well, things are not going well for your old narrator here...
the john howard/witch hazel sound album is kaput. non-payment by the label is the main reason for it's death but it's also a little bit of back-stabbing by the various parties involved who are NOT members of the WHS. i think you will be able to figure it out...and yes, this marks ANOTHER project that looks like it won't be released, joining a Bill Fox
record i recorded back in '96 and the Laura Watling sessions from a couple of years ago...such is this business...
btw, i would also ask any of you who may not have already ordered the french version of the last WHS album, please DO NOT do so now. the record co. who put it out has changed management and i am not on good terms with them at all, so please boycott that release...
the good news is i am still at work on a new Orange Cake Mix album, supplying my usual over-blown arrangements on his songs. it's going quite well, actually and just a few days ago we added some great backing vocals to one of the songs. the singer was a new participant in the kevin coral universe by the name of Elizabeth Kelly. she's a VERY talented vocalist and keyboard player and we have just begun working together on
this project and have tenative plans to work on more things in the future for my Torrey Canyon collective. i'll keep you posted...
The Chamber Strings project has sort of taken on some new life lately, as kevin junior is back in the states and has expressed a desire to re-start the album sessions with me. things have been moving at a stop and start pace on this one but i will keep you updated. watch this spot, as they say...
happy holidays to everyone and here's hoping the new year is better for yours truly! ha! how's THAT for a self-serving greeting?!
-kevin
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4 comments:
God, that just kills me about the Howard/WHS thing. I was really, really looking forward to that. Maybe the differences can be worked out sometime soon...I'd hate for this to be come one of those "lost albums" that comes out 20 years too late to do its creators any good.
I, too, hope everything goes better for you in the new year.
Michael Toland
hi michael,
yeah, it's a real bummer...it's *possible* it could come out at some point but i really got thrown under the bus on this one...i started the project basically as a favor to the main A&R guy at the label, with the promise of funding to finish it off later...well, the funding never came after months and months of promises and then the main A&R guy left the label and j. howard began to complain about the album taking so long, i explained to him that it was because i had to set the project aside to take paying gigs when they came because i wasn't being paid for the howard album. he was shocked and said he was surprised i had worked on it as much as i had. then we agreed that i would have 9 songs finished to shop to other labels, since euro-visions hadn't paid anything. then, out of the blue, 2 weeks later, howard says he's just gonna release a piano & vocals version instead and basically kissed me off with a 'good luck!'
then i come to find out that euro-visions is going to put out the piano & vocal version of the album (which is a REAL artistic mistake, in my, and many others who've heard my versions, opinion). so, basically, they win and i ose. i'm the one left with zilch, zero, nada! haha!
-kevin
Man, that is a drag. Howard's fine with just piano and voice, but he really flowers with the full orchestration behind him, a la Kid in a Big World. That's a shame.
It also sucks that you're not gonna get paid for the work you've done.
Man, what a crappy business.
Michael
yeah, his songs REALLY benefit from a full-backing and i gotta tell ya, the stuff we did behind his songs was pretty f***in' good. he LOVED them; went on and on about how he never dreamed it could be sounding as good as it was, etc., etc.
but in the end, i got left holding the bag and losing *literally* thousands of dollars in production costs...
but i'm trying to stay positive and hope good music will win out in the end. what else can i do??
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