Chapter 01 of Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 2, Chapter 03 of Wish Upon a Blackstar and the Unreleased EP, which contained previously unreleased songs and remixes including a song titled "Senorita Bonita" from the yet unreleased Chapter 02 of SVH Vol. 2 and a Beta Cessions demo, "Atmospheric Light".

In May, Klayton mentioned in one of his live steams the possibility of launching a Celldweller VIP Membership, which would give "access to unreleased demos, video, news, discounts & more". It was planned to be launched in "early/mid July".

Discography

 * Major releases
 * Celldweller (2003)
 * The Beta Cessions (2004)
 * Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 1 (2008)
 * Wish Upon a Blackstar (2009–2011)
 * Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head Vol. 2 (2010-2011)

Awards
The debut Celldweller album won seven awards in the 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards :


 * Best Hard Rock song - "Fadeaway"
 * Best Industrial music - "Switchback" (with "Stay with Me (Unlikely)" in second place)
 * Best Heavy metal music song - "One Good Reason"
 * 2nd place, Best Rock music - "I Believe You"
 * Album of the Year - Celldweller
 * Producer of the Year - Klayton
 * Best Industrial album - Celldweller


 * Best Male Vocalist - Klayton (2005 Radio-Active-Music Awards)