Caleb Cornett (born May 19, 1987), better known by his stage name Amtrac, is an American DJ, electronic music producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Career
Early career
Born and raised in
Morehead, Kentucky, he now lives in
Louisville, Kentucky
and is signed to Miami, Florida -based management company
Super Music Group
Super Music Group is a Miami, Florida based artist management company and record label. The company was founded in 2010 by Derek Walin and Brandon Kessler. In 2013 partners Aramis Lorie and Jake Jefferson, of Miami's Poplife Entertainment joined t ...
.
His first music video, "Came Along", debuted on
MTV's Clubland in October 2011.
About the song, tastemaker website
RCRDLBL said "Amtrac, the solo project of Kentucky's Caleb Cornett, has just the right mixture of pop and cutting-edge sonics to break through the void. On 'Came Along,' Amtrac guides a rapid, crunchy beat and electric piano figures to a thoroughly mature songwriting space. He's restless, though. This poise quickly evolves into spliced samples flickering across the track in microtonal dots—a true dancefloor deconstruction."
Rise to Fame
Amtrac played at
Detroit Electronic Music Festival,
Forecastle Festival and
Osheaga Festival
The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival (french: Festival musique et arts Osheaga) is a multi-day indie music festival in Montreal, Quebec, that is held every summer at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène. The festival takes place on six sta ...
in 2013.
In 2013, Amtrac remixed
Kaskade
Ryan Gary Raddon (born February 25, 1971), better known by his stage name Kaskade, is an American DJ, record producer and remixer. ''DJ Times'' voted Kaskade "America's Best DJ" in 2011 and 2013. ''DJ Mag'' named Kaskade fifty-first on its 20 ...
's single "
Atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. ...
" and the remix was released on
Ultra Records
Ultra Records is an American record label formed in New York City in 1995 by former PolyGram and Virgin Records executive Patrick Moxey. As of December 23, 2012, Ultra entered a global partnership with Sony Music, giving its artists access to ...
. He also appeared on the Atmosphere tour with stops at
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
's
Barclay's Center
Barclays Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association. The ...
Miami's
American Airlines Arena
FTX Arena (known as American Airlines Arena from 1999 to 2021) is a multi-purpose arena located in Miami, Florida, along Biscayne Bay. It was constructed beginning in 1998 as a replacement for the Miami Arena and designed by the architecture ...
,
Navy Pier
Navy Pier is a pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Navy Pier encompasses over of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, famil ...
in Chicago, and
Shrine Expo Hall
The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975, an ...
in Los Angeles.
In 2014, Amtrac played Ultra Music Festival, Mysteryland USA, EDC Las Vegas, Moonrise Festival and supported Kygo on his first tour throughout the US and Europe. He also did a co-headline tour throughout the US with DJ/producer, Kastle, in which they collaborated on single "Hyperspace" in name of the tour. Other music releases in 2015 came as a 2-song EP for Black Book Audio and a single "Those Days" on Mark Knight's Toolroom Records. "Those Days" featured a vocal sample from legend Stevie Wonder and was approved by his team for official release.
In 2015, Amtrac was invited to play on Holy Ship and played BPM Festival in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. He followed up his release on Toolroom Records with a new single for them titled "Hold On", this time featuring a vocal sample from Marvin Gaye. Other festivals played in 2015 included CRSSD Fest in San Diego, Shambhala Festival, Digital Dreams Festival in Toronto, Escapade Festival in Ottawa, Splash House in Palm Springs, Paradiso Festival in Washington state and Your Paradise in FIJI. He closed out 2015 by headed out on tour w. Gorgon City as direct support for their North American tour.
2016 saw Amtrac heading to Asia for Shipsomnia and then straight to Mexico for another play at BPM Festival. He self-released his "Lost In Motion" EP in January, which received much praise within the DJ community. He followed the release of the EP with a headline tour of North America. He returned to Miami for WMC and shortly after did his first Mixmag Lab. He returned to EDC Las Vegas and Mysteryland in Bethel Woods, New York. He released a 2-song EP on Kidnap Kid's label "Birds That Fly" in August 2016 and a few weeks later released another 2 song EP on Waze and Odyssey's label Street Tracks. He joined Pete Tong for the NYC Edition of his All Gone Pete Tong showcase and is slated for upcoming appearances at III Points Festival in Miami.
Amtrac has been mentioned and received praise from publications like Billboard, Pitchfork, Mixmag, MTV, Revolt, Complex and i-D magazine.
"1987"
In 2017, Amtrac created his own record label Openers. Amtrac launched the label with his release of his 1987 EP that would go on to accumulate tens of millions of streams across all platforms. This EP contained the song "Informal Disco", which references the birth of Amtrac himself. The "informal disco" of the song references the good times Amtrac's parents enjoyed while his mother was pregnant and expecting the child. The end of the song references his mother giving birth. As of May 2019, the label has released 39 songs from various artists including Durante, Rick Trainor and Luces.
"Oddyssey"
On April 3, 2020, Amtrac released his long-awaited second LP "Oddyssey," which he described as "like the odyssey of my life up until this point."
Discography
Albums
* ''Came Along'' (2011)
* ''Oddyssey'' (2020)
* ''Extra Time'' (2023)
Extended plays
* ''Why" (2010)
* ''Without Warning'' (2013) (with The Pass)
* ''Lost In Motion'' (2016)
* ''Running After / No Order'' (2016)
* ''Farewell / Renton'' (2016)
* ''1987'' (2017)
* ''True Value'' (2017)
Singles
* "In Love" (2010)
* "Why You Look So Blue" (2010)
* "Primal" (2014)
* "Undefeated" (2014)
* "Those Days" (2014)
* "Yep" (with
Kaskade
Ryan Gary Raddon (born February 25, 1971), better known by his stage name Kaskade, is an American DJ, record producer and remixer. ''DJ Times'' voted Kaskade "America's Best DJ" in 2011 and 2013. ''DJ Mag'' named Kaskade fifty-first on its 20 ...
) (2014)
* "Hyperspace" (with Kastle) (2014)
* "Hold On" (2015)
* "ELEV8" (2015) (with Alex Metric)
* "Darkest Sound" (2015)
* "Lover"(2015)
* "Homebound" (2017)
* "Companions" (2017)
* "Old Times (featuring
Anabel Englund)" (2018)
* "Madness to Mayhem" (2018)
* "Just" (2019)
* "Formal Disco" (2019)
* "Formal Disco (Project Pablo Remix)" (2019)
* "Between The Lines" (2019)
* "Radical (Edit)" (2020) (with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs)
* "Accountable" (2020)
* "Teenage Love (featuring Saint Kenaire)" (2020)
* "So Afraid (featuring Alex Metric)" (2020)
* "Stratego" (2020)
Remixes
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amtrac
1987 births
Living people
Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky
Songwriters from Kentucky
American multi-instrumentalists
American house musicians
American DJs
People from Morehead, Kentucky
Singers from Kentucky
Record producers from Kentucky
21st-century American male singers
21st-century American singers
American male songwriters