An associate of Mark Andrew, Helen Reizer really liked the song and kindly prepared a Press Release for me. I sent this off to as many contacts as I could find. This included the Elvis communities, press agencies etc etc.
After doing the ring around and cold calling to various agencies, publications and radio stations, I finally got a break. The Parkes Elvis Festival committee called me up after I hounded them like a hound dog and asked if Mark Andrew would come to Parkes to promote the song and perform a set on the main stage.
Fantastic I thought and immediately contacted Mark to let him know. Unfortunately Mark was unable to attend as he had already made holiday plans so I had to work out a way to get myself to Parkes and have the song played over the PA.
That was achieved after I notified Parkes that I would be delighted to attend with my son and bring along a CD to give them the opportunity to play the song for the first time globally, however Mark was unable to attend due to his holiday plans but was pleased that they would play the song.
An article was also published on the Elvis information Network in Australia and the Manly Daily decided to run a story to coincide with the Parkes Elvis Festival.
I decided to release the song on Elvis Pres;ey's birthday, the 8th January 2012 as a digital download.
With the press releases, the 4000 friends that Mark Andrew had, and the invite from the Parkes Elvis Festival I was confident that we would shift plenty of copies.
Monday 30 July 2012
Thursday 26 July 2012
Alcoholics Annonymous or Automobile Association
Acronyms are a wonderful thing for the incrowd specific to that acronym. If I look at ETA, most people associate it with Estimated Time of Arrival. If however you are an Elvis fanatic, ETA means Elvis Tribute Artist. There are literally thousands of Elvis Tribute Artists globally and they have been increasing since the King departed.
I was in need of an ETA once The New Elvis Presley had been recorded and so the search was on. Living in Australia, and having the Parkes Elvis Festival as an annual news worthy event, there were plenty of ETAs to choose from.
Eventually I came across Mark Andrew who was Melbourne based and had headlined at Parkes for a few years previously and had recently came 3rd in a ETA World Cup in Wales of all places.
I sent Mark the song and he thought it was fantastic and would be a great iTunes hit and with his 4000 friends he would be in a position to promote it.
A vocal less mp3 was sent to Mark Andrew and he overlaid the lead vocal part and sent back the WAV files. The results weren't great and following a discussion with my vocal teacher and musical director Mark Hall it was decided that Mark Andrew needed to come to Sydney to record the vocals under our direction.
Mark Andrew was kind enough to travel up on Friday 30th December which was a date that all parties could make. Once the recording was complete Mark travelled back the same day to Melbourne and continued his own preparations for his New Years Eve show.
With an ETA singing in the style of Elvis, it was time to promote the song throughout the Elvis community and take advantage of the ease with which a song can now be globally released to digital outlets such as iTunes.
I did a lot of research and finally went with Tunecore to distribute the song. They advertised that the charges were menial and I got to keep all the profits. My outlay was the initial cost of distribution which was $10 plus an annual fee of the same amount to keep the song in the digital stores.
As a test, I had distributed Superstar on the 27th December and to my great surprise and joy it was up on iTunes within 3 days.
I decided that as Elvis was born on the 8th January, that this would be the date of the release. The song was uploaded and then the next step was to promote and market the song.
I was in need of an ETA once The New Elvis Presley had been recorded and so the search was on. Living in Australia, and having the Parkes Elvis Festival as an annual news worthy event, there were plenty of ETAs to choose from.
Eventually I came across Mark Andrew who was Melbourne based and had headlined at Parkes for a few years previously and had recently came 3rd in a ETA World Cup in Wales of all places.
I sent Mark the song and he thought it was fantastic and would be a great iTunes hit and with his 4000 friends he would be in a position to promote it.
A vocal less mp3 was sent to Mark Andrew and he overlaid the lead vocal part and sent back the WAV files. The results weren't great and following a discussion with my vocal teacher and musical director Mark Hall it was decided that Mark Andrew needed to come to Sydney to record the vocals under our direction.
Mark Andrew was kind enough to travel up on Friday 30th December which was a date that all parties could make. Once the recording was complete Mark travelled back the same day to Melbourne and continued his own preparations for his New Years Eve show.
With an ETA singing in the style of Elvis, it was time to promote the song throughout the Elvis community and take advantage of the ease with which a song can now be globally released to digital outlets such as iTunes.
I did a lot of research and finally went with Tunecore to distribute the song. They advertised that the charges were menial and I got to keep all the profits. My outlay was the initial cost of distribution which was $10 plus an annual fee of the same amount to keep the song in the digital stores.
As a test, I had distributed Superstar on the 27th December and to my great surprise and joy it was up on iTunes within 3 days.
I decided that as Elvis was born on the 8th January, that this would be the date of the release. The song was uploaded and then the next step was to promote and market the song.
Thursday 12 July 2012
Susan Boyle
In December 2011, we had finally progressed to a point where we were in a position to record two tracks. The New Elvis Presley and Superstar. Now these songs are not linked and Superstar has no reference to anything remotely Elvis Presley. It does however remind me of Susan Boyle for some strange reason. The band consisted of myself, Mark Hall on keyboards and backing vocals, and two lads from a local band called Bridgemary Kiss, Andy on guitars and Harry on drums.
We booked some studio time with Herman Kovac who runs Ramrod studios and incedently was the drummer from an Australian band called the Ted Mulry Gang. They had numbers 1 songs in the 70's.
The intention of the first recording session of 3 hours was to get the drums, bass and keyboards down for both songs. The proficiency of Andy, Harry and Mark in this session allowed us to lay down the rythmn section of a third song called 'Two Lost Souls'. Neither Andy or Harry had heard the song before but through Mark's and my direction they were able to produce a great fit for the song. I provided guide vocals on all three tracks at the session.
The next session allowed us to get lead and rythmn guitars plus additional keyboards and strings. The final evening session booked was to record all the vocals. I recall travelling back to Sydney from a two day trip in Melbourne full of a heavy cold with a session that evening. I had taken a lot of Senega and Ammonia to help my voice but when it came to the session I bombed badly and the results were really poor. I was extremely upset and down on myself and my confidence took a massive blow. The rest of the time was spent working on additional keyboards and ensuring the right sounds were achieved in the mix.
An additional recording session was set up for the following week where I succeeded in getting the vocals down but as the session wore on the voice deteriated badly and 'Two Lost Souls' suffered as a consequence. We had achieved the goal though of getting 'The New Elvis Presley' and 'Superstar' done, although looking back the progress I have made with my vocal lessons since then would have improved both songs significantly.
The last phase was mixing down the tracks and mastering them. This was done on a Friday and a further afternoon. Armed with the final master I was ready to track down an Elvis Tribute Artist who might want to take on the task of recording the vocals.
We booked some studio time with Herman Kovac who runs Ramrod studios and incedently was the drummer from an Australian band called the Ted Mulry Gang. They had numbers 1 songs in the 70's.
The intention of the first recording session of 3 hours was to get the drums, bass and keyboards down for both songs. The proficiency of Andy, Harry and Mark in this session allowed us to lay down the rythmn section of a third song called 'Two Lost Souls'. Neither Andy or Harry had heard the song before but through Mark's and my direction they were able to produce a great fit for the song. I provided guide vocals on all three tracks at the session.
The next session allowed us to get lead and rythmn guitars plus additional keyboards and strings. The final evening session booked was to record all the vocals. I recall travelling back to Sydney from a two day trip in Melbourne full of a heavy cold with a session that evening. I had taken a lot of Senega and Ammonia to help my voice but when it came to the session I bombed badly and the results were really poor. I was extremely upset and down on myself and my confidence took a massive blow. The rest of the time was spent working on additional keyboards and ensuring the right sounds were achieved in the mix.
An additional recording session was set up for the following week where I succeeded in getting the vocals down but as the session wore on the voice deteriated badly and 'Two Lost Souls' suffered as a consequence. We had achieved the goal though of getting 'The New Elvis Presley' and 'Superstar' done, although looking back the progress I have made with my vocal lessons since then would have improved both songs significantly.
The last phase was mixing down the tracks and mastering them. This was done on a Friday and a further afternoon. Armed with the final master I was ready to track down an Elvis Tribute Artist who might want to take on the task of recording the vocals.
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