Voltaire (musician)
Encyclopedia
Voltaire (born January 25, 1967, in Havana, Cuba
), is a popular dark cabaret
Cuban-American musician. His stage name is his given middle name, which he shares with the famous French Enlightenment writer François-Marie Arouet
.
Voltaire is also an experienced animator and comic artist, and is a professor at the School of Visual Arts
in New York
.
According to the School of Visual Arts where he is employed as a professor, Voltaire's real name is Aurelio Voltaire Hernández. Voltaire attributes "Acoustic Guitar and Vocals" on Ooky Spooky to Aurelio Voltaire Hernández, confirming that is his real name. Since then he has signed his name as Aurelio Voltaire, and is more open about it in public appearances.
Voltaire chose to use his middle name as his performance name because his namesake "saw through the hypocrisies of humanity and commented on them through satire. In essence, he was able to educate people about the world around them by making them laugh."
with his family. However, he states that he did not enjoy residing there. At the age of ten, Voltaire was inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen
(Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), and began animating on a super 8
camera. By piecing together snippets of information from fanzines, he eventually was able to teach himself how to make foam rubber animation models and animate them. At the age of 17, he moved to New York
and got his first job as an animator with Parker Brothers
. Voltaire says that he loves New York, and that the only other place he would be happy living is Tokyo.
as well as other influences such as the goth
scene. However, many listeners find his music hard to classify. Although it has a sound reminiscent of European folk music, many people claim it to be Dark Wave; perhaps as this is a label often given to many other artists from Projekt Records
, and a word often used to mean many things by the label themselves. His music has also been linked to cabaret
, with Lexicon Magazine using the term "goth cabaret", possibly referring to dark cabaret
, a term often used to describe some bands Voltaire cites as his influences. Voltaire has also been linked to the steampunk
scene with Victorian-era horror related subjects, and some of his visual and music styling. New Wave
has also been used to describe Voltaire's music by some reviewers. Voltaire describes his own music as "Music for a parallel universe where electricity was never invented and Morrissey
is the queen of England". He claims that bands and artists who influenced his music are Rasputina, Morrissey
, Tom Waits
, Cab Calloway
and Danny Elfman
.
The first band that Voltaire played in was called First Degree which he participated in during junior high school. At this age, he was a fan of Duran Duran
, but then began listening to gothic music, most notably bands such as Bauhaus
and The Cure
. It wasn't until later that he began participating in the goth scene; it did not at first occur to him that there was a goth scene at all.
As an adult, Voltaire formed a band which included a violin
, a cello
, drums
, and himself as the vocalist
and the acoustic guitar player. Within a year, Projekt Records
signed them and by June of 1998 they released their first album called The Devil's Bris
. Two years later their second album, Almost Human was released.
One of Voltaire's popular hits is "BRAINS!
", a song written for the Cartoon Network
show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
, aired in the episode "Little Rock of Horrors". He also wrote "Land of the Dead" for Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, which plays in the opening sequence.
As an avid fan of Star Trek
, Voltaire frequently attends science fiction conventions (such as I-CON
and Dragon Con
) and released a four track EP
called Banned on Vulcan
. It was a set of comedy recordings poking fun at characters from the show.
On the side, Voltaire is also the lead vocalist of a New York City
based new wave
quintet known as The Oddz.
Voltaire also performed a musical special for Artix Entertainment in their MMO game AdventureQuest Worlds
, altering some of his songs in To the Bottom of the Sea
to suit their standards. Over 32,000 players attended. It was released on Friday 8:00PM Friday the Thirteenth of March, 2009. He has done other things with the team before the event, though.
In 2010 Voltaire released an "Alt Country" CD called Hate Lives in a Small Town
. He also released a children's CD, Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids
, which features his previous works for Cartoon Network, as well as other age-appropriate songs.
In September 1, 2011, Voltaire released his eighth studio album: Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children!
, or Riding a Black Unicorn... for short. It counts with the participation of Rasputina frontwoman Melora Creager
on cellos, Brian Viglione
on drums, former Bauhaus
bassist David J
on bass and Franz Nicolay
on accordion.
. The current lineup is:
, creating the classic "MTV-Bosch" station ID in the style of Hieronymus Bosch. The stop motion tour of the hellish Garden of Earthly Delights won several awards including a Broadcast Design Award. He has also made morbid station IDs for clients such as Cartoon Network
and Syfy
.
Besides his work with commercials, he has made short films and series such as Rakthavira and Chi-Chian. Chi-Chian is now a 14 episode flash animated series on Syfy's website. Before that, Chi-Chian started out as a graphic novel
series that included 6 issues (published by Sirius Entertainment
), which eventually evolved into the Flash-animated series.
He currently teaches stop motion animation
at the School of Visual Arts
in New York City
, as well as animating, directing and singing.
Voltaire has written two of his songs especially for the TV show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
: "BRAINS!
" and "Land of the Dead
".
. His first appearance was on the first Friday the 13th
of the game's first year to the public, where an avatar of himself quested with players to find the cursed guitar of Skullpunch Island. The second was on November 13, 2009, another Friday the 13th, where he performed a concert in the middle of the game's main town of Battleon. That year, the quest had been to find his cursed hat with an "ebil" (aka, cute and evil) bear named Deady.
In both appearances, he has written AQW versions of his songs that play in the backgrounds of his quests.
He performed the original song "Goodnight Demonslayer" for the Friday the 13th event in August 2010, featuring George Lowe and One Eyed Doll. May 13, 2011, The first Friday the Thirteenth on that year, Voltaire appeared again, needing the player's help to retrieve the Vorutanian Key, which is wanted by an Evil Alien Emperor. Songs from "Hate Lives In a Small Town" were altered and played in the event.
There was also a spoken appearance of the comic book - "Deady: Big in Japan."
series called Oh My Goth!, also known as OMG!, which started out as his own eight-page religious tracts inspired by Jack Chick
. Stories included him being chased by minions of Satan
as they would try to prevent him from playing his next show. These short pieces would often lead to information about his next show. After two issues of the Chi-Chian series were published, he convinced Sirius Entertainment
to publish his Oh My Goth! series, which included four issues that were later collected into a trade paperback
. Voltaire has also made a sequel to the OMG series called Oh My Goth! Humans Suck!
In addition to those, Voltaire has also produced a DEADY series as well as releasing books such as What is Goth? and Paint it Black.
In early 2004, for his DEADY comic book, Voltaire signed a deal with Toy2R. The first toy that was created was a 2-inch posable DEADY key chain for the company's "Qee Bear". It was released at San Diego Comic Con. The figure ended up selling out at the Con and because it did so well, the second figure was created in January 2005 which was an 8-inch DEADY deady figure (it could be redeemed on aqworlds for a rare non-member only digital pet). In June 2007 the Deady Minigame was released on ebilgames.com, a site hosting various minigames created by Artix Entertainment
. AE's Massively multiplayer online game
AQWorlds also featured a Friday the 13th
event featuring songs by Voltaire. Voltaire voiced his in-game persona for the occasion. In 2008, Voltaire shot the Animation short film X-Mess Detritus. The movie was the third film of his directorial career; the others are Transrexia (1993), Rakthavira (1994) and Transrexia II (2008).
in New York City. Voltaire has a son from a previous relationship, Mars, born in 1998. Mars can be seen in the background of a video on YouTube at the New York Anime Festival in 2007. In the video he only passes Voltaire a pocket goth, however.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
), is a popular dark cabaret
Dark Cabaret
Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s...
Cuban-American musician. His stage name is his given middle name, which he shares with the famous French Enlightenment writer François-Marie Arouet
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
.
Voltaire is also an experienced animator and comic artist, and is a professor at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Name
In the past, when asked about his real name, Voltaire avoided the question or implied that his real name is in fact Voltaire.According to the School of Visual Arts where he is employed as a professor, Voltaire's real name is Aurelio Voltaire Hernández. Voltaire attributes "Acoustic Guitar and Vocals" on Ooky Spooky to Aurelio Voltaire Hernández, confirming that is his real name. Since then he has signed his name as Aurelio Voltaire, and is more open about it in public appearances.
Voltaire chose to use his middle name as his performance name because his namesake "saw through the hypocrisies of humanity and commented on them through satire. In essence, he was able to educate people about the world around them by making them laugh."
Youth
As a child, Voltaire immigrated to New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
with his family. However, he states that he did not enjoy residing there. At the age of ten, Voltaire was inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
(Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), and began animating on a super 8
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
camera. By piecing together snippets of information from fanzines, he eventually was able to teach himself how to make foam rubber animation models and animate them. At the age of 17, he moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and got his first job as an animator with Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...
. Voltaire says that he loves New York, and that the only other place he would be happy living is Tokyo.
Musical career
Voltaire's music has strong roots and connections to European folkFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
as well as other influences such as the goth
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
scene. However, many listeners find his music hard to classify. Although it has a sound reminiscent of European folk music, many people claim it to be Dark Wave; perhaps as this is a label often given to many other artists from Projekt Records
Projekt Records
This is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
, and a word often used to mean many things by the label themselves. His music has also been linked to cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, with Lexicon Magazine using the term "goth cabaret", possibly referring to dark cabaret
Dark Cabaret
Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s...
, a term often used to describe some bands Voltaire cites as his influences. Voltaire has also been linked to the steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
scene with Victorian-era horror related subjects, and some of his visual and music styling. New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
has also been used to describe Voltaire's music by some reviewers. Voltaire describes his own music as "Music for a parallel universe where electricity was never invented and Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
is the queen of England". He claims that bands and artists who influenced his music are Rasputina, Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
and Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
.
The first band that Voltaire played in was called First Degree which he participated in during junior high school. At this age, he was a fan of Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
, but then began listening to gothic music, most notably bands such as Bauhaus
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
and The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
. It wasn't until later that he began participating in the goth scene; it did not at first occur to him that there was a goth scene at all.
As an adult, Voltaire formed a band which included a violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, a cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, and himself as the vocalist
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and the acoustic guitar player. Within a year, Projekt Records
Projekt Records
This is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
signed them and by June of 1998 they released their first album called The Devil's Bris
The Devil's Bris
The Devil's Bris is the debut album by the dark cabaret/Dark Wave artist Voltaire. It was released in 1998 by Projekt Records. The album's title is derived from the juxtaposition of the figure of the devil and the Jewish circumcision ritual, the bris milah....
. Two years later their second album, Almost Human was released.
One of Voltaire's popular hits is "BRAINS!
BRAINS!
"BRAINS!" is a song by the dark cabaret artist Voltaire. It has been described as having a '40s swing sound, which is in contrast to the much more European folk sound of many of Voltaire's older songs. It is also sometimes incorrectly entitled"Brains!"...
", a song written for the Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy often shortened as Billy and Mandy is an American animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network. It is also the spin-off of Grim & Evil. Having originally aired as part of Grim & Evil The show began in 2001, And went on to become one of Cartoon...
, aired in the episode "Little Rock of Horrors". He also wrote "Land of the Dead" for Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, which plays in the opening sequence.
As an avid fan of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, Voltaire frequently attends science fiction conventions (such as I-CON
I-CON
I-CON is a yearly fan convention, held on the campus of the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. First held in 1982, I-CON has become a very eclectic convention...
and Dragon Con
Dragon Con
Dragon*Con is a North America multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place once each year in Atlanta, Georgia...
) and released a four track EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
called Banned on Vulcan
Banned on Vulcan
Banned on Vulcan is an EP by the dark cabaret/darkwave artist Voltaire. It was released in 2001 by PlanetGrey Records, then re-released later that year by Projekt Records. Voltaire is a great fan of Star Trek, frequently attending conventions...
. It was a set of comedy recordings poking fun at characters from the show.
On the side, Voltaire is also the lead vocalist of a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
based new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
quintet known as The Oddz.
Voltaire also performed a musical special for Artix Entertainment in their MMO game AdventureQuest Worlds
AdventureQuest Worlds
AdventureQuest Worlds, often shortened to AQWorlds or simply AQW, is a browser-based MMORPG or massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by Artix Entertainment in 2008. Unlike most massively multiplayer role playing games, AdventureQuest Worlds was developed entirely in Adobe Flash...
, altering some of his songs in To the Bottom of the Sea
To the Bottom of the Sea
To the Bottom of the Sea is the sixth studio album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. It was released in 2008, and it was Voltaire's first album to be released via his own label Mars Needs Music, since his contract with Projekt Records expired the year before.It was the first...
to suit their standards. Over 32,000 players attended. It was released on Friday 8:00PM Friday the Thirteenth of March, 2009. He has done other things with the team before the event, though.
In 2010 Voltaire released an "Alt Country" CD called Hate Lives in a Small Town
Hate Lives in a Small Town
Hate Lives in a Small Town is the seventh studio album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. It was released in 2010 by Mars Needs Music. The album is a major departure of Voltaire's common style, since it was his first country album...
. He also released a children's CD, Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids
Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids
Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids is a compilation album released in 2010 by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. As the name implies, it is a collection of Voltaire's songs, from 1998's The Devil's Bris to 2008's To the Bottom of the Sea, whose lyrics were slightly modified in order...
, which features his previous works for Cartoon Network, as well as other age-appropriate songs.
In September 1, 2011, Voltaire released his eighth studio album: Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children!
Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children!
Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children! is the eighth studio album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. It was released on September 1, 2011, initially via digital download on the...
, or Riding a Black Unicorn... for short. It counts with the participation of Rasputina frontwoman Melora Creager
Melora Creager
Melora Creager, formerly Melora Mather, is an American cellist and singer-songwriter best known for her role as lead singer and chief composer of the cello rock trio Rasputina....
on cellos, Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...
on drums, former Bauhaus
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
bassist David J
David J
David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....
on bass and Franz Nicolay
Franz Nicolay
Franz Nicolay is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He is perhaps best known for playing the accordion and the piano in The World/Inferno Friendship Society and playing keyboards in The Hold Steady from 2005 to 2010...
on accordion.
Band members
Although often credited and pictured as a soloist, Voltaire has a band. His band occasionally features in live acts, but does not feature on his live album, Live!Live! (Voltaire album)
Live! is a 2006 live album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. The album's tracks were recorded during a venue across Austin, Texas...
. The current lineup is:
- Vocals/Guitar – Voltaire
- Violin- Hannah Thiem
- Violin- Maxim Moston
- Violin- Ben Lively
- Cello- Melora Creager
- Drums- Brian Viglione
- Bass- David J
- Horns- The Red Hook Ramblers
- Accordion- Franz Nicolay
- Banjo- Smith Curry
- Tuba- Joe Tuba
Television
Voltaire was able to land his first directing job in 1988 with MTVMTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, creating the classic "MTV-Bosch" station ID in the style of Hieronymus Bosch. The stop motion tour of the hellish Garden of Earthly Delights won several awards including a Broadcast Design Award. He has also made morbid station IDs for clients such as Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
and Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
.
Besides his work with commercials, he has made short films and series such as Rakthavira and Chi-Chian. Chi-Chian is now a 14 episode flash animated series on Syfy's website. Before that, Chi-Chian started out as a graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
series that included 6 issues (published by Sirius Entertainment
Sirius Entertainment
Sirius Entertainment is an American comic book company which celebrated 15 years of publishing in 2009. Sirius has published popular titles such as Dawn, Poison Elves, Akiko, and Mark Smylie's epic fantasy Artesia series during its first years....
), which eventually evolved into the Flash-animated series.
He currently teaches stop motion animation
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, as well as animating, directing and singing.
Voltaire has written two of his songs especially for the TV show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy often shortened as Billy and Mandy is an American animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network. It is also the spin-off of Grim & Evil. Having originally aired as part of Grim & Evil The show began in 2001, And went on to become one of Cartoon...
: "BRAINS!
BRAINS!
"BRAINS!" is a song by the dark cabaret artist Voltaire. It has been described as having a '40s swing sound, which is in contrast to the much more European folk sound of many of Voltaire's older songs. It is also sometimes incorrectly entitled"Brains!"...
" and "Land of the Dead
Land of the Dead (Voltaire song)
"Land of the Dead" is a song by the dark cabaret artist Voltaire. It has a soft rock - type sound to it, while keeping to the usual 60's style music...
".
AdventureQuest Worlds
Voltaire has appeared four times on the online MMO AdventureQuest WorldsAdventureQuest Worlds
AdventureQuest Worlds, often shortened to AQWorlds or simply AQW, is a browser-based MMORPG or massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by Artix Entertainment in 2008. Unlike most massively multiplayer role playing games, AdventureQuest Worlds was developed entirely in Adobe Flash...
. His first appearance was on the first Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
of the game's first year to the public, where an avatar of himself quested with players to find the cursed guitar of Skullpunch Island. The second was on November 13, 2009, another Friday the 13th, where he performed a concert in the middle of the game's main town of Battleon. That year, the quest had been to find his cursed hat with an "ebil" (aka, cute and evil) bear named Deady.
In both appearances, he has written AQW versions of his songs that play in the backgrounds of his quests.
He performed the original song "Goodnight Demonslayer" for the Friday the 13th event in August 2010, featuring George Lowe and One Eyed Doll. May 13, 2011, The first Friday the Thirteenth on that year, Voltaire appeared again, needing the player's help to retrieve the Vorutanian Key, which is wanted by an Evil Alien Emperor. Songs from "Hate Lives In a Small Town" were altered and played in the event.
There was also a spoken appearance of the comic book - "Deady: Big in Japan."
Art and writing career
In addition to Chi-Chian, Voltaire has also produced a comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series called Oh My Goth!, also known as OMG!, which started out as his own eight-page religious tracts inspired by Jack Chick
Jack Chick
Jack Thomas Chick is an American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of fundamentalist Christian tracts and comic books...
. Stories included him being chased by minions of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
as they would try to prevent him from playing his next show. These short pieces would often lead to information about his next show. After two issues of the Chi-Chian series were published, he convinced Sirius Entertainment
Sirius Entertainment
Sirius Entertainment is an American comic book company which celebrated 15 years of publishing in 2009. Sirius has published popular titles such as Dawn, Poison Elves, Akiko, and Mark Smylie's epic fantasy Artesia series during its first years....
to publish his Oh My Goth! series, which included four issues that were later collected into a trade paperback
Trade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
. Voltaire has also made a sequel to the OMG series called Oh My Goth! Humans Suck!
In addition to those, Voltaire has also produced a DEADY series as well as releasing books such as What is Goth? and Paint it Black.
In early 2004, for his DEADY comic book, Voltaire signed a deal with Toy2R. The first toy that was created was a 2-inch posable DEADY key chain for the company's "Qee Bear". It was released at San Diego Comic Con. The figure ended up selling out at the Con and because it did so well, the second figure was created in January 2005 which was an 8-inch DEADY deady figure (it could be redeemed on aqworlds for a rare non-member only digital pet). In June 2007 the Deady Minigame was released on ebilgames.com, a site hosting various minigames created by Artix Entertainment
Artix Entertainment
Artix Entertainment, LLC. is a game development company that works primarily with browser-based role-playing games. As of September 2010, the company has over 110 million users in their games.-History:...
. AE's Massively multiplayer online game
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
AQWorlds also featured a Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
event featuring songs by Voltaire. Voltaire voiced his in-game persona for the occasion. In 2008, Voltaire shot the Animation short film X-Mess Detritus. The movie was the third film of his directorial career; the others are Transrexia (1993), Rakthavira (1994) and Transrexia II (2008).
Personal life
Voltaire married his long-time girlfriend, Jayme, on October 1, 2009 at the Angel Orensanz CenterAngel Orensanz Center
The Angel Orensanz Center is located at 172 Norfolk Street on the Lower East Side of New York City, New York...
in New York City. Voltaire has a son from a previous relationship, Mars, born in 1998. Mars can be seen in the background of a video on YouTube at the New York Anime Festival in 2007. In the video he only passes Voltaire a pocket goth, however.
Books
- Voltaire (2002). Oh My Goth! Version 2.0. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1-57989-047-4
- Voltaire (2003). Oh My Goth!: Presents the Girlz of Goth!. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1-57989-061-X
- Voltaire, Chris Adams, David Fooden (2003). Chi-Chian: The Roleplaying Game. Aetherco/Dreamcatcher. ISBN 1-929312-03-2
- Voltaire (2004). Deady the Malevolent Teddy. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1-57989-083-0
- Voltaire (2004). Deady the Terrible Teddy. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1-57989-077-6
- Voltaire (2004). What Is Goth? - Music, Makeup, Attitude, Apparel, Dance, and General Skullduggery. Weiser Books. ISBN 1-57863-322-2
- Voltaire (2005). Deady the Evil Teddy. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1-57989-081-4
- Voltaire (2005). Paint It Black - A Guide to Gothic Homemaking. Weiser Books. ISBN 1-57863-361-3
- Voltaire (2007). Deady: Big in Japan. Sirius Entertainment. ISBN 1-57989-085-7
Discography
- The Devil's BrisThe Devil's BrisThe Devil's Bris is the debut album by the dark cabaret/Dark Wave artist Voltaire. It was released in 1998 by Projekt Records. The album's title is derived from the juxtaposition of the figure of the devil and the Jewish circumcision ritual, the bris milah....
(1998) - Almost Human (2000)
- Boo HooBoo HooBoo Hoo is an album by the dark cabaret/darkwave artist Voltaire that was released in 2002 by Projekt Records.The album features the song "BRAINS!" which is arguably Voltaire's most notable song, and it was originally composed for The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "Little Rock of Horrors"...
(2002) - Then and Again (2004)
- Ooky Spooky (2007)
- To the Bottom of the SeaTo the Bottom of the SeaTo the Bottom of the Sea is the sixth studio album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. It was released in 2008, and it was Voltaire's first album to be released via his own label Mars Needs Music, since his contract with Projekt Records expired the year before.It was the first...
(2008) - Hate Lives in a Small TownHate Lives in a Small TownHate Lives in a Small Town is the seventh studio album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. It was released in 2010 by Mars Needs Music. The album is a major departure of Voltaire's common style, since it was his first country album...
(2010) - Riding a Black Unicorn...Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children!Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children! is the eighth studio album by Cuban American dark cabaret/Dark Wave singer Voltaire. It was released on September 1, 2011, initially via digital download on the...
(2011)
1999
- Unquiet Grave #3 (Cleopatra RecordsCleopatra RecordsCleopatra Records is a Los Angeles-based independent record label.- History :Founded in 1992 by Brian Perera, it specializes in gothic rock, hard rock, heavy metal and reissues of out-of-print music...
)
- Featured a remix of the song "The Man Upstairs".
2001
- Promo 12 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Featured the song "Anastasia".
- Tori AmosTori AmosTori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
Tribute: Songs of a Goddess (Cleopatra RecordsCleopatra RecordsCleopatra Records is a Los Angeles-based independent record label.- History :Founded in 1992 by Brian Perera, it specializes in gothic rock, hard rock, heavy metal and reissues of out-of-print music...
)
- Tori Amos
- Featured the song "Caught a Lite Sneeze".
2002
- Promo 17 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Featured "The Vampire Club".
- Projekt: Gothic (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Projekt: Gothic (Projekt Records
- Featured the song "When You're Evil".
2003
- Projekt: The New Face of GothProjekt: The New Face of GothProjekt: The New Face of Goth is a compilation album released by Projekt Records to showcase some of their most popular artists. It was released in 2003.-Track listing:#Android Lust: "Stained" #Audra: "Cabaret Fortune Teller"...
(Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Featured the songs "BRAINS!BRAINS!"BRAINS!" is a song by the dark cabaret artist Voltaire. It has been described as having a '40s swing sound, which is in contrast to the much more European folk sound of many of Voltaire's older songs. It is also sometimes incorrectly entitled"Brains!"...
" and "Goodnight Demon Slayer".- Promo 21 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Promo 21 (Projekt Records
- Featured the song "The Vampire Club".
2004
- Strange as Angels: A Tribute to The Cure (Failure to Communicate Records)
- Featured the song "Lovesong".
- Holiday Single 1 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Holiday Single 1 (Projekt Records
- Featured the song "Peace in the Holy Land", by Voltaire, featuring Unto AshesUnto AshesUnto Ashes is a musical ensemble based in New York City that incorporates madrigal, folk, and elements of neo-medieval and dark wave. Founded by Michael Laird and Susanna Melendez in 1997, the band has released five full-length CDs on the Projekt label...
.- Promo 20 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Promo 20 (Projekt Records
- Featured the song "The Vampire Club"
- Promo 23 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Promo 23 (Projekt Records
- Featured the song "The Vampire Club"
2005
- A Dark Noel (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Featured the song "Peace in the Holy Land", by Voltaire, featuring Unto AshesUnto AshesUnto Ashes is a musical ensemble based in New York City that incorporates madrigal, folk, and elements of neo-medieval and dark wave. Founded by Michael Laird and Susanna Melendez in 1997, the band has released five full-length CDs on the Projekt label...
.
2006
- Where's Neil When You Need Him?Where's Neil When You Need Him?Where's Neil When You Need Him? is a tribute album based on the works of fantasy writer Neil Gaiman.-Overview:The album was released on Dancing Ferret Discs on July 18, 2006. The CD has cover art by Dave McKean and extensive new liner notes from Neil Gaiman.The album's title was taken from the song...
(Dancing Ferret Discs)
- Featured the song "Come Sweet Death", by The Oddz, with Voltaire.
- The Projekt Almost Free CD (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- The Projekt Almost Free CD (Projekt Records
- Featured the song "Cannibal Buffet (Promo Mix)"
- .2 CONTAMINATION: A Tribute to David BowieDavid BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
(Failure to Communicate Records)
- .2 CONTAMINATION: A Tribute to David Bowie
- Featured the song "China Girl".
- Asleep By Dawn Magazine Presents: DJ Ferret's Underground Club Mix #2 (Dancing Ferret Discs)
- Featured the song "Day Of The Dead".
2007
- Almost Free CD 2007.1 (Projekt RecordsProjekt RecordsThis is the article for the record label. You might be looking for Pro-jekt, ProjeKct, Project Pitchfork, or Projekt RevolutionProjekt is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent record label specializing in gothic rock, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, shoegaze, dream-pop, and dark cabaret created by...
)
- Featured the song "Zombie Prostitute".
2008
- To The Bottom Of The Sea (Mars Needs Music)
- Voltaire's first wholly self-produced and self-released album.
- Songs from the album were performed by Voltaire through an avatarAvatar (computing)In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
in the online game AdventureQuest Worlds.
2009
- Every Machine Makes A Mistake: A Tribute to RadioheadRadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
(Failure to Communicate Records)
- Featured the song "Wolf At The Door".
External links
- Projekt Records
- Chi-Chian online at Sci FiSci Fi Channel (United States)Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
- Vorutania (Fansite)
- interview with Sepiachord.com