Royal Sapien
Breakbeats / House / Progressive
Brooklyn, NY
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About
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. Savannah also led to meeting Olaris Records co-founder Ryan Crane, who hung out at 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 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 actually 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 hundreds of remixes later, he is planning dozens more releases on Olaris Records and a new studio album. As of 2007, Ben's productions are being played around the world by Chris Fortier, Jimmy Van M, Hernan Cattaneo, D:Fuse, Deepsky, Lance Cashion, and dozens of other top-flight DJs. Royal Sapien is also signed to Fade Records in New York, and recently released 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 even the most requested song of the week for three weeks in a row on Santa Monica's mega-station KCRW.
Royal Sapien also mixed the new Fade Records compilation Audio Tour 2 with Chris Fortier, a retrospective of Fade and sister label FDS.
At the moment Ben is planning DJ dates around New York to spread his unique fusion of house and breaks. He has had sets featured on Proton Radio, Tune Exposure, XM Satellite Radio, the Balance Record Pool Show, and hosts Decibels, a monthly show on Proton OnDemand.
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Indy, Dec 31, 2007:
When's the next podcast due? I hope it's not another three months. :-P
Dirigible Ego, May 24, 2007:
Good sounds, great production.
Natalie Brown, Mar 30, 2007:
Hi Ben! Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my little Virb-crib! I hope you are well and that your weekend is great. Consider signing up for my mailing list! You get a free download when you sign up and of course you get all my love as well! Click here to subscribe. I hope you will come by and let me know how you are doing. Take care! Nat xo Buy my music at the following stores: iTunes | Backstage Commerce | Artistlaunch | Amazon | Subcircuit | More stores... Play with your hair!