News From Hemifran September 2016

Hemifrån is an independent A&R, promotion and marketing company, based in the heart of Sweden, specializing in, what they call, “gut music” – The kind of music that you can feel in your gut, no matter what. Hemifran is promoting a lot of singer-songwriter, westcoast-pop, country, AOR and more. Here are featured some of their latest news – it is not all west coast, but dig into it!

Bullfighter Blues – Bravo Max

The new album is a decisive shift in direction for Bravo Max and it is the culmination of three years of truly collaborative writing. Since slimming down to a trio from the previous release’s line up as a sextet, the band has also taken on a vastly different sound, going from raucous Americana to progressive rock and roll. In addition to top shelf musicianship by the backbone trio, guest performances, including baritone sax, steel guitar, Hammond B3 organ, trumpet, flute, and trombone, help to solidify the rowdy and emphatic style of the November release. Bullfighter Blues is a gritty and triumphant trip; it is a dreamy flash of instrumental psychedelia mixed with easily accessible rock and roll. More information at Hemifran.

The Grand Undoing – Sparks Rain Down From The Lights Of Love

Seth Goodman, who records as The Grand Undoing, has two extreme passions in life, drinking sparkling wine and creating psychedelic post rock Americana confronting alienation and mortality. This strange mix, the bubbly and brooding, has become the stock-in-trade of TGU’s growing catalog. An only child, Goodman leaned hard on his record player while coming of age just outside Boston. The area’s free form college radio and vibrant club scene also had a profound effect. The final piece fell into place later in life when Goodman developed a deep affinity for classic country and roots music. All these influences would swirl and collide with his deeply entrenched outsider’s sensibility to form The Grand Undoing’s distinctive sound.

First came 2011’s ”Appeasing The Sick”, then 2014’s ”White Space Flavors & Parties On TV”. Both made bold musical statements that landed in the vicinity of ’David Bowie on acid backed by the Swans’ (Indie News At Noon.) With his latest release, ”Sparks Rain Down From The Lights Of Love”, on Secret Candy Rock Records, Goodman manages to push his musical boundaries even further. He romps from style to style, but never abandons his love of the almighty hook and cohesion, albeit the cohesion of constant upheaval.

When reflecting on the heady topics presented in the new material, Goodman explains that the end result is meant to uplift and inspire. He hopes The Grand Undoing’s music will provide a cinematic escape, make great driving music, or be the perfect accompaniment to a bottle of sparkling wine. More information at Hemifran.

Seth Swirsky – Circles And Squares

Multi award winning singer songwriter Seth Swirsky is back with his long awaited 3rd solo album. “Circles & Squares”. Swirsky, one part of the highly acclaimed pop duo, The Red Button, wrote, played and produced the entire 16 song album of newly minted, mostly, under 3 minute long, pop gems. Swirsky’s 1st solo album, “Instant Pleasure”, won best pop album at the 2005 Los Angeles Music Awards, with the title song being featured in Adam Sandler’s largest grossing movie, ”Big Daddy”. His 2nd solo effort, “Watercolor Day”, won best pop song, for the title track, at the 2010 Hollywood Music & Media Awards. Both albums won or came in the Top 5 of most of the major influential year end polls for best album of the year. Swirsky was named by Music Connection Magazine as one of the Hot 100 unsigned artists of the year. More information at Hemifran.

Guilia Millanta – Moonbeam Parade

Singer, songwriter and guitarist, Giulia (Julia) Millanta, by way of new self penned songs, invites us to fall in with her edgy and quirky “Moonbeam Parade” traversing the back alleys of pain, anger, solitude and self doubt, finally winding our way onto the streets of humanity lit by courage and trust. Co-produced with George Reiff, “Moonbeam Parade” features a stellar band, some of Austin’s finest musicians, Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Glenn Fukunaga (Dixie Chicks), Gabriel Rhodes (Willie Nelson), Dony Wynn (Robert Palmer) and David Pulkingham (Patty Griffin), as well as fellow artists Kimmie Rhodes and Michael Fracasso.

Hailing from the music scene in Austin, TX, which she now calls home, Millanta delivers poignant, yet rockin’, Americana inspired by her musical journey from Florence, Italy, where she was born. More information at Hemifran.

Michael Tomlinson – House Of Sky

One of the songs on Michael Tomlinson’s new album,”House Of Sky”, elicited a touching letter of response from former US President Jimmy Carter. He wrote to thank Michael for a song Michael had written about him and his years of humanitarian work around the world. The song is entitled “Seeds Of Love” and is one of the cornerstones of Michael’s newest release. The entire album is filled with deeply moving and uplifting songs that are impossible to categorize by genre. To many listeners they are just “Michael Tomlinson music”. Writes the long time President of MTV and VH1, Van Toffler, who has followed Michael’s music for more than 20 years, “when it comes to beautiful, soul searching ballads, Michael has no peer”.

Michael’s new album was financed entirely by listeners who felt much that same way, supporters from all over North America and Europe. Last summer he launched a crowd funding campaign and invited people around the world to help him co-create “the most beautiful album of my life”. Tomlinson writes, “I felt that the only way my project could stand apart is if I could inspire people to want to be a part of something that made the world a better place”. His effort was extremely successful, raising almost $20,000 more than the songwriter had asked for. He spent the fall of 2015 in a Seattle recording studio, with several artists from around the world contributing tracks to his album, sending music files back and forth until the songs took form. This summer Michael Tomlinson releases ”House Of Sky”.

The album is a bookend to his very first album,“Run This Way Forever”, which Michael released in the late 1980’s. That album was played in a couple of dozen cities and sold over 100,000 copies on Michael’s own small label, Desert Rain. Michael then signed with a series of LA based labels, gaining one top ten hit with “Dawning On A New Day”, but decided in the mid 1990’s to leave the chaos of the traditional music industry when he learned what he called, “an obvious-to-everyone-but-me lesson, that the music business was never about music”. From that time on Michael has continued to write and record in Seattle and perform concerts around the US every year. He also hosts occasional retreats, called “A Gathering Of Friends”, and is completing a book to be released in 2017. More information at Hemifran.

The Refusers – Wake Up America

With the release of their searing, socially conscious 15 track manifesto “Wake Up America” singer songwriter Michael Belkin and his eclectic, high energy Seattle based band The Refusers declare war on dumb music. Serving as the band’s mission statement, “Born to Rock” unleashes a clarion call to ’speak truth to power’. Title track “Wake Up America” is a classic rock anthem, probing ’illusion vs truth, where money buys the government, media twists the news, lawyers destroy justice, doctors destroy health and lobbyists steal democracy’.

Belkin, a former Wall Street wizard turned whistleblower and one time LA studio guitarist, experienced the BS he now writes about firsthand. He escaped with his soul intact and lives the ethos he learned at UC Berkeley where he learned to Question The Status Quo, UC Berkeley Haas School’s #1 defining principle. His lyrics expose the dirty dealings at the pinnacles of power. More information at Hemifran.