Beatland profiles

John Beattie PROFILE:

John was born in Glasgow, in the Springburn area. He spent his childhood in Springburn being raised by his profoundly deaf parents. Springburn is in the North of Glasgow and being a mainly railway manufacturing part of the city, it was and still is very much a thriving community with Glaswegian culture at its heart.

As a teenager, John was trained to play drums with an American style marching band (unusual for a traditionally working class industry based community). Through the dedication and watchful eye of band leader Tommy McGrory, he became a very proficient and highly skilled master of the drum kit. But this was only the beginning for John.

Throughout the 80s, music played a very important part in Johns' life and indeed he began to pick the influences that would carry his musical career through to the present day. John lists his musical influences with such variation from classical music to punk rock. Among his main influences however are - Howard Jones, Duran Duran, John Barry, Ultravox, the Beatles, Queen, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crowe, The Human League, Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Aha, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Thomson Twins, Blancmange, Film scores. In fact the list goes on and on and on.

John taught himself to play his instruments and despite no previous professional music theory tuition, his talent shone through. Over the years John has dabbled with countless musical genres and been the driving force in more than a few rock bands throughout the 90s as the drummer. However, Johns determined streak and his desire for perfection, made him always reach further into his talent to find that special sound. Unfortunately it was not to be during the early years of the 90s, but by 2007, the musical perfection was a step nearer reality, when via an online friendship in Graeme, a musical partnership was born This was the beginning of BEATLAND. The videos on this page are Demo and home recorded versions of only some of the music of Beatland. Enjoy!

Johns Set up::

MAC MINI

VARIOUS VSTI INSTRUMENTS

ROLAND XP-50

MICRO KORG

ROLAND MC-505

KORG WAVE DRUM

YAMAHA DD-55 DRUM MACHINE

ELECTRO ACCOUSTIC GUITAR

ELECTRIC BASS GUITAR

Graeme Holland - PROFILE

From a very early age, Graeme, had a healthy obsession with the technology of Synthesisers and the sound that these fascinating instruments could create. His particular fascination was for film soundtracks and theme music from Movies.
His ambition from childhood was to be a successful composer and keyboard instrumentalist. Something that hasn’t changed over the years.
Graeme started his journey into music in the 80s by playing and composing piano tracks at home. A fantastic era for the synth enthusiast as this was the decade of the Synthesiser with bands like Duran Duran, The Thompson twins, Kraftwerk and many more pioneers of electronic music all being in the forefront of the music industry. After the years of playing in his bedroom and his audience being his family and friends, Graeme was finally given the step up he needed into serious musicianship. He got the opportunity to rehearse with a local band and eventually when he left full time education, started gigging with the band around the local area. Small steps, but important ones in Graeme’s musical journey.
Word of Graeme’s talent soon got out and through this he was given the opportunity to work with world class musicians and of course the very popular and almost legendary club circuit of the North east of England. Something of a baptism of fire as he toured on and off with some of the finest bands an musicians in the North East of England.
By 1991 Graeme was in the position to buy his first Workstation Sequencer which gave him the fantastic opportunity to compose and produce music for various artists and dance schools around his local area.
The next part of Graeme’s journey brings him to the musical partnership with John Beattie. Together they have composed and produced the songs you hear today. Being an old friend, the partnership just works without any need for fancy wrapping or bells and ribbons. Together they are BEATLAND.

Graeme's setup

Imac

Presonus 1818vsl

Studio One Pro (DAW)

Genelec 8030a

Rode Nt2

Omnisphere vsti

NI vsti

Korg SV1 (88)

Yamaha Motif

Alesis Andromeda A6

Sequencial Circuits Pro One

Korg T3

Crumar Multiman S

Roland SP808ex sampler