Tony Reid
NEWS
Debut Album "IN AN UNKNOWN HEMISPHERE" Now available at www.modeltask.com
Advertisement
» go to the music page for more
Tony Reid, singer songwriter from the Liverpool area in the UK. Writing good melodic songs with meaningful lyrics. Debut album "In An Unknown Hemisphere" out NOW at www.modeltask.com
Why this name?
It is my name
Do you play live?
Yes in various venues around Merseyside and the UK and have just played a one nighter in Madrid. I enjoy getting on any stage with just my guitar and doing it.
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
It gives every musician a more equal opportunity to at least give people a chance to listen to their music and WORLDWIDE at that!!
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
Of Course!
Band History:
Tony Reid, singer songwriter from the Liverpool area in the UK, unique voice with very original songs, presently finished recording tracks for 1st album release "In An Unknown Hemisphere" out NOW!Tony Reid starting playing guitar at the age of 16 and started writing songs almost immediately. Living in a small seaside town on the Wirral, he drew inspiration from watching old people drool and pass wind, and working behind the various bars strewn about the town. It was a time of discovery for Tony Reid, as he experienced the pleasure and pain of love through the turnover of new waitresses in the bars. Well, the beer cellars to be more accurate. And the waitresses weren't ALWAYS turned over, depending on how ugly they were. Tony Reid started working with Atomic Kitten's writing and production team after mistakenly auditioning for the famous girl-band itself after a heavy night of drinking. The Atomic Kitten team (ex OMD members Andy McCluskey and Stu Kershaw) took pity on the shambolic individual that stood before them and took him under their wing for two years. During this time, the would-be kitten learnt how to program, produce, perform and talk shite like everyone else in the music business. The recordings Tony would make at the Pink Museum led to interest from a management company based in Toronto, who organised a recording session in Nashville, Tennesse. This turned out to be a bag of underpants due not to the inexperience of the engineer, but probably his sheer lunacy clearly indicated by his worrying obsession with firearms. The lack of focus in the recordings could also be attributed to the programmer, who insisted on talking constantly about his numerous visitations by angels while stroking his very "christian rock" goatee. The whole affair was most upsetting for Tony as Bob Babbitt was playing bass on the demo. As some of you will know, Babbitt was second only to James Jamerson as house bassist at Motown, providing basslines for tracks such as Edwin Starr's "War" and The Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" and Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown". Apart from being a tremendous musician (as one would expect), he was a great guy and became the only person Tony could go for a beer with after recording in the studio/asylum. Anyway, despite the crapness of the demo, it caught the attention of Jeff Wayne (of War of the Worlds fame) and he insisted on offering Tony a deal to produce the first album. After many meetings and phone conversations and a preliminary recording session at Jeff's home studio, Tony decided that this would work out; THEN it turns out that Jeff has been commissioned to remix and remaster War of the Worlds for surround sound. This led to a six month wait, which led to a 12 month wait, which led to Tony deciding that he couldn't be arsed with it, despite Jeff being a brilliant composer/producer/all-round good chap. The demo also caught the attention of a music lawyer/manager in LA by the name of Brian Rohan, who was once the lawyer for the Grateful Dead and Aerosmith. Brian Rohan shopped the demo to several major record labels including Sony, Epic, Columbia and J Records. It was a matter of days before the record companies contacted Brian and requested showcases to see the material performed live. This led to the formation of Pachanga. Tony had six weeks to put a band together and rehearse them before he was due to go out to LA and NY and showcase. To cut a long story short, James Diener from J records was to enter negotiations with the lawyer, only to withdraw a few weeks after Pachanga returned to England. Maroon 5 were signed soon after Pachanga's deal evaporated. It was at this Point that Tony started thinking about ways to die. Well, not strictly true. It was upon hearing Maroon 5's first single. The failure of the American excursion led to Tony's girlfriend of three years to offer her opinion on his career: "If you were going to make it, you would have by now." It was at this point that he was brought to the attention of Brian Reza, who considered Tony to have "classic" potential, whatever that means. Brian acted as Rob Davies' manager of top pop songwriter for Kylie, Atomic Kitten, Blue fame. Tony only hoped this wasn't Brian's definition of "classic". Reza suggested a more acoustic slant on the music and so Tony took his set back to the streets. Well... Bar Ca Va, more accurately - to the open mic night Mixomacoustic, run by Collen, Monkey and Tribal, to get his acoustic set running smoothly. Much merriment ensued, along with a sharp learning curve. It was in April 2004 that Tony met Mark Wainwright, a producer from the bustling metropolis of Bickerstaffe, Lancs and they began to work on new, finished tracks, rather than demos. The work thus far has been so successful that an album release is imminent in 2006 either on a label of our own or hopefully from somebody who really gets his music.
Your influences?
Every aspect of all types of music has had an influence on my writing and I hope I have learnt enough to create songs which people will find they want to listen to over and over again.
Favorite spot?
Madrid, Nashville, New York and of course Liverpool.
Equipment used:
Ovation Elite electro acoustic, Peavey P.A. several electric guitars and pro tools on a mac g5 for recording.