View source for Rhys Fulber

{{Use Canadian English|date=June 2023}}
{{Short description|Canadian producer and musician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{BLP sources|date=February 2012}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name              = Rhys Fulber
| image             = Front Line Assembly Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2018 01.jpg
| image_upright     = 1.2
| caption           = Fulber with Front Line Assembly at [[Wave-Gotik-Treffen]] 2018
| birth_name        = Nowell Rhys Fulber
| alias             = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1970|10|10}}
| birth_place       = [[Vancouver]], Canada
| instrument        = Keyboards, synthesizer, sampler, programming
| genre             = [[Alternative metal]] (production), [[electronica]], [[industrial rock]], [[techno]]
| occupation        = Producer, musician
| years_active      = 1987–present
| label             = 
| website           = 
}}

'''Nowell Rhys Fulber''' (born October 10, 1970) is a Canadian [[electronic music]]ian and producer. He is a member of [[Front Line Assembly]]<ref name="Bogdanov2001">{{cite book|last=Bogdanov|first=Vladimir|title=All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music|url=https://archive.org/details/allmusicguidetoe00vlad|url-access=registration|access-date=June 6, 2012|date=May 14, 2001|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=9780879306281|pages=[https://archive.org/details/allmusicguidetoe00vlad/page/149 149]–}}</ref> and [[Delerium]], along with [[Bill Leeb]]. He also records under his own name and under the name [[Conjure One]].
{{toc limit|3}}

== Biography ==
Fulber was born in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]] on October 10, 1970. His father, a musician, was born in Germany and his mother was from Great Britain.<!-- What are their names? Did they immigrated as a couple? --> His father introduced him to the music of [[Led Zeppelin]] and [[Kraftwerk]]; they both attended a Kraftwerk concert in 1975. Fulber became interested in music and started drumming on his father's instruments at a very early age. Along with Kraftwerk, Fulber's electronic influences included [[Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark]] (OMD), [[Jean-Michel Jarre]], [[SPK (band)|SPK]], and [[Pete Shelley]]'s ''[[Homosapien (album)|Homosapien]]'' (1981). He has cited OMD as his favourite band in his youth.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=McDonald|first=Seth|date=2003|title=Conjure One|magazine=Industrial Nation|issue=17|pages=70–73|issn=1062-449X}}</ref>

His father later built and ran a recording studio, catering toward the local punk rock scene. As a youth, Fulber spent a lot of time at the studio. In 1984 he started becoming more interested in electronic music and acquired his first synthesizer.

In 1986, he became friends with [[Bill Leeb]], who had just left his former band [[Skinny Puppy]].<ref name="relmagcausticretro">{{cite interview |last1=Leeb |first1=Bill |subject-link1=Bill Leeb |last2=Fulber |first2=Rhys |subject-link2=Rhys Fulber |interviewer=Johan Carlsson |title=Front Line Assembly "Caustic Grip" Retrospective |url=https://www.releasemagazine.net/caustic-grip-retrospective/ |work=[[Release Magazine]] |publisher=Release Musik & Media |location=Gothenburg |date=December 18, 2015 |access-date=February 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151221210311/https://www.releasemagazine.net/caustic-grip-retrospective/ |archive-date=December 21, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

Fulber is a first cousin of [[Shawn Atleo]] ([[Ahousaht First Nation]]), a Canadian activist and politician, who was elected twice as national chief of the [[Assembly of First Nations]], serving 2009 into 2014.

== Early music career ==
Fulber's first involvements in [[Front Line Assembly]] were one song on their second cassette release ''[[Total Terror]]'', and then three songs on ''[[The Initial Command]]''. He also contributed to [[Delerium]]'s debut album, ''[[Faces, Forms & Illusions]]''. During this time he started the band [[Will (band)|Will]] together with [[Chris Peterson (producer)|Chris Peterson]], John McRae and Jeff Stoddard, which lasted from 1987 to 1992.

He joined Front Line Assembly for their first tour, [[Gashed Senses & Crossfire]] in 1989. He then joined Delerium full-time when Michael Balch left.<ref name="AllMusic">{{Cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/caustic-grip-mw0000061394 |title=Caustic Grip |access-date=June 16, 2013|work=AllMusic}}</ref> Until 1997, Fulber was involved in all Front Line Assembly, Delerium and side projects with Bill Leeb, including the albums ''[[Tactical Neural Implant]]'' and ''[[Hard Wired]]'' from Front Line Assembly, and ''[[Semantic Spaces]]'' and ''[[Karma (Delerium album)|Karma]]'' from Delerium.

[[File:Conjure One Nocturnal Culture Night 10 2015 01.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A photo of Rhys Fulber performing with Conhure One in Germany, 2015.|Rhys Fulber live with Conjure One at the Nocturnal Culture Night festival in Germany, 2015]]

Leeb and Fulber released several albums as [[Synæsthesia (Canadian band)|Synæsthesia]], including ''Embody'', ''[[Desideratum (Synæsthesia album)|Desideratum]]''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/r228341 | first=Jim | last=Brenholts | title=Desideratum Album Review | publisher=[[AllMusic]] | access-date=September 19, 2016}}</ref> and ''Ephemeral''.

Fulber was nominated for the Jack Richardson Producer Of The Year award at the 2008 [[Juno Awards]] and won two Junos with [[Delerium]] for Best Dance Recording in 1998 and 2000.

==Discography==
This section lists only regular full studio albums.
===Techno released under his own name===
* ''Your Dystopia, My Utopia'' (Sonic Groove, 2018)
* ''Ostalgia'' (Sonic Groove, 2019)
* ''Diaspora'' (aufnahme + wiedergabe, 2020)
* ''Resolve'' (FR Recordings, 2020)
* ''Brutal Nature'' (FR Recordings, 2021)
* ''Collapsing Empires'' (Sonic Groove, 2022)
* ''Balance Of Fear'' (Sonic Groove, 2024)
* ''Memory Impulse Autonomy'' ([[Artoffact Records|Artoffact]], 2025)

===Conjure One===
*''[[Conjure One (album)|Conjure One]]'' ([[Nettwerk]], 2002)
*''[[Extraordinary Ways]]'' (Nettwerk, 2005)
*''[[Exilarch (album)|Exilarch]]'' (Nettwerk, 2010)
*''[[Holoscenic]]'' (Armada Music, 2015)
*''Innovation Zero'' (Black Hole Recordings, 2022)
===Delerium===
* ''[[Morpheus (album)|Morpheus]]'' ([[List of industrial music labels|Dossier]], 1989)
* ''[[Syrophenikan]]'' (Dossier, 1990)
* ''[[Stone Tower (album)|Stone Tower]]'' (Dossier, 1991)
* ''[[Spiritual Archives]]'' (Dossier, 1991)
* ''[[Spheres (Delerium album)|Spheres]]'' (Dossier, 1994)
* ''[[Semantic Spaces]]'' (Nettwerk, 1994)
* ''[[Spheres 2|Spheres II]]'' (Dossier, 1994)
* ''[[Karma (Delerium album)|Karma]]'' (Nettwerk, 1997)
* ''[[Chimera (Delerium album)|Chimera]]'' (Nettwerk, 2003)
* ''[[Nuages du Monde]]'' (Nettwerk, 2006)
* ''[[Music Box Opera]]'' (Nettwerk, 2012)
* ''[[Mythologie]]'' ([[Metropolis Records|Metropolis]], 2016)
===Fauxliage===
* ''[[Fauxliage]]'' (Nettwerk, 2007)
===Front Line Assembly===
* ''[[The Initial Command]]'' ([[Third Mind Records|Third Mind]], 1987)
* ''[[Caustic Grip]]'' (Third Mind, 1990)
* ''[[Tactical Neural Implant]]'' (Third Mind, 1992)
* ''[[Millennium (Front Line Assembly album)|Millennium]]'' (Roadrunner, 1994)
* ''[[Hard Wired]]'' ([[Off Beat (label)|Off Beat]], 1995)
* ''[[Civilization (album)|Civilization]]'' (Metropolis, 2004)
* ''[[Artificial Soldier]]'' (Metropolis, 2006)
* ''[[Wake Up the Coma]]'' (Metropolis, 2019)
* ''[[Mechanical Soul]]'' (Metropolis, 2021)

===Intermix===
* ''Intermix'' (Third Mind, 1992)
* ''Phaze Two'' (Third Mind, 1992)
* ''Future Primitives'' (ESP-Sun, 1995)
===Noise Unit===
* ''Response Frequency'' ([[Antler-Subway]], 1990)
* ''Strategy of Violence'' (Dossier, 1992)
* ''Decoder'' (Dossier, 1995)
* ''Drill'' (Off Beat, 1996)
* ''Deviator'' ([[Artoffact Records|Artoffact]], 2021)
===Synæsthesia===
* ''Embody'' ([[Cleopatra Records|Cleopatra]], 1995)
* ''Desideratum'' ([[Hypnotic Records|Hypnotic]], 1995)
* ''Ephemeral'' (Hypnotic, 1997)
===Will===
* ''[[Pearl of Great Price (album)|Pearl of Great Price]]'' (Third Mind, 1991)

== Production ==
As Front Line Assembly was beginning to peak, their UK label Third Mind was bought out by [[Roadrunner Records]], a predominantly metal label. An up-and-coming band on the label [[Fear Factory]] was looking to expand their sound with remixes and new label mates Front Line Assembly were contacted.  This led to the influential [[Fear Is the Mindkiller]] EP. From this more metal themed work followed while Fulber was contracted to contribute keyboards and de facto additional production to Fear Factory's breakthrough [[Demanufacture (album)|Demanufacture]] album, defining their signature sound. 

Fulber had also contributed backing tracks around this same time to new Canadian industrial rock band [[Econoline Crush]], leading to their signing with EMI Canada and eventually his first full length production job handling their debut album Affliction, spawning minor Canadian rock radio hit "Wicked".  From there his production career grew and became more varied.  The later success of [[Delerium]] bringing him into more adult music formats with artists like [[Josh Groban]] and [[Serena Ryder]]. Based out of Los Angeles since 2000, he currently works out of his own studio, Surplus Sound in [[Van Nuys]].

===Selected production credits===<!-- not selective enough-->
====For musicians====
*1993: [[Fear Factory]] - ''[[Fear Is the Mindkiller]]'' (remixing)
*1994: [[Econoline Crush]] - ''[[Purge (EP)|Purge]]'' (programming, keyboards)
*1995: Fear Factory - ''[[Demanufacture (album)|Demanufacture]]'' (programming, keyboards, mixing, co-writing)
*1995: [[Machine Head (band)|Machine Head]] - ''[[Old (song)|Old]]'' (remixing)
*1995: Econoline Crush - ''[[Affliction (album)|Affliction]]'' (production, keyboards, programming)
*1995: [[Nailbomb]] - ''[[Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide]]'' (keyboards, programming)
*1996: [[Front Line Assembly]] and [[Die Krupps]] - ''[[The Remix Wars: Strike 2]]'' (remixing)
*1996: [[The Tea Party (band)|The Tea Party]] - ''[[Alhambra (EP)|Alhambra]]'' (remixing)
*1997: Fear Factory - ''[[Remanufacture - Cloning Technology]]'' (remixing)
*1997: [[Waltari]] - ''[[Space Avenue]]'' (producing, programming)
*1998: [[Skinny Puppy]] - ''[[Remix Dystemper]]'' (remixing)
*1998: Fear Factory - ''[[Obsolete (album)|Obsolete]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards, co writing)
*1998: [[Cubanate]] - ''[[Interference (Cubanate album)|Interference]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards)
*2000: [[Factory 81]] - ''[[Mankind (album)|Mankind]]'' (remixing)
*2001: [[The Watchmen (band)|The Watchmen]] - ''[[Slomotion]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards)
*2001: [[Josh Groban]] - ''[[Josh Groban (album)|Josh Groban]]'' (producing, programming)
*2001: Fear Factory - ''[[Digimortal (album)|Digimortal]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards, co writing)
*2002: [[Paradise Lost (band)|Paradise Lost]] - ''[[Symbol of Life]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards)
*2004: [[Collide (band)|Collide]] - ''[[Vortex (Collide album)|Vortex]]'' (remixing)
*2004: [[L'Âme Immortelle]] - ''[[Gezeiten]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards)
*2004: Fear Factory - ''[[Archetype (Fear Factory album)|Archetype]]'' (programming, keyboards, co writing)
*2005: Paradise Lost - ''[[Paradise Lost (Paradise Lost album)|Paradise Lost]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards)
*2007: Paradise Lost - ''[[In Requiem]]'' (producing, keyboards)
*2009: [[Divine Heresy]] - ''[[Bringer of Plagues]]'' (keyboards
*2010: Fear Factory - ''[[Mechanize]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards, co writing)
*2012: Fear Factory - ''[[The Industrialist]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards, engineering, co writing)
*2013: [[Mindless Self Indulgence]] - ''[[How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love Mindless Self Indulgence]]'' (mixing, additional production, engineering, co writing)
*2013: [[Scar the Martyr]] - ''[[Scar the Martyr (album)|Scar the Martyr]]'' (producing, keyboards, programming)
*2014: Machine Head - ''[[Bloodstone & Diamonds]]'' (string arrangements, keyboards, percussion)
*2015: Fear Factory - ''[[Genexus (album)|Genexus]]'' (producing, programming, keyboards, engineering) 
*2016: [[Youth Code]] - ''[[Commitment to Complications]]'' (producing, mixing, engineering, additional programming, additional keyboards)
*2018: Machine Head - ''[[Catharsis (Machine Head album)|Catharsis]]'' (programming, string arrangements) 
*2018: [[Three Days Grace]] - ''[[Outsider (Three Days Grace album)|Outsider]]'' (keyboards, programming)

====For other media====
*2000: ''[[Gun Shy (2000 film)|Gun Shy]]'' (additional score)
*2002: Coors Light - "Rock On"
*2006: ''[[Justice (2006 TV series)|Justice]]'' (theme programming)
*2020: ''[[Cyberpunk 2077]]'' (two tracks for gameplay<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rhys Fulber: new Conjure One album plus a ton of other stuff|url=https://www.releasemagazine.net/rhys-fulber-new-conjure-one-album-plus-a-ton-of-other-stuff/|access-date=August 10, 2020}}</ref>)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{bandcamp|rhysfulber}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100102095941/http://nettwerk.com/producer/rhys-fulber Full list of production credits], at official Nettwerk site
*{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20030310010818/http://www.legendsmagazine.net/129/rhys.htm Interview @ Legends]}}
{{Front Line Assembly}}

{{Delerium}}
{{Will (band)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulber, Rhys}}
[[Category:Canadian electronic musicians]]
[[Category:Canadian industrial musicians]]
[[Category:Trip hop musicians]]
[[Category:Canadian record producers]]
[[Category:Canadian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Canadian people of British descent]]
[[Category:Musicians from Vancouver]]
[[Category:1970 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Front Line Assembly members]]
[[Category:Delerium members]]
[[Category:Will (band) members]]
[[Category:Noise Unit members]]
[[Category:Nailbomb members]]