Christian Jay "C. J." Bolland (born 18 June 1971,

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

, England) is an English-Belgian

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

producer and

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

er with British roots. Born in

, County Durham, Bolland's family moved to

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

in Flanders, Belgium, when he was three years old.Larkin, Colin (1999) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music'', Virgin Books, , p. 42 As a teenager, he was strongly influenced by the Belgian underground scene of new wave, electro and EBM embodied by artists such as

Front 242 Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they influenced the electronic and industrial music genres. History Formation Front 242 were for ...

, Neon Judgement and

the Klinik Klinik, (sometimes called The Klinik), is an industrial music band from Belgium, originally formed around 1982 by electro-synthpop practitioner Marc Verhaeghen, who is the only constant member. History Marc Verhaeghen originally formed Klinik ...

Producing, R&S Records signing

His first productions were aired on Belgium's ''Liaisons Dangereuses'' radio show, and Bolland was one of the first record producers to be signed to the fledgling Belgian techno record label R&S. His first release, "Do That Dance" in 1989, was followed by several more under different aliases such as 'Space Opera', 'The Project', 'Cee-Jay' and 'Pulse'. Bolland's first major success with the track "Horsepower" on 1991's ''Ravesignal III'' EP earned him industry attention and respect with wide airplay amongst European techno DJs. In 1992, the album ''The 4th Sign'', including the singles "Camargue" and "Nightbreed" saw him garner further acclaim and commercial success. Bolland's second album for R&S, ''Electronic Highway'', was released in 1995.

Internal Records

In late 1994, Bolland left R&S to sign a five album recording contract with Internal/ PolyGram. During this time, he became notable as the first artist to release an album in the ''

DJ-Kicks ''DJ-Kicks'' (styled ''DJ-KiCKS'' on all cover artwork) is a series of DJ mix albums, mixed by various artists for the independent record label !K7 Records. History ''DJ-Kicks'' started out in 1993 as a compilation of electronic DJ-style mi ...

'' series for the

independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represente ...

Studio !K7 !K7 Music is a music company based in Berlin, Germany that focuses mostly on electronic music. The name is an abbreviation of the company's original Berlin address, Kaiserdamm 7 (it has since relocated, first to Heidestrasse 52, and currently hea ...

, 1995's '' DJ-Kicks: C.J. Bolland''. His first studio album for PolyGram was 1996's ''The Analogue Theatre'' from which his greatest commercial success came with the single "Sugar Is Sweeter", hitting No. 1 on the United States

Hot Dance Club Play The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

, and reaching No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart.CJ Bolland
Official Charts. Retrieved 9 February 2010 Further UK hits followed with "The Prophet" (#19) and "It Ain't Gonna Be Me" (#35). Bolland is also a prolific remixer with a long résumé, including work with Orbital,

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 ...

Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...

the Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...

and

Tori Amos Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...

. His song "The Prophet", sampling

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

's 1990 film '' The Last Temptation of Christ'' was an underground

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises * ...

hit. The songs "It Ain't Gonna Be Me" and "the tingler" were featured in the soundtrack of film ''

Human Traffic ''Human Traffic'' is a 1999 British independent coming of age comedy-drama film written and directed by Justin Kerrigan. A cult film of the Cool Cymru era of arts in Wales, it stars John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington, Shaun Parkes, Danny Dyer, an ...

''. In 2000, Bolland released the song "Enter the Robot", a collaboration with Australian producer Honeysmack, and in 2002 started his own record label, Mole Records. February 2004 saw the release of ''The Body Gave You Everything'', the debut album by

Magnus Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

, a pop/

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

collaborative project with

Tom Barman Thomas Andrew Barman (born 1 January 1972), is a Belgian musician, film director and photographer. Early life and education Barman is of Norwegian descent from his father's side. He started his studies at the Sint-Lukas film school in Brusse ...

, founder and singer for the Belgian rock band,

dEUS ''Deus'' (, ) is the Latin word for 'God (word), god' or 'deity'. Latin ''deus'' and ''dīvus'' ('divine') are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''deiwos'', 'celestial' or 'shining', from the same root ( ...

. In December 2006, Bolland released a solo album titled ''The 5th Sign'' with the Belgian online record label The Wack Attack Barrack, followed in October 2009 by ''500€ Cocktail'' on Wikkid Records.

Discography

Albums

* ''The 4th Sign'' (1992) * ''Electronic Highway'' (1995) * ''The Analogue Theatre'' (1996) - UK #43 * ''The 5th Sign'' (2005) * ''500€ Cocktail'' (2009)

Singles and EPs

* "The Ravesignal" (1990) * ''Ravesignal Vol. II'' (1990) * ''Ravesignal III'' (1991) * "Here We Go" / "Get Busy Time" (with The Project) (1991) * ''Camargue (The Remixes)'' (1993) * ''Live at Universe'' (1993) * "Neural Paradox" (1995) * "The Starship Connection" (1995) * "There Can Only Be One" (1995) * "Sugar Is Sweeter" (1996) - UK #11 * "The Prophet" / "Sugar Is Sweeter" (1996) * "Desolate" / "The Tingler" (1996) * "The Prophet" (1997) - UK #19 * "Sugar Is Sweeter" / "Blue Monday" (with Orgy) (1998) * "How Do I Deal" / "Sugar Is Sweeter" (with

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress, producer and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel serie ...

) (1998) * "It Ain't Gonna Be Me" (1999) - UK #35 * "Dark Side" / Camargue" (with Amex) (2000) * "Inside Out" / "Cyrus" (with Psylocibin) (2000) * "See Saw" (2002) * "Prophet 1" / "The Prophet" (with

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (; born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Ma ...

) (2002) * "The Digger" (2003) * "Riot" (2006) * ''Radar Remixes'' (with T99) (2011) * "Broken Showroom" (2012) * "Chicago" (2012) * ''Ban Me (Remixes)'' (2012) * "The Return" (2019)

References

External links

C. J. Bolland official website

C. J. Bolland
discography at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolland, C. J. 1971 births Living people English record producers English techno musicians English emigrants to Belgium Belgian house musicians Belgian dance musicians English electronic dance music DJs Musicians from Antwerp People from Stockton-on-Tees Remixers PolyGram artists Rhythm King artists