Bon Harris (born Vaughan David Harris; 12 August 1965 in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, Essex, England) is an English composer, producer, singer and songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is a founding member of the British EBM group

Nitzer Ebb Nitzer Ebb () are an English electronic body music, EBM group formed in 1982 by Essex school friends Bon Harris, Vaughan "Bon" Harris (programming, synthesizers, drums, vocals), Douglas McCarthy (vocals), and David Gooday (drums). The band were ...

, programming Nitzer Ebb's signature sound. He also played drums and synthesizers for Nitzer Ebb, as well as lending his voice to several tracks such as "Let Beauty Loose".

Career

Since

's 1995 release, Harris has become an in-demand collaborator working with

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also simply known as Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The ...

Evanescence Evanescence is an American Rock music, rock band founded in 1994 by singer and keyboardist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody in Little Rock, Arkansas. After releasing independent extended play, EPs and a Origin (Evanescence demo album), demo ...

, AFI,

Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is a key musician in popularizing pop-punk music, as she paved the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s. List of awa ...

, Bush, and

Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alter ...

, who asked Bon to co-produce his solo album, ''

TheFutureEmbrace ''TheFutureEmbrace'' is the debut solo album by American musician Billy Corgan, frontman of the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. Released in June 2005, the album's sound was markedly different from most of Corgan's earlier work, esche ...

''. Harris's band, Maven, is on hold as he works on other projects. Harris also worked closely with

Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He is the lead singer and the only original member remaining of the Marilyn Manson (band), same-titled band he founded in 1989. Th ...

, programming electronics and recording for his 2000 album '' Holy Wood''. Manson appears as a guest on Maven's cover of the

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are a Rock music, rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throug ...

song "Hard On for Love" and had this to say of his collaborator and some-time inspiration: "Bon was someone I had always respected and even interviewed in 1989 and was completely blown away by his musical ability and voice. I was fortunate that he took time away from Maven to work with me on my project. He became sort of a sixth member of the group and I don't use that term lightly. I think Maven adds genius songwriting to electronic music in a totally original way." Harris resides in Los Angeles and continues to work as a film and TV composer. He worked on Bravo's popular shows ''

Project Runway ''Project Runway'' is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on December 1, 2004. The series focuses on fashion design. It was created by Eli Holzman and was hosted by Heidi Klum from 2004 to 2017. It has a varied airi ...

'' and ''

Top Chef ''Top Chef'' is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo in March 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional chefs ...

'', as well as NBC's ''

Treasure Hunters Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. One of the most popular types of modern day treasure hunters are historic shipwreck salvors. These underwater treasure salvors try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with both c ...

''. Nitzer Ebb embarked on a worldwide tour in 2006 that continued until 2008 when Harris returned to the studio to work on the album ''Industrial Complex'' which was released in 2009. In July 2020, Harris did a streaming live set from his yard in Eagle Rock, CA, titled “''Songs: From the Lemon Tree'',” consisting of solo cover songs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris and

Douglas McCarthy Douglas John McCarthy (1 September 1966 – 11 June 2025) was an English vocalist whose work covers a range of electronic music genres. He was the lead vocalist of the EBM band Nitzer Ebb from 1982 until 2024. Outside of Nitzer Ebb, he worked i ...

got together to work on a side project called D-R-A-G. In November 2021, Harris performed on lead vocals for a Nitzer Ebb show in

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach, Florida, ...

and

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

due to bandmate McCarthy falling ill and going to the hospital.

Musical gear

Harris primarily uses vintage analog and modular synthesizers, including Roland System 100M modular, Doepfer A100, Clavia Nord Modular,

Korg MS-10 The Korg MS-10 is an analogue synthesizer created by Korg in 1978. Unlike its bigger brother, the Korg MS-20, the MS-10 only has one VCO, one VCF and one envelope generator. It is monophonic and has 32 keys. The MS-10 is well known for its hu ...

and

Oberheim Xpander The Oberheim Xpander () is an analog synthesizer launched by Oberheim in 1984 and discontinued in 1988. It is essentially a keyboardless, six-voice version of the Matrix-12 (released a year later, in 1985). Utilizing Oberheim's Matrix Modulatio ...

. He has also used digital synthesizers Roland D50 and

Kurzweil K2000 The Kurzweil K2000 is a digital synthesizer and music workstation produced by Kurzweil Music Systems between 1991 and 2000 in a variety of standard configurations, including rack-mountable versions and models that came with 16-bit user sampling. ...

. His first synthesizer was an

EDP Wasp Electronic Dream Plant (EDP) was a small British synthesizer manufacturer, active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the time their products were not particularly successful commercially. In later years products like the "WASP" became prized ...

, which he bought by selling his Mongoose bicycle. On Nitzer Ebb albums he has used the

Roland System 700 The Roland System 700 was a professional monophonic modular synthesizer for electronic music manufactured by the Roland Corporation and released in 1976 and was followed by the Roland System-100M in 1978. Modules The System 700 range included ...

and System 100M,

RSF Kobol The RSF Kobol is a French monophonic synthesizer released in 1978, described by some as "the French Minimoog". It could process external sounds through the envelope and filter section. It was created by Ruben and Serge Fernandez. Fewer than 200 w ...

and various analog synths of the 70's and the 80's.

References

External links

Bon Harris official website

Songs: From the Lemon Tree
on YouTube
Nitzer Ebb official website

Maven's Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Bon English male drummers English keyboardists English male composers English dance musicians 1965 births Living people Musicians from Chelmsford British electronic dance music musicians Electronic body music musicians Nitzer Ebb members