Working his magic!

In just three years’ time Nick Bracegirdle of Chicane has become the most sought-after musician for re-mixing. Having burst on the pop scene with Offshore, his latest remix on Bryan Adams’ Cloud number nine is creating waves. Tracing the rise of this low-profile musician...

Chicane’s Nick Bracegirdle is the kind of guy who believes in some luck with work. The name Chicane rings a bell for the chart-busting Offshore. The number, one can recall is a sumptuous slice of Ibiza chill, bubbling with horizontal piano, and throbbing with late night bass from it’s umpteen outings on everything from Gardeners world to Grandstand. Since then the musician has come a long way.

Nick’s interest in music was ignited when he was 11 years old. While on holiday, he heard music like he’d never heard before, which was drifting from a nearby cafe. It turned out to be Oxygene by Jean Michelle Jarre. "At the time I was studying piano and guitar classically," says Nick, "It was like I was just playing music, it didn’t really make any sense. That one record changed everything for me."

Nick saved from his pocket money and bought a couple of cheap analogue keyboards, and began composing on it. At the same time he also attended an art school, emerging with a distinction in graphic design. Throughout that time, any money he had went into his studio. Then he heard Anthem by M25 rave heroes N-Joi. "It was full of piano and really cool chord changes," he smiles, "It jumped out because they’d captured melody and also had this big dance-floor thing going on. Somewhere along the line it’s been imprinted in my brain to try and walk that tightrope of credibility and mainstream crossover."

After a short-lived graphics business, and a soul-destroying stint in a quick print shop, Nick decided he’d rather earn nothing and have a good life, than do something he didn’t enjoy. Along with long-time friend, they pressed up 1,000 white labels of a track called Right here, right now." A kind of big beat front-runner, it used the same Fatback band sample Fatboy Slim used for his track of the same name. Within a week of sending the record out, Disco Citizens (Nick and his partner) found themselves in the A&R offices of four major record labels. They signed to one of them and Right here, right now went Top 40.

A few years later, Nick now known as Chicane, parted company with his record company and set up his own Modena label. The first release was an EP, which featured Offshore. In its re-mixed form it created waves. DJ Alex Gold’s Xtravaganza label signed up Chicane and the record hit the Top 20 in December 1996. The following summer the tune look over Ibiza. To date, Offshore has sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone and appeared on upwards of 130 compilations.

Chicane’s last single, Saltwater with Maire Brennan of Clannad, flew straight into the National Charts at No. 6 last July. Reworking the wibbly classic, Harry’s game, it kicked up a storm in the clubs, and has subsequently appeared on nearly every single one of the summer dance compilations. Maire re-sung the original for Nick, and bit by bit the track took shape, slowly turning, with the full support of Clannad, into an epic dance-floor belter.

As Chicane/Disco Citizens, Nick has re-mixed a whole lot of artists, from BT to Everything But The Girl. Recently his work has included the likes of B*Witched and Bryan Adams. Unlikely bed-fellows, yet Nick smiles as he describes it as "an interesting way to get different people to listen to what you do."

The B*Witched mix - which came about through Nick’s association with their producer, pop svengali Ray Hedges - gives the girls’ new single, Blame it on the weatherman, a Chicane sheen. The work on Bryan Adams’ Cloud number nine is more radical. "The original version has a kind of country and western feeling to it," says Nick, "I basically stripped off all the guitars, the drums, the bass and reworked the chords." His mix is the preferred radio version, which settled on Radio One’s A List.

"People have this idea that you’re only capable of one thing," adds Nick, "I want to do everything from film scores to pop music, I’ve never been one for music snobbery."

As for the future, there’s a new album in the pipeline which follows his 1997 debut Far From The Maddening Crowds, and with Xtravaganza signing a deal at the beginning of 1999 with Sony, Chicane looks like being a worldwide concern. And of course, he is in great demand when it comes to remixing. Chicane feels he’s been lucky, but his fans vouch for the quality of his music.