Born Crain
Biography
Born Meirlaen was born on July 15th, 1980 in the city of Ghent, Belgium and catched the musical virus rather fast. When still a child, he listened to the music of the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel. The old piano at his grandmothers’ house was his first love and he would spend every school luchtime behind it. At the time, he hated the music-theory and classical pianolessons he was sent to by his parents – something he’s now obviously very grateful for. In his early teen...
Born Meirlaen was born on July 15th, 1980 in the city of Ghent, Belgium and catched the musical virus rather fast. When still a child, he listened to the music of the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel. The old piano at his grandmothers’ house was his first love and he would spend every school luchtime behind it. At the time, he hated the music-theory and classical pianolessons he was sent to by his parents – something he’s now obviously very grateful for.
In his early teen years Born was introduced to the music of Metallica, Nirvana, Guns ’n Roses, Rage Against The Machine and Red Hot Chilli Peppers by his cousin, which opened up a completely new world for him. Later, discovering the music of Frank Zappa and The Wizards Of Ooze, Born became interested in jazz and funk. He played in various bands, both as a keyboardplayer and guitarist, and was always very much involved in the writing process of original songs.
As a young musician, Born went to study at the Antwerp Jazz Studio for one year and then enrolled at the School of Audio Engineering to specialize in recording techniques. Born studied in Rotterdam for 1 year and then continued his education at Middlesex University, where he graduated as Bachelor in Recording Arts. Born was subsequently offered a job at the La Chapelle studio in Waimes, where he worked for over three years as an in-house engineer while still participating in some local successful projects & bands.
In 2005 Born’s musical career as a solo artist really took off. He took time out to write, play, compose and rewrite songs behind his piano for his first solo-album. Born co-wrote with the talented Hans Francken, Vincent Pierins, Ingrid Mank and English trio Paul Drew, Greigg Watts and Pete Barringer. In November 2005 Born signed a deal with major recordlabel Universal/ARS. In January 2006, Born released his first single ‘Fools rush in’, which immediately made the top 5 of the official Ultratop 50 chart in Belgium.
October 2006 saw the release of ‘Fools rush in’, Born’s debut full length album produced by Jo Francken (Novastar, Eva De Roovere, Admiral Freebee) and his brother Hans (Clouseau, Kommil Foo...). The album was a big success, reaching the golden status with over 19.000 copies sold in Belgium. Apart from 'Fools rush in' and 'Good Times', the third single ‘Don’t ever go’ also did particularly well. The ballad also became the theme song of a very popular TV-series called ‘Aspe’.
Born has made 2007 a special year. In January the singer released the single ‘Walking in the sun’, the 4th track taken from the album ‘Fools rush in’. After winning the prestigious ZaMu award for “Best Belgian Pop”, Born set out on a concert tour across Flanders with his fabulous band. Various concert venues formed the décor of the successful ‘Fools rush in’ tour. Almost 6,500 people turned up to listen to Born’s music. This concert tour earned the singer massive praise from press and public alike. In the summer of 2007 Born followed up his successful ‘Fools rush in’ concert tour with appearances at numerous festivals in Flanders, culminating in ‘VTM Live’, which attracted over 30,000 enthusiastic concert-goers.
Born is a rising star not only in Flanders, but also in Japan. In January 2007, Born signed a record deal with Avex - a major player on the Japanese market - and released the album ‘Walking In The Sun’. His debut album ‘Walking In The Sun’ sold more than 50,000 copies in the Land of the Rising Sun. To date, Born Crain has toured Japan five times. The singer-songwriter gave numerous sold-out concerts in the Billboard Live Clubs in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka in 2008 and 2010.
2008 started off fantastically when Born Crain received the EBBA (or European Border Breakers Award) at the renowned MIDEM convention in Cannes, France. While working hard on his second album, his schedule is filled with concerts and shows all over the Benelux.
The single “Four Letter Word” was released in March 2008 and is an instant hit on all major Belgian radiostations. A successful teaser for his much anticipated second album “The Pleasure Of Your Company”, the cover version of The New Kids On The Block’s “Tonight” was released just before the 2nd album in August 2008. In fall of that year appeared on numerous TV and radioshows, promoting his second album. Soon Japan followed, as “Four Letter Word” was released there in November 2008 and saw the success of the first album repeated, with massive airplay and sales.
2009 has been a year of travelling, performing and writing for Born. He’s also been actively producing in his own professional commercial studio facility and doing productions for fellow bands, artists and musicians.
On his 29th birthday, Born meets the very successful producer, songwriter and musician Jeroen Swinnen (Novastar, Daan, Vive La Fete, Tom Dice,...) during a writing session set up by EMI. They really hit it off and when Jeroen says he’d love to collaborate on Born’s 3rd album, Born doesn’t hesitate for a second! They spend a year on writing, recording and producing the record Born really wanted to make at this point in his life...
“Tell The World” is the first single of his new album Anatomy, which was released in November 2010 in Belgium and Japan. With other worldwide releases and tours coming up, 2011 looks like a very promising year indeed for Born Crain!
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
