Chicane

Nicholas Bracegirdle (born 28 February 1971), known professionally as Chicane, is an English musician, composer, songwriter, and record producer.

Among his works are singles "Offshore", an Ibiza trance anthem included in many compilations in both chill-out and dance versions; "Saltwater", which featured vocals by Clannad member Máire Brennan, and the UK number-one hit "Don't Give Up", featuring vocals by Bryan Adams, which also became a top ten hit on singles charts across Europe and Australia.

A partnership with Leo Elstob produced the first Disco Citizens single, "Right Here Right Now", in 1995, as well as the first Chicane single, "Offshore", in 1996.

"Offshore" would be the first of Chicane's many releases on Edel UK Records and independent UK dance music record label Xtravaganza Recordings, then-newly founded by DJ and Bracegirdle's college friend Alex Gold.

Bracegirdle's first release was the four track EP Cyanide Music Volume One in 1996.

This contained music styles varying from deep house to trip hop and nu-disco.

This was released the Cyanide record label and was a little known precursor to "Offshore".

The Cyanide label then released Offshore EP #1, which contained the original version of "Offshore" as well three other tracks, again of varying styles.

Eventually Bracegirdle founded his own record label Modena Records, which holds the rights to all his songs and licenses them to other labels for release and distribution.

Far from the Maddening Crowds, Chicane's debut studio album from 1997, is still considered a seminal release among the trance music community, and his second studio album, 2000's Behind the Sun, was certified gold in the UK.

It reached No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart (and No. 1 on other UK-based charts compiled by Mixmag, Record Mirror, and others), the top 40 in multiple European countries, and No. 5 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts in 1997 upon re-release.

Its inclusion on numerous Ibiza-themed trance music compilation albums (such as Café del Mar) attest to its popularity in the nightclubs on the island, one of the worldwide epicentres of dance music.

"Sunstroke", the follow-up single, attained similar popularity and chart numbers.

A third single, "Offshore '97" (a separate item from the re-release of "Offshore") is a mashup of "Offshore" with the a capella from the Power Circle song "A Little Love, a Little Life", mixed by producer and DJ Anthony Pappa.

Originally a bootleg, it was turned into an official release, credited to "Chicane with Power Circle".

Following these releases, Bracegirdle's debut studio album Far from the Maddening Crowds was released in September 1997.

Additional singles that followed were "Lost You Somewhere", the Benelux release "Red Skies", and the non-album single "Strong in Love", for which Bracegirdle used vocals by British singer Sylvia Mason-James (after discovering that she was the vocalist on the Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne remix of "Lemon" by U2) and first collaborated on production with Ray "Madman" Hedges (producer for B*Witched and Boyzone).

1999 saw the release of "Saltwater", a song based on Máire Brennan's vocals from "Theme from Harry's Game" by the Celtic band Clannad.

It surpassed all previous Chicane singles, reaching No. 6 on the UK charts and No. 1 on all five major UK dance charts.

On 27 March 2000, Bracegirdle released his second studio album Behind the Sun.

It was certified gold by the BPI, while "Don't Give Up" was certified silver.

Two other singles were released from the album—the double A-side "No Ordinary Morning / Halcyon", and "Autumn Tactics"—but neither were as successful as the preceding releases.

The song was used in a Belfast City advertisement broadcast in 2005–2006 across regional channels.

The version of the vocals used in "Saltwater", however, was a new recording by Brennan herself.

After producing a radio remix of Bryan Adams's "Cloud Number Nine", Bracegirdle offered Adams the vocal position on the song "Don't Give Up".

The vocals Adams recorded were subsequently heavily processed through a vocoder so as to play down his rock music vocal style.

The vocal credit was initially not publicised when the single was sent to Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 program Essential Selection.

On the show, Tong made the song his first "Essential New Tune" selection of the new millennium.

It was also Chicane's biggest hit, debuting at No. 1 on the UK charts (and notably replacing "American Pie", Madonna's No. 1 single of the previous week), reached No. 3 on the US dance chart and No. 1 on Australian and Russian charts, and made other charts across Europe as well.

In 2007, after the hindrance of an ultimately unreleased album (Easy to Assemble) in the intervening time, the third artist album Somersault was released on Bracegirdle's independent record label, followed shortly after by a tenth anniversary re-release of Far from the Maddening Crowds which included a new mix of "Offshore" ("Offshore 2007").

He released his fourth studio album Giants in 2010, with the fifth studio album Thousand Mile Stare following less than two years later, in spring 2012.

The sixth studio album, The Sum of Its Parts, appeared in early 2015, and his seventh studio album, The Place You Can't Remember, the Place You Can't Forget, was released in 2018.

His eighth studio album, Everything We Had to Leave Behind, was released in 2021, and his ninth studio album Nevertheless, was released two years later in 2023.

In addition, Bracegirdle also worked with Leo Elstob under the alias Disco Citizens, producing a handful of less radio-friendly, vocal-less tracks with a stronger progressive house sound.

Working with singer Vanessa St. James and producer Mr. Joshua, Bracegirdle was part of the Mr. Joshua Presents Espiritu project, known for the song "In Praise of the Sun", released with both English and French vocals.

Bracegirdle contributed with executive production on Tomski's "14 Hours to Save the Earth".

Nick Bracegirdle has also used the alias, Sitvac, to produce a one-time single, "Wishful Thinking".

While having trained in classical guitar and piano at an early age, Bracegirdle's earliest influences in electronic music came from melodic composers such as Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis, and synthpop pioneer Vince Clarke; a further influence was the dance hit "Anthem" by the house music group N-Joi.

All of this convinced him to pursue the creation of melodic electronic dance music.

By the age of 12, he was making music in recording studios and sending demos to record labels.