Influential drum & bass producer Torgeir Byrknes, better known as TeeBee within the community, has been in the electronic fold for around 3 decades. His dark, eerie, often sci-fi-oriented sound design is rooted in techstep and neurofunk. A real deep dive into an ambient drum & bass style that has seen him achieve many great accolades over the years. This includes Knowledge Magazine’s ‘Best International Producer’ in 2001, as well as many highly acclaimed albums, which contain the widely regarded All or Nothing courtesy of Ram Records.
Formerly part of the iconic duo Calyx & TeeBee, the masterful Norwegian beat-maker has been responsible for some of the best anthems in the scene. Classic tracks like Long Gone, Elevate This Sound and Pure Gold have been mainstays in the dance. As pioneers of international drum & bass, they were the first non-UK producers to rise to the very top of the game.
When thinking of some of the great producers over the last few decades, TeeBee is without doubt in that conversation. He is universally known for moulding the darker, more polished expansion of drum & bass over a significant number of years. Now fronting as a solo artist again, his latest album can only be described as a true work of art. This project has graced the electronic world, and it undoubtedly delivers on what is a futuristic endeavour that pays homage to an original, more classic drum & bass blueprint. The Cosmic Carnival is truly a wondrous flight into the unearthly realms of space. The innovative nature of this body of work would simply take forever to decipher in its entirety.
We can also expect this unique producer to explore a variety of avenues, genre-wise, in the years to come, with projects already in the works under different collective aliases. It is no surprise that his talents stretch far beyond the world of drum & bass, and it can be assumed that the high-calibre, well-thought-out sound structure isn’t going anywhere, despite his evolution into different musical fields. We thought we’d catch up with this legendary act and talk about his exciting latest release, Cosmic Carnival, as well as what we can expect in the upcoming year.
How’s life been since your mini hiatus?
Great! I’m doing something I’ve never done before. I’ve taken an extensive period off. I’m still making music, but I’ve switched off from everything else. Social media, DJing and all the noise surrounding it. For me, this time off is about reinventing myself. The last album I did was with Calyx & TeeBee. That was done in 2018 and was released during the pandemic. Then I decided to take a step back. I looked at the scene from an outsider’s perspective. I moved back to Norway in 2021 after being in the UK for 9 and a half years. Moving away from the UK meant I could take a step away from drum & bass, which was the only thing I was doing, and focus on other musical avenues that interested me.
And you’ve obviously filled that time with a lot of productive work in the form of this new album.
Yes, definitely. With the ‘Cosmic Carnival’, it closed a chapter in my musical career. It was my love letter to a culture that I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of. I put a lot of effort into this project. The intricacies and layering I’m pulling off, regarding the sound design, are there to inspire. I believe in the need to continually evolve this music. In all honesty, some of the singles from this album were made in 2009 and 2010. The whole project is the rebel version of the music scene I was formally a part of. It’s a direct reflection of what I went through personally. Ultimately, I’m a soundboy. I’m a nerd when it comes to studying the sound I’m trying to make. Making music is really the only thing I do.
This must’ve been a different type of experience from the one you’ve been used to over the years.
Yes, you’re right. Being a part of Calyx & TeeBee meant we were signed to a major and essentially entered the big machine that the mainstream music industry is. This wasn’t bringing me any joy. I had to work out why. First and foremost, I love music. I guess my negative feelings towards majors are because you’re essentially just numbers on a board. You start shaping the sound to suit what someone else wants to hear. In 2015, I had a moment, and I realised I wasn’t living my truth. I decided from that moment I’d fulfil the rest of my contract and then proceed to do exactly what I wanted to achieve within music.
It sounds like a really eye-opening experience!
To sum up the last 6 months, I’ve moved from 120bpm to 172bpm. Spanning a range of BPMs and styles. Getting to experiment with my intelligence and being able to challenge myself every day. The majority of what I’m making at the moment, moving forward from the album, is non-drum & bass production. So it really is a period of discovery for me.
How did you motivate yourself to essentially start from scratch?
I wanted to go back to that place where I’d achieved nothing. To not continually evolve and challenge the mind is a disservice to yourself. You take the lessons, you improve on it, act on it and see where that takes you. That’s all you can do.
I’m interested to hear what inspired you musically growing up.
I grew up in an environment of music because my Dad and his two Uncles were in a band together, playing instruments like bass guitars. I was listening to the classics like Led Zeppelin and Earth, Wind and Fire. They played all the old classics. They were all great musicians in their own right. My mother was also a great singer. As I got older, I just felt like opposing these types of genres. When it comes to basic chord progression on a Western scale, it just wasn’t interesting to me at all, and it felt very limiting. I felt popular music was just basic human manipulation that repeated the same three chords in each and every way a million times over. When I started to make music, I wanted to recreate a certain image of a mood in my head and try to execute it. I wanted to manipulate the notes and try to make music with the natural vibrations humans create through a source.
What type of electronic music got you in that mind space?
Well, this breakbeat came on when I was 7 years old in the kitchen. It turned a switch in me. All I was looking for after this moment was that sound. Then, at the age of 11, I was watching the news. There was a report about New York breakdancing, and I could hear scratching. The sound of a record going back and forth. The track was West Street Mob’s ‘West Dance Electric Boogie’, one of the all-time classics. That was the first 7-inch I bought with my first bit of pocket money. I became a massive fan of old hip-hop before it got silly. Then the UK turned hip-hop into a crazy British version called jungle, and that was everything I ever wanted. I was a big fan of hardcore, too. I was a huge Prodigy fan, ‘The Experience’ album changed my life.
As a kid from Norway, how were you able to follow the electronic scene?
It was difficult. When I was at school in Norway, we had a trip to Newcastle when I was 15. I ended up spending all my money in a local record store. I didn’t even know what some of the tracks were. When I returned to Norway, I ended up having to call the British embassy to get the UK yellow pages in order to get the phone numbers for record stores in the UK. I’d then play them the music down the phone so I could buy more tracks that were similar. The records would arrive 3 months later, after an inevitable battle with customs. That’s how badly you had to be passionate about this music to be able to acquire these records. This was way before the age of the internet.
Fast-forwarding to today, your journey as a soundboy has been unique. You must be in a great place musically.
Well, I owe it to myself when looking back at everything I’ve done to get into the position I’m in to make it count in regards to making new music – producing something I’d genuinely want to listen to. You soon realise that how ever you frame a narrative, as well as the frequency with which you subconsciously admit in the background, massively affects your cognitive outcome. This led me to study sound theory and the natural resonance of things. For me, I treat sound as a journey. It makes me live in the moment and live my truth. Sound, math and physics are my three branches of study. Sound can manipulate any object that is in a physical state. Everything vibrates. When I started going deep into sound, I realised why math was intriguing to me. Then, when you start applying the laws of physics to this, things start to make more sense. I pride myself on being a soundboy, so when I tried to make sense of this, at first, I didn’t understand anything – I felt so dumb. It made me really reevaluate my life and realise how my ego was controlling my life.
Really fascinating stuff! Looking at ‘Cosmic Carnival’, talk to me about the thinking behind it and how it all culminated together.
These tracks span from 2011 right up until a few months before the creation of the album. When I approach music, I remember every single thing that happens around it. If I go through something profound, I will work hard on something I’m passionate about, and it’ll be embedded in the tracks I make. There’s a happy sadness behind this particular body of work. Essentially, there’s hope. My ideology on ‘Cosmic Carnival’ was to make something that sounds futuristic yet ancient. The ‘Cosmic Carnival’ to me is an infinite symphony. Throughout these moments in time, my studies interacted with my understanding of sound. All of that time in between me making these tracks, I’d be mastering and practicing. I’d be approaching these challenges with my ever-evolving system, and over time I’d alter it – therefore improving. My understanding of tone further inspired my works, realising how one sound in space can have an infinite amount of possibilities. Delving into my emotions made me realise I could express myself using my sound theory. For instance, the ‘Lightning that Scarred Mars’ is a metaphor; I wrote that track when my mother was suffering from cancer. My partner at the time was also sick with cancer. Furthermore, my child had just been diagnosed with autism. That electricity bass on the intro was me resonating out of control. Then the horrible bass on the second was like nothing you’ve ever heard. That is my sorrow. I knew I had to overcome this because I was the only constant in this equation. I am Mars, and this horrible lightning scarred me. Throughout this body of work there are a lot of dual meanings.
And your fans have really taken to this body of work and have given glowing reviews. That must be nice!
Yes, it is. Music without emotion is just numbers. The greatest gratitude is the people listening to it, resonating with it, without going through my experience. If you really mean it as a listener, go listen to my truth.
So what can we expect from you further down the line? I sense you’re going to go down different musical avenues post ‘Cosmic Carnival’.
Definitely! For the first time in my life, I’m free to do what I want to do. I’m super content with my life. The first new project I’ve got in the pipeline is with an inspiring artist called DJ Craze and an incredible singer called Palmer Reed – both from America. I flew them both to Bergen because I knew there could be something special there. Palmer’s voice did something special to me. I had to call Craze straight away to let him know. I don’t usually listen to lyrics, but this was different. We’ve signed our projects with a media company. It’s owned and run by someone dear to me. It’s all very exciting. This is all allowing me to express myself in my truest form, without any other noises influencing the journey. We’re going to cover everything genre-wise. We want to try out so many different avenues. This project is called > Greater Than and I truly believe we have the talent to accomplish so much.
That sounds so enticing! Do you have anything else in the pipeline?
I’ve got a second project in the works with a guy whom I met not too long ago. He used to be in a successful band called Loraine in the 90s – they had major backing. He eventually got into app creation and made a very popular one called Voicy, which was then bought up by Snapchat. When I first met him, I didn’t know any of these things. We’ve formed a duo that focuses on a lot lower tempos than what I’m associated with. T.A.P.E.S is what this project is called, and I’ve also got equally high hopes for this. I didn’t think I’d be in and amongst a second project so quickly after finalising the first. I’d say some other thing to look forward to is the fact that I’ll be on the Flexout Audio show on Rinse every other month. I’ll also be on prime-time national radio every Friday here in Norway.
You can support, buy, stream, TeeBee’s Cosmic Carnaval, here.
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Article produced in commercial collaboration with Flexout Audio.
