Wilhelm Anton "Bill" Leeb (born 21 September 1966, in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) is an Austrian-Canadian electronic musician and record producer. He is best known for being a founding member of the industrial music group

Front Line Assembly Front Line Assembly (FLA) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 in music, 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. FLA has developed its own sound incorporating elements of electronic body music and electro-industrial. The ba ...

and Delerium. Additionally, Leeb is known for his work with groups Noise Unit, Intermix, Skinny Puppy, Synæsthesia, Cyberaktif,

Equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

, Fauxliage and Pro>Tech.

Career

Leeb began his musical career with industrial band Skinny Puppy in 1984 under the pseudonym Wilhelm Schroeder, contributing bass synth and occasional backing vocals to a few of their recordings and concerts. He left in 1986 and formed his own industrial project

with Michael Balch, and later Rhys Fulber and Chris Peterson. Though Front Line Assembly has had consistent underground success, Leeb's most widely known efforts are through his side project Delerium, which had a major hit in the late 1990s with "

Silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...

". Leeb composed the soundtrack to the 1999 video game, '' Quake III Arena'', of which the expansion pack, ''Team Arena'', was composed by his band, Front Line Assembly. In 2017, Leeb appeared as guest singer on the single ''A Shiver of Want'', a release of John Fryer's project Black Needle Noise. In 2022, Leeb contributed vocals for Black Asteroid's single ''Methane Rain''. In June 2024, American label

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

announced Leeb's first solo album '' Model Kollapse'', to be released on September 13, 2024. The first single ''Terror Forms'' was released on July 9 along with a video. Metropolis released the second single ''Demons'' on August 9, 2024, that was also accompanied by a video. Leeb explained that the idea of a solo album was suggested by Metropolis founder Dave Heckman, who passed away before the album's release.

Dispute with Trent Reznor

In an interview with music magazine '' Spin'' in 1992, Trent Reznor of

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

made derogatory remarks about Front Line Assembly, calling them "a textbook case of a band" for industrial music and their music "monotonous, boring, uninspired bullshit". Before the release of the issue, Reznor sent Leeb an apology letter. In one of their following issues, ''Spin'' printed part of the apology, in which Reznor expressed that he "should have thought before opening ismouth", along with a response from Leeb in which he implores Reznor to "think before making such ludicrous statements" and that he hopes "that others will use a little more thought before they go out of their way to put others down".

Acting

In 1990, Leeb appeared in the trailer for the horror movie ''Chunk Blower'' together with Dwayne Goettel from Skinny Puppy, playing one of the victims of a killer. Due to the lack of funding, the movie was never made. Director Jim Van Bebber and Leeb would later use footage from the trailer in the video for the single "

Virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

Personal life

Leeb has both Austrian and Canadian citizenship and speaks English as well as German. He received education at a convent school in Austria where he learned to play the violin. He moved to

Kitimat, British Columbia Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban dist ...

, Canada with his family when he was 14, where he learned English and developed a keen interest in music. He was a high school student at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School. Leeb went to Camsoun College in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

to study journalism for two years. He lives in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Leeb was married to the Canadian artist Carylann Loeppky. Loeppky was part of the tour personnel on Front Line Assembly tours "designing and selling merchandise and put together a visual presentation for the live performance." She continued to create artwork for releases by several of Leeb's projects even after the divorce.

Solo discography

* 2024 - '' Model Kollapse''

Career

Dispute with Trent Reznor

Acting

Personal life

Solo discography

References

Further reading