Richard James Burgess (born 29 June 1949) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, author, manager, marketer and inventor. Burgess's music career spans more than 50 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as co-founder and co-lead singer of the

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

band

Landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

, which released a top-5 hit in 1981 with the single "Einstein a Go-Go". Burgess is one of the main composers of Landscape's music, and made major musical and lyrical contributions to the band's songs. After the band's break-up he pursued a brief solo career releasing one mini-album, ''Richard James Burgess'' in 1984. He launched his career as a producer with

Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet ( ) were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids (New Romantics), ...

's debut UK hit "

To Cut a Long Story Short "To Cut a Long Story Short" is the debut single by the English New wave music, new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on 31 October 1980. The band began recording the song before they were signed to a record label because of the interest they h ...

", the first commercial success for the hitherto underground

New Romantic New Romantic was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New Romantic mo ...

movement. Burgess currently serves as the President and CEO of A2IM: American Association of Independent Music.

Early years

Richard James Burgess was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, and his family emigrated to

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand, in 1959. He showed an early interest in music, especially drums, and bought his first drumkit at the age of 14. As a drummer, he gained experience in local bands including Fred Henry, Orange, The Lordships and Barry Saunders. Burgess also showed an early interest in recording production, buying a portable Tandberg tape recorder when he was 16 to make amateur recordings. Burgess studied electronics at college before turning to studies in music. In 1972, he left New Zealand to study with Alan Dawson at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in Boston, and in 1973 moved back to London to study at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...

. He holds a PhD in musicology from the

University of Glamorgan The University of Glamorgan () was a public university based in South Wales, that merged with University of Wales, Newport to form the University of South Wales in April 2013. The university was based in Pontypridd, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, with ...

(now the

University of South Wales The University of South Wales (USW) () is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport. The ...

Career

Musician and recording artist

In the mid-1970s, Burgess was a member of the

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

band Easy Street, together with Ken Nicol and Peter Marsh. The trio released two albums, ''Easy Street'' (1976) and ''Under the Glass'' (1977) and several singles, one of which charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 ("I've Been Lovin' You"). From 1975 through the early 1980s, Burgess co-produced, co-wrote, programmed, sang and played drums for the electronic band

with Christopher Heaton, Andy Pask, Peter Thoms and John Walters. The band's

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

album '' From the Tea-rooms of Mars... To the Hell-holes of Uranus'' yielded the international hits "Einstein a Go-Go" and "Norman Bates". As a

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

solo artist, he charted singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play chart, reaching No. 1 on the New York Dance Music Report

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 ...

. Burgess has played on many albums as a studio-drummer and percussionist, having worked with producers such as

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

, Peter Collins, Trevor Horn,

Ian Levine Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer, DJ, and prominent Doctor Who fan. A populariser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has co-written and co-produced records with sa ...

, Robin Millar, Hugh Padgham, Mike Stone,

Gary Langan Gary Michael Langan (born 19 April 1956) is an English engineer, record producer, mixer and musician. Biography Langan's career started at age 18 when he worked as an assistant engineer at Sarm East Studios, learning the craft from Gary Lyons ...

, Barry Mason, Peter Dawkins, John Sinclair, Gary Lyons, and

Junior Campbell Junior Campbell (born William Campbell Jr., 31 May 1947) is a Scottish composer, songwriter and musician. He was a founding member, lead guitarist, pianist, and singer with the Scottish band Marmalade (band), Marmalade and co-wrote and produced s ...

. These include albums such as Adam Ant's ''

Strip Strip, Strips or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Nami ...

'' and

The Buggles The Buggles are an English New wave music, new wave band formed in London in 1977 by singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes. They are best known for their 1979 debut single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which topped the UK ...

' ''

The Age of Plastic ''The Age of Plastic'' is the debut album by the English new wave duo the Buggles, first released on 10 January 1980 on Island Records. It is a concept album about the possible repercussions of modern technology. The title was conceived from ...

''. He also recorded jazz with the British National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Neil Ardley, Ian Carr and Nucleus, and the early

recordings. He performed live with

Graham Collier James Graham Collier (21 February 1937 – 9 September 2011) was an English jazz Double bass, bassist, bandleader and composer. Life and career Born in Tynemouth, Northumberland, England, on leaving school Collier joined the British Army as ...

, OBE.

Producer

In the early 1980s, Burgess emerged as the first producer of the

movement, producing

's first two gold albums and first seven charting singles. He won a ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' magazine sales award as a producer, and has created 24

singles and 14 charting albums. Other productions included recordings for Living in a Box, Adam Ant,

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

New Edition New Edition is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B/Pop music, pop group from the Roxbury, Boston, Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1978 by singer/rapper Bobby Brown. Their name is taken to mean a new edition of the Jackson ...

Melba Moore Beatrice Melba Smith (born October 29, 1945) known by her stage name Melba Moore, is an American singer and actress. Biography Early life and education Moore was born Beatrice Melba Smith on October 29, 1945, in New York City to Gertrude Melba ...

Colonel Abrams Colonel Abrams (May 25, 1949 – November 24, 2016) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Early life Colonel Abrams was born in Detroit, Michigan. His family later moved to East 13 Street, in Manhattan's East Village, Manhattan, East ...

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Kim Wilde Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer. She first gained success in 1981 with her debut single "Kids in America", which peaked at no. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award for Best British Female solo ...

Five Star Five Star (also styled as 5 Star) were a British Pop music, pop group, formed in 1983 and comprising siblings Stedman Pearson, Stedman, Lorraine, Denise Pearson, Denise, Doris, and Delroy Pearson. From 1985 to 1988, Five Star had four top-20 a ...

, Tony Banks and

Fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

. He was also an ambient pioneer in producing the British group Praise. He produced, engineered and mixed albums by

Rubicon The Rubicon (; ; ) is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, just south of Cesena and north of Rimini. It was known as ''Fiumicino'' until 1933, when it was identified with the ancient river Rubicon, crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 BC. The ri ...

and X-CNN under the pseudonym Caleb Kadesh and did several mixes using the pseudonym Cadillac Jack. He was co-producer, co-executive producer, project manager and an author for '' Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology''. He also produced '' The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap'' and is credited as associate producer on Tony Trischka's album ''Territory '' and as a compiler of ''Classic Piano Blues'' for

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...

Recordings. Burgess's mixes 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 ...

es include tracks for '' 9½ Weeks'', '' About Last Night'' and artists

Thomas Dolby Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher. Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

Youssou N'Dour Youssou N'Dour (, ; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' described him as, "perhaps the m ...

, and Luba.

Innovator

Burgess defined the computer programmer's and sampler's role in modern music via his work in the 1970s, creating the first computer driven hit, "Einstein a Go-Go", using the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer. He is believed to be the first to record digital samples on a commercial recording with his programming of the

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, music sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commerc ...

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

's '' Never for Ever'' album and Visage's single " Fade to Grey". He conceptualised and co-designed the first standalone

electronic drum Electronic drums are a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the Drum synthesiser, synthesized or Sampler ...

set, the hexagonal shaped

Simmons SDS-V The Simmons SDS 5, SDSV, or Simmons Drum Synthesizer (notated as ''SDS-V'' on the following) was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums. It was developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons, manufactured initially by M ...

. He appeared on three separate occasions on the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

programme ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First broadcast on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorrow's World' ...

'' demonstrating his prototype of the SDSV, the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, and the

. He is also reported to have coined the name "

" for the subcultural movement of the early 1980s, as well as the term "

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

" (EDM), which first appeared on the record sleeve of the 1980

single "European Man". His New York City productions of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

singles " Trapped" (1984) and " I'm Not Gonna Let You" (1985) are widely considered to have been the precursors to

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

, with "Trapped" referred to as a proto-house track and a precursor to garage house.

Educator and academic

Burgess is a member of the academic advisory committee for The Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP,

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...

). He has lectured on the subject of record production and the music business in the United States and in the United Kingdom. He wrote and presented the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

radio series ''Let There Be Drums''. He taught drums at the Annapolis Music School in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, and has taught classes on record production and the music business at The Omega Studios' School of Applied Recording Arts And Sciences.

Author

Burgess's book ''The Art of Music Production: The Theory and Practice'', which was in 1994 originally entitled ''The Art of Record Production'', is now in its fourth edition. In 2014 he published his second book, ''The History of Music Production''. He has written many chapters for other books and articles for technical and music magazines, as well as articles, papers and interviews for the academic ''Journal on the Association Art of Record Production'' (JARP), for which he is joint editor-in-chief.

Manager and executive

In 1978, Burgess founded a management company, Heisenberg Ltd, which managed producers and engineers such as

Phill Brown Phill Brown (born 1950) is an audio engineer who has worked with a number of well-known musicians, including: Traffic, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Bob Marley, Babasonicos and Talk Talk. He is also the younger brother of Terry Bro ...

, Andy Jackson, Adam Moseley, and Rafe McKenna in the UK and US. The company changed its name to Burgess World Co in the mid-1980s, and relocated to Maryland from Los Angeles and New York in the mid-1990s where it managed many mid-Atlantic based artists including Jimmie's Chicken Shack. From 2001 to 2015, Burgess was employed at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings where he was the associate director of Business Strategies.

Boards

Burgess has been a member of the executive board of th
Music Managers Forum U.S.
was on the national steering committee for the Recording Academy's Producer and Engineer Wing and has served as co-chair of the executive committee for Smithsonian Music, a pan-institutional music initiative. He served as vice-president of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...

and co-chair for both the DC Chapter of the Producer and Engineer Wing, and the national Producer Compensation Committee. He was elected to the board of the American Association of Independent Music in 2013 and then to Chair of the board in 2015.

Non-profit work

Burgess is the current President and CEO of the American Association of Independent Music.

Honours and awards

Burgess was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to music. In 2016 he received the British Council Education UK Alumni Award USA in the Professional Achievement category. As a member of the avant-garde electronic group Accord (with Christopher Heaton and Roger Cawkwell), he was featured on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

programs ''Music in Our Time'' and ''Improvisation Workshop''. With

, he won the Greater London Arts Association's Young Jazz Musicians 1976 award and the Vitavox Live Sound award. Accord was also selected by the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

for its Park Lane Group Purcell Room concert series. He was featured in ''The A to Z of Rock Drummers''. In 2016, he won the British Council Education UK Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Richard James 1949 births Living people 20th-century English writers 20th-century New Zealand musicians Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Alumni of the University of Glamorgan Berklee College of Music alumni British male jazz musicians British music educators Capitol Records artists English audio engineers English blues musicians English inventors English jazz drummers English jazz musicians English male composers English male singers English male songwriters English music managers English new wave musicians English record producers English rock drummers Landscape (band) members Members of the Order of the British Empire National Youth Jazz Orchestra members New Zealand session musicians RCA Records artists