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Trevor Horn
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Trevor Horn was born in 1949 in Hetton-le-Hole in the north-east of England. His father was a big band musician and taught him the first principles of the double bass. Horn taught himself to play bass guitar and to read music and worked as a session musician in London in the 1970s. He built his own studio and made singles for other artists. In 1979 he had a hit as a member of the Buggles with Video Killed the Radio Star. In 1980 he became the singer of Yes for the album Drama.
Music and breakthrough
From 1981 he worked full-time as a producer. He made records with Dollar, ABC, Malcolm McLaren, Grace Jones, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Pet Shop Boys. In 1983 he and his wife Jill Sinclair bought the Sarm West Studios in London, and with the journalist Paul Morley he founded the label ZTT. He was also a co-founder of Art of Noise. Later he produced Seal, t.A.T.u. and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II. He received three Brit Awards as best British producer and a Grammy for Seal's Kiss from a Rose.
Influence
Horn is known for big, layered productions in which electronics, studio technique and orchestral effects come together. He has therefore been called the man who invented the 1980s. In School of Rock he returns with ABC, where on The Look of Love from 1982 he put strings and orchestral stabs beneath the pop song and so introduced a new sound.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 2018The Reflection (soundtrack)
- 2019Trevor Horn Reimagines the Eighties
- 2023Echoes: Ancient & Modern
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Fairlight CMI Technology
Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and the producer Trevor Horn built whole records with it.