"I kind of spilled blood all over this project," Amy Speace says of her new album The Killer In Me, which marks a quantum creative leap from the artist's 2006 breakthrough effort Songs For Bright Street. While that release won her widespread critical acclaim and a loyal international fan base, The Killer In Me finds the New York-based singer/songwriter forging into deeper, darker lyrical and musical terrain, borne largely out of relationships gone wrong, then right and wrong again. "This is the record that I needed to make," Speace states. "In many ways, it was the hardest thing I've ever done. And in some ways, it was the easiest. Writing the songs was emotionally difficult, deep and intense--it was kind of an exorcism. But in the end, the songs flowed pretty quickly. You write the things that you're afraid to say out loud."
The Killer In Me's 12 soul-baring new songs maintain the effortless melodic appeal of her prior work, while delivering complex emotional insights that give the album startling intimacy and resonance. "The Killer In Me" chronicles a strangled co-dependent relationship, while "Haven't Learned A Thing" offers absolution for the continuing struggle in the attempt to connect with another and never getting it completely right. "This Love" speaks to the hope and uncertainty that comes with the onset of a new relationship. The album covers more terrain than romantic relationships, closing with "Piece By Piece," written as a prayer to her father, wishing him peace and love after the death of his brother.
Most of the album was written in the rural isolation of a rented cabin in the Catskills after her final separation from her husband. "It was just me, some books, my journals, my guitar and the songs, with no phone and no TV," she explains. "I spent a lot of time reading and hiking and chopping wood for the stove, and wrote the songs that form the emotional center of this album." "The situation," she continues, "forced me to sit with a lot of silence, fear and confusion and make a kind of peace with them by writing songs to keep from going crazy. That's when the album started making sense to me and became a whole different thing. Something shifted when I realized what was going on in the world outside mirrored what was going on inside of me, and I wanted to write songs that bridged that divide."
Speace recorded The Killer In Me with her longtime producer and lead guitarist James Mastro, of Bongos/Health and Happiness Show fame, and her longstanding live band the Tearjerks, comprised of guitarist Rich Feridun, bassist Matt Lindsey and drummer Jagoda. The sessions took place at alt-pop legend Mitch Easter's Fidelitorium studio in North Carolina, with Easter lending his talents as engineer. Also on board is English rock icon Ian Hunter, who adds his distinctive vocals to a pair of songs.
Born in Baltimore and raised in small-town Pennsylvania, Speace initially had her sights set on a career as a playwright/actor, graduating from Amherst College and toured with the prestigious National Shakespeare Company. After moving to New York, she had roles in various off-Broadway productions and independent films, ran her own theater company, and taught Shakespeare in the New York City school system. After teaching herself to play guitar, she began setting her poetry to music, and quickly found songwriting to be the most creatively fulfilling thing she'd ever done. She soon began performing as half of the female duo Edith O. Speace made her solo debut with the 2002 release Fable, recorded with $5000 donated by fans and released on her own Twangirl label. Giving up her hard-won acting career to become a full-time musician, she hopped into her car and hit the road, booking herself into every club, caf� and college that would have her. After catching a performance at the SXSW music industry festival, Judy Collins' manager brought Speace to the attention of Collins, who signed her to her Wildflower label. Her debut for the
DISCOGRAPHY
The Killer Me
Wildflower Records - June 30, 2009
Songs For Bright Street
Wildflower Records - May 16, 2006
Fable
Twangirl 2002
Edith O
1998
Born To The Breed - A Tribute to Judy Collins, Vol. I
Wildflower Records - August 5, 2008
Got To Get A Message To You... 'Cause We Care
Wildflower Records - January 27, 2009
INFLUENCES
Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Matthew Sweet, Patty Griffin, The Band, Ryan Adams, Steve Earl, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Jay Farrar, Neil Young, Buddy Miller, Alejandro Escovedo, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton, Iron and Wine, Willie Nelson, early Linda Rostadt, early early Joan Baez, Hem, Robbie Fulks, Jill Sobule, Emmylou Harris, Springsteen, Zeppelin, Tumbleweed, Elton John, Elvis Costello
SOUNDS LIKE
Lone Justice, The Jayhawks (if they had a chick lead singer), Lucinda w/ a different voice, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Roseanne Cash, early Joan Baez, Ryan Adams, Natalie Merchant.
Hey, did you see the new friend inviter that lets you invite your fans from myspace and bebo and and loads of other sites. It's really cool and it puts your referral ID into the message:) http://www.kerchoonz.com/account/invite/ (it's in your account page in the tab that says friends & invites).
Check this out. Below is a list of people who have blogged about kerchoonz in the past few days :)
If you've written a blog about kerchoonz, let us know about it! We'll post your blog in Kerchoonz News, and in our blog
and as a bulletin so people can find you on your blogging networks. Also, don't forget to check out www.kerchoonz.com/luvkerchoonz and submit your video about what you luv at kerchoonz in our Luv Kerchoonz video category. Edits from your videos will be used in our media campaign to take place early 2009 (hint: around valentines day!) So, get your vids up and blog away! tell the world what you have to say about kerchoonz and what you'd like to see happen here. We wanna hear from you!!
xx
Luv Kerchoonz
more info at: http://www.kerchoonz.com/luvkerchoonz
PS: be the first to submit your video and post in a blog on the web!
amyspeace
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
03 DECEMBER 2008
GET MONEY FOR SOMETHING AND YOUR CLICKS FOR FREE
Unsigned bands in dire straits can head to Kerchoonz.com to earn cash while fans download for free
Kerchoonz.com - the much anticipated answer to the music industry’s current downloading problem – is to scrap its artist sign-up fee for Christmas.
The groundbreaking new website swamped by over 8 million hits and 80,000 unique visitors in November, is to scrap the £12.50 fee to mark the start of Kerchoonz Live – a month long competition to find the hardest working unsigned acts on the circuit.
Bands and artists have until the end of December to use Kerchoonz.com to promote themselves and earn money in a bid to bag a recording session at a famous Glasgow studio.
As well as being able to record three tracks at the hands of top producer Ian Morrow (Wet Wet Wet, Rod Stewart, Seal), acts will get to keep all money earned from plays and downloads on Kerchoonz.com.
“I can imagine it’s going to be huge and why not?” says former Stereophonics star Stuart Cable. “Becoming a professional musician in a band is the hardest job in the world - so to do it this way is great."
The revolutionary site pays unsigned acts half a penny for every play and up to 10p for every download – by far the largest payments available to any act choosing to give away their music online.
Artists can even earn money by recommending other musicians to the site and, with no limit on the number of people you can recommend, it’s the hardest working acts that will reap the greatest rewards.
“Kerchoonz.com takes the world of online music to a completely different dimension by allowing musicians to earn money from their work without being exploited” says Co-Founder, Indiana Gregg.
Kerchoonz.com is currently locked in talks with both independent and major record labels to bring further content to the site, providing a comprehensive music catalogue for fans.
“If bands and artists use the promotional tools we provide for them, Kerchoonz.com will act just like a record company. Artists can effectively ‘sell’ their music without charging their fans anything for it,” says Gregg.
Hi Everybody... the default player has changed to a rather snazzy smaller version of the big one !
If you really liked the little silver one it will shortly be added to the drop down menu in music/music player settings.... so don't worry it will be back v soon !
We hope you've enjoyed this preview of Kerchoonz and have had a chance browse around. We are going to be inviting a lot of people to the site later today (as soon as we fix a few more bugz.)
We are working on the player counter and sorting out some of the sign-up and navigation bugz.
Anyway, since you're a VIP at Kerchoonz, we'd like to send you some 'kerblingz' points today, in a wee while, you'll have 1000 points to send 'kerblingz' to your fans, friends, and people you like!
Well, not long now, and we'll be opening the flood gates:)
Kerchoonz
PS: we are also working on the referral kwidgets for you. This way, when you refer another band who subscribes to Kerchoonz, you make $£€. The kwidgets are html badges that you can paste around the web and will contain your referral code.
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