ARTISTS
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Biography
One of the most accomplished performers of the last decade, Christina Aguilera has sold well over 25 million albums worldwide and cultivated a fan base that crosses generational, racial and gender lines. Now, segueing from the audacious sexuality of her second studio album, Stripped, the chameleon-like performer pays tribute to the music that has inspired her with the August 15th release of Back To Basics (RCA Records).
A modern take on vintage jazz, soul and blues from the 1920s, '30s, '40s and beyond, her third studio album is wildly inventive, whose throwback style creates a sound that's gritty and raw. The album reunites her with producer Linda Perry and offers new collaborations with producers such as DJ Premier. The upbeat first single, "Ain't No Other Man," will be world-premiered on the MTV Movie Awards on June 8 prior to its debut on June 12.
"This is a concept album that follows a bold vision," explains Aguilera. "The touchstones are Billie Holiday, Otis Redding, Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald – what I used to call my 'fun music' when I was a little girl."
The double album, Back To Basics utilizes an orchestra, choir, string quartet and jazz horns, as well as techniques that, according to GQ, "blends a vintage-soul sound with state-of-the-art beatsmanship to form a throwback/hip-hop showcase for her outsize voice." "I Got Trouble" incorporates a scratchy blues feel, while "Candy Man" recalls the tight harmonies of all-girl groups from the '30s and '40s "Save Me From Myself" is an emotionally naked, raw-sounding song dedicated to her husband. "Thank You," dedicated to her fans, features DJ Premier splicing bits of "Genie In A Bottle" with fan voicemail messages. Also sure to appeal to Aguilera fans is the risqué song "Nasty Naughty Boy" (which has a '20s burlesque feel) and the sassy club track "Still Dirrty."
Aguilera's backstory is well-known. A native of Staten Island, the pre-teen began performing in local talent shows while growing up in Pennsylvania. In 1992, after appearing on "Star Search,"
She joined the cast of the Disney Channel's "The New Mickey Mouse Club." In 1998 Aguilera's song "Reflection" for Disney's Mulan led to a record deal with RCA and the release of her self-titled debut album in Summer, 1999. The album quickly hit #1 on the strength of its first dance/pop single, "Genie In A Bottle" (which dominated the charts for five weeks) and other chart toppers including "What A Girl Wants." It was a feat she would repeat the following year with Mi Reflejo, the smash Spanish-language version of her debut, followed by her hit holiday release, My Kind Of Christmas.
In 2001 Aguilera joined forces with Pink, Mya and Lil' Kim on the smash "Lady Marmalade" single and video. That eye-popping slice of ear candy kept her front and center in the international spotlight even as she began, slowly and steadily, to lay the groundwork for her second album, Stripped. Released in October 2002, it sealed her status as an international superstar while transforming her previous squeaky-clean image into a fully sexualized woman with lots on her mind. Along with the superheated funk of the album's provocative debut single, "Dirrty," came such standout tracks as "Beautiful," "Can't Hold Us Down" and "Make Over."
Earning her first of three Grammy Awards in 2000 for Best New Artist, her subsequent trophies came in 2001 for "Lady Marmalade" (Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals) and in 2003 for "Beautiful" (Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). Among countless other honors, she is also the recipient of a 2001 Latin Grammy Award for Mi Reflejo (Best Female Pop Vocal Album), a 2000 Billboard Music Award for Female Artist of the Year, and two 2004 Rolling Stone Music Awards (Best Female Performer, Readers' Pick; and Best Tour, Readers' Pick, "Justified and Stripped"). Voted Sexiest Teen Idol in a VH1 poll, Aguilera's beauty and charisma have also led Teen People to list her among its "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" and Maxim to crown her Best International Female Singer (2000), one of the Sexiest Women of the Year (2003) and #1 on their "Hot 100" List (2003).
Today, while devoting the lion's share of her time to recording and touring, the 25-year-old is active in a range of philanthropy. A major contributor to the fight against AIDS, Aguilera has participated in the "What's Going On?" cover project for AIDS Project Los Angeles' Artists Against AIDS. In 2004 she became the new face for MAC cosmetic company and spokesperson for the MAC AIDS Fund. More recently she became involved in awareness campaigns with YouthAIDS and ALDO. She also sponsors and is actively involved in the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh for battered women and children.
For more information, please visit www.christinaaguilera.com.
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"I thought if we could find songs along those lines, that deal with my life over the past five years and what I've learned from my experiences, it would be a great concept for an album," Aiken says. "Since I got into this business, I've learned so much about myself and about life and the world. I'm nowhere near an expert, but this album has taken on the form of addressing how far I've come in those five years and how I feel like I've found myself."
As Aiken's millions of devoted fans around the world already know, it's been a whirlwind journey. Since shooting to stardom on the second season of American Idol, the 29-year-old Raleigh, NC native with the powerhouse voice has become an international pop phenomenon who has sold six million copies of his three best-selling albums: the double-platinum Measure of A Man, 2004's holiday CD Merry Christmas With Love (which went platinum within six weeks of its release), and the gold-certified A Thousand Different Ways - a 2006 collection of 10 covers and four originals that earned Aiken the distinction of being the fourth artist ever to have his first three albums debut in the Top 5 on the Billboard chart. In addition, Aiken has launched eight live tours, made the New York Times best-seller list by co-authoring the inspirational memoir Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music In Your Life, executive produced and starred in his first TV special, A Clay Aiken Christmas, and won several American Music and Billboard Music Awards. In January 2008, Aiken made his Broadway debut in the role of Sir Robin in the Tony Award-winning musical Monty Python's Spamalot.
If that weren't enough, Aiken also donated much of his time to charity, performing at dozens of concert benefits for causes he cares about. The creator of the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, which promotes and funds educational and recreational programs for children with special needs, the singer has traveled the world as a National Ambassador for UNICEF. On its behalf, Aiken has visited tsunami victims in Indonesia, villages in Uganda, classrooms and health centers in Afghanistan, and spent this past Christmas in Mexico with children affected by recent floods.
That's a lot of life experience to cover in one album. "It is," Aiken admits, "that's why the lyrics really had to matter this time around. It's the first time I'm singing about things that mean something to me." Which is not to say that every song is about something that actually happened to the star. "What's powerful about a lot of the new songs is that they can mean different things to different people," he says. "It was really important to me that they be interpretable in all kinds of ways, so as not to cloud someone's ability to find their own meaning in them." One example of this is the evocative ballad "The Real Me," written by singer/songwriter Natalie Grant, which is a poignant story about the experience of being in the public eye. "The song really spoke to me about the necessity of having someone in your life who knows you and doesn't really care about the fact that you're a celebrity," Aiken says.
Another track that means a lot to Aiken is "As Long as We're Here," a moving ballad that Aiken chose from a selection of demos he had brought with him to listen to on the plane during a UNICEF visit to Indonesia. "Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was flying over a tsunami-stricken country, but the lyrics struck me as very uplifting," he says. "They're about not waiting until it's too late to tell the people you love that you care about them." Turns out the song had also resonated with Jaymes Foster, who brought it to Aiken not knowing that he had already fallen in love with it. "Out of literally tens of thousands of demos we were sent, she had chosen the same one that I had so strongly identified with, so the song is a great connector between Jaymes and me. We've become really great friends, and it's important that it's part of the album."
Though he's known for his signature ballads, Aiken chose to open On My Way Here with an up-tempo, pop-rock tune, "Ashes," which begins with the following lyric: "Someone told me what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger / Sets you free from all that held you down." "That's a great opening line for an album," Aiken says. "My mom used to say that if things come easy they're not worth having; that there can't be a sunrise without a night. So, to me, that song is about how the most important lessons I've learned in my life have come out of less-than-rosy experiences, and that I'm stronger because of them."
To musically represent the album's lyrical theme, Aiken and Foster enlisted Grammy-Award winning British songwriter and producer Kipper, who has worked with Sting, Chris Botti, and Julia Fordham, marking the first time Aiken has recorded an entire album with one producer. "It's made for a very collaborative environment in the studio," Aiken says. "Every song has been scrutinized by Jaymes, Kipper, and me to make sure it's exactly what we wanted it to be."
It's that commitment that drives everything Aiken does, even if it means recording an album by day and starring in a Broadway show by night. "I guess I'm a glutton for punishment," he says with a laugh. "It's a lot of work, but I've had a great time. Doing both the album and Spamalot at once has kind of been like having two families. I have a family at the theater and we are a family group working on the album in the studio. I wouldn't have had it any other way."
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BY TONY VISCONTI
I always wanted to produce a Punk album, but this isn't it.
Anti-Flag are intrinsically a Punk band, but on this album, they wanted to put unexplored territory into play. I was the playground supervisor.
All my Bowie albums started out as one thing and ended up as another. One thing I guess my generation has taught me is to go with the flow. I would say most groups want to work with me for the Bowie/T. Rex connection; however this meeting of minds was a result of Anti-Flag digging my one Morrissey album, Ringleader of the Tormentors. They loved the arrangements, the strings and especially the orchestral percussion; why not have these things on a Punk album?
The way I work, I let the song define itself and I let it tell me what it needs to become a classic recording (well, that's the plan). Anti-Flag wanted to create something deeper for their lyrics. They worked very hard on this concept before we ever met. I pushed the band and they pushed me to come up with the best possible interpretations and takes of each song. I wanted the band to play as much of their own ideas with the minimum involvement of session musicians. We hired almost every piece of percussion from the University of Kentucky and the band played timpani, tubular bells, piatti (orchestral hand cymbals), glockenspiel and a myriad of Latin American hand percussion. We used only four local musicians, two cellists and two brass players (sweet, sweet people) who played the parts none of us could play ourselves. I played keyboards and whatever. Our technicians, engineers Mario and Tim joined the "Choir of Dissention." Our children's choir was composed of kids from family and friends. Even after a 14 hour work day, there was still energy to be burned shooting pool, the inevitable table tennis tournament and soaking in the hot tub (two schools of thought there – some of us wore swimsuits some didn't).
In a day where politics are a very real and gut-wrenching way of life, Pittsburgh based Anti-Flag came to my attention as a group of musicians who give a damn, put their money where their mouth is and have the balls to commit. Even their name is a spit in the face to the Institution (although it is obliquely patriotic). My generation is known for its a-political response to all that is corrupt. To quote Dylan, "Whoever you vote for the government always gets in," and, "To live outside the law you must be honest." These feelings don't wash with this generation. Politics and policies are proactive events in the daily lives of Anti-Flag.
Anti-Flag don't use their politics to promote a record. They are their politics! They have taken it as their lives mission to work with many organizations including Amnesty International, ACLU, World Can't Wait, Code Pink, Axis of Justice, Student Peace Action, the African Well Fund, Music For America, Planned Parenthood and PETA. They are strong advocates for animal rights, one payer universal healthcare, conscientious objectors, prison reform and freedom for political prisoners. They have stood alongside Michael Moore, Gloria Steinem, MP George Galloway, Billy Bragg, and Congressman Jim McDermott as non-violent reformists. Anti-Flag also toured with a petition for Amnesty International's Music for Human Rights Campaign to assist in freeing Eritrean singer Helen Berhane. They have raised money for numerous charities, most recently donating tour proceeds to the African Well Fund. Anti-Flag have started two nonprofit organizations out of their own pocket, the most notable being www.militaryfreezone.org. The goal of MilitaryFreeZone.org is to make people aware of the sometimes aggressive tactics around military recruitment in high schools and universities, which increased because of a little known provision in the No Child Left Behind Act. This provision grants the military access to the private records of students across the country without their knowledge. You can watch a MilitaryFreeZone documentary at www.militaryfreezone.org.
On a more personal note -- bassist Chris #2's family experienced the horror of losing a family member when his sister fell victim to violent crime, leaving behind a young daughter and son. Anti-Flag put together a benefit EP in hopes it would help others who have gone through similar situations. The proceeds went to The Center for Victims of Violence and Crime (a local Pittsburgh organization that helps and supports victims and families who are dealing with the effects of violent crime, www.cvvc.org).
Chris #2's personal tragedy also opened a well of emotion for the other members of the group. Everyone felt, after years of fighting the good fight, that it was time to be open about all their personal upheavals, making this collection of songs very personal.
Anti-Flag are real people. They are talented musicians who cherish equality and peace for everyone. This album contains bold music and strong messages. In the middle of a work day, when we're putting the finishing touches on songs about political prisoners and child molestation and being über- perfectionists at it, it would come as a sigh of relief to hear lead singer Justin Sane say, "I've got to make some warm soy milk."
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"I was almost in tears the whole time, it was very emotional," Jago recalls. "That was the most memorable recording session I've had." Been felt the same way: After laying down the inspired, hard-charging "Took Out a Loan" and "666 Conducer," "I held onto those two songs for the next year, daydreaming about what would happen if we finished that" Been says.
The band's journey to Baby 81 started in the mid-'90s, when Hayes met Been in high school outside of San Francisco. After they were later joined by the British Jago, the band named themselves after the gang in the cult film "Wild One" and started playing gigs. For two albums - their 2001 self-titled debut and 2003's Take Them On, On Your Own - BRMC became known for their psychedelic fuzz-rock, a mixture of droning vocals, athletic bass lines, and bluesy guitars. During an August 2004 European festival tour, tensions and excesses tore the three apart, and Jago walked away. When they returned to the States, Been and Hayes turned out Howl - a quieter, raw, soulful collection that stripped the band's raucous grooves down to their essential elements - and after the gang was reunited, they played Reading and Leeds in 2005.
When the Howl tours were completed, BRMC made trips to rehearsal studios armed with tapes of jams tentatively titled after the cities they were created in (though the hypnotic, bluesy "Berlin" kept its original title). They tinkered, wrote, scrapped work, and recorded again. And together, these 13 tracks are Baby 81 - songs born into conflict that represent hope for the future, much like the LP's namesake, an infant admitted to the hospital in the wake of 2004's tsunami that was claimed by nine different mothers until it found its way back to its own family.
Baby 81 is a driving rock'n'roll record that still maintains Howl's folky core. "I see it kind of as the sister of Howl," Hayes says. Lyrically, the group lasers in on a theme they've explored before: "Personal revolt. It's gotta start somewhere, and if it ain't on a personal level, it's too easy to beat the crap out of governments with words," Hayes explains. "Start with yourself and hopefully you get enough people doing it on their own and we can all come together."
There's plenty on Baby 81 to get inspired by: the chunky riff that launches opener "Took Out a Loan"; the massive, Led Zeppelin-style beat propelling "666 Conducer"; the woozy, piano-led "Window," or the gorgeous symphonic drone of "All You Do Is Talk". But most surprisingly is how the album somehow ties in all 3 of their previous efforts, while still managing to take a leap forward.
Anthemic first single "Weapon of Choice," a powerful collaboration between the two songwriters, Hayes compared its sound to that album's "Love Burns." "I like the idea of hiding a lot of acoustic guitars behind the electrics," Hayes says. "I've got this guitar my dad gave me, and I always try to put it on songs, behind the electrics, just to keep his spirit in there." Family is quite important to the band, Been's father, worked as a sound engineer on Baby 81, and has even handled live sound for the band.
The album's most upbeat tune, the melodic "Not What You Wanted," is one of just "two songs we have that are in a major key" Hayes says with a laugh. After the original recording of the song failed to resonate with the band, "I went in and spent two weeks just putting on hundreds of guitar parts and harmonica, the reverse guitar, vocals, and shit," Hayes adds. "I stayed there all night for about three days straight. I love it. No drugs needed."
The group also pushed themselves on "American X," a sprawling rocker that clocks in at exactly nine minutes and eleven seconds - by coincidence ("It is really creepy," Been says, adding that the band didn't intend for the record to have any overt political overtones) "I think it's the longest song we've ever done, and it's also the first time we did a real guitar solo," adds Been, who played guitar on the track. "We feel like we put on somebody else's skin for a while, and we just sat back let it take us far and beyond where we'd ever planned. It's like a curly swirly mantra of psychogenic manifestations, with sprinkles on top."
The LP ends with "Am I Only" one of Hayes' oldest songs "that I've been trying to get him to put on record for the longest time, since the first album," Been says of the beautiful, mid-tempo track that boasts one of his favorite of Peter's lines, "You turn into a song and everything feels wrong, there's so much to see, but lost is meant to be, am I only only one of you."
When BRMC talk about Baby 81, they say a lot about timing: knowing when to stop working on songs, finding those slivers of time captured in sound checks to sculpt into the next album. And although it ends with a track Hayes wrote in his late teens, "The sequence of this record is almost perfectly chronological from the first song we recorded for the album to the last," Been points out. "I know a lot of bands don't do that, but I think it makes the album feel more alive, it's like a living, breathing organism."
Ultimately, Baby 81 captures Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the most crucial time of their career. "I think we all took a leap of faith a little bit more on this album, writing more current songs," Been reveals. "We used to hold on pretty tight to new songs, but it kind of feels like people are finally going to hear where we're at right now - we're much more in the moment."
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"Nothing's real/Until you let go completely/So here I go/With all my thoughts/I've been saving." "Sober"
After the tremendous success of 2004's Breakaway, which sold 6 million in the U.S. and 11 million worldwide on the strength of such #1 hits as "Since U Been Gone," the title track, "Behind These Hazel Eyes," "Because of You" and "Walk Away," Kelly Clarkson earned the right to make the kind of album she wanted to make for her third RCA Records effort, My December.
"The biggest difference is how intimate it is," she says of the album, co-produced by David Kahne [Bangles, Sublime, McCartney, the Strokes] and touring band members Jimmy Messer and Jason Halbert. Kelly either wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, just as she has on such hits as "Because of You," Behind these Hazel Eyes," "Walk Away" and "Miss Independent." Legendary L.A. punk bassist Mike Watt, who has played with Iggy and the Stooges as well as his own band the Minuteman, guests on three songs.
"Regardless of whether it's a happy or sad song, the album's very in-your-face," she says of the full throttle rock & roll aggression on songs like the first single, "Never Again," and "Hole." "There was no filterÂ…just four very different individuals who joined together to come up with a really cool record. There's a little bit of something for everyone on this album."
My December unfolds like a diary of the last two years in the life of Kelly Clarkson, which saw her take home a pair of 2006 Grammy Awards at L.A.'s Staples Center and perform a show-stopping version of "Because of You"; nab four American Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, a People's Choice Award and a staggering 11 Billboard Music Awards. But all that acclaim took its toll on her personal relationships, captured on the dance-floor funk-soul of "One Minute," which she describes as "about the craziness of everything," the Edge-styled guitars in the blues-rocking "Hole," the betrayal of "Judas" and the playful No Doubt-inspired rhythmic pulse of "How I Feel." Songs like "Sober," "Be Still," "Maybe" and "Irvine" are vocal showcases that reflect her singer-songwriter roots.
"The record is about me, why I make the decisions I do," she says. "Most of my songs are about what's happening in my life. For me, it's like free therapy. Whether it's me growing, or helping someone else get through similar circumstances."
Clarkson wrote almost 60 songs for the new record, eventually paring it down to 26, then 14.
"Each song was picked carefully," she says. "I learned we should do what makes us happy and tell our stories without worrying about being #1 all the time and selling millions of albums. I just want to be me, but it's really hard to do that when everybody's breathing down your neck trying to make you somebody else."
Clarkson describes My December as an album that completes one era and opens up another, starting with the emotionally charged "Never Again," in which she writes about a relationship gone sour, but it's not what you think. "It's not really a boyfriend-girlfriend thing," explains Kelly. "It's more about trusting and putting your faith in someone and getting let down."
"Sober" is about survival, knowing what to do when something goes wrong. "It's not easy getting over whatever your addiction may be," she says. "The whole point of that song is, the temptation is there, but I'm not going to give in to it."
"Judas" is also a song about betrayal, a reference to the biblical character. "You think people are normal and good, then all of a sudden, you get blindsided," says Kelly.
"Haunted" is an eerie song Kelly wrote four or five years ago about someone she grew up with that committed suicide, in which she cries out, "Where are you?/I need you/Don't leave me here on my own." "I was expressing my anger at how someone could do that," she says. "Why would you leave all these people behind feeling guilty and wondering what they could have done to prevent it? I really believe that God puts us through these situations to help others."
"Be Still" is a folk-blues number that Kelly compares to Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt, with a dash of vintage Christine McVie, explaining how the title comes from one of her favorite Bible verses: "Be still and know that I am here." "It's all about stopping things, slowing down to appreciate life," she says. "Everything just goes so fast, especially in this business. There's just no time to be alone for a moment of quiet. That's why I don't live in L.A. and have always lived in Texas. It's about getting away from the rat race and carving out a space for yourself."
The hypnotic guitar at the start of "Maybe" gives the song a country feel, which Kelly describes as "closer to Ryan Adams or Patty Griffin than traditional country."
The psychedelic funk of "Yeah" has an upbeat sexy, Prince-meets-Sly & the Family Stone vibe. "The song is about this guy I was dating, who was so cool, but wasn't able to put up with me being in the public eye all the time," she relates. "I want a real man, not someone who's going to walk around on eggshells and be a 'yes' person. I want someone to let me know if they're happy, mad or sad."
Clarkson says the tongue-in-cheek "Can I Have a Kiss" is actually about two different people in the verse and the chorus. "That's the first time I ever did that," she says. "The lyrics are about something very true to me. You know how you want someone, but can't have them because they're off-limits? In the chorus, I sing that, even if you had 'em, you know you'd screw it up. You always want what you can't have. It's a funny, ironic song."
Kelly describes "Irvine," which she wrote in the bathroom of her dressing room while performing at the Irvine Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, as "the saddest song I've ever written." "The song is a prayer from the lowest point in my life," she says. "There comes a time when you feel like, if He's up there, God, Allah or whatever you want to call Him, is the only one that can help me out. After that night, I know there's someone or something out there looking out for me."
On the bluesy acoustic twang of "Chivas," the rollicking hidden bonus track, Clarkson channels the late Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" on a cheeky kiss-off drinking song with lines like "You're not worth it, babe/All the trouble you bringÂ…I'm so sick of you, babe/I can't stand the sight of your face... You should keep your eyes on your new girlfriend." It's a sense of humor she demonstrates throughout the album.
"At the end of the day, life is too short," says Kelly. "You can't take things too seriously. I wanted to end the album on a light note. There are obviously moments you think you'll never get over, but you do. We need that kind of sarcasm."
My December marks a major turning point for Kelly Clarkson, a third album that defies expectations and introduces an artist coming into her own and growing into her powerfully, distinctive vocals.
"It's the end of something and the beginning of a new era, a fresh start," she says. "My December album is like a movie about me, it's my story.
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Use any measurement you like – in an era of digitized, customized-shuffling music = wallpaper styling's, Daughtry has almost single-handedly given the genre back its heart, resurrecting an endangered species via the bluesy swagger of "What I Want," and the image-shredding angst of "Feels Like Tonight,"; restoring its nomadic longing for place on "Home," its righteous indignation on "It's Not Over." With signature ache and poise, the North Carolina native blends each hard-won attribute into a rousing mosaic for the ages. The DAUGHTRY album is also forging unprecedented sales and chart breakthroughs – affirming there is still gold to be mined, thank God, with a rugged voice and passionate songwriting instincts.
Tom Petty once said such a primal connection between a musician on top of his game and his fans can be so strong 'you can actually hurt yourself up there and not know it.' But the kind of 'hurt' Daughtry has put on a famished music landscape is nothing short of astonishing: In just a few months of release, the celebrated disc has leaped more milestones faster and further than any rock debut in recent memory. Anointed as the quickest selling rock debut in Soundscan history, DAUGHTRY became the #1 top selling album in the country not once, but twice, after debuting at #2 in November, 2006, moving upwards of 300,000 copies in the first week alone.
Emboldened by a collection of arena-tempered anthems and hand-crafted gems, Chris formed a band around the foundry of songs that make up DAUGHTRY before any of the accolades rolled in – hitting the road almost on instinct – eager to share his hardscrabble journey - his emotional diary of sorts – with who else but his fans. Secure enough to become a passenger on such a revelatory train ride – "You walk through a lot of doors for a moment like this," he says "I'm enjoying every minute," - he has personified the heart and soul of this elusive rock allegory without sacrificing one combustible ion of his authenticity. A trait that has always been his calling card whether writing, singing, performing or bonding with his newly minted band with whom he also shares his success.
Scanning well over a million individual tracks digitally since DAUGHTRY's debut, Chris always knew the secret of his connection with his fans was widening the circle surrounding his music no matter what medium of transfer. Whether he was interpreting other artists material or his own, his razor-sharp instincts told him the right band could take such a bond to even greater heights. "I'm a tough music fan myself. I'm not swayed easily, but one of the things I've always loved about great bands is you feed off of each other's confidence, build on each other's strengths and create an opportunity for something magical to happen every time you go out there," he notes. Daughtry is living proof of that edict, garnering rave reviews on the road, locking down what quickly became 2007's must-see show: 'Daughtry clearly connects with the audience and it would seem to be only the beginningÂ…' raved the San Francisco Chronicle.
What a beginning: The double-platinum juggernaut that is Daughtry has hovered in the Top 5 of the Billboard Top 200 Albums since its release, the first album since the 2006 phenomenon High School Musical soundtrack to log more than 9 weeks among the Top 3 albums, and the first rock band to achieve such a streak in the first 15 weeks of release since Creed in 2002. Daughtry is also the first rock band release in nearly 20 years - since Bon Jovi's 1988 classic New Jersey - to hit the top spot after debuting below #1.
Such flirtations with history are even more amazing when you consider how seamlessly Daughtry has engrained itself in the digital domain, pulling in over one million page views per week to their artist site www.daughtryoffical.com, with their album remaining a Top 10 staple on itunes since it's release. The debut single "Its Not Over," has conquered every digital, mobile, radio and video platform imaginable, parking at or near the top of every major music industry metric including #1s on the Adult Top 40 chart, on the Hot AC chart, the Billboard Top Singles chart. The video reigned at the top of VH1's enormously popular Top 20 Countdown show for two months running, as well as garnering most played status on MTV.
"The way it all has unfolded is everything an artist could ever ask for," says Chris. An understatement when you consider the challenges he laid down for himself before approaching the debut effort. "I knew going in that the album, the band, all of it had to start from my own vision. I've always known who I am and what kind of sound I wanted to get across, yet I never wanted to dictate any sort of path."
If it sounds tricky, consider the caliber of writers and musicians he huddled with to craft the creative dimensions of the debut album. Daughtry enlisted a hand-picked cadre of unique and respected rockers who inspired his own song craft, sonic mentors - soon to become peers - who were already part of his own interior experience. Talented collaborators like Brent Smith of Shinedown, Mitch Allan of SR-71, and Hinder producer Brian Howes. Throw in the fact that Chris enjoined each of them in furtive writing sessions while on the road on a previous tour, and you have a recipe for a project that still might have gone down the rabbit hole very quickly. "Looking back now," says Chris, "Sure, it was risky, but I never had the feeling that I was heading creatively somewhere where I shouldn't have been going."
Produced by Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, All-American Rejects), the album thoroughly mines Daughtry's instinctive ability to get to the essence of a song, tapping into a sixth sense he possesses for delivering accessible music that also manages to remain uncompromising. Whether it's the proven "It's Not Over," or the probing "All These Lives," or another song that takes on a life of its own, the plaintive "Home," (which has found its own home as the contestant elimination theme on this year's 'American Idol'), the Daughtry thread of extending boundaries, not shrinking from them, runs through every verse. "I've never believed a song has to have a rock edge, or be part of one particular genre to be viable," he adds. For "It's Not Over," which he collaborated on with Greg Wattenberg (Five For Fighting), it was the subject matter that moved him. "That idea that you keep doing the same thing thinking you are going to get a different result, still you keep trying."
It's been Chris' own willingness to pivot in the face of expected music industry protocol that has fueled most of his success, the same ethic powering the equally charged band Daughtry. The players: bassist Josh Paul from LA, drummer Joey Barnes from North Carolina, guitarist Brian Craddock from Virginia, and guitarist Josh Steely from San Diego all complement and calibrate the front man, embodying the kind of seasoned give-and- take not usually associated with a new band. Chris knew he had to commit to an intense audition process right from the start, determined to achieve that crucial bond between members. Daughtry zeroed in on the interpersonal chemistry and musical compatibility of the guys who would eventually eat, sleep and breathe DAUGHTRY 24/7.
"The guys have worked out beyond even what I had envisioned. We've even been able to do some acoustic shows together because of the stage considerations, rolling with the punches on the road like a band does, and that's been such a revelation – and so much fun, as well."
As always, Chris brings it back to the audience, whether talking about the live experience or the millions of supporters for DAUGHTRY around the world that have helped carve the unprecedented trail they've blazed as a debut rock band. "It's such a blessing to receive all the great feedback and affection from the fans," he says.
"The online intensity, the way they sing along at our shows, the radio and video support - I don't think the average person understands how crucial it is for a band to know you've got that net underneath you. To start out as a fan with a dream, and then to go from a struggling musician with the same hopes and aspirations as so many others and to be able to fulfill some of those dreams, well, I feel like we're all part of this incredible movement. I'm so aware of what it took to get here. I can't help but appreciate what an honor it is to keep it rolling."
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When this most recent season of "American Idol" began, Cook wasn't on anyone's radar to win the whole thing – including his own. "I like that I 'snuck up' on people," he says. "During those early shows, when there were 24 people, I knew I didn't have to be one of the best, but I didn't want to be one of the worst. So it was fun for me because there wasn't a lot of pressure and I could find my own footing."
Cook won fans with his unique renditions of songs like Lionel Richie's "Hello," Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." He explains, "When I began, I told vocal coach Debra Byrd I wanted the season to be like a set list, so people would feel like they were at one of my concerts."
Cook's musical journey began early. He grew up watching his father play guitar. But David's first instrument of choice was the violin. "I tried that first because there was a girl in the school orchestra I thought was pretty." When he was in seventh grade, his dad bought him a Fender Stratocaster. "I was bad at it because I never took a lesson. Gradually I got better."
He was exposed to many different genres of music. "My parents had eclectic record collections. My mom liked Kenny Rogers and my dad was more into Boston, Kansas and Dire Straits. The first cassette tape I ever bought was by Kris Kross. I was into Boyz II Men for a while. When I was 13, someone played me the song 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails and once I got past the audacity of the lyrics, I really enjoyed the song. So I backtracked through rock, which got me to where I am now."
David formed a band in high school with a friend and appeared in three musicals: "West Side Story," "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Music Man." He also loved sports and played baseball throughout high school. Ultimately his love for music brought his attention back to his band. David enrolled at Central Missouri State, changed the name of the band from Redeye to Axiom to Axium and had some local success.
As he was completing his studies, David had to choose between working as a graphic designer in Kansas City or moving to Tulsa to play rhythm guitar and sing backing vocals for a band called the Midwest Kings. "Of course, I moved to Tulsa," he says. That's where he lives today, although home is officially Blue Springs, Missouri. The Cook family relocated there after David was born in Houston on Dec. 20, 1982.
With his friends chipping in financially, David recorded "Analog Heart." The album sold well regionally and won an URBY award from Urban Tulsa Weekly for Best Independent Album. David was in the early stages of recording a second album when his younger brother Andrew asked him to accompany him to Omaha and lend moral support while he tried out for "American Idol." David was reluctant, but his brother and mother did their best to persuade him. He recalls, "At the last minute I decided to do it. Andrew and I were in the same group of four for the first audition and he didn't make the cut. It was very awkward. I turned to him and said, 'Is this something you want me to do? Because if you don't, I won't.' And his response was, 'If you don't, I'll beat your ass.' So it's entirely his and my mother's fault that this happened to me, and I'm very grateful."
We all know how the story went from there. Simon, Randy and Paula sent David to Hollywood, where he made it into the top 24. Then he was in the top 12, the top 10, the top five and the top two, all without ever being in the dreaded "bottom three." Then, on May 21 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, Ryan Seacrest pronounced David Cook the winner of this season of "American Idol."
It's all come with lessons learned, according to Cook. "The whole process has given me a brand-new lease on life in that I am more sure of who I am now that ever before. I've learned that when I'm singing live on stage to embrace that moment and if doesn't work, it's OK, move on."
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Look up British singer/songwriter Imogen Heap on the online music forum Myspace.com and scroll down to the 'Sounds Like' box. Sounds Like No other – reads the pithy, but accurate description.
In fact, truer words have never been written about the hypnotic vex of songs on her stunning second solo album Speak For Yourself. From her earliest memories of improvising at the piano "it was the biggest toy that made the best and most noise" at home, hour after hour in the sleepy village just outside of London where she grew up to the electro-zen-like fugues she hears in her head when riding her bike through the streets of England's most fabled city, the classically trained, techno geekess, Imogen has always preferred a left-of-kilter soundtrack of her own making to any by-the-book-coda of pop music.
The stirring current of songs flowing through Speak For Yourself ripple with an alluring intimacy rarely found in the electro-inspired genre. "That's because, I like to believe I'm genre-less!" quips Imogen "I want for music to stimulate, excite and surprise me all over again" Whether it's the punctuated sounds, and halting breath filled silences in songs such as the angelic "Hide And Seek," or the bouncy "Goodnight And Go," or the subtly drum-tinged "Headlock", or the whispery "The Walk," it's clear Imogen is a slave to nothing but her own muse. Recorded in her East London studio – "I've had a not so secret love affair with making music on computers since I was a teenager. Wouldn't it be great if in real life you could "delete" or "duplicate", "save" or "recall"? Or speak in many voices and languages at the pull down of a program?" she says – Imogen utilized everything and anything at her disposal, from circuit bent children's toys, to carpet roll inner tubes to the rumbling soothages of passing trains. "There are many moments during the course of making an album where things don't go as planned - mostly gear misbehaving but gear can equally make some great sounds when it's in a mood!" The silver lining to some of these situations became "Hide and Seek" and "Headlock". Forced to use gear that was co-operating though perhaps needed a little dusting off!
An auteur in the truest sense of the word, even Imogen's previous music persona as the female axis with the alt-fave duo Frou Frou (with producer and longtime collaborator Guy Sigsworth playing the man - producer of Madonna, among others) garnered her a drawer full of comparisons to strong-female-solo types. But Imogen's knack for path-finding, revelatory soundscapes off the beaten path mirror her own zig-zag musical journey (she was a solo artist before joining Frou Frou only to fly solo again), as she's now poised for acceptance with a growing contingency of U.S. music fans.
After turning down major record label deals the fearless artist even re-mortgaged her London flat to finance her declaration of independence, but not before making several futile rounds to various financial institutions seeking their possible support "I traipsed my way round every bank but I couldn't get a loan," she says. "I had £10,000 on my credit card and I couldn't pay my bills. It seems banks and musicians don't get along too famously!" but just before despair could stick in its claws, Heap's luck changed. Clocking a "For Sale" sign outside her block of flats was, she says, like a little light bulb going on: "I couldn't help wondering just how much I could sell my flat to myself for."
The flat had almost doubled in price. With nothing to stop her now, Imogen took the cash out of the property and with money to burn purchased lots of sparkly new recording equipment on her 25th Birthday as a present to herself, She then set about making exquisitely personal and aptly titled Speak For Yourself in a burst of experimentation. As if that wasn't enough Heap then set up Megaphonic Records to release her most treasured possession in the UK.
"It was quite liberating, actually," she says. "Probably because I never had an opportunity to do a whole studio album at my own pace before-entirely on my own. So, at first, I was ignoring the piano, just having fun and playing with all my toys. But eventually I got back round to the piano, like on "The Moment I Said It.' Every sound you hear (aside from the strings) stems from the piano, but still I'm chopping things up." That kind of playfulness is a trademark of Imogen's heaping (no pun intended). Her mystical/whimsical harmony leaning over diverging threads of sound and melody, all of it bottlenecking into riveting vignettes that pique the imagination.
Ultimately, it would be due to such enigmatic captures and an often downright sultry vocal presence ('your music is touching to the max' – blogs one online fan) combined with her intuitively tweaked musical arsenal - Piano/Vocoder/glitch-friendly samples, strings, harps, bells and drum machines - that would spark American record companies to come calling.
A serendipitous brush-up with the photogenic but angst-filled American TV soap, The O.C., furthered her mystique. The popular teen show, which has gathered an impressive musical resume in the past couple of years, (rumored to receive more than 400 music submissions per week) featured Imogen's glorious "Hide And Seek," on its Season 2 finale this past May (with "Goodnight And Go" being included on the soundtrack Music From The O.C. Mix 4), awakening a potential American fan base to the radiant atmospherics of Heap's repertoire.
"I'm eternally grateful to The O.C. for braving such an off kilter song to feature in that spot. The response to that episode has been amazing," says Imogen. "And I was ecstatic that suddenly, after putting so much of myself into this album and my transition to going solo again, I was going to be exposed to a whole new audience."
The warm reception of the music savvy O.C. audience was indeed immediate. In less than a week "Hide And Seek" moved from virtual obscurity to # 32 on Billboard's Hot 100 Download chart. Many more stateside fans started following her weekly blog on Imogenheap.com (affectionately referring to her as Immi) and set in motion a stream of requests for Imogen's music from other TV shows – CSI and Six Feet Under among them - and movies (most recently on the Reese Witherspoon/Mark Ruffalo movie/soundtrack Just Like Heaven, for which Imogen contributed a cover rendition of the classic "Spooky" -once made famous by Dusty Springfield. And in 2004, Actor/Director Zach Braff personally selected the Frou Frou track, "Let Go," to appear on the grammy winning soundtrack to his movie Garden State. "My music lends itself to soundtracks, I think, because it is so layered and orchestrated. They feel and sound right at home on the big screen."
Ever since her mercurial 1998 debut, I Megaphone, and her 2002 Frou Frou collaboration with Sigsworth, the ethereal Details (Island Records), with its acclaimed cult single "Breathe In," Imogen has catalogued her dreamscapes through music. "I can't say I always wanted to be a rock star, but I've always expressed myself through music it's the easiest and most enjoyable way to lose myself. When I'm composing the best way I can describe it is – when you know you're really on to something – like when you're traveling home on a familiar route and you start to daydream – then before you know it you find yourself at your front door searching for your keys and you've no idea how you got there, that's what happens to me when I'm creating on a good day."
Imogen is more than aware that time will be moving quite fast in the next several months. Touring is already scheduled (she's past opened up for diverse artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Coldplay and Norah Jones) and ever increasing notoriety beckons as critics and music fans familiarize themselves with the highly regarded Speak For Yourself, released to much acclaim in England this past July. "I'm interested in how people will categorize the album. Let's face it, everyone draws comparisons I do it myself." When asked to have a go at it, Imogen laughs. "I don't knowÂ….. more Donnie Darko than Dirty Dancing, more Absynth than apple juice, more 'where no man has gone before' than 'down the pub', more 'crop circles in the carpet' than 'climb the highest mountain'. I hope more likely that you've never heard anything like it before!"
"The album hosts the broadest spectrum of songs I've ever done. Just when you think it's going in one direction, it goes off down the road in another. I hope it sounds like I've had fun making it, because I did," she pauses for a second. "Very free is how I'd describe it."
"Wade in the sonic joy, Pleasure the wave and synchronize, Sway in the sonic joy" sings a cryptic Imogen. And no wonder. The girl just lives, breathes and loves making music!
9/05
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Stardate: Summer 2006. As these words are being written, Kasabian are jetlagged, but happy. Three days ago, they returned from Mexico City, where a disused supermarket full of saucer-eyed devotees treated them like returning heroes. "They even sang along to the keyboards in Processed Beats," exclaims Serge Pizzorno. And then when we did the new stuff. It was…" – Pizzorno is rarely lost for words. When he is though, here's Tom Meighan to pick up the baton – "…legendary. I've never felt a force like it."
Can a record be legendary before it has even come out? You might think you know Kasabian. After all, the dissolute Glimmer Twins of the post-Britpop firmament made no secret of their sources on that eponymous first album. A couple of years after Meighan and Pizzorno met in Leicester, aged 11, it was 1993 and Oasis were making the rock'n'roll dream seem like a goal attainable to a generation of schoolkids. Recorded at the now-mythical farm where they arrived for a party and never got around to leaving, Kasabian's eponymous debut bypassed most critics and connected dramatically with an audience that recognised them as one of their own – just as Oasis had done with Meighan and Pizzorno in 1993.
'Kasabian' went double platinum plus in the UK and the band were the undisputed victors of last year's festivals, putting in bristling performances at Coachella, Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, Lollapalozza and T In The Park. If a debut album is all about showing your influences, this is the point where Kasabian truly show us who they are. The first thing you'll notice about Empire is that no other band in the world could have created it. The confidence is perhaps understandable given the lack of fanfare with which they managed to quickly rise to 700,000 in UK sales and be hallmarked as "show-stealers" by the LA Times. But the scale of its vision though is something else entirely.
Asked a while back to describe the album's eponymous opener, Meighan's instant response was, "Marc Bolan smoking crack with Dr Who." "No other band apart from Radiohead would have the balls to put in a tempo change like that," adds Pizzorno. Under the circumstances, you decide it's impolite to tell him that Radiohead didn't get actually around to it until their third album. This time around the demonic amyl throb of Serge's electronic soundscapes feed into the very core of Kasabian's music. The flood of ideas is unstoppable. Propelled along by handclaps and Ian Matthews' inspired Studio 54 style drum fills, the filthy analogue glambience of Shoot The Runner is inescapable. Last Trip, appropriately, comes on like a postcard from the furthermost outpost of a 4am bender – Meighan's brittle, anxious exhortations leading the way over an arrangement which recalls a beefier version of Suicide's primitive electro-pulse. Three songs in and Empire already sounds like an index of rock'n'roll possibilities.
"Did you like the strings?" smiles Meighan, running a hand through his newly acquired facial fur. He's talking about Sunrise, the point at which you realize Kasabian have, well… set the controls for the heart of the sun. "It's hard to talk about that song without sounding arrogant. But it sounds… royal. Do you know what I mean? Proud." Pizzorno elaborates. "It's just going that extra mile. The point about the strings is that they're not just there to fill out the sound. It's already huge by that point." It's not the first raga rock paean to lysergic love, you tell him, but at the same time it's hard to recall a rock'n'roll song on which Indian strings have deployed so sharply. "They're actually Moroccan raï players," he smiles, "Indian strings? It's been done, mate."
Where to from here? Just as Screamadelica and Dig Your Own Hole – key chapters in Kasabian's back pages – took you on a journey that was tantamount to an out-of-body experience, nothing can quite prepare you for the direction in which Empire heads. While much of Kasabian was forged in the crucible of an uncertain wider world, Empire is a more personal record. A memoir of two extreme years on the road in which the only constant was the friendships that created the band in the first place. A postcard from an unreal world. Placed right in the middle of it all is Aponea – two minutes of misfiring jackhammer beats and febrile babble which, at a stroke turn the cocksure swagger of the previous songs outside in. "Aponea," explains Pizzorno, "is when you lose your breath in your sleep. And you… panic." Venturing deeper into (if you will) the K-hole. By My Side and Stuntman are the first songs to suggest that even in the darkest hour, it might just be love that will pull you back. And so halfway through Stuntman, the familiar swagger of yore tentatively returns – sleek, metronomic, sexy as fuck, haemorrhaging white noise until, by the end, that's all there is.
When it comes to taking the credit for their music, Kasabian rarely need to be encouraged. In this case though, they're swift to acknowledge the invaluable input of producer Jim Abbiss who, according to Meighan, "was very good at dealing with situations in the studio." Was that necessary? One imagines that when a double act like Meighan and Pizzorno disagree, they must really disagree. "Actually, we bicker," says Meighan, "But it's only ever when we're drunk. You know that Hot Chocolate song, It Started With A Kiss? Well, with us, it ends with a kiss, but starts with a bottle. But Jim kept our heads clear, so that there was no anxiety, like 'what the fuck are we gonna do next?'"
Presumably that explains why the bulk of Empire took just five weeks to record, with Kasabian writing new material right up to the wire. Coming right at the end of a record described by Meighan as "full of heart", British Legion and The Doberman seem to sum up the prevailing spirit, the latter featuring Morricone-esque brass and Chris Edwards' dynamic and hypnotic bass lines. When you've returned from the mellee punching the air to old and new faves like Processed Beats and Shoot The Runner, British Legion might insidiously end up being your favourite Kasabian song. When Pizzorno – yes, Pizzorno this time – sings, "She brings the light that catches me again" over delicately picked acoustic guitar, it sets off a Mexican wave of goosebumps. The first take is the take you hear. By the time a sparse rhythm ushers in the "we're gonna make it through" coda, it's hard not to anticipate pinky-yellow festival sunsets and 30,000 backing vocalists walking it home.
Pete Paphides
2006
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Caleb Followill - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Jared Followill - bass
Matthew Followill - lead guitar
Nathan Followill - drums
"I think people tend to expect a certain sound from us," says Kings of Leon's drummer Nathan Followill, "but on this record, we tried to throw them for a loop."
Indeed, it's not business as usual on the Nashville-based quartet's ambitious, eclectic new album Because Of The Times. Where Kings of Leon's last release, 2005's Aha Shake Heartbreak, was "a fuzz-encrusted rocket of controlled violence," as Rolling Stone put it, packed with emphatic two-minute bursts of raunchy guitars, brawny drums, and growled vocals, Because Of The Times finds the Followills (brothers Nathan, Caleb, and Jared, and their first cousin Matthew) opening up, relaxing the rules, and reveling in the joys of their newfound musical freedom.
"We took the limitations off of ourselves," says frontman/rhythm guitarist Caleb. "We went into the studio with an open mind, thinking let's do whatever it takes to get these songs to the next level. Because we really have a lot of music inside of us and a lot of different places we can go."
It would have been easy for Kings of Leon to make Aha Shake Part II and call it a day. That album (along with its predecessor, 2003's Youth and Young Manhood) transformed these sons of a Pentecostal minister, who grew up traveling with the preacher around the rural Deep South, into indie stars in the U.S. and major rock stars in the UK. In 2005, Harp magazine called Kings of Leon "the freshest breeze to blow through the modern music scene since punk rock turned everything upside down and inside out in the late '70s."
But instead of resting on their rep, the guys chose to challenge themselves. "We weren't scared to try anything," Nathan says. "I think that's the difference between this album and the last. We weren't timid at all. Every song showed us something we had inside of ourselves that we didn't know existed, which enabled us to be even bolder on the next song."
To that end, Because Of The Times (the title refers to an annual preachers' conference the boys attended growing up) contains Kings of Leon's first-ever album track that clocks in at longer than five minutes ("Knocked Up"), the first song with vocal effects ("On Call"), and the first one you could verifiably call an arena-rock anthem ("Black Thumbnail"). Then there's the breakneck "McFearless," the chiming "Ragoo," the scuzzy "Charmer," and the waltzing "The Runner" - a song so pretty, it's damn near a lullaby. "I can sing pretty if I want to sing pretty," says Caleb, whose slurry Southern cadences were once a hallmark of the band's sound.
Perhaps because it was the first album the band have made in which they entered the studio knowing exactly how they wanted it to sound, Because Of The Times is Kings of Leon's most diverse collection yet. Brimming with ideas, it represents a huge leap forward both in songwriting and musical prowess. Though Caleb writes the majority of the lyrics, "this was the first album where all four band members contributed equally and had a say so in every song," Nathan says. Adds Caleb: "because we were trying to make a different-sounding record, we had to sit back and listen to each other a little more."
To shepherd them through the process, the Followills turned to their long-time producers Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller) and Angelo Patraglia. "Ethan, man, he knows how to get it out of you - how to get you to perform at your highest level," Nathan says. "And Angelo wants you to perform at your highest level, but he wants you to have fun while you're doing it because that comes across in the recording. He's the one that gets us to step out on a limb and try something that we'd never think of trying in a million years. It's a great balance."
This time around, the band told Johns and Petraglia that they wanted to take a more proactive role in the recording process. "We wanted to go for the sounds that we were hearing in our heads," Nathan explains, "because your record represents you as a band. But when you're young, as we were when we made our first two albums, we didn't know that." However, there's nothing like touring with consummate pros like U2 (in 2005) and Bob Dylan and Pearl Jam (in 2006), that'll force a young band to grow up fast. "On the last night of the Dylan tour," Caleb says, "Dylan came into our dressing room and he says [here Caleb affects Dylan's husky rasp:] 'What's that last song you guys played?' And I said, 'Uh, it's called 'Trani' [a little ditty about transvestite hookers from the first album]. And Dylan goes, 'That's a hell of a song.' "I think that was pretty much the biggest thrill of my entire life."
So where does one go from there? On tour, of course. "That's our thing," Nathan says. "We're a live band, that's our bread and butter. We like to get up there and put on a good show. We start rehearsing tomorrow and I'm sure we'll be kicking ourselves in the ass for recording such hard album parts that we're going to have to play live every night." He pauses, then says brightly: "But I'm going to have some huge arm and leg muscles and a bare chest!"
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The Best Damn Thing is brimming with gutsy guitar riffs, instantaneously catchy sing-along party-starting choruses, power pop punk, and rebellious rock 'n' roll attitude. It's a marked departure from the darker, more introspective tone of Under My Skin-and on tracks such as the defiant, riotous, kiss-off-to-a-cheating-boyfriend "Everything Back But You," Avril took pleasure in creating scenarios for her lyrics that weren't, as she says, "straight out of my diary." The result is a collection of songs that reveal just how far she's evolved as a songwriter and singer, from the sassy, empowering "I Can Do Better" (one of Avril's personal favorites) to the irrepressible first single "Girlfriend"-which unexpectedly combines a hip-hop beat with beefy power chords, hand-claps, and a chanted girl-group-style chorus with a punk rock twist-to the emotional ballad "Keep Holding On," which she wrote at the request of 20th Century Fox for the studio's fantasy/adventure film Eragon.
As an artist with a keen and well-trained ear for powerful, magnetic pop melodies, Avril was intensely involved in every aspect of The Best Damn Thing's creation: From being fiercely independent while writing her own songs ("I didn't have an A&R guy on this record," she emphasizes. "I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound"), to choosing her producers and musical collaborators, to obsessively going back and tweaking guitar tones and drumbeats in the studio, she worked hard to ensure that it would be her best record yet.
The album features the production skills of Butch Walker (who has also produced The Donnas, American Hi-Fi, and Avril's second album, Under My Skin), Dr. Luke (Pink, Lady Sovereign), Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Goo Goo Dolls), and her husband Deryck Whibley (from Sum 41). The process turned out to be a blast: "I didn't know making a record could be so fun," she says. She was eager to work with her good friend Butch again, as she says, "What's great about Butch is that he's a talented artist as well as being an incredible producer." And about collaborating with Dr. Luke, she adds, "Luke and I had a really good connection and chemistry." The relaxed atmosphere in the studio comes across in the songs themselves-Avril's laughter rings out in "I Can Do Better," and in "Girlfriend" you can hear her, she says, "playing a beer bottle" (by blowing into it) in the last few choruses.
Four of the songs on The Best Damn Thing-"Innocence," "Hot, "One of Those Girls," and "Contagious"-were co-written with Avril's former bandmate Evan Taubenfeld. "Evan is one of my best friends in the world," she says, affectionately. "He's been with me since day one".
Of course, all of the spiky, buoyant energy that drives the album will come to life in the live show that Avril is planning for her tour later this year-she has assembled a new band, and is even bringing along two dancers ("I'm doing choreographed dancing for the first time ever," she grins. "It's going to be such a blast").
A great deal has happened in Avril Lavigne's life since she released her debut album, Let Go, in 2002, when she was 17 years old. That album snagged 8 Grammy nominations and four Juno Awards (including Album of the Year and New Artist of the Year), spawned the anthemic hit singles "Complicated," "Sk8ter Boy," and "I'm With You," and sold more than 16 million copies world-wide. Under My Skin cemented the Napanee, Ontario native's superstardom, entering U.S., Canadian, and U.K. charts at #1, unleashing smash singles "Don't Tell Me" and "My Happy Ending," and collecting three more Juno Awards along the way. In 2006, Avril married Sum 41's Deryck Whibley and branched out into acting, appearing in Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation and lending her voice to Dreamworks' animated film Over the Hedge.
She may be a bit more sophisticated these days, but she's still peerless, and still fearless. The Best Damn Thing is Avril Lavigne at a new stage in her life; she's passed through the shadows of teen angst and emerged in a spotlight, ready to have fun and rock out and yes, even dance. It is, just as she intended, the best damn thing she's ever done.
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Here you'll also find a bustling funk-tified cover of The Jam's 'Pretty Green' sits alongside thunderous versions of Ryan Adam's 'Amy', and Coldplay's 'God Put A Smile Upon My Face', both bringing crescendo and euphoria to the melancholy from which they were born. Elsewhere he re-constructs a new version of Kanye West's 'Touch The Sky', reuniting it with it's original form, courtesy of Curtis Mayfield's 'Moving On Up', before climaxing into Kings Of Leon's 'Pistols Of Fire', Kasabian's 'LSF' and The Smith's seminal 'Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before' also take a ride on the Ronson soultrain.
You may be familiar perhaps with his version of Radiohead's 'Just' – the re-jigged, recorded and layered with added hip hop beats, soulful progression, funk ballast and vocals courtesy of Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet that rocked the airwaves and dancefloors around the world and even won praise from the bands Ed O'Brian. 'Just' was a catalyst in the conceptualisation and creation of 'Version', a visionary new album project that see's Mark taking on some of contemporary pop music's big hitters in a similar vein.
Using his own unique re-interpretive style, Mark has set out to demonstrate pop voyeurism and experimentalism are not alien forms. Here his eclectic taste has allowed him to pick and rework songs he has loved in a new, original and refreshing format. 'Version' is a positive, never derivative, journey through the art of the song…with added horns thrown in for good measure.
"With my first album, I had all these people like Mos Def and M.O.P guesting. This time its not about that. Despite the big names, it's about the songs…The songs here are the guest stars. With 'Version' I've taken these songs that I love and turned them into Motown/Stax 70's versions. I keep the utmost respect and appreciation for the original versions of songs I use. It's not like I'm thinking it's a shit song that I can make good, it's more like it's a great song and I'm now going to make it bounce."
Mark released his own massively acclaimed, shamefully ignored and criminally unworked debut solo album 'Here Comes The Fuzz' in 2003 through Elektra right before the label imploded as it was. In the wake of the label/album's demise, it is as a producer where Mark has found his rhythm and sound.
P.T.O Production credits over the past 12 months include tracks on new/forthcoming new albums by Christina Aguilera, Robbie Williams, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, GHOSTFACE KILLAH, his Allido protégés Rhymefest & Daniel Merriweather to name but a handful.
His label Allido Records, released 'Blue Collar' EARLIER THIS YEAR, the debut album from Grammy winning Chi-town rap sensation Rhymefest, with Australian wunderkind Daniel Merriweather (That's him killing it on 'Stop Me') to follow in the next 12 months. He is the current face of DKNY (LAST YEAR, PROBABLY NO LONGER RELEVANT) but doesn't talk about that stuff at all. Oh and then there is his live band…a full on funk-soul-hop-pop revue that you need in your life.
Back to the business in hand, 'Version' is the sound of Mark Ronson…A man who's musical vision and verve transcends seasons and genres, where Biggie Smalls can sit on a cloud humming along with Al Green to an old Ryan Adams cut and where Nile Rodgers can jam with Sly And The Family Stone whilst the UK's biggest popstar revisits Baggy for kicks and where music is music. It's a beautiful place that hopefully you'll love visiting again and again.
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Soon, back to Nashville it was, where Landon applied himself to more benign interests such as Algebra and Chemistry and – lucky for everyone who has heard his debut RCA album, LP – Music - learning to make his own sounds as he began to rifle through the wonders of his dad's record collection.
It was Landon's father, a studio veteran himself, who encouraged Landon's musical curiosity, as Landon recalls 'Ray Stevens being the first CD I ever owned.' Pretty soon Landon was unearthing his own musical breadcrumb trail – David Mead and Rufus Wainwright who showed him the beauty of a melody; Bands like Radiohead helping to etch a deeper emotion into his songwriting; Masterworks from groups such as Led Zeppelin and the Beatles imbuing in him both the love of a creative turn of phrase and a knack for writing indelible hooks. And there's no denying the upper register of Harry Nilsson floating around somewhere amid Landon's creations, completing a patchwork topography of the singer/songwriter's musical exoskeleton that pop writer Nick Hornby would be proud of.
Landon also credits his mother for nurturing his poetic side. For the record, she still sends him words of wisdom meant to buoy one's strength on those days where the setbacks seem to outnumber the milestones. 'And' – laughs Landon, 'she still cuts my hair.'
With all these threads in hand, Landon Pigg has fastened together his own mercurial outlook on life which he effortlessly and magically captures on his debut album. Yet, he'll also be the first to tell you it does no good to equate all these disparate strands with 'figuring him out.' Those who try to solve him like a puzzle end up confused. He likes to keep his thoughts to himself. Likes to keep even 'himself' guessing. Fortunately, a faithful listen to his new CD reveals he's really not that different from any of us. The songs, which Landon says are 'about things like losing love and finding hope – about how life will start to make sense and then stop again,'- reflect an uncanny ability to cobble his own confusion into unforgettable music.
Guided by a host of maverick producers, Dan Brodbeck (Dolores O' Riordan), Paul Ebersold (3 Doors Down), and Clif Magness (Avril Lavigne, The Calling), he fuses his own raw edges into subtle and rollicking pop gems, like the plaintive 'Sailed On,' or the sparse but scrappy 'Last Stop,' which brandishes ripe examples of what can only be described as musical Pigg-speak – 'I pick up all the pieces of the chords I didn't use…'.
The hint we've been waiting for about solving at least part of the musical puzzle?
'Maybe there is a naiveté in my approach,' he says. 'I never had a guitar lesson when I started out. I've always felt that when you don't learn all the rules you're much more inclined to break them with a smile.' Which dovetails nicely into another inclination of his: You might not always get to hear Landon speak his mind – but you'll always hear him sing it.
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You've got an image in your head, and it's mistaken. You've heard the name Priestess, and you're juggling impressions. Are they Goths, prancing around the pentangle in their Lugosi capes? I think not. Could this be... Christian rock? God, no. Just another gang of suburban riff-clowns raised on a sallow junk-food diet of hair bands? None of the above. Cue up the Montreal band's debut, Hello Master, and let us demystify. Metal? No... Priestess is Heavy Mettle... And they do inspire devotion.
"It feels like we hit it off with people who wanna hear a heavy rock group with catchy songs," says singer/guitarist Mikey Heppner. And, hello ... master of understatement. Heppner's a bantam dynamo whose unaffected approach is the face of a like-minded band. No stylist, no shtick, no pose – without gimmick, they fire maddeningly memorable and crunching hooks out to an audience that travels under no banner.
"Ordinary kids," says Heppner. That sliver of rock fans somewhere between the hard rock, garage and indie tribes - you know, that 70% sliver. Priestess finds a commonality between those nerds, jocks, stoners, loners, party kids and hipsters for whom rock n'roll is somewhere between soundtrack and salvation.
Formed in Montreal in 2003 with a desire to rewire a balls-out '70s rock ethic with classicist songwriting, they defiantly refused to equate heavy music with the Big Downer. "Some bands are gloomy – because that's the only way to be cool."
Here's the other way: rejoicing in heaviosity, with the accent on both ends. In their time as rock n'roll redeemers, Priestess has run through everything from the Beatles to prog to punk to Nirvana and back to AC/DC. "One of the hardest things to do is take a major-chord chorus and make it cool and heavy," Heppner says. "AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long is in a major-chord - super-happy key. But it's unstoppable and I can listen to it every day... forever."
In the lean and punishing I Am the Night, Color Me Black, in the canyon-sized Talk To Her, the snarling Lay Down and an instant classic called Two Kids, they have already written four chapters in their own new testament.
"There is a level that we... must get to," Heppner says of the band's live show. Anyone who's heard Heppner's opening shout "We are Priestess and we are going to fuck you!" knows what that means. It's no surprise that they caught the attention of Motorhead, opening for them on their last tour ...Lemmy practically wrote the book on fucking the crowd up. Then, three triumphant shows at SXSW '06 capped a "crushingly great" 6 1/2 week tour with fellow crushers Early Man and The Sword that found the band breaking out of major markets into places like Buffalo – where ordinary kids who couldn't care less about the Montreal resurgence were moved to seize Heppner from the stage and send him crowd-surfing, mid-solo. They were believers.'
So back to that name: "The minute we tossed it out there, we knew it was perfect."
Why? Think about it. Rather than playing to a herd of headbangers hurling themselves at the stage while their girlfriends cower at tables in the dark corners, Priestess wants to cross the most elemental human divide: gender. "Zeppelin sort of had a mystical pagan allure in the context of heavy, distorted guitars," Heppner says. He finds in that a balance of undeniable masculine heft and feminine melody. "We get a lot of girls in the crowd. That's very important."
It's more than a manifesto. It's a creed--- They are Priestess. The cult starts here.
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Gifted Trio of Ordained Clergymen Won't Give Up Their Day Jobs In Catholic Parishes of Ireland
Debut Album, Produced by Mike Hedges, Is Coming
November 18th On RCA Victor
(NEW YORK) - A vocal trio of three Roman Catholic priests from Ireland is on the brink of creating an international musical sensation as The Priests.
In an April ceremony on the steps of London's historic Westminster Cathedral, the group - comprised of two brothers, Father Eugene O' Hagan and Father Martin O' Hagan, and Father David Delargy - was signed by Sony BMG (UK). Their Priests' debut album is set for US release on RCA Victor Records on November 18, 2008.
The Priests commenced recording May 23 in Dublin and will continue in Belfast and The Vatican in Rome. Their album will include performances in Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, and English of such enduring classics of faith as "Ave Maria," "Panis Angelicus," "Abide With Me," and "O Holy Night." The Priests are working with legendary producer Mike Hedges, well known for his work with U2, The Cure, and - in a foreshadowing of his current assignment - the Manic Street Preachers. The Priests will be accompanied by the Vatican Choir on the recording, arranged and conducted by Pablo Colino the Emeritus Director of Music at St.Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Rome. A major television special is in the works, as well as an international launch event scheduled for September at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Northern Ireland.
The extraordinary combined talents of Father Eugene O' Hagan (48), his brother, Father Martin O' Hagan (45), and Father David Delargy (44) first were recognized while they attended Queen's University in Belfast and while training for the priesthood at the Irish College in Rome. During the latter period, the three singers were invited personally by the Papal Master of Ceremonies, Monsignor Magee, to sing for the Pope in the sacred liturgy.
Upon their return to Ireland, each of the Priests will continue to tend to the spiritual needs of his parishioners and to the official duties of his church. The Priests' global recording contract exempts each member from undertaking any promotional or recording duties in the event, for instance, of officiating at a wedding or christening of a parishioner. Additionally, the trio has stipulated that a percentage of the proceeds from their record sales will be donated to a charity of their choice.
"We have been inundated with good wishes from our brother priests, from parishioners, and from many friends in the music world," reports Father Eugene O' Hagan in a blog entry at www.thepriests.com.
"It was our intention to make a record for posterity...but imagine what we felt like when Sony BMG popped up out of nowhere and expressed an interest. Fantastic-unbelievable!"
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With his remarkable, rough hewn vocals and evocative, finely etched songs, Ray LaMontagne has, in but a few short years, become the rare artist of whom the world waits with to see what each new work will reveal. Now, on his much anticipated third album, the Maine-based singer and songwriter has crafted a warm and welcoming record which unveils heretofore untapped depths of ingenuity and optimism. Touching upon a range of styles and musical setting – spanning pastoral folk, railroad blues, front porch country, and plangent balladry – "GOSSIP IN THE GRAIN" proves to be LaMontagne's most creative and emotionally expansive collection to date.
LaMontagne's 2004 debut, "TROUBLE," became one of that year's most acclaimed debuts, spawning an instant classic single in the album's title track. He returned two years later with the stunning "TILL THE SUN TURNS BLACK," a deeply personal work haunted by a complex and compelling melancholy. The album proved both another popular and critical success, debuting in the top 30 on the Billboard 200 and further marking LaMontagne as a major American artist.
After spending 18 long months on the road, LaMontagne returned to Maine and decompressed. He listened to little music, choosing to focus his energies on restoring his new house, once owned by the late Norman Mailer. In early 2008, he began plotting out his next record and before winter's end, was ready to return to work. Where LaMontagne's previous records had been recorded closer to home, this time he opted to cross the Atlantic in order to work alongside his longtime collaborator, producer Ethan Johns at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire.
"Ethan came to me last time," LaMontagne says. "I was living in Woodstock and he traveled out there so I could be close to home. He recently moved back to England and he lives about 10 minutes from the studio, so it was only fair that I go to him this time."
LaMontagne's two previous albums were largely solo affairs, with Johns serving as multi-tasking instrumentalist. "GOSSIP IN THE GRAIN" sees him joined by members of his touring band, bassist Jennifer Condos and guitarist Eric Heywood (Johns largely handles drum duties, as touring drummer Jay Bellerose was on the road with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss at the time of the recording). Along with his band members, LaMontagne is also joined on two tracks – "A Falling Through" and "I Still Care For You" – by singer/songwriter Leona Naess, a friend and artist whose work he has long admired.
"Ethan and I work very well together, one-on-one. I don't know what it is that's going on there, but we can sort of read each other's minds a little bit, so it's really easy for us to work together alone. It's uncluttered. But we've done that. Touring with Jen and Eric has been amazing. They are both incredible people and musicians. I just love the sound we create as a band. It felt like a natural evolution to record this album together.
The sessions concluded in early spring with about 14 tracks recorded, but upon reflection, LaMontagne decided to cull the collection by half. Left with less than a full album's worth of material, he reached into his bag of songs and pulled out three more pieces – "Sarah," "Meg White," and the autumnal title track – which ultimately went on to define the record's liberated aesthetic and attitude.
While "Winter Birds" and "Gossip In The Grain" retain the sparse atmosphere of his previous record, the album is through and through a shaggier, more loose-limbed collection. Songs like "Henry Nearly Killed Me" and "Hey Me, Hey Mama" have a rambunctious energy and high-spiritedness that show a hitherto undisclosed side of LaMontagne's talent. "Meg White," a rollicking paean to Jack White's drum-beating older sister, lets slip a mischievous wit that the songwriter has previously been loath to reveal on record.
"Well, she does rock," LaMontagne points out. "She deserves a song."
Throughout the record there are recurrent themes of reconnection, of relationships torn down and then reborn, presented with the most sanguine outlook of LaMontagne's career. While some songs, such as the tender "Sarah," feel intensely confessional, others appear to reveal truth through carefully drawn characterizations. As ever, LaMontagne is reticent about delving into the emotional source of his material, preferring to let the work speak for itself.
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Ryan Levine -- lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Clark -- lead guitar
Andrew Ampaya -- piano, keyboards, vocals
Agustin Sanchez -- bass, backing vocals
Sal Cortez -- drums, backing vocals
It's not all that difficult to convey gloom through music, nor is it much of a stretch to stay focused on the sunny side of life. It takes something special, however, to portray both the cloud and the silver lining with equal intensity -- and that ability is the secret to Test Your Reflex's success.
"Ever since I was young, growing up listening to the Beatles with my dad, I've always associated music with optimism," says Test Your Reflex frontman Ryan Levine. "I don't think you need to go to a dark place to be creative. I'm not positive just to be positive, and I think there's a bittersweet feel to a lot of the songs, but I would rather uplift people than bring them down."
On its RCA debut The Burning Hour, the Southern California-bred quintet succeeds in doing just that, thanks not only to Levine's instantly-relatable allegories, but to the immediately ensnaring hooks that permeate the disc's 11 vivid tunes. From the sweeping grandeur of the opening "I'm Not Sorry" -- which envelops the listener in a cocoon of warmly pulsing bass and brightly spangled piano -- to the final notes of the siren-song closer "Painted Red," Test Your Reflex grab a firm hold on the heart, the head and the hips.
"We wrote for two years before we went into the studio, and we were really inspired by records that sounded big," says Levine. "We started out listening to a lot of danceable stuff, but we'd always go back to U2's Joshua Tree and Peter Gabriel's So -- two albums that are just rock solid from beginning to end and that just go for it. Because of that, we didn't shy away from big choruses or big production -- we wanted every song to be a journey."
The quintet's own journey began a little over three years ago, when its members began hosting shows at a recreation center in southern California -- a venue choice necessitated in part by the fact that all were still too young to gain entrance to the clubs they'd soon be selling out. All five had prior grounding in various styles -- guitarist Clark did time in what Levine describes as "a really thrashy, dirty-sounding, desert rock band," while Andrew Ampaya spent years being classically trained on piano -- which contributes considerably to the iconoclastic TYR sound.
"We came together with some similar influences, a lot of them coming from things that are really danceable, like Depeche Mode, and a lot that were more atmospheric, like David Bowie or especially Brian Eno," says Levine. "We like that sort of mysterious aspect to things, but it's also really cool to get an audience up and moving, get them really involved, and that's where the rhythm comes in."
That shared consciousness has allowed the band to develop the sort of instinctive dialogue that allows them to deftly glide from crunching, guitar-driven rockers like "New Year" and "Pieces of the Sun" to sleek, synth-laced confections like "Black Hearts." Those elements collide head-on in the soaring, harmony-driven "I Am Alive," perhaps the album's boldest statement of purpose -- to convince listeners that things really are going to be alright after all.
Levine reckons that he came to just that conclusion shortly after beginning work on The Burning Hour, an album whose title was inspired by a visit to a Southern California strip club. He claims, with polygraph-perfect plausibility, that the jaunt was suggested by a girlfriend who was studying the psychology of sexuality -- but rather than a Motley Crue-styled epiphany, he recalls f