About Me
Bruno Mars
It’s better if you don’t understand; just listen and have a good time. That’s the response Bruno Mars will give you with a smile when asked to describe his sound and music. He would much rather sing, perform, and write his songs than talk about them, but that is becoming more and more unavoidable these days. It might seem that Mars appeared out of nowhere, co-writing, producing and performing on B.o.B’s #1 “Nothin’ On You” followed by Travie McCoy’s chart-climbing “Billionaire”, but he makes one thing clear: “It’s not an overnight success”.
Mars is a multitalented singer, songwriter, producer and musician who feels most at home when he’s performing. Born to a musical family in Honolulu, Hawaii, he was practically raised on the stage. His father, a Latin percussionist from Brooklyn, organized a Vegas-style revue that featured the entire family, including his mother, a talented vocalist.
When a four-year-old Mars observed his family performing Motown hits, doo-wop medleys and impersonations for enthusiastic crowds all over his native Waikiki Beach, "I was jealous!" says Mars with a laugh. "My dad put me on stage and I remember singing an Elvis song and that was it. Ever since that moment, I've been addicted."
Rich in diverse music from all over the globe, Honolulu was an exciting hometown for the budding singer/songwriter. On one end of the spectrum, his home was filled with the 1950s classics that were his father's passion. Meanwhile, the city is rich in traditional sounds, including reggae, rock and folk music, as well as the latest pop hits. "Hawaii is basically in the middle of the world, so you're exposed to every type of music over there," explains Mars.
As soon as he graduated high school, Mars left Hawaii for Los Angeles with dreams of launching his career as a performer. Those dreams got put on hold, however, when The Smeezingtons, the songwriting/production team he founded with Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine, suddenly took off. The pair has crafted major hits for a diverse roster of talent, including Flo Rida's "Right Round", Travie McCoy's "Billionaire", Brandy's "Long Distance" and K'Naan's "Waving Flags" which is the theme song for the 2010 World Cup.
Mars describes his time behind the scenes as important to his development as an artist. "I realized that you have to go into this industry as an artist with a clear vision and understanding of who you are. Being so young when I was first signed, I never really had a sense of who I wanted to be. Now things are really working out because everything that I'm singing, writing and composing is really me."
On the heels of "Nothin' on You" and "Billionaire", Elektra Records released a 4-song EP aptly titled "It's Better If You Don't Understand" in May 2010. The title is taken from a lyric to "The Other Side"; one of the songs included that features Cee Lo Green and re-teams Mars with B.o.B. The song depicts the musician's current routine. "It's basically a story of the lifestyle you end up living as an artist and how I would describe it to a girl I just met to try and explain, but in the end "It's better if you don't understand."
When asked to describe the music he's released Mars says "It's hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There's no tricks. It's honesty with big melodies. And I'm going to be singing the s--- out of them." The collection of songs on the EP are written from various real-life experiences, where Mars blends his buoyant voice with purposefully simple production. All of the songs are produced and written with his Smeezingtons partner Philip Lawrence.
Mars' debut full length album on Elektra,"Doo Wops and Hooligans" was released in October of 2010. Rolling Stone calls it, "the year's finest pop debut: 10 near-perfect songs that move from power ballads to bedroom anthems to pop-reggae and deliver pleasure without pretension. "
Although he's incredibly proud of the recordings, Mars feels the best way to experience the sound is to see him perform live with his band. "That is what I'm most excited for - taking these songs and traveling them around the world." The only place he would rather be than in the recording studio, is with his band on stage- where he grew up. "I think people are really going to gravitate towards the live show. We turn it into a party."
The Doors
When The Doors topped the charts at #1 in July 1967 with “Light My Fire,” it was the supreme validation for Jac Holzman after 16 years of nurturing Elektra Records. Elektra would no longer be perceived as ‘a small independent folk label’. The Doors changed Elektra’s trajectory forever.
Taken from their self-titled debut album, “Light My Fire” was barely off the charts when Strange Days was released, proving that The Doors were no mere one-shot band. It took the cohesive creativity of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore to record a staggering six studio albums in less than five years. Their mystique is enduring and Jim Morrison is one of the defining voices of the ‘60s.
Four of their albums are undisputed classics, The Doors, Strange Days, Morrison Hotel and LA Woman. The Doors, of course, did more than just make records. They made history and made the headlines. Their final album, LA Woman, was recorded in only two weeks and largely in one or two-take performances, just as was done on their game-changing, unsurpassable debut LP. The Doors had come full circle.
Ed Sheeran
Elektra recording artist Ed Sheeran has announced an array of activity surrounding the eagerly awaited U.S. release of his acclaimed debut album, “+.” A record-breaking sensation in the British singer/songwriter’s native U.K., “+” arrives on these shores on June 12th.
Pre-orders for “+” are available on the iTunes Store starting today (http://atlr.ec/Jdl5wg). The album is being offered in both a Standard Version and Digital Deluxe Version, which appends four additional bonus tracks (see attached tracklisting).
Meanwhile, “+” pre-orders are available now via Sheeran’s own official web store. A variety of bundles are on offer, featuring such exclusive extras as a blue “Crest” t-shirt and a “Logo” pullover hoodie. All packages include a copy of “+” (in CD, digital, or orange vinyl), a full album stream (expiring on street date), and an instant MP3 download of the recently released digital EP, “THE A TEAM.” For complete details and ordering information, please visit Sheeran’s official webpage at http://www.edsheeran.com.
Sheeran – who has been named as VH1’s “You Oughta Know” artist on the rise for the month of May – has slated a number of high profile TV performances for the coming weeks. The British troubadour will perform his blockbuster single, “The A Team,” on the Tuesday, May 8th installment of TBS’ Conan, followed on June 12th with a release-day visit to NBC’s TODAY (check local listings). The upcoming appearances follow Sheeran’s recent live performances on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Last Call with Carson Daly, and mtvU’s 2012 Woodie Awards extravaganza.
Currently winning over fans on his first-ever North American tour (alongside Snow Patrol), Sheeran will celebrate the release of “+” with a pair of major headline shows in New York City, both of which sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale. Ed will perform at Bowery Ballroom on June 11th (a 16 years old-and-over show), and Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 12th. A new series of North American tour dates will be announced soon – please see www.edsheeran.com for details.
The current tour schedule comes on the heels of Sheeran’s triumphant string of performances at this year’s South by Southwest® Music & Media Conference (SXSW®) in Austin, Texas. Entertainment Weekly praised his “knack for manipulating samplers and voice loops, various strums, a handful of rhythmic pounds on his guitar’s body, and even the audience,” while Billboard hailed his energetic set at Nikon Inc. and Warner Music Group’s “The Warner Sound Captured by Nikon” residency as “a veritable party in a single package.”
Masterfully blending soulful vocals with organic folk introspection and irresistible hip-hop hooks, Sheeran is a genuine phenomenon. Inspired by such diverse artists as James Morrison, Damien Rice, and Jay-Z, the gifted tunesmith first made waves with his unique style and affecting songs. A prolific writer and performer, Sheeran played constantly – including over 300 gigs in 2009 alone – while also recording and self-releasing five independent EPs. He also became a YouTube favorite, with the loop-driven “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You,” drawing over 5 million views and counting.
His major label debut single, “The A Team,” arrived in June 2011 and instantly proved an unqualified sensation, entering among the top 3 on the U.K. Singles Chart. The track spent 11 consecutive weeks in the U.K. Top 10, making history as 2011’s highest charting, biggest selling debut single.
Sheeran’s full-length debut, “+,” soon followed, featuring a host of truly special songs, from the heart-wrenching “Small Bump” to the hushed “Give Me Love.” The album exploded onto the U.K. Albums Chart at #1 with the highest opening sales figures for a debut artist ever and is now certified 3x platinum.
In addition to their popular success, Sheeran and “+” received extensive acclaim, including the prestigious “Breakthrough Artist” trophy at the Q Awards 2011. Even greater accolades came in early 2012 as Sheeran emerged victorious with a pair of top 2011 Brit Awards – including “Best Male Artist” and “Best Breakthrough Artist” – after having led the field with a remarkable four total nods. Furthermore, “The A Team” received the high honor of a 2012 Ivor Novello Award nomination in the “Best Song Musically and Lyrically” category.
Released in December 2011, Sheeran’s U.S. debut EP, “THE A TEAM,” features four extraordinary tracks previously unavailable here in the former Colonies, including, of course, “The A Team.” A special iTunes version of the EP – available exclusively on the iTunes Store – is augmented by an additional track, “Grade 8 (Live At The iTunes Festival London).”
As energetic and engaging on stage as he is on record, Sheeran spent much of last year doing what he does best – playing sold out shows all over the U.K., including acclaimed festival appearances at such annual extravaganzas as Glastonbury, Lovebox, Bestial, Latitude, and Reading & Leeds Festivals. Sheeran is currently slated to join such rock royalty as Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Sir Tom Jones, and Jay-Z in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign at The Royal Diamond Jubilee Concert, set for June 4th outside Buckingham Palace. A further series of U.K. and European festivals are scheduled for the summer, as is a fully sold out tour of Australia and New Zealand. Sheeran’s biggest U.K. tour thus far will follow in the fall, featuring sold out multiple night stands in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Doncaster, Newcastle, and Glasgow.
As if all that weren’t enough, Sheeran kickstarted 2012 with “THE SLUMDON BRIDGE EP,” a four-song collaboration with Shady Records/Get-O-Vision Entertainment/ Interscope Records recording artist Yelawolf. Initially released as a free Valentine’s Day download, the acclaimed EP is available now via all digital retailers. “It’s a unique project from start to finish,” declared AllHipHop.com of the EP. “Yelawolf and Ed Sheeran are…the most unlikeliest of teams, but it works. Here’s hoping that we see more of them together in the future.”
“Any true music lover would thoroughly enjoy the supernatural chemistry that oozes from this opus,” noted PlanetIll.com, adding that “if you never heard of Ed Sheeran, you’ll definitely become a fan after listening to this joint…It’s only a matter of time till he catches the ear of a hip-hop heavyweight.”
For up-to-the-minute news and information, please see www.edsheeran.com and www.elektrarecords.com.
ED SHEERAN
“+”
(Elektra Records)
Pre-Orders Available May 8th on The iTunes Store
Official Release Date: June 12th
Standard Version:
1. The A Team
2. Drunk
3. U.N.I.
4. Grade 8
5. Wake Me Up
6. Small Bump
7. This
8. The City
9. Lego House
10. You Need Me, I Don't Need You
11. Kiss Me
12. Give Me Love
Digital Deluxe Version:
1. The A Team
2. Drunk
3. U.N.I.
4. Grade 8
5. Wake Me Up
6. Small Bump
7. This
8. The City
9. Lego House
10. You Need Me, I Don't Need You
11. Kiss Me
12. Give Me Love
13. Autumn Leaves
14. Little Bird
15. Gold Rush
16. Sunburn
Marina & The Diamonds
Thundering, stellar electronic...magnetic, glacial vocals...whip-smart, womanly, lyrical wit...jokes as good as 'The Valley of The Lolls'...
Marina and The Diamonds second album, 'Electra Heart', is not so much a creative leap forward, more an Olympian pole-vault over the bar of talented-newcomer into the global amphitheatre of a cultivated Classic. Two years on from her top 5 debut 'The Family Jewels' (300,000 copies sold), the self-styled avant-garde “D.I.Y artist” has detonated her own experimental past and landed feet first in the future with 'Electra Heart', a stunningly ambitious, seamless, cohesive and confident sonic pulsar spinning between electro-pop euphoria and come-down melancholia. The album is produced by a cache of old school and A-List producers: Dr Luke (Katy Perry) and Liam Howe (Sneaker Pimps) but mostly (9 out of 12 songs) Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, Kylie) and Rick Nowels (Madonna, Stevie Nicks, Lykke Li). A hook-packed stunner with the sonic ambition of a one-woman Depeche Mode, her onetime theatrical vocals now effortlessly soar between spectral, commanding and towering power-pop, finding her vocal identity in an album about a loss of it.
“I wanted to challenge myself, I have consciously done everything I set out not to, originally” says Marina. “Sing about Love. Work in the world of American Pop. Co-write. It was a really enjoyable period in my life. The music has energy and aggression and my vocals are much more controlled and detached… It's lyrically quite bitter, but comically so. I love black humour".
'Electra Heart' is a thematic riot, a British Eccentric, 21st Century concept caper where the album title represents a series of female archetypes, not so much an alter-ego as a beautifully-constructed prism, through which Marina projects a series of meticulously-realised female characters as a foil for telling her story, the one about mismatched lovers.
“'Electra Heart' is an Ode to dysfunctional love,” she explains. “I based the project around character types commonly found in love stories, film and theatre. I guess it was a way of dealing with the embarrassment that, for the first time in my life, I got 'played'. Rejection is a universally embarrassing topic and Electra Heart is my response to that, creating character types to enable me to express personal experiences I would never confess in real life. Weakness and defeat in love are things I don't particularly want talk about, so I guess I've written a whole album about it. Whatever an artist does not want to admit, that is what the artist writes about. It's a very frank album but hopefully funny too”
The songs, mostly recorded in L.A in 2011, were written on-the-road through America in 2010, teased into life on Marina's £100 keyboard or sung into her lap-top in the back of her tour-bus bedroom, “watching the corn fields flying by and making sense of the message that American culture employs; that you can be anyone and do anything, go anywhere and lose yourself- start afresh and forget whatever the truth is”. The song titles tell the story - from throbbing first single 'Primadonna' to the robo-pop of 'Bubblegum Bitch' to the haughty spoken-word soliloquies of 'Homewrecker' – a fantasy roll-call of “fairly vengeful characters”. These are inspired by her love for American Pop culture's artifice, “I am attracted to emptiness, to the fake in us. Aside from love, perception and deception are central themes in "Electra Heart", that's why I changed my hair- because the archetypal star is always blonde". She says " I used to think of the female superstars, Marilyn, Madonna, Britney Spears, and wonder if they would have had the same career paths if they had been brunettes” and her uncharacteristic behaviour in a brief but life-altering relationship, where she changed herself to comply with a boy's ideals to win his heart. “The type of girl who maintains a level of artifice and illusion in order to hold his intrigue. I am nothing like that. I was sad to pretend I was someone else all the time”.
Hence the many faces of 'Electra Heart' and her revolving door persona. It's also a visual project, with vast, camp and cerebral touchstones as befits her analytical brain: “Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Dolly Parton, Chuck Pahlaniuk, Madonna, Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace, Valley of the Dolls, Pierre Et Gilles, Britney Spears, Love... Boys... Fear.” She's also created a website, 'The: Archetypes', featuring images of 'Electra Heart' split into four character-type categories: "The Homewrecker", "Su-Barbie-A", "Teen Idles" and "Stars & Queens". All fabulous hair, kitschy 50's costumes and a pun-tastic way with a caption, from “Miss Shellfish Beach 1985” and "Mother's Ruined" to “VALLEY OF THE LOLS.”
Welsh by birth, kaleidoscopic by nature, Marina Diamandis is a serial college drop-out who once dressed up as a boy to audition for a reggae boy-band, hoping to amuse the record label into signing her. After further failed auditions (girl bands, musicals), in a fit of ambitious pique, she taught herself piano and created Marina and The Diamonds in 2005 (it's just her, the Diamonds are the audience). She was a MySpace generation D.I.Y powerhouse who hand-made and sold her own CDs to Rough Trade until being signed to Warner Music Group's '679 Recordings' in 2008. Acclaimed overnight as an intriguing, confrontational and theatrical amalgam of Kate Bush and PJ Harvey, she was nominated in 2010 for both the Brits Critic's Choice Award and the BBC Sound of 2010. She looks back on her early years, now, with some ambivalence. “I experimented with my voice a lot, I was young, amateurish and ambitious” she decides. “I feel different now. My voice is far more controlled and my writing style has matured. For me, it's a real, coherent step-up. I would love to one day be a great artist.”
2012, then, sees her reach her potential as an outstanding British song-writing talent and dazzling pop performer, an uncompromising spirit and pop-art intellectual who singlehandedly fashions the ideas for her art-work, videos, website content and striking live performances. In 2012 she embarks on both a UK headline tour and as support to the mighty Coldplay, jet-packed onto the mainstream stage on their colossal European Stadium Tour, at the band's personal request. The concept of 'Electra Heart', meanwhile, below its multi-fold messages, is deceptively simple. "It just about love” she concludes. “Every one of us relates to love songs. To being hurt. But I wanted to chronicle it in a raw and truthful way, almost make a (visual) gimmick out of the thing I feared most. Everything else is just based around my love for photography, sharp humour and a fascination with transient identities. If you are who you are, then why do you change around certain people? Why do we spend our entire lives trying to become ourselves, when we are born as no one else? I always want to try and cement who I am. But I never can. That's why I write songs”
She also, incidentally, enjoys a curious neurological condition called synaesthesia which means associating musical notes, numbers and days of the week with colour. So what colour is Tuesday?
“Tuesday is green,” she assures, as befits a proper pop star.
TRACK BY TRACK
'Bubblegum Bitch': Frenetic synth-pop bedlam from 1981 meets 1997. “It's late 90s Britney charm, turned inside out.”
'Primadonna': Smell the waft of poppers across the festival field as a throbbing, fuchsia cloud thunders over your head. “Channelling the archetype of The Star, asking for adoration.”
'Lies': A haunting, melancholic treatise on emotional disappointment. “You only ever touch me in the dark, only if we're drinking, can you see my spark” she sings, exquisitely. "Trying to tell yourself a lover is right for you when you know he is nothing but."
'Homewrecker': Spoken-word ice-queen theatrics befitting the Pet Shop Boys, featuring the line: “Girls and their cars and their gourmet vomit.” "It's about the power of an image: Looking sweet whilst secretly being a total bitch and getting away with it!"
'Starring Role': Ethereal, fragile rumination on living outside reality. “And you don't want to live in reality. That's why you're an artist. You're on the run.”
'The State Of Dreaming': 'Hounds Of Love'-era Kate Bush and a contemplation of the famous Marilyn Monroe quote: “I just want to be wonderful.” "Fantasy protects us"
'Power And Control': Cinematic, Teutonic, Depeche Mode/Killers-sized electro colossus, written and recorded at dawn on ferry to Finland. “About the tactics of power-games in love”
'Living Dead': Pummeling synth-pop paean to regret. “The feeling that you have not lived your life to the full.”
'Teen Idle': "Story of my suicidal cheerleader youth! This song was like my last hurrah of adolescence"
'Valley Of The Dolls': Brooding, elegant, gothic search through loss of identity. “About emptiness, a void that you can't fill with relationships.”
'Hypocrates': Breezy, beautiful, guitar-pop melodies, perhaps Gwen Stefani fronting Crowded House. “Saying 'let me be who I am'.”
'Fear And Loathing': Epic, Trent Reznor-esque, doom-pop reverie on multiple inner personalities. “About seeing the good in people, making a fresh start and cutting yourself free of old ideals”
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