Cath The Normal

The Normal
Instruments	Korg 700s
Years active	1978 (1978)–1979 (1979)
Labels	Mute Records Rough Trade Sire/Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts	Robert Rental
Past members
Daniel Miller

The Normal is the recording artist name used by English music producer Daniel Miller, a film editor at the time, who is best known as the founder of the record label Mute Records.

1 Background
2 Influence on other artists
3 Discography
4 References
- 4.1 Notes
5 External links

Background [link]

In 1977, Miller had split up with his girlfriend. A friend suggested that he read a book he himself had just finished. The book was Crash (1973) by J.G. Ballard.^[1] He felt that Ballard's writing took him five minutes into the future; the novel was to be a major influence in the music he would produce as The Normal.^[1] Miller was disillusioned by the fact you needed to learn three chords to be in a punk band, so he decided to purchase a synthesiser. His thinking was that you only needed to learn to press one key on a synthesiser.^[1] After buying a Korg 700s synthesiser from Macari's music shop in London,^[1] Miller recorded and released a single under the name The Normal. This was "T.V.O.D."/"Warm Leatherette". Both tracks were minimalist electronic songs influenced by the Crash novel.^[1] He wanted the sound of the recordings to be visual, like driving along a highway between large buildings then going through a tunnel.^[1] The single was recorded in Daniel Miller's house using a TEAC four track tape recorder and the Korg synthesiser.^[2]

"Live at West Runton Pavilion", The Normal's second release, done with another Mute Records act, Robert Rental, wasn't well-received. A strange release, it was a one-sided album (side two was left blank) of improvised electronic noises, in a plain purple dust jacket. Marat Records released the record in Germany as Daniel Miller Robert Rental Live, with a black and white picture sleeve, catalogue No. Marat Rough 017.

Influence on other artists [link]

Songs by The Normal have been covered and performed by many notable artists such as Grace Jones, Chicks on Speed/Hell on a split-7", Giddle and Boyd Rice and in 2006 by Trent Reznor with Jeordie White and Peter Murphy.^[3] A recent cover of "Warm Leatherette" was performed live by Duran Duran in November 2007, and as part of an electro medley during their 2008 tour,^[4] in support of their album Red Carpet Massacre.