Saturday, July 23, 2011

MEET ANOTHER PINAY INTERNATIONAL SINGING SENSATION- LICA Philippine Tour scheduled this July 30, Aug 6 & 7

If Charice and Arnel Pineda (of the band Journey) made it in the US, another Pinay is making waves in Europe, particularly in Switzerland. She is none other than Lica, the 14 year old Swiss based Filipina singing sensation.
Lica was hand-picked by Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy award winning music legend Phil Collins to be part of his “Little Dreams Foundation” where she is trained. She has performed before the President of Switzerland as well as various United Nations gathering like the annual United Nations Women’s Guild Bazaar. Aside from Collins, Lica has collaborated with Canadian pop sensation Bryan Adams and their version of “Everything I Do” was a huge hit in Switzerland. She has also shared the stage with international artists like Laura Pausini,  Jermaine Jackson and Mike Rutherford and impressed Lara Fabian during a performance in a Swiss TV show “Reves.”
She has released her debut album “All I Want To Be” (out in the Philippines under MCA Music) featuring the carrier single “All I Wanna Be”, a duet with the Philippines’ multi-awarded crooner Richard Poon. He flew all the way to London to record the track and shoot the music video with her. It also includes the new single “I’m Your Friend”, a pop track that will sure be a radio hit. Other tracks in the album are: “The Magic”, “Bagong Umaga”, “One More Time”, “Summer Party”, “Ray of Sunshine”, Sound of Silence”, “Star Fantasy”, “All I Wanna Be (solo version)”, “New Day” and “Christmas Song”.
Watch Lica as she is home to conquer her homeland for a Philippine Tour this Saturday, July 30 at SM North EDSA The Block with special guest—OPM boyband 1:43, August 6 (Saturday) at SM Manila and August 7 (Sunday) at SM San Lazaro with special guest- sibling pop duo The Lamars. All shows start at 5pm.
Lica “All I Want To Be” The Philippine Tour is presented by SM Supermalls and MCA Music in cooperation with Business Mirror and Red Box. Check out www.facebook.com/mcamusic for more updates on the LICA: The Philippine Promo Tour. Text LICA to 3456 to download her songs.
 

Thursday, July 21, 2011

SuperHeavy

An Introduction To A Rock Supergroup
L-R: Dave Stewart, Damian Marley, Joss Stone, Mick Jagger and  A.R. Rahman



Mick Jagger has teamed up with Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart, soul singer Joss Stone, Academy Award winning composer and global superstar A.R.Rahman and reggae star Damian Marley to form a band cooperative project called SuperHeavy.  This diverse and eclectic line up who share eleven Grammy Awards between them, have been recording together in various studios around the world, with the majority of the tracks on the project laid down over three weeks in Los Angeles earlier this year. The album will be unveiled in September and tracks include the first single ‘Miracle Worker’, plus ‘One Day One Night’, ‘Energy’, ‘Unbelievable,’ ‘SuperHeavy,’ I Can’t Take It No More,’ ‘You’re Never Gonna Change’ and ‘I Don’t Mind.’

It’s little wonder that Stewart refers to SuperHeavy as, “A mad alchemist type experiment”. Fusing the talents of one of the greatest front-men of all time, a two time Academy award winning Indian composer, a soul vocal prodigy, a three time Grammy winning reggae star, and one of the most sought after producers in the world, you would expect the explosive results to defy categorisation.

SuperHeavy came together after Jagger and Stewart considered what a band comprising of musicians from different genres would sound like.  Jagger explains, “Dave really wanted to make a record with a different group of musicians, in other words, with different backgrounds of music.  Instead of everyone being a rock musician, or basically a blues musician, or some other genre, he wanted to get as many genres together that would fit.  I said it sounds like a good idea, I never thought it would actually happen.”

Yet soon enough Jagger found himself back in the studio with Stewart and Joss Stone, having previously worked together on the 2004 Alfie movie soundtrack.  Stewart says Stone was, “an obvious choice for us.  She’s such an incredible singer and spirit.”  Stewart and Jagger’s dream team took further shape when they were inspired to bring Damian Marley into the mix, says Stewart, “We’d always wanted a Jamaican musician because Mick and I are crazy about Jamaica and Jamaican music.  Stewart has worked with legend Jimmy Cliff while Mick has duetted with Peter Tosh from the Wailers on the Tempatations tune “Don’t Look Back” in 1978.

 We were listening to loads of stuff and suddenly a light bulb went off and we thought about Damian Marley.”  Jagger had long been a fan of Marley’s, fresh from another cross-genre collaboration with American rapper Nas, citing his strength as a lyricist and toaster along with his penchant for experimentation and collaborative spirit.  Marley brought on board his rhythm section, bassist and composer Shiah Coore and drummer Courtney Diedrick, while Stewart introduced the band to his long-term collaborator Ann Marie Calhoun, a rock violinist who had previously worked with the Foo Fighters.

Recording in LA meant the band’s path crossed with legendary Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in the City of Angels fresh from his Slumdog Millionaire Oscar glory.  Jagger explains, “We didn’t know what kind of music we’d make, we didn’t know if it would be any good, but we hoped we’d have fun.”  They were thrilled to have Rahman on board,
Stewart says, “He brings so much musical knowledge, amazing musicianship, melody and singing power from a different culture.”

Despite their disparate backgrounds, they instantly connected and hit the ground running, writing twenty-two songs in the first six days.  Stone was thrilled with the results, “That’s what you need, all these opinionated people who have been brilliant in their own field, shove them together and see what comes out.  It’s really unexpected, it’s mind blowing” she enthuses.  Similarly enthused was Rahman, “The first day I was in a daze thinking, ‘What am I doing? What’s my role?’ and then slowly we started writing with each other, and it was great.  It took me way back to my high school days when I was playing in a rock band, but this one was a real one!”  Jagger says of the writing process, “We ran the gamut of all our different styles mixed up, so we got Joss singing, Damian doing toasting, and me singing different styles.” 

However, despite the free flow of creative juices and the easy rapport they established, getting the band together in one place became very difficult, as Stewart explains, “It’s the most complicated record ever made.  Imagine, some of it’s recorded in LA, some of it’s recorded in the South of France, some of it’s recorded off the coast of Cyprus, some of it’s recorded in Turkey, some of it’s recorded in Miami, some of it’s recorded in the Caribbean, and some of it’s recorded in Chennai, in India.”

The project needed a name.  Marley had been riffing the term “SuperHeavy”, inspired by Muhammad Ali being the super heavy weight champion of the world and the phrase became the band’s catchphrase, “It was Mick who said, ‘Why don’t we call it SuperHeavy?”, recalls Stewart, “We all thought about it for ages and then it sort of stuck.”

SuperHeavy is a new and spontaneous way of working for all the collaborators as Jagger explains, “I said to Dave, normally [with the Stones] we’d always have written songs before we go into the studio, but the jam sessions resulted in some great work believes Stone, “It felt better when we were just jamming, that way we made it up as we went along and it was easy.”

The band found a harmonious way of working together, “With five of you everyone has to give and take quite a lot. We tried to understand everyone wouldn’t be too egotistical, start throwing things around the studio, we wouldn’t have fights!” says Jagger.  However they weren’t averse to telling each other to be better either, Jagger continues, “We were writing a lot of stuff and throwing it away.  I would say, ‘That’s rubbish, another cliché Joss’, and she’d say, ‘Well you come up with something then!’”  The experience was refreshing and exciting for the band, “We’re four vocalists, we’ve never worked like that before.  It’s great because the whole burdens not on you, and that made it fun.” Jagger enthuses.

Back to that alchemical experiment, Jagger, Stewart, Marley, Rahman and Stone appear to have created a new genre.  It’s a new kind of music, it’s a new genre, one that cannot be placed” says Stone.  Yet, Jagger is keen to point out the music is accessible, “It’s very approachable.  If you’re a Rolling Stones fan there’s definitely stuff you can relate to.  Other stuff that you can’t relate to so much, maybe if you listen you’ll enjoy it.”

A first for Mick Jagger is singing in Urdu, on a song composed by Rahman, entitled “Satyameva Jayate”, meaning, “the truth alone triumphs”, Rahman wrote the song after some gentle teasing from the others.  Rahman explains, “In the daytime I was playing with them, in the night time and evenings I was gigging” “Then”, says Jagger, “He didn’t come into the studio one day, so I said, ‘Where’s A.R?’ and he came in really late at night, really pleased saying, ‘I’ve got my song!’ I manage one line in Urdu, only one!”

Marley’s way of working was different to the rest of the band. Stone reveals, “Damian is kind of quiet but he has some brilliant ideas.  He works on stuff at night. Sometimes he’ll just go away and sit with the lyrics and bring something to it.  His rhythm section brings so much.  He has his own thing going in the next room so I pop in and out.” Marley would work on toasting over the record by himself and re-join the band when he was happy with it.

As far as the future of SuperHeavy goes, “We haven’t planned to do a tour or anything, but if people really like it maybe we will. We’d love to get out and play some of it live,” says Jagger humbly. “As soon as we started playing together in the studio it gelled, and all these different styles didn’t seem to be a problem to make them fit together... I hope people will like it....”

Main Credits on the ‘SuperHeavy’ album are - Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar and harmonica), Dave Stewart (guitar), Joss Stone (vocals), Damian Marley (vocals) and A. R. Rahman (vocals plus a variety of keyboards).

The SuperHeavy album is co-produced by Jagger & Stewart.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

URBANDUB HOLDS SIGNING SESSION AT ASTROPLUS SM NORTH EDSA


The Giant Sound of the South is sending a message to all their supporters---they want to see them! Meet and greet Urbandub as they invade the record bars this July 16 (Saturday), 4pm.at Astroplus, SM North EDSA.

During those dates, the band, composed of Gabby Alipe (vocals, guitar), John Dinopol (guitar, vocals), Lalay Lim (bass, vocals) and Janjan Mendoza (drums), will personally sign copies of those who buy their very first TeeDee (T-Shirt and CD), designed by Nick Automatic's Nicolo Nimor for P690. The CD only version of TeeDee is also available at P199 under MCA Music. It includes the smash single “Sending A Message”, their version of Madonna’s “This Used o be My Playground”, the stripped down “A Call To Arms” and “Home”.

Urbandub celebrated their 10th year this 2011 and continues to rock the nation with their music that is not only applauded by listeners but the critics as well.

Selena Gomez brings light into the music scene with a new album, "When The Sun Goes Down"

Saturday, July 2, 2011

RICHARD POON RELEASES “I’LL BE SEEING YOU” DELUXE EDITION

The country’s multi-platinum crooner continues to bring in surprises for his fans this year with countless gigs, his continued stint at Sunday variety show ASAP and recently his jampacked series of mall shows at Eastwood, SM and Robinsons Malls.

Richard Poon brings in another treat with the release of the Deluxe Edition of his album “I’ll Be Seeing You” under MCA Music. With a lot of weddings happening at this quarter, a perfect song to celebrate these milestones is his current single “Beautiful As You”. The song was written by international artist Jim Brickman and originally sung by All-4-One. Richard takes his version of the song to another level with his smooth grooves and voice. “Beautiful As You” may soon be a staple in wedding marches or receptions in the near future. It’s music video, directed by J Pacena (Gloc9, Luke Mejares, 6cyclemind) recently premiered on MYX.

The Deluxe edition also features his duet with international theater actress Ms. Lea Salonga from her successful concert “Your Songs” last year singing a medley of OPM hits like “Bakit Labis Kitang Mahal”, “Mahal Kita Walang Iba”, “Sana Maulit Muli”, I Don’t Love You Anymore” and “Sometime, Somewhere” as well as his cover of the 90’s hit “Mambo No. 5”.

It also includes unwavering tracks such as the Original Filipino APO Classic “Panalangin” which is injected with a brilliant arrangement. Other classics “The Way You Look Tonight”, “Fever” and “L-O-V-E” are performed with a big band sound, making the listening experience very rich and endearing. Richard Poon also has originals such as “Teddy Bear” which showcases his musical prowess. Fresh, young and soothing, this album unearths Richard Poon’s undeniable musical artistry, infused with a synthesis of beautiful instrumental rhythms. 

“I’ll Be Seeing You” Deluxe Edition from Richard Poon is now out in CDs under MCA Music. To download Richard Poon’s ringback tones, truetones, full track music from the album, just text RP to 3456 (for Globe and Smart subscribers only).

Friday, July 1, 2011

URBANDUB HOLDS SIGNING SESSIONS AT RECORD BARS

The Giant Sound of the South is sending a message to all their supporters---they want to see them! Meet and greet Urbandub as they invade the record bars this July. Gabby Alipe (vocals, guitar), John Dinopol (guitar, vocals), Lalay Lim (bass, vocals) and Janjan Mendoza (drums) will be at Odyssey SM Megamall on Sunday, July 3, 6pm and at Astro, 2nd Floor, SM North EDSA on Saturday, July 16, 4pm.

During those dates, the band will personally sign copies of those who buy their very first TeeDee (T-Shirt and CD), designed by Nick Automatic's Nicolo Nimor for P690. The CD only version of TeeDee is also available at P199. It includes the smash single “Sending A Message”, their version of Madonna’s “This Used o be My Playground”, the stripped down “A Call To Arms” and “Home”.

Urbandub celebrated their 10th year this 2011 and continues to rock the nation with their music that is not only applauded by listeners but the critics as well.