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Royal Sapien is New York City-based producer and DJ, Ben Mautner.
Originally hailing from Cincinnati, Ben quickly embraced the midwest
rave community and began DJing at age 12. By 14, he was spinning at
parties and organizing events of his own at venues around the city. In
1998 he founded the Olaris Network, an internet radio station featuring
a three-hour live Friday night show that garnered listeners on five
continents and featured guest DJs such as Markus Schulz and Andy Hughes.
The success of the Olaris Network led to playing at many clubs around
the city and a club night of its own in Ben's new home of Savannah, GA.
While attending the Savannah College of Art and Design for his Graphic
Design degree, Ben met DJs Josh Barrett and Terry Thurston, who booked
Ben to spin as DJ Elroy at almost every reputable club in Savannah and
Hilton Head, allowing him to play alongside DJ Icey, Baby Anne, and DJB.
Being in Savannah also led to meeting Olaris Records co-founder Ryan
Crane, who frequented the only good record store for miles every Tuesday
waiting for new releases with every other DJ in the city. The guys got
to talking, started spinning together, and established Olaris Records as
a home for their music.
The Royal Sapien nom de musique came about in 2002 when Ben started
focusing intently on producing. Making tunes specifically for his own DJ
sets, the earliest club-friendly songs were straight-out bootlegs,
layering classics like CeCe Penniston's "Finally" over Olav Basoski's
"Opium Scumbagz," and Tori Amos's "Caught A Light Sneeze" over Hybrid's
remix of BT's "Godspeed." One such mashup, Kosheen's "Catch" over Ferry
Corsten's "Punk" was actually picked up by a label and released as a
very limited edition record, selling out almost instantly. Another
bootleg breaks remix of Iio's Rapture caught the attention of a
Florida-based label who also issued a very limited edition bootleg that
reached #1 on Satellite Records' breaks chart.
Eventually Royal Sapien moved on to more high profile remixes for the
likes of Oxyd Records in Italy. The remixes of Salt Pervert's "5am Soho"
reached #1 on the DMC Buzz Chart. Now, five albums and over three
hundred productions later, he is planning dozens more releases on Olaris
Records and a new studio album. Royal Sapien is also on Fade Records in
New York, recently releasing special edition remixes for Funk Harmony
Park's "My Truth," which have been lauded around the globe as "an
emotion-laden chunk of beauty" and "stunning." The Back Room mix was the
most requested song of the week for three weeks in a row on Santa
Monica's mega-station KCRW. Royal Sapien mixed the new Fade Records
compilation Audio Tour 2 with Chris Fortier, a retrospective of Fade and
sister label FDS, released to critical acclaim in May 2007 and garnering
five dancing men from DMC Update. As of 2007, Royal Sapien productions
are being played around the world by Chris Fortier, Jimmy Van M, Hybrid,
Hernan Cattaneo, Jondi and Spesh, D:Fuse, Chloe, and dozens of other
top-flight DJs.
At the moment Ben is planning DJ dates around the world to spread his
unique fusion of all beats electronic. He has been featured on John
Digweed's Transitions on Kiss100, the Transitions Podcast, XM Satellite
Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Proton Radio, Frisky Radio, the Balance
Record Pool Show, Global Scum, and many other broadcasts. He hosts
Decibels, presented by Olaris Records, a monthly three-hour radio format
show on Proton Radio, in addition to his monthly show Movement on Frisky
Radio that explores progressively eclectic sounds. The free Royal Sapien
Podcast can be found in the iTunes Music Store.
http://www.royalsapien.com/
http://myspace.com/royalsapien
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