and the year rolled on.....
Published on: 16 Oct 2010
Hello friends....
a while since the last post and not because nothing's going on. It's been a pretty full on year so far and as usual, it takes someone going; -when did you last post anything on your site? for me to realise how long it's been. So where to start?
I've been working on and off through this year with Mraz. Writing, recording and in the process having some pretty amazing musical experiences. From collaborating with Willie Nelson in Texas and Milton Nascimento in Rio De Janeiro, our journey this time has taken us to remote mountains and big cities alike. This week we're back together with the creative team at Kensaltown. Some of the writing efforts so far can be heard on Jasons new live EP 'Life Is Good' that's available now on iTunes.
To coincide with their farewell tour around the globe, A-Ha have released '25 (the very best of)'. This compilation sums up an extraordinary 25 year career and contains 'Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)', their last single that we recorded earlier this year. 'Butterfly...' has been getting a lot of airplay here in England and the album is currently top 10 on the UK album chart. The tour continues through Europe and the UK until December 4, when they will play their last ever concert at Oslo Spektrum.
Train have had an amazing comeback following the release of 'Save Me, San Fransisco', the album we made at Kensaltown last summer. The first single 'Hey Soul Sister' has sold close to 5 million downloads in the US and is now on the top 10 of most downloaded songs ever. The second single 'If It's Love' is on the charts now and they too are on the road this fall, both in Europe and the US. Check out; www.trainline.com for more details.
Also want to tell you about Alyssa Bernal. A young singer from Texas who has already amassed hundreds of thousand of subscribers to her YouTube channel. I was approached by Pharrell who had heard her online and signed her to Star Trak. The result of our collaboration is an album due out on Interscope Records early next year. The first EP and single 'Cali, Cali, Cali' are available now (US only).
This winter I also made an album with Joshua Radin and it's just been released in the US. It's called 'The Rock And Tide' and it's really great! On the album we're working with a small band and in a couple of weeks we got this very focused sounding effort done. I got my old friend Glen Scott involved on keyboards and backing vocals and his contribution was amazing. He's since been out on the road with Joshua. Check: www.joshuaradin.com for more info. Glen also has a new album of his trademark soul music coming out called 'Trust The Dawn' so keep your eyes and ears open!
Coming out this fall too is KT Tunstal's new album 'Tiger Suit'. We've written a couple of songs together for the album and she'll be out on the road this fall. It's a really vibey, rocking album so check it out! www.kttunstall.com
Alright, getting ready to sign off here.....I've worked on other stuff too and will try and update the discography shortly so you can get the whole picture. Also, a lot of my creative effort now is of course going in to Apparatjik. We've had some amazing performances this year, the last one at the Serpentine Gallery in London. We have some very cool prints available for sale through the gallery (8 motifs in editions of 25) so be sure to check this out too. More information about what we're up too is available in an abstract maze of information on: www.apparatjik.com
I'll end with a quote from Willie Nelson just before he drove off into the sunset (after dropping Jason and me in the parking lot of his country club studio in Texas).....
Catch you down the highway,
MT
