Early life

Brian Joseph Burton was born in White Plains, New York to an African American father and a white mother. He spent much of his childhood in Spring Valley, New York. Burton also lived in Athens, Georgia for a while, where his trip hop work was released under the name "Pelican City". He also remixed work by several local artists, including Neutral Milk Hotel and DJ'd for University of Georgia radio station WUOG-FM. From 1998 to 2003, Burton also created a series of remix CDs and records under the stage name Danger Mouse. He performed in a mouse outfit because he was too shy to show his face, and took his name from the British cartoon series Danger Mouse.

Music career

While in Athens, Burton took second place in a 1998 talent contest and was asked to open for a concert at the University of Georgia featuring OutKast and Goodie Mob. Afterwards, Burton approached CeeLo Green, a member of Goodie Mob, and gave him an instrumental demo tape. It would be several years before the pair made contact again, but the two would eventually collaborate as Gnarls Barkley.

2001-2004

Burton moved to Britain for a couple of years, living in New Cross in London and working at the Rose pub near London Bridge. While there, he sent a demo to Lex Records, which signed him. Burton then relocated to Los Angeles; his first original releases under the name Danger Mouse were his collaborations with rapper Jemini, including the album Ghetto Pop Life, released in 2003 on Lex Records. While the Danger Mouse debut was well received by critics, he did not rise to fame until he created The Grey Album, mixing a cappella versions of Jay-Z's The Black Album over beats crafted from samples of The Beatles' White Album. The remix album, originally created just for his friends, spread over the Internet and became very popular with both the general audience and critics, with Rolling Stone calling it the ultimate remix record and Entertainment Weekly ranking it the best record of that year. He discussed his feelings about any controversy the album may have created in the documentary Alternative Freedom. Danger Mouse was also named among the Men of the Year by GQ in 2004 and won a 2005 Wired Rave Award.

2004-2007

The Grey Album also got the attention of Damon Albarn, who enlisted Danger Mouse to produce the Gorillaz' second studio album, Demon Days. Demon Days earned Burton a Grammy Award nomination for Producer of the Year.

Danger Mouse's next project was The Mouse and the Mask, a collaboration with MF DOOM (as DANGERDOOM) about and for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The two had previously collaborated on the Danger Mouse remix of Zero 7's "Somersault", on the Prince Po track "Social Distortion", and on Gorillaz' "November Has Come". A year later, DANGERDOOM released a follow-up EP called Occult Hymn. The 7-track EP featured new songs as well as remixes of tracks from The Mouse & The Mask and was released exclusively as a free download on Adult Swim's site.

In 2006, Danger Mouse and CeeLo (as Gnarls Barkley) released their first album, St. Elsewhere, which included the international hit single "Crazy". "Crazy" became the first UK number-one single based solely on downloads. Gnarls Barkley set out on tour and was one of the main opening acts on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium World Tour. The Gnarls Barkley touring lineup also featured future Chili Peppers guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer. He also produced two tracks on The Rapture's 2006 album Pieces of the People We Love. In the autumn of 2006, Sparklehorse released his fourth album, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, a collaboration with Danger Mouse and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips. In August and September 2006, Danger Mouse collaborated with British graffiti artist Banksy to replace 500 copies of Paris Hilton's album Paris in English music stores with altered album artwork and a 40-minute instrumental song containing various statements she had made.

Danger Mouse gave a rare interview to Charlie Rose on August 31, 2006.

2007-present

In January 2007, Danger Mouse produced another collaboration with Damon Albarn on The Good, the Bad and the Queen, along with Clash bassist Paul Simonon, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Afrobeat pioneer and Africa 70 drummer Tony Allen.

In March 2008, The Odd Couple, the second album of his and CeeLo's Gnarls Barkley project, was released. In May 2008, an album with Martina Topley-Bird, titled The Blue God, was released. Martina collaborated on "All Alone", one song on the Danger Mouse produced Gorillaz second LP, Demon Days. Also released in May 2008 was Replica Sun Machine, an album with the band The Shortwave Set, including a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks and the Velvet Underground's John Cale, according to British music magazine New Musical Express.

Upcoming releases include a follow-up to Ghetto Pop Life entitled Kill Your Heroes. KYH was scheduled to be released in summer of 2006, but its release has been pushed back to an undetermined date. A collaborative album with Black Thought of The Roots is said to be in the works. He was also working on an album with The Black Keys and Ike Turner. Turner's death was expected to cancel the album, but The Black Keys and Danger Mouse released Attack & Release in April 2008. Some songs must have been recorded by Turner, however, as a posthumous Danger Mouse produced album has been mentioned, as well as another collaboration with MF Doom.

Danger Mouse also produced Beck's album Modern Guilt, which was released in July 2008. In April 2009, he and Helena Costas released an album as Joker's Daughter titled The Last Laugh. Danger Mouse was also listed as one of Esquire's 75 most influential people of the 21st century.

Since 2005, Danger Mouse (as a producer as well as an artist with Gnarls Barkley) has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards: Producer of the Year (2005, 2006 and 2008), Record of Year (2006), Album of Year (2006), Best Alternative Album (2006 and 2008), Best Urban Alternative Performance (2006), Best Short Form Music Video (2007 and 2008) and Best Pop Performance (2008). He won two Grammy Awards in 2006 for Best Alternative Album and Best Urban Alternative Performance.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse were due to release an album in the summer of 2009 entitled Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul (together with a 100+ photo book with photographs by David Lynch). Due to a dispute with EMI the album was not released officially until July 12, 2010 . However, the BBC reported that Danger Mouse planned to release a full illustrated jewel case with a blank CD-R included in it. The CD-R was to be labeled:

"For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will."

On November 8, 2009, Paste magazine named Danger Mouse the "Best Producer of the Decade (2000-2009)."

Together with James Mercer, Danger Mouse (billed by his real name, Brian Burton) formed Broken Bells. The project was first announced on September 29, 2009. On December 21, 2009, the band informed fans in an e-mail message of the release of their debut single "The High Road", which was made available as a free download on their official site. The self-titled debut album was released in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.

In 2010, Danger Mouse began producing U2's thirteenth studio album Songs of Innocence, released in 2014. U2's frontman, Bono, said in 2010, "We have about 12 songs with him. At the moment that looks like the album we will put out next because it's just happening so easily." Ultimately, Danger Mouse was credited as co-producer on 7 of the album's 11 tracks, and sole producer on "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight" and "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now". During this period, he also produced the band's single "Ordinary Love", released in 2013 as part of the soundtrack to Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, as well as their single "Invisible", which was released on Super Bowl Sunday, February 2, 2014.

In 2005, Danger Mouse began composing a "spaghetti western" album with composer Daniele Luppi. with Jack White and Norah Jones performing the main vocals on the album. Instrumentation was done mainly by musicians who played on the original Ennio Morricone scores. Danger Mouse does not play any instruments on the album. The style of the album reflects much of Danger Mouse's work since 2005, such as segments of Beck's "Modern Guilt", aspects of "Dark Night of the Soul", and songs like "Mongrel Heart" off of the self-titled Broken Bells album. The album was titled Rome and was released on May 16, 2011.

On February 13, 2011, Danger Mouse won a Grammy for Best Producer for his work on the Black Keys' Brothers, Broken Bells' self-titled album, and the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul.

On November 1, 2011, Los Angeles-based indie band Electric Guest released their first single, "Troubleman/American Daydream", produced by Danger Mouse. Danger Mouse produced the band's whole debut album Mondo which was released on April 24, 2012.

On May 1, 2012, Norah Jones released her Danger Mouse-produced fifth studio album Little Broken Hearts (Blue Note/EMI).

Danger Mouse co-wrote the song "Keep It for Your Own" by POP ETC, which is set to be released with the band's first album under their current name on June 12, 2012.

Danger Mouse produced Portugal. The Man's seventh studio album, Evil Friends, released in June 2013.

Danger Mouse produced "At.Long.Last.ASAP", the 2015 album by rapper ASAP Rocky.

On January 31, 2015, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea posted on his Twitter page that the band was about to start recording with Danger Mouse. The band had confirmed in November 2014 that Rick Rubin, who had produced all of the band's albums since 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, would not return to record their eleventh studio album, marking the first time since 1989's Mother's Milk that the band would work with someone other than Rubin. Recording was put on hold in February 2015 due to a broken bone suffered by Flea in a skiing accident. On June 5, 2015, drummer Chad Smith posted a photo in the studio with Danger Mouse working on drum tracks for the new album. Full production on the album resumed in August 2015 with Flea fully recovered from his injury.

In November 2015 Danger Mouse launched his own record label, 30th Century Records.

Philosophy

In an interview for the New York Times magazine, Danger Mouse was compared to a film auteur, basing his music production philosophy on the cinematic philosophy of directors like Woody Allen. "Woody Allen was an auteur: he did his thing, and that particular thing was completely his own," he said. "That's what I decided to do with music. I want to create a director's role within music, which is what I tried to do on this album (St. Elsewhere)... I can create different kinds of musical worlds, but the artist needs the desire to go into that world... Musically, there is no one who has the career I want. That's why I have to use film directors as a model."

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year	Recipient/Nominated work	Award	Result
2006	Danger Mouse	Producer of the Year, Non-Classical	Nominated
2007	"Crazy"	Record of the Year	Nominated
		Best Urban/Alternative Performance	Won
	St. Elsewhere	Album of the Year	Nominated
		Best Alternative Music Album	Won
	Danger Mouse	Producer of the Year, Non-Classical	Nominated
2009	"Going On"	Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals	Nominated
	The Odd Couple	Best Alternative Music Album	Nominated
	Danger Mouse	Producer of the Year, Non-Classical	Nominated
2011	Broken Bells	Best Alternative Music Album	Nominated
	Danger Mouse	Producer of the Year, Non-Classical	Won
2012	Danger Mouse	Producer of the Year, Non-Classical	Nominated
2013	"Lonely Boy"	Record of the Year	Nominated
		Best Rock Song	Won
	El Camino	Album of the Year	Nominated
		Best Rock Album	Won
2015	"Fever"	Best Rock Song	Nominated
	Turn Blue	Best Rock Album	Nominated

• 2004 Entertainment Weekly Album of the year (Danger Mouse - The Grey Album)
• 2004 GQ Magazine "Men of the Year"
• 2005 Wired Magazine Rave Award (Music)
• 2005 Q Magazine (Best Producer)
• 2006 Entertainment Weekly Album of the Year (Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere)
• 2006 Q Magazine (Song of the Year - Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" )
• 2008 Rolling Stone Magazine Best Producer in Rock
• 2009 Esquire Magazine 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century
• 2009 GQ Magazine Album of the Year (Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul)
• 2009 Paste Magazine "Producer of the Decade"
• 2010 Rolling Stone Magazine - Song of the Decade (Gnarls Barkley - Crazy)
• 2013 Music Producers Guild - International Producer of the Year
• 2014 Golden Globe Awards (Winner) (Best Original Song - "Ordinary Love")

Discography

Danger Mouse albums

See also: Gnarls Barkley Discography, Danger Doom Discography, and Broken Bells Discography

• Danger Mouse and Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life (2003)
• Danger Mouse - The Grey Album (2004)
• Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005)
• DANGERDOOM - The Mouse & The Mask (2005)
• DANGERDOOM - Occult Hymn (2006)
• The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love (2006)
• Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006)
• Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere (2006)
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen (2007)
• The Black Keys - Attack & Release (2008)
• Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple (2008)
• The Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine (2008)
• Martina Topley-Bird - The Blue God (2008)
• Beck - Modern Guilt (2008)
• Joker's Daughter - The Last Laugh (2009)
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul (2010)
• The Black Keys - Brothers (2010)
• Broken Bells - Broken Bells (2010)
• Broken Bells - Meyrin Fields (2011)
• Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - Rome (2011)
• The Black Keys - El Camino (2011)
• Electric Guest - Mondo (2012)
• Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts (2012)
• Portugal. The Man - Evil Friends (2013)
• Broken Bells - After the Disco (2014)
• The Black Keys - Turn Blue (2014)
• U2 - Songs of Innocence (2014)
• ASAP Rocky - "At.Long.Last.ASAP" (2015)
• Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway (2016)

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Individual album tracks

• "Love Thang", "Social Distortion" and "Fall Back" on The Slickness by Prince Po (2004, Lex Records)
• "Tighten Up" on Brothers by The Black Keys (2010, Nonesuch Records)
• "I Wanna Talk 2 U" on Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood by John Cale (2012, Double Six)
• "Phoenix" on Long. Live. ASAP by ASAP Rocky (2013, RCA Records)
• "River Lea" on 25 by Adele (2015, XL Recordings)

Solo singles

Year	Single	Peak chart		Album
		US Alt.	US Rock
2011	"Two Against One"	20	33	Rome
	"Black"	—	—
	"Two Against One" / "Problem Queen"	—	—

As Pelican City

• The Chilling Effect (1999)
• Rhode Island (2000)
• Pelican City vs. Scanner - EP (2002)

Promos

• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 1 (1998)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 2 (1999)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 3 (2000)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 4 (2000)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" White (2001)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" Red (2002)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" Yellow (2003)

Contributions

• Toonami Blackhole Megamix (2003) - As Pelican City
• Verve Remixed 3 (2005) - Dinah Washington - "Baby, Did You Hear?" - Danger Mouse remix
• Remix of To a Black Boy by The Free Design on The Now Sound Redesigned (2005) - Danger Mouse and Murs remix
• Toonami Supernova Megamix (2012) - As Pelican City

[ Source: Wikipedia ]