“it’s been a while! —time to celebrate.“
Stéphane Owen and Paul Curtiz go back a while. They played their first gig together at a school party and remained on the same musical wavelength forever. It was only natural that their connection would result in them forming Owen Curtiz.
Their album “One World” was released in 1993, and its first single “Looking For You” was a smash over the radio airwaves across Europe and Asia. While exploring separate paths over the years Stéphane and Paul have always kept in touch. And 3 decades after their first release, they felt it was time to celebrate. Along with the re-release of their album they revisited a few of their original tunes. Follow their adventures here!
Owen Curtiz — biography
Stéphane Owen and Paul Curtiz met at the end of the 1970s, while they were finishing their secondary studies in Brussels. It was a musically rich period where different musical trends clashed and gave rise to lively discussions between teenagers of all stripes: you had to choose your side: rock, new wave, disco?… But Paul and Stéphane did not care about this segregation of styles: their very first group, founded in high school, skillfully mixed covers of Bruce Springsteen, post punk groups and disco-funk pieces… Both crazy about music, they quickly found musical affinities by combining their respective artistic influences.
Paul took up the guitar to do like his elders: one of his first memories is of seeing his brothers (both musicians) on television in the sixties. He followed a largely self-taught path, which included jazz-rock and groups like Weather Report. But Paul also found himself perfectly in tune with the times with The Police, XTC or Chic, as well as with the music of singer-songwriters such as Stevie Wonder, Prince and Donald Fagen.
Stéphane learned the basics of classical piano at the age of six. As a teenager, he took Jazz lessons with teachers from Berklee College of Music. He then fed on African-American music like Earth Wind & Fire, Nile Rogers or Quincy Jones but also Level 42 or Incognito. He was also passionate about more “experimental” artists such as David Bowie, Brian Eno or the band AIR.
In the ’80s, Paul Curtiz toured the stages of Belgium with the synth-pop group Casablanca (which won the Rock Challenge in 1984). His sense of humor and self-deprecation also lead him down the path of musical parody with his project “Antuka Vraiment”. Offbeat text and tropical rhythm worked their way up the charts on the French-speaking airwaves: the video clip was played in a heavy rotation loop on the new (at the time) M6 channel, and Paul now roamed (to his great surprise) the biggest French television sets.
Stéphane Owen, passionate about sound technology, music and cinema, was looking for a professional path that would allow him to combine his passions and completed his studies in sound engineering at the I.A.D in Louvain-La-Neuve in 1985.
At the beginning of the 90s, Paul and Stéphane met again and decided to launch a joint project. Both had the desire to create well-calibrated pop songs with rich harmonies and catchy melodies. All wrapped up in a careful production mixing live instruments and digital technologies, which were booming at the time.
They started by recording a few tracks at the studio where Stéphane worked as sound engineer. The alchemy between the two worked wonderfully. Paul’s “soul” voice and his funky guitar riffs tastefully complemented Stéphane’s keyboards and synth basses. In this cozy atmosphere, the first titles were born which would form the backbone of the album “One World” released in 1993 (Rainland – Latitude/Sony Music). The finely crafted texts addressed themes that have lost none of their relevance today, such as the threats weighing on our blue planet (“One World”), ideological wars and politicians out of control (“What Are They Doin’?”). The void left in everyday life by the absence of a loved one is evoked in “Sentimental Crime”, an intimate ballad with arrangements skillfully mixing acoustic guitars, keyboards and electro percussion. The album was released in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Japan.
The next step was to build a group to perform live performances. To this end, they enlisted the services of talented musicians, some then freshly out of the Conservatory and who were at the dawn of a high-flying musical career, such as Jacques Pili on bass (Calvin Owens, Marc Morgan, Maurane ) and Olivier Bodson on trumpet (Axelle Red, Soulsister, Bernard Lavilliers).
Among other concerts, let us mention the one given at the famous Mirano club in Brussels, as the opening act for acid jazz singer Omar, omnipresent on the radio with his hit “There’s Nothing Like This”.
Insatiable, the two musicians embarked on musical projects which, however, took them on separate musical paths. Paul recorded a solo album (“Picture My Soul – T4A/Sony)” including the single “Funky Groove”, a punchy mix of pop/soul/funk taken from this album.
At the same time, Stéphane’s career as a sound engineer also took off. He often worked in Canada to co-produce the first successful albums of Lara Fabian and collaborated there with some prestigious names like Bruce Gaitch (composer for Madonna), Richard Marx, Dave Pickell (Bryan Adams) and Latoya Jackson.
In the 2000s, Paul Curtiz accompanied many artists as a guitarist-singer (a.o. David Baerwald/Sheryl Crow, Chris de Burgh) including his friends Perry Rose and Marka with whom he played on the best stages in Europe and abroad (USA, Lebanon, Japan); in 2018 he was called in to support the very successful reformation of the legendary Belgian group Allez Allez (Virgin UK).
On is side, Stéphane Owen developed his activities as a musical producer, arranger and mixer.
In 2001, he joined forces with the musician Philippe Decock (who was, notably, musical director of Maurane) and created the Yellø Sub Studio. Together they write and produce music for TV series and work, among other things, on the soundtrack for the film Mister Nobody by Jaco Van Dormael, in 2009.
Over the years, Paul has put his musical background to work on music for TV series and commercials. He also had many adventures with musicians of all stripes. He is notably one of the pioneers of online musical collaborations, which allowed him to work with renowned musicians, producers and mixers across the globe, such as Eric Sarafin (Brand New Heavies, Ben Harper), Craig Potter (Elbow) and Denis Moulin (Isabelle Antena, Marc Moulin, Sioen) with whom he is currently working on the jazz-pop project “Dark Satellite”. The album “The Modern illusion” is currently in production and will benefit from a cast of exceptional musicians (release planned for early 2024).
Stéphane Owen also positions himself as a singer-songwriter and is currently preparing his album “Heatwave” which should be released in 2024. Teaser titles are already available on his You Tube channel. On the program: sensual songs with jazzy harmonies on electro-house beats but also down tempo pieces, with more introspective lyrics.
In 2020, the project to re-release the album “One World” came up. On this occasion, the duo decided to create completely new versions of the titles “Looking For You” and “What Are They Doin’?” “. “The idea was to have fun and to make these titles benefit from our respective musical and professional experiences. We wanted to anchor these new arrangements in an “organic modernity” and take advantage of the recent rise of musical trends such as Neo-Soul and Nu-Jazz and their references to soul/jazz/funk roots…”.
2023: Release, on all digital platforms, of “Looking for You” in its brand new version and of the remastered “One World” album. (Astrolabe records).
