Bogey: The Man
B.C. Bogey is the VOICE IN THE ATTIC. He is an award winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and classically trained singer whose intense live performances have been hailed as an archetypal world of precise sonic imagery. To fulfil his artistic vision, B.C. has teamed up with Grammy-winning musicians and sound engineers from Europe and the USA, but remains involved in every decision that needs to be made, from recording through mastering audio tracks and shooting video clips. "A style which seeks to enhance rather than alter and distort a musical event is just what I was looking for," he says. B.C. currently divides his time between Cologne, Germany and London, UK. "I like music that's organic," Bogey says. "In this quantized 'hyperreal' day and age, when recording I frequently pick those takes that sound less perfect, but preserve the original vibe. It's what I call the 'humanizing approach.'"
Due to B.C.'s creative genius, reviewers have used terms as diverse as "retro acoustic rock," "roots folk," "chamber pop" and even "cool country" in the attempt to describe VOICE IN THE ATTIC's unique sound. It is perhaps safest to say that the new album After Songdown, mastered by Bernie Grundman, "combines elements of folk, jazz, classical and rock into a refreshing hybrid" (Alex Faulkner). On After Songdown (2015) B.C. has acted as composer, arranger, vocalist, instrumentalist, recording engineer, editor, and producer. "Over," the first single released from the album, has garnered awards and nominations at prestigious award ceremonies like the UK Songwriting Contest and the Australian Songwriters Association Music Awards. "Glass," a piano piece with string accompaniment, is a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) at Nashville, TN and a semi-finalist in the UKSC. The composition has won the Instrumental category in the Song of the Year Contest and is under consideration for a feature film soundtrack. The music video for "Tear," directed by B.C., won the award for Best Folk & Roots Music Video International at the International Music Video Awards in Canberra.
Known for his acute hearing and audiophilia, B.C. is an A33 development panellist for Aston Microphones who supports the company by blind testing their new products. In 2016 the acoustic artist got endorsed by Cole Clark Guitars. "I am absolutely in love with their Fat Ladies. They are integral to my sound," he says. As of 2017, B.C. is an Ambassador for Schertler SA. In 2018, RME Audio decided to add the unique composer and producer to their artist roster.
After touring Australia and performing at the NAMM Show in California, B.C. has begun writing material for a new studio album. Biz, the first track produced, has already won an award at the UK Songwriting Contest (singer-songwriter category), along with two of VOICE IN THE ATTIC's music videos, Ablaze and Life of Birdie. 'Thought', the second new song is another UKSC semi-finalist.
Due to B.C.'s creative genius, reviewers have used terms as diverse as "retro acoustic rock," "roots folk," "chamber pop" and even "cool country" in the attempt to describe VOICE IN THE ATTIC's unique sound. It is perhaps safest to say that the new album After Songdown, mastered by Bernie Grundman, "combines elements of folk, jazz, classical and rock into a refreshing hybrid" (Alex Faulkner). On After Songdown (2015) B.C. has acted as composer, arranger, vocalist, instrumentalist, recording engineer, editor, and producer. "Over," the first single released from the album, has garnered awards and nominations at prestigious award ceremonies like the UK Songwriting Contest and the Australian Songwriters Association Music Awards. "Glass," a piano piece with string accompaniment, is a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) at Nashville, TN and a semi-finalist in the UKSC. The composition has won the Instrumental category in the Song of the Year Contest and is under consideration for a feature film soundtrack. The music video for "Tear," directed by B.C., won the award for Best Folk & Roots Music Video International at the International Music Video Awards in Canberra.
Known for his acute hearing and audiophilia, B.C. is an A33 development panellist for Aston Microphones who supports the company by blind testing their new products. In 2016 the acoustic artist got endorsed by Cole Clark Guitars. "I am absolutely in love with their Fat Ladies. They are integral to my sound," he says. As of 2017, B.C. is an Ambassador for Schertler SA. In 2018, RME Audio decided to add the unique composer and producer to their artist roster.
After touring Australia and performing at the NAMM Show in California, B.C. has begun writing material for a new studio album. Biz, the first track produced, has already won an award at the UK Songwriting Contest (singer-songwriter category), along with two of VOICE IN THE ATTIC's music videos, Ablaze and Life of Birdie. 'Thought', the second new song is another UKSC semi-finalist.
The new album Warts & All is presently being mastered by Bernie Grundman (release date: Winter 2018). The video for Biz has has just won an Award of Recognition at the Best Shorts Competition in La Jolla, CA, an Honorable Mention at Festigious Los Angeles, an Award of Merit at Global Shorts, Los Angeles and an Award of Excellence at the Headline International Film Festival, all of which are official events on IMDb. The hybrid between a short film and a music video has also been awarded Semi-Finalist at the Sydney Indie Film Festival, Finalist at Oniros Film Awards and accepted as Official Selection into Roma Cinema DOC.
BC in Interview
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Up in the Attic
Haunted mansions haunt the public imagination, and you'd expect to find mad(wo)men, ghosts or at least the odd voodoo cult (think of the movie The Skeleton Key) in many an old house's attic. If you type VOICE IN THE ATTIC into your favourite search engine, you'll get all sorts of results and connotations, ranging from obligatory ghost stories and purportedly paranormal phenomena to shady Bible quotations.
Also, there is an article in the Boston Globe, relating how a collection of rare tape recordings of thirty poems by Philip Larkin, read by the author, was found in an attic in Yorkshire, England, twenty-six years after the recordings were made. In his poem 'Toads', Larkin has a great deal to say about the contrast between your highflying dreams and the factors that discourage you from living life to the full. 'Toads' isn't about the music industry, but it might well be:
"Ah, were I courageous enough / To shout Stuff your pension! / But I know, all too well, that's the stuff / That dreams are made on: / For something sufficiently toad-like / Squats in me, too; / Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck, / And cold as snow, / And will never allow me to blarney / My way to getting / The fame and the girl and the money / All at one sitting."
Also, there is an article in the Boston Globe, relating how a collection of rare tape recordings of thirty poems by Philip Larkin, read by the author, was found in an attic in Yorkshire, England, twenty-six years after the recordings were made. In his poem 'Toads', Larkin has a great deal to say about the contrast between your highflying dreams and the factors that discourage you from living life to the full. 'Toads' isn't about the music industry, but it might well be:
"Ah, were I courageous enough / To shout Stuff your pension! / But I know, all too well, that's the stuff / That dreams are made on: / For something sufficiently toad-like / Squats in me, too; / Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck, / And cold as snow, / And will never allow me to blarney / My way to getting / The fame and the girl and the money / All at one sitting."
Of Bogeys...
...and Men
The word bogey, alternatively spelled bogie or bogy, has no single meaning. For instance, bogie may signify "a wheeled undercarriage pivoted below the end of a rail vehicle" or "a low four-wheeled truck". In golfing, the bogey is "the score that a moderately good golfer would be expected to make". Historically, "Bogey is essentially a British term that came into use in England in 1891 and was derived from a mythical Colonel Bogey, who was described as uniformly steady but never overbrilliant".
Yet more commonly, a bogey is "something that causes fear among a lot of people, often without reason". In the 1890s, there was a famous music hall theme urging people to "Hush, hush, hush", for "here comes the Bogey Man". According to popular myth, the bogey man (in Amer. English also: boogeyman) is "a monstrous figure invented to threaten children with, so as to frighten them into obedience", but can also be a real person causing fear or difficulty. In Raymond Briggs' 1970s reimagining of the bogey theme, Fungus the Bogeyman, the bogey is described as a sympathetic character and a melancholic and philosophical creature who is on the whole fed up with going bump in the night and scaring people. This particular bogey is a likely predecessor of DreamWorks' swamp-dwelling ogre, Shrek (see pictures on the left).