Biography for
Brian Eno More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

15 May 1948, Woodbridge, East Anglia, England, UK

Birth Name

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno

Height

5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Mini Biography

Regarded as one of the best producers and musicians in rock history, Eno started his career in 1971 with Roxy Music. The band released two albums, "Roxy Music" and "For Your Pleasure", with the two Brians in the lineup (the other one was, of course, lead singer Bryan Ferry); a conflict between the two Brians forced Eno to leave Roxy Music in 1973. Since then, he has released well-acclaimed ambient-music albums, both solo and with collaborators such as John Cale, Robert Fripp and Daniel Lanois. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Devo and James Lumb.

IMDb Mini Biography By: a.trempe@polyinter.com

Trade Mark

Frequent use of anagrams and word-play

Creating soundtracks for real and imaginary films

Trivia

His only vocal appearance in a Top-10 song was as a backing vocalist in the Talking Heads' recording "Once In A Lifetime".

Reportedly loves word puzzles. He wrote and recorded a song entitled "King's Lead Hat", and the title anagrams into Talking Heads, a band he has worked with. His own name anagrams into "One Brain".

Created a set of oracle cards called "Oblique Strategies", which have phrases on them instead of artwork. Unlike Tarot cards, which are illustrated and meant to answer life questions, the phrases on "Oblique Strategies" cards are meant to suggest unconventional solutions to creative dilemmas such as writer's block.

Coined the term "ambient music", and recorded the album "Ambient 1: Music for Airports", considered to be the first ambient recording ever.

Wrote the song "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" about a love affair with a man from Paw Paw Michigan who could allegedly light anything on fire on which he breathed

Wrote the song "Dead Finks Don't Talk" about his ex-bandmate Bryan Ferry. Ferry and Eno argued about the creative direction of their band Roxy Music after the second album. Eno however, claims to have subconsciously written the song about Ferry, as he didn't realize it applied to Ferry until a friend asked about it.

Daughters: Hannah, Irial, and Darla

Eno's song "Julie With" on his album 'Before and After Science' is reportedly written about former girlfriend 'Julie Christie' and her miscarriage while carrying their baby.

Was run over by a taxi in 1976 after slipping on a wet London street

Was commissioned by Microsoft to compose and record the 3 1/2 second "start- up sound" for the Windows 95 operating system. Ironically, he composed it on an Apple Macintosh computer.

Awarded the Frankfurt Music Prize in 1994.

Winner of the 1994 Brit Award for British Producer.

Personal Quotes

I'm an atheist, and the concept of god for me is all part of what I call the last illusion. The last illusion is someone knows what is going on. Nearly everyone has that illusion somewhere, and it manifests not only in the terms of the idea that there is a god but that it knows what's going on but that the planets know what's going on. Astrology is part of the last illusion. The obsession with health is part of the last illusion, the idea that there's that if only we could spend time on it and sit down and stop being unreasonable with each other we'd all find that there was a structure and a solution underlying plan to it all, for most people the short answer to that is god.

"I see Rolf not so much as the missing link in the history of electronic music, more as the weak link. I think, if Rolf is going to be remembered, it won't be for his Stylophone but for 'Sun Arise'. That's one of the great records." (On Rolf Harris)

I'm often accused of being ahead of my time but it's simply not true. The truth is that everybody else is behind.

I'm a painter in sound.

I like being in working situations with people where they're going somewhere I haven't been, I want to go somewhere they haven't been and together we might end up somewhere nobody's been.

I think I've committed the one really bad English crime, which is I've risen above my station. I was supposed to be a pop star and suddenly I'm claiming that I'm an artist of some kind.

Well, I'm pretty sick of rock music, pretty sick of anything in that sphere. The thing is, I love playing it - I find it thrilling to make, but I know that once I make it I'm never going to listen to it again.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.