About the Artist

Orange County Register
Friday, January 3, 2003

Color Hazard's newest 'Beautiful'
By ROBERT KINSLER

Terrorism and cloning. Iraq and North Korea. Accounting scandals and global warming.

With all the negatives, isn't it time for "Something Beautiful"?

That is the aptly titled and well-timed fifth commercial release from Color Theory, the musical alter ego of Huntington Beach singer-keyboardist-songwriter Brian Hazard.

Highlights on this strong 11-song disc abound, notably the uplifting and melodic "Second Best" and "Covering Up Your Tracks," as well as the melancholy "And You Thought I Was Joking" and "Numb."

Hazard has received a good deal of attention in synthpop for his recordings and achieved an even greater level of cult status thanks to a mix- up that is legendary on the Internet.

"Ponytail Girl," the lead track from last year's Life's Fairytale, is often credited as being a Depeche Mode track that was left off that band's 2001 Exciter album.

"There are pressed (bootleg) CDs with alternate mixes from Exciter, and 'Ponytail Girl' is included," explained Hazard, whose tenor bears a similarity to Martin Gore. Indeed, per a suggestion from Hazard, a search using Yahoo indicated that several European sites sell alternative versions of Exciter and include "Ponytail Girl" as a so-called bonus track.

"Even on their official site, Depeche Mode notes that 'Ponytail Girl' is not their song," Hazard mused.

Combining acoustic piano with the electronic pop style of Depeche Mode formed the basis of Hazard's approach to music making when he set out to record his first CD, Sketches in Grey, in 1993. But Hazard writes songs that are intensely personal and uses technology to enhance material that is as emotive as the best folk.

Hazard's approach is likely rooted in a formal study of piano and music that came long before his interest in computers and synthesizers.

"I was inspired by a friend to play piano when I was in the seventh grade," said Hazard, who graduated from Huntington Beach High School.

Hazard attended California State University, Long Beach, earning a bachelor's in piano performance. In addition to giving several solo recitals as part of fulfilling degree requirements, a highlight of his university experience was getting to perform with the late Dudley Moore as part of a fund-raiser at Cal State Long Beach.

"Right after college, I started writing songs," Hazard said. While Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were part of his formal education, he was a big fan of contemporary artists such as the Cure, the Smiths, Depeche Mode and David Sylvian.

After the release of the decidedly electronica-sounding Life's Fairytale in 2001, Hazard was ready to pursue a more organic and acoustic project. Something Beautiful is no mere exercise in change simply for the sake of doing something different. Adding to Hazard's use of voice, piano and vibraphone are drummer Jonathan Moffett (who was the drummer for Madonna during the Like a Virgin Tour, the first big concert Hazard ever attended), fretless bassist Baba Elefante, fute-harp player Brian Noel and a string section featuring Paul Pai-Shih Lee, Esther Minwary and Colin Pearson.

"I got bored of numbers, midi, sequencing and oscillators," Hazard said of the technical tools he mostly abandoned in recording Something Beautiful.

"I was envisioning an all-acoustic project; one of the coolest things is fretless bass; you just don't hear that."

Unlike the majority of his musical contemporaries, Hazard has no overwhelming drive to perform live. He is primarily interested in writing, crafting and recording songs and then moving on to the next project.

"I'm more interested in the creation process than re-creation."

And with a growing and loyal fan base around the world (about 25 percent of his sales come from listeners outside America) and recent good news that he and his wife, Michelle, are ready to welcome their first child in 2003, Hazard has found that life is truly "Something Beautiful."