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Singer: Matt Pokara






Having weathered a non-stop, whirlwind schedule for the past two years, dynamic British singer, songwriter, and pianist Jamie Cullum could have easily taken some well-earned time off in 2005. The 26-year-old's Verve debut, Twentysomething, was a worldwide smash last year, selling over two million copies (including nearly 400,000 in the States) and garnering a Grammy nomination. But instead of cooling his jets and catching some ZZZs, Jamie kept doing what he loves best: Making music, and recording a new album, Catching Tales.
"I was so ready for it," Cullum recalls of crafting his sophomore set. The only way you get the energy to tour the world and do all the hard work is to love the music you make. I'd had two mad years but I was back at the place I remembered the best, which was just really wanting to do my music." The new album took shape at a brisk pace, reflecting his high levels of enthusiasm and inspiration: Cullum wrote enough material for nearly two albums in four months, then set to recording in Los Angeles and London, between April and June of 2005, with Stewart Levine (who also oversaw Twentysomething) producing.
The fourteen-song set begins with "Get Your Way," a strutting number featuring celebrated hip-hop DJ and producer Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School), which juxtaposes cascading ivories with bursts of brass and a fat, funky backbeat. But this aesthetic team-up isn't as unlikely as it might seem, provided one is familiar with Cullum's eclectic musical background. "I listen to a lot of very percussive music; I used to always drum on my desk at school. I've always listened to a lot of dance music, and I love hip-hop."
Alongside a beautiful cover of the Doves "Catch The Sun" ("They're one of my favorite British bands"), Jamie couples his trademark takes on choice standards ("I Only Have Eyes For You," "I'm Glad There Is You") with many self-penned tracks: The panoramic "London Skies"; "Photograph," a wise and wistful reflection on simple joys remembered. Sly humor once again plays a pivotal role in Cullum's originals, such as on the pointed parody "7 Days To Change Your Life," and "Nothing I Do," which offsets grouchy lyrical sentiments with animated rhythms and gossamer vocal harmonies.
"I wrote more this time, because I had the time, and I had the audience, and I wanted to," shrugs Cullum, reflecting on his increased number of songwriting credits on Catching Tales. "I also play standards, but when I made Twentysomething, not a lot of people were doing that. But it's become a little bit more popular in the last two years, so it immediately has less of an interest to me."
Not that he deliberately reacted against the increased popularity of revisiting the great songbooks, either. "I just had loads of ideas and loads of good songs floating around and I fancied doing them. I put as much of myself into the arrangement of a song as I do into the writing of one though. I just had this burning desire this time to want to write… but I would also think I failed if I didn’t get just as much of myself through an arrangement of someone else's song."
Catching Tales also features singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt, a collaborator on one of Jamie's own favorite new tracks, the sublime "Back To The Ground." "It's a classic touring song about when you get home and you readjust to life," he remembers. "We polished off a bottle of wine and jammed this blues song. He got on the guitar, I got on the Wurlitzer and we wrote the song within an hour. Ed was so inspirational, his impact is far more than just that one song, and I definitely want to continue to work with him."
Born in Essex, and raised in Wiltshire, Jamie Cullum was obsessed with all types of music from an early age: rock, hip-hop, acid jazz, blues. He discovered jazz as a teenager, via artists like Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis, but also showed an interest in the groundbreaking Steely Dan albums purchased by his brother Ben (who plays bass throughout Catching Tales). While studying English at college, he began working as a singer-pianist anywhere he could get a gig: on cruise ships, in pubs, even wedding receptions.
Here he crafted the explosive on-stage persona (captured on the 2004 DVD Live at Blenheim Palace) that would win him accolades in The New York Times and Variety in the years that followed. When Universal Classics & Jazz snatched up the rising talent in the spring of 2003, and sent him into the studio to make Twentysomething, he was ready for the rigors – and joys – that waited ahead.
With Catching Tales, Jamie Cullum continues to redefine where the parameters of pop, and jazz – indeed, all musical genres – are drawn. "At first I didn't think certain songs had a place in what I was doing with jazz, but I've realized that everything does, and that reaffirms my belief that jazz is the greatest platform to do whatever you want. People ask why I play jazz. It's because you can take it to so many different places. You can embrace dance music, rock, pop music, classical, funk, everything… And I touch on all those things in this record."
"This is a better representation of what I am and what I want to be as a musician," he concludes. "The way I like to approach music is to mix things round and, fortunately, I like to mix it with things that people find a bit more familiar. I love pop music so I mix jazz and pop music. Not because I want to make it accessible but because it’s music that I enjoy. I guess I've just got an angle on it that people find a bit more interesting."
Download Mp3 "Back to the Ground"
http://rapidshare.de/files/9665017/Jamie_Cullum_-_Catching_Tales_-_13_-_Back_To_The_Ground.mp3.html
Donwnload Mp3 "Mind Trick"
http://rapidshare.de/files/8764940/jamie_cullum_-_mind_trick.mp3.html

Anna Nalick is beginning to live her dreams. One of the most compelling emerging artist success stories of the year, Anna Nalick struck gold with her debut album, Wreck of the Day, a refreshing blend of sophisticated wordplay, haunting melodies, subtle textures and atmosphere. With all music and lyrics written by Anna, Wreck of the Day has signaled the arrival of an unmistakable new voice in pop music, full of youthful exuberance and provocative reflection.
Anna takes a heartfelt, introspective and spiritual approach when writing her words and music. She notes that "inspiration comes from a variety of sources," adding that her songs are "not necessarily about my personal experiences, but sometimes just observations of situations or relationships of different people I've known. They get funneled through my own inner psyche. Whatever the source of the interpretation, the feelings I get are personal. I find a need to write these feelings down in words and the melody follows." Although Anna's songs are intimate, they are poignantly universal at the same time.
The strikingly melodic "Breathe (2 AM)," the album's first single, examines life's uncertainties and offers comfort as Anna describes "three different situations that were intertwined during a particular period of time." She looks for salvation in "Satellite," her lonesome voice cutting deep in such lines as: "And so I send my feeble flare/Through the silent, arctic air/Heading anywhere/Until at last I've finally found/A place to lay my anchor down."
Elsewhere, hard questions and fears are faced in the contemplative "Citadel," which Anna singles out as a song which "�describes me the most. It was written at a time when I just wasn't feeling like I fit in. I was feeling tentative and afraid to just jump in with both feet. There's a line in the song--'What if I fall? What if I don't? What if I never make it home?' It's saying that it's one thing to be afraid, but you'll never know if you'll make it or not unless you try. There's still this little girl inside me, who may be just a little scared, but at the same time, really wants to dive in and experience all those big exciting possibilities around her."
Citing a wide range of influences running from Fiona Apple and Tori Amos, with whom she shares a complex feminine poignancy, to Blind Melon and John Mayer, whose adroit poetic paradoxes reverberate in her songs, to Stevie Ray Vaughan, whom she calls, simply, "The guy that I'm going to marry when I get to heaven," Anna generates a sound and sensibility distinctly her own.
"Ever since I was a little girl I just knew I wanted to be a performer," she recalls. "My earliest inspiration came from my grandparents, they both performed on Broadway, mainly in the chorus. My grandmother even danced with Fred Astaire. She was in the stage versions of the Marx Brothers' 'Coconuts' and 'Animal Crackers.' I learned many of the songs from those old shows from my grandmother who taught them to me when I was a kid." Anna's grandmother passed on when Anna was in the 8th grade, but her tales of classic old school "show business" instilled in Anna the passionate desire to become a performer herself.
When Anna was 14, her father turned her on to the sounds of Elvis and the Everly Brothers, while her mother spun disks for Anna by artists like the Rolling Stones, Cream, and Led Zeppelin.
Anna marks the approximate beginnings of her songwriting career with memories of 5th grade math class: "I was sitting there, not paying attention, as usual, and rewriting lyrics to a Cranberries' song. I'd also listen to Green Day and pick out bass notes on guitar. I figured out that I could put that all together and write my own melodies."
By the time Anna reached high school, her musical aspirations were in full swing. In addition to writing her own songs, she was developing as a live performer, singing on-stage with a Rush cover band. "I was also in a band with my best guy friend and we played hard rock songs," she recalls, "and I had to be really angry and do a lot of screaming." But the Rush and metal covers were a far cry from Anna's true musical calling: the writing and performing of her own original and personal songs.
Anna's original plan was to go to college and then follow her dream of a career in music. As she began college, she continued writing and documented her songs on a Rainbow Brite cassette tape recorder. She soon met a photographer (who taught a class at a local high school) who mentioned to Anna that one of her students had parents in the music business. Anna passed along a six song lo-fi home demo and the next thing she knew, that student's mother, a manager of producers and other talent, introduced Anna to Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith, the founding members of Blind Melon now turned production team, and Eric Rosse, best known for his production work with Tori Amos.
Suddenly, Anna Nalick was working on a master demo with some of the very artists who'd helped inspire her in the beginning. "That was my first experience in a professional studio," she says. "It was amazing. I couldn't believe it was really happening. I loved having my music fully realized! We immediately began to play the demo to a select number of record companies and within about two weeks, I had label interest." Anna Nalick signed with Columbia Records in October 2003.
Putting her college plans on hold, Anna went into the studio with Thorn, Smith and Rosse as producers, together with mix-engineer Mark Endert (Fiona Apple, Maroon 5, Gavin DeGraw) and an all-star group of musicians that included Smith on bass, Thorn on guitar, Rosse and Zak Rae (Alanis Morissette, Macy Gray, Sinead O Connor) on keyboards, Lyle Workman (Frank Black, Sheryl Crow, They Might Be Giants) and Stuart Mathis (Jewel) on guitar, Joey Waronker (Beck, Johnny Cash, Elliott Smith, Nelly Furtado) and Matt Chamberlain (Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, David Bowie, John Mayer) on drums.
The result was Wreck of the Day, a collection of 11 songs matching Anna's deeply resonant vocals with finely etched keyboard and guitar-based settings as she touches on a lot of big things, in a personal and engaging way, inviting the world to join her.
Released in April 2005, Wreck of the Day entered the Billboard 200 bestselling albums chart at #20 and was certified RIAA Gold in September. Her break-out crossover single, "Breathe (2AM)," one of the year's most unforgettable tracks, reached #4 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, #6 on Adult Top 40, and reached #1 on Top 40 Adult Recurrents. A hit online as well as on-air, "Breathe (2AM)" has achieved RIAA Gold and Platinum Digital Single status.
While "Wreck of the Day," the title track from Anna's debut album, has been licensed by the hit television programs "Joan of Arcadia" and "One Tree Hill," her breakout song, "Breathe (2AM)," was featured prominently on the hit television series, "Joan of Arcadia," and can be heard in promos for "Close To Home," the new legal drama series airing on CBS.
Meanwhile, Anna's fanbase grew to include a couple of superstar artists from the worlds of classic rock and hip-hop.
When, in a recent interview, Rolling Stone asked party rock icon Tommy Lee who he was currently listening to, the star of NBC's "Tommy Lee Goes To College" responded, "Anna Nalick, her lyrics are brilliant."
Earlier this year, urban artist Fat Joe raved, "It's a real hot song. This feels great," as he reviewed "Breathe (2AM)" for Entertainment Weekly's "Summer Music Preview," which noted that the rapper turned the "volume way up for several minutes" before rhapsodizing, "This takes you to a different place, man!"
Anna's also been gathering solid press kudos from the underground to the mainstream. People magazine gave her album a three-star review, calling her "�a breath of fresh air�" while praising "her smart lyrics, engaging melodies and resonant voice."
The Associated Press heralded her "refreshing and likable voice" while observing that "her melodies and lyrics give evidence of maturity and sophistication beyond her tender age."
In the songs of Anna Nalick, USA Today found "�a sense of grace and composure rare among today's tortured young troubadours."
Nalick was picked for Rolling Stone's "The Next List" of people to watch in 2005, is a VH1 "You Oughta Know" artist, and was recently singled out as a "Breakout Music Star" by US Weekly in its "Breakout Stars! Who Will Be Hot In 2006?" feature.
She embarked on her first ever North American concert tour in 2005, appearing as the opening act for the Wallflowers, Howie Day, and Rob Thomas as well as headlining her own shows.
Download Mp3 " Breathe(2 AM)"
http://rapidshare.de/files/9662364/Anna_Nalick-Just_Breathe.mp3.html
Donwload Mp3 " In the Rough"
http://rapidshare.de/files/9662792/Anna_Nalick_-_07_-_In_the_Rough.mp3.html