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BILLYTHEMOUNTAIN
BILLY THE MOUNTAIN
NEWS
BILLY THE MOUNTAIN now on iTUNES....
Drifting to Valhalla, the new Billy The Mountain CD which has enjoyed a 'phenomenal' reception on the Internet since its release April 1 goes 'live' on iTUNES around the world June 11, London-based band manager Tom Gray told reporters.
Billy The Mountain are based in Bangkok.
"The band's music has enjoyed phenomenal success since the CD went up on the Net and we've shifted a load of CDs and individual tracks. On one site alone - www.noisehead.com - we've had 30,000 listeners across the whole album...and two tracks 'Mem Will Dance' and 'Love' have gone 'GOLD' already - the Net equivalent of having two Number One singles on one album!
"While all that was going on, the band's London office has done all the legwork to get the album to a bigger audience and from June 11 we go live on iTUNES stores around the world - iTunes U.S., iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Japan, iTunes Canada, iTunes UK/European Union and then on other important Net retail outlets including Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, GroupieTunes, Amazon MP3, Lala and Shockhound. That means the band and its music is now represented on nearly 30 sites worldwide now!"
"Sales should go up a gear now we hope, as most of what we earn goes to the band's own special charity," Gray said.
Drifting to Valhalla, the new Billy The Mountain CD which has enjoyed a 'phenomenal' reception on the Internet since its release April 1 goes 'live' on iTUNES around the world June 11, London-based band manager Tom Gray told reporters.
Billy The Mountain are based in Bangkok.
"The band's music has enjoyed phenomenal success since the CD went up on the Net and we've shifted a load of CDs and individual tracks. On one site alone - www.noisehead.com - we've had 30,000 listeners across the whole album...and two tracks 'Mem Will Dance' and 'Love' have gone 'GOLD' already - the Net equivalent of having two Number One singles on one album!
"While all that was going on, the band's London office has done all the legwork to get the album to a bigger audience and from June 11 we go live on iTUNES stores around the world - iTunes U.S., iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Japan, iTunes Canada, iTunes UK/European Union and then on other important Net retail outlets including Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, GroupieTunes, Amazon MP3, Lala and Shockhound. That means the band and its music is now represented on nearly 30 sites worldwide now!"
"Sales should go up a gear now we hope, as most of what we earn goes to the band's own special charity," Gray said.
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“BILLY THE MOUNTAIN were born in the blues and then took a breath of Steely Dan, Little Feat, Dylan and Pink Floyd and came out the other end smiling. You'll hear that journey in their music which is delivered by some very fine musicians too. They say it’s great Sunday morning music!”
The band BILLY THE MOUNTAIN are based in Bangkok and comprises Alex Zander Ran, a Scot, Dane Nicolai Kehlet, Canadian Steve Wright and Brit Simon Bell on drums and a team of seasoned session players. The band has embarked on a plan to supply three albums over a two-year period and to tour the albums internationally while retaining rights to ticket, merchandise and album sales on the road.
(The band play the Kuala Lumpur Blues festival in August, headline the Kathmandu Music Festival in November and hope to play South By South West 2009 in Texas, with Byron Bay in Australia and the UK’s Glastonbury Festival under negotiation and a raft of other international festivals looking to book the band.)
The first album - Drifting To Valhalla - is on sale and available on CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon, Noisehead, Garageband, Allmusic, Trackseller, Phatplanet, MP3.com, MP3unsigned.com, Vitaminic.com, CDStreet.com, Ampcast.com, JavaMusic.com, Myspace.com, MusicNet, TuneCore, Pressplay and Listen.com. CDBaby.com, MySpace.com, Snocap, Reverbnation, Napster, Rhapsody, MusicNet, eMusic, Sony Connect and Groupie Tunes.
Band manager Tom Gray of Acmebroadc@st Management Inc. says: “And this band will sell. We reckon they are the Pink Floyd of the new century - and throw in a touch of Little Feat and Steely Dan and you have a very powerful combination of grooves and rock steady tunes supporting cool lyrics and awesome musicianship - no shredders and no predictable cock-rock neither," says
“To great response, we ran some of the tunes ‘naked’ on the band’s own www.myspace.com/thebillymountain site and then the band - principally Nicolai Kehlet - took over production and the result is an album of eight or nine very special songs. And I have to say the big labels are looking to get their hands on this cool new music. But the band wants this to go to market via the Internet and we support that idea given that we have little alternative,” he grinned.
“But the songs are awesome and I predict this album - this breath of musical fresh air - is going to be a classic!”
Producer Kehlet says the first album - Drifting To Valhalla - was written and recorded in Asia and features the songs and vocals of Alex Zander Ran woven into a funky, laid-back fusion of blues and progressive rock ‘remniscent of days gone by, but with a modern production feel,’ he says.
“We had a lot fun producing the album at my own studio here in Bangkok and we work well together with Zander’s great lyrics and tunes, and dare I say my ear for a good beat and an FM-radio-friendly vibe. The truth is we write interesting stuff together and by that I mean we love our own music and play it all the time on our own iPods, or in the car and at home. And if people want to buy it then that’s great too!
"Our fans tease us that we are the Floyd or Steely Dan of the 21st century and that’s crazy and scary…we are all Floyd and Steely Dan fans of course, but they are like gods to us…the idea that we are composers on the same planet is almost ridiculous. But we like the compliment that we might sound a bit like Little Feat and our new stuff is definitely going there - if anywhere at all.”
The band is already working on their second album tentatively titled “Head Restrictions” working at Kehlet’s Paradise Productions Studio in Bangkok.
Ran describes the new work as “driven by a desire to not let Lowell George be forgotten and everything we are writing right now is kind of a tribute to him and his gift as a groovemeister, singer and slide god.”
“There’s a bit of Hendrix in there too and if we are exposing our origins and ages then so be it. It’s about time! I grew up listening and playing while those guys…Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Alex Harvey and Jimi and Zepp were changing the world and we're going back consciously or otherwise to a time when music was new and adventurous and worth queuing to see live. I just hope we can do the times justice.”
The band BILLY THE MOUNTAIN are based in Bangkok and comprises Alex Zander Ran, a Scot, Dane Nicolai Kehlet, Canadian Steve Wright and Brit Simon Bell on drums and a team of seasoned session players. The band has embarked on a plan to supply three albums over a two-year period and to tour the albums internationally while retaining rights to ticket, merchandise and album sales on the road.
(The band play the Kuala Lumpur Blues festival in August, headline the Kathmandu Music Festival in November and hope to play South By South West 2009 in Texas, with Byron Bay in Australia and the UK’s Glastonbury Festival under negotiation and a raft of other international festivals looking to book the band.)
The first album - Drifting To Valhalla - is on sale and available on CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon, Noisehead, Garageband, Allmusic, Trackseller, Phatplanet, MP3.com, MP3unsigned.com, Vitaminic.com, CDStreet.com, Ampcast.com, JavaMusic.com, Myspace.com, MusicNet, TuneCore, Pressplay and Listen.com. CDBaby.com, MySpace.com, Snocap, Reverbnation, Napster, Rhapsody, MusicNet, eMusic, Sony Connect and Groupie Tunes.
Band manager Tom Gray of Acmebroadc@st Management Inc. says: “And this band will sell. We reckon they are the Pink Floyd of the new century - and throw in a touch of Little Feat and Steely Dan and you have a very powerful combination of grooves and rock steady tunes supporting cool lyrics and awesome musicianship - no shredders and no predictable cock-rock neither," says
“To great response, we ran some of the tunes ‘naked’ on the band’s own www.myspace.com/thebillymountain site and then the band - principally Nicolai Kehlet - took over production and the result is an album of eight or nine very special songs. And I have to say the big labels are looking to get their hands on this cool new music. But the band wants this to go to market via the Internet and we support that idea given that we have little alternative,” he grinned.
“But the songs are awesome and I predict this album - this breath of musical fresh air - is going to be a classic!”
Producer Kehlet says the first album - Drifting To Valhalla - was written and recorded in Asia and features the songs and vocals of Alex Zander Ran woven into a funky, laid-back fusion of blues and progressive rock ‘remniscent of days gone by, but with a modern production feel,’ he says.
“We had a lot fun producing the album at my own studio here in Bangkok and we work well together with Zander’s great lyrics and tunes, and dare I say my ear for a good beat and an FM-radio-friendly vibe. The truth is we write interesting stuff together and by that I mean we love our own music and play it all the time on our own iPods, or in the car and at home. And if people want to buy it then that’s great too!
"Our fans tease us that we are the Floyd or Steely Dan of the 21st century and that’s crazy and scary…we are all Floyd and Steely Dan fans of course, but they are like gods to us…the idea that we are composers on the same planet is almost ridiculous. But we like the compliment that we might sound a bit like Little Feat and our new stuff is definitely going there - if anywhere at all.”
The band is already working on their second album tentatively titled “Head Restrictions” working at Kehlet’s Paradise Productions Studio in Bangkok.
Ran describes the new work as “driven by a desire to not let Lowell George be forgotten and everything we are writing right now is kind of a tribute to him and his gift as a groovemeister, singer and slide god.”
“There’s a bit of Hendrix in there too and if we are exposing our origins and ages then so be it. It’s about time! I grew up listening and playing while those guys…Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Alex Harvey and Jimi and Zepp were changing the world and we're going back consciously or otherwise to a time when music was new and adventurous and worth queuing to see live. I just hope we can do the times justice.”
Why this name?
BILLY THE MOUNTAIN is the name of an epic Frank Zappa song and while you are warned to never use a song name to name your band, Zappa and his influence is way too important for us to give a sh*** about petty conventions - just like Frank didn't.
Do you play live?
We play live in Bangkok, in Asia and our master plan is to stay on the road travelling the world rasing money for kids.
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
It's a whole new playing field. We worry about the quality of sound and stealing artists licks and mixes but this is the future and we sure hope it pans out that the musicians win a little more than usual. We have control to a greater extent but that don't pay the bills!
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
We would because we are genuine artist, musicians who just live to play...plus we raising funds for kids to live better and having a deal gets the economics squared away and gets us playing 365 a year...and recording every chance we got..we got a hundred songs waiting!
Band History:
Progressive R&B rock band BILLY THE MOUNTAIN are based in Bangkok. The band - comprising Scot Zander Ran, Dane Nicolai Kehlet, Canadian Steve Wright and Brit Simon Bell on drums and a team of seasoned session players - has plans to supply three albums over a two-year period and to tour the albums internationally while retaining rights to ticket, merchandise and album sales on the road.
Here's Billy to tell you more: "We are a band assembled from all over the world and based in Bangkok where the vibe is unique and perfect for songwriting as you watch the world unwind in front of your very eyes. We also have musicians on 'standby' around the world ready to join the core band when we visit a country or region and give it up for the kids. Buy our music - feed a kid!"
Here's Billy to tell you more: "We are a band assembled from all over the world and based in Bangkok where the vibe is unique and perfect for songwriting as you watch the world unwind in front of your very eyes. We also have musicians on 'standby' around the world ready to join the core band when we visit a country or region and give it up for the kids. Buy our music - feed a kid!"
Your influences?
We love Steely Dan, Little Feat, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Tom Waits, Miles Davis. We love the blues and G Love and the Special Sauce...and Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys and Stevie Ray Vaughan..and jazz...and great rock from the likes of Toto and Led Zeppelin...we love all music.
Favorite spot?
Our favourite spot is Vienna in the spring time - or New York in the fall...or London in Summer..and Munich in Winter...and Paris any time!
Equipment used:
We use Fender, EMG, Suhr, Martin, Taylor, Gibson and PRS guitars. Custom built Billy The Mountain amps, Vox AC 30s, NNG, Fender Deluxe amps and all the usual good stuff bought or hired in
Anything else...?
We use Emma, T-Rex, Keeley, Analog Man, Jim Dunlop, Full Tone, Mad Professor, Austone, Hot Cake, Boss guitar FX pedals. Monster cables, NNG cables, Blue Sky Studio Monitors, Peluso Tube Microphones, George L cable and plugs, Shure mikes,