Antoine Becks

Antoine Becks
Background information
Birth name Antoine Marcel Toupin
Born (1981-06-28) 28 June 1981
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres Alternative, electronic, dance, house, synthpop, new wave
Occupation(s) Musician, DJ, composer, singer, songwriter, producer, ex child actor
Years active 1999 - present
Labels Vandit, System, Mute, Ultra, Transmission, Mad Decent, Radikal
Associated acts Second Sun, CB7, Shannon Leto & Antoine Becks
Website antoinebecks.com

Antoine Becks (born Antoine Toupin; June 28, 1981) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, actor, former singer of the live act duo Second Sun, and frontman of the alternative band CB7.

Early life

Antoine was born in Montreal, but lived in New York City in the first four years of his life. He is French Canadian on his father's side and American on his mother's side. His parents are both artists, which is why they've supported his desire to be a musician since the beginning.[1] In an interview during one of his visits to Kiev he told the story of, "When I was 5 years old, I was obsessed with The Beatles. I made myself a cardboard guitar, sat everyone around and pretended that I was one of The Beatles. I had my first real guitar at the age of 7. I sang and played, and I never stopped",.[2] At 8 years old, besides the guitar, he already played bass, drums and the piano.

As a teenager, Antoine played in many garage bands but he left them eventually. Being a fan of raves,[3] he used things like Nintendo gloves and pants from the bubble polyethylen,[4] and went to the clubs, whose music he always felt in his heart.[5]

Career

Acting

At 12 years old Antoine started to on a Canadian TV series called Le Retour & a teen drama called ZAP and a cameo appearance in the Canadian court show Les grands procès[6] At the age of 20 after he got his first record deal with Vandit records; Antoine gave up acting to focus on his electronic live act Second Sun.

Second Sun

Adam White (L) & Antoine Becks (R) as the live act Second sun

In early 2000, Antoine met Adam White, who worked at a music store at the time. "I came in the store to buy something and it all ended up with me asking Adam to join me.", he recalls. They later became known as Second Sun.

Antoine was new to producing electronic dance music so it was a learning process, but after 6 months of trying to create his first track, Antoine gave a CD to Paul Van Dyk, asking him what he thought about it. A week later, Paul offered to sign Second Sun to Vandit Records and they took the chance. From then on, the requests for Second Sun shows went off the scale.[7]

Their debut album "Inside Out" was expected to be trance, but the duet surprised everyone with a variety of sounds and acoustic instruments. "We love the airy feeling of trance music, but at the same time we wanted to be more varied and incorporate proper songs, not just dancefloor bangers. At the time it was rare to hear a rock-driven male vocal on a dance track", said Antoine, and it was ultimately reflected in their single "Doing It Well" with Paul Harris of Dirty Vegas.[8] Second Sun also collaborated with Paul Van Dyk on the hit single "Crush", which was on Paul Van Dyk's Grammy-Nominated album "Reflections". Second Sun also collaborated with Grammy-winner Cedric Gervais on a number of house singles (including a remix of Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" (appearing as "The Miami Project") and Antoine's voice was featured on Sharam's hit single "P.A.T.T. (Party All The Time)".

Labels releasing this music were Ultra Records, System Recordings, Ministry Of Sound, Positiva/EMI, Universal and Mute. In late 2010, Antoine posted on his official Facebook that Second Sun would no longer be making music due to wanting to pursue his upcoming band, CB7.

Official group members:

Albums:

Inside Out - 19 April 2005

Tracks:

Uncovered EP - 21 February 2006

Tracks:

The lost weekend - 31 August 2010 Tracks:

Sun king EP - 22 March 2011 Tracks:

Singles:

CB7

CB7 started with the meeting of Antoine and Shannon Leto, drummer of the popular American band Thirty Seconds to Mars. They met at a party in Miami at the end of 2009.[9]

In the spring of 2010, Shannon mentioned CB7 for the first time in an interview:[10]

Finally, I can share it with all of you. This is what I've been working at for several years... It's CB7.
— Shannon Leto

.

Together with his cousin and drummer Matt Becks, bass player Noah Luger and guitarist Adam White,[11] who was also the member of Second Sun, the band released 4 demo-tracks and toured as the opening band for Thirty Seconds to Mars in the North American leg of their "Closer to the Edge" tour.

In January 2011, Antoine announced that the current group members were his cousin Matt and himself. Later Chelsea Davis, Frankie Sizr and Jamie Reed joined the group, after meeting them in L.A. and Montreal through friends, as live members. Chelsea has her own band called Annabelle vs the Villain and Jamie is a friend of Jared Leto, Shannon's younger brother and singer of Thirty Seconds to Mars. After Shannon and Antoine broke up their live act, Shannon said via Twitter he will no longer manage CB7. On March 15, 2014 Antoine stated on he will no longer pursue working on CB7 due to him working on his own solo music.

Former group members:

Online releases:

Shannon Leto & Antoine Becks

Antoine Becks (L) & Shannon Leto (R)

The duo Shannon Leto & Antoine Becks was created in 2011, originally as an after-party for a Thirty Seconds to Mars project. However it charmed the world's dance stages, and the duo became independent and toured all over the world.[12]

According to Shannon and Antoine, their project is "when two artists get together to wreak havoc in the night clubs all over the world".

In the summer of 2012 the official website, YouTube and Twitter were removed; this lead the fans of the group to believe they broke up.

Official project members:

DJ Antoine Becks

Antoine DJing

Besides being a member of Second Sun, Antoine was playing in the clubs all over the world on his own. Presently, Antoine recorded the single "Life of the Wild", which was released January 28, 2013.[13] and on iTunes[14] 17 February 2013.

Just a week after the release, "Life of the Wild" took the 22nd place in the dance chart on TwitMusic.[15] He also had a release on Diplo's label Mad Decent.

Mixes:

Singles:

• Higher (with Maestro Harrell feat. Sherry St-Germain)

Antoine Becks' music has also appeared in movies and TV commercials such as Michael Bay's blockbuster "Pain And Gain", and ads for Coca-Cola and the NHL Network. In 2016, he co-produced the David Guetta & Cedric Gervais feat. Chris Willis collaboration "Would I Lie To You". Other co-productions with Cedric Gervais include a collaboration with Grammy-winning Latin Rock artist Juanes for "Este Amor", a remix of Odesza's "Say My Name", which got 13 Million Spotify plays since its release and a remix of Clean Bandit's "Tears". Along with doing more production for TV and film, Antoine Becks is now developing his new project under the name Vesper.

Other Facts

References

  1. ↑ .CB7 Interview
  2. ↑ .Interview in Kiev
  3. ↑ .Shannon Leto & Antoine Becks interview (Talk To Me. 1.)
  4. ↑ .Second Sun: Interview/Recap
  5. ↑ .Interview for Rolling Stone Russia
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ .Antoine Becks Rocks Loss Angeless
  8. ↑ .Second Sun Interview
  9. ↑ .Shannon Leto & Antoine Becks Interview for Bacardi Russia
  10. ↑ .On the Verge featuring Thirty Seconds to Mars
  11. ↑ .Interview with CB7
  12. ↑ .Shannon & Antoine on Ukrainian TV
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-20..Life of the Wild by Antoine Becks on Beatport
  14. ↑ .Life of the Wild by Antoine Becks on iTunes
  15. ↑ ."Life of the Wild" is #22 on the Twitmusic dance charts!
  16. ↑ .Fun facts by Antoine
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