(biog by Gronland Bear, 2008)

Broadcast 2000 is the creation of Devon born
multi-instrumentalist Joe Steer. On his
debut mini album 'Building Blocks' he combines
cello, double bass, guitar, ukulele, glockenspiel,
banjo, percussion and his own layered vocals.
All written, recorded, mixed and mastered in
the bedroom of his north London flat.

26-year old Steer has been writing songs
since his early teens, "recording on a
four-track tape recorder at first",
and has played in a number of different
bands previously. It was only last year,
when long time co-writer and Artisan band
mate Lee Schofield decided to move to Africa
that Joe decided "it might be worth putting
my own record together. I’ve always enjoyed
experimenting with recording just for my own
kicks."

The songs are born firstly by Steer's charming
tenor voice, which has been compared to Sufjan
Stevens and Chris Martin and secondly by the
beautiful arrangements, "although I’ve never
really thought of myself as a vocalist.
I started writing the Broadcast 2000 songs
always thinking I’d just put some vocals on as
a guide, then get a proper singer to sing them
once I was happy with the tune", he explains. The
fact that he has got a musical degree might have
been a help: "I did things like composing for
demodulated traffic noise, to be performed using
multi-speaker 'diffusion' around a concert hall.
Whilst also playing in the university orchestra
and doing all the classical music theory stuff."

Steer's rural origin also had a huge impact on
his musical development: "Growing up the middle
of Devon means you have little else that could
possibly occupy your time apart from music. No
football teams to support, no high street/
shopping centre to hang around in. In fact the
majority of my school buddies were in bands."