Zeta Vang's "White Lights Go Bang" is a new dance-rock single. Produced by Daniel Wise of the Shed, and mixed by Daniel Malsch of the Soundmine (collectively known as Daniel & Daniel), it rocks your socks off.
A new band, Zeta Vang, profiled by their manager, Ian McGrady. Their album's first single, White Lights Go Bang, is available on iTunes and Amazon. The full album is due out Q2 2010.
Available on iTunes and Amazon - the world-wide dance rock hit
Available on iTunes and Amazon - the world-wide dance rock hit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Log (Press Release) – Dec 15, 2009 – Zeta Vang is Jerome Kapeller and a number of very talented musicians and producers that surround him. He is managed by Ian McGrady who is also the executive producer of Kapeller's first album White Lights Go Bang.
White Lights Go Bang is a record that stakes out territory and addresses the modern crisis of individuality in a very real way: Total aloneness leads to isolation, and interdependence comes with its own set of problems. The search for fulfillment and connection, and the pain of isolation and self-doubt are themes that anyone can identify with in our increasingly changing world. "That strikes a serious chord with the world at the moment, I think; right now, in the post-Bush era where consumption and distraction have been completely offered as a panacea to the spiritual emptiness inside that people have really been feeling over the past 8 years or so. So the timing of this record coming out now has a tremendous impact."
1. White Lights Go Bang
2. Release: Q1/2 2009
3. Country: US
4. Tracks: 11
5. Runtime: 40 minutes, 10 seconds.
6. Producer: Daniel Wise at The Shed (www.theshed.us) (Daniel & Daniel Productions)
7. Mixer: Daniel Malsch (Soundmine, PA)
8. Vocals/Guitars: Jerome Kapeller, Bass: Alex Berman, Drums: Justin Spencer, Kurt Andersen, Special Guest Vocalist on "Let it Stay": Libby Johnson
9. Lawrence Dvoskin, Co-Executive Producer
10. Ian McGrady, Executive Producer / Manager, Zeta Vang & "White Lights Go Bang" Album
For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, audience and critics alike will find a record where the artists did things their way. Whereas the majority of rock album releases try to fit somewhere between Coldplay and The White Stripes, Zeta Vang's White Lights Go Bang emerges as an irrepressable spirit of an artist bent on a singular vision, facilitated by masterful guidance of Daniel Wise as producer, and Daniel Malsch as mixer.
Which is not to say that they don't have their own point of view: Daniel Wise is a multiplatinum producer of The Scissor Sisters and multi-gold, multi-silver producer of some other 140+ records, whose recent contemporary folk album of Libby Johnson's "Annabella" has sold 140,000 units, making it a category leader. The point is that White Lights Go Bang bears the hallmark of a champion from the moment it sets upon the ears, just several weeks minted at The Soundmine in Pennsylvannia, which is a joint effort of Daniel Wise and Daniel Malsch which features the Kinks' legendary Amek pre's from their Konk studio in London.
"There's an integrity to White Lights Go Bang that puts it beyond any first album of a major label," says Ian McGrady, who financed and guided Mr. Kapeller's choice among producers and songs. "The difference between us and any, and I do mean any, major label release, is that most albums are lucky to have 2 singles and the rest as contract-fillers, or album-fillers. We have nine. Count 'em. That's as many singles as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" has tracks! And of our album-y stuff, only 1 of them is so arty that it works that way, Panacea. Avalanche, however, is a beast of its own and rears its fanged head in the middle of the album as a moment of artistic clarity and greatness. It might not make Clear Channel's playlist, but we love it."
"How'd we do it?" says McGrady, confidently leaning back. "We did it by just focusing on doing our best. Period. There was no committee. No approval process. The artist and producer had complete agency to make exactly the album they envisioned. Everyone had license to go forward."
Zeta Vang's debut show was at Pianos in New York City and featured Simon Kirke of Free & Bad Company on drums. "Simon looked like he was having the time of his life. Jerome rocked. It was great to see."
""White Lights doesn't checklist commercial conventions by going for the same folksy, shouting choruses that a lot of contemporary artists make trying to reach through the radio and grab you by the collar, although, certainly, it's very compelling listening. Kapeller's confident delivery of the intricate, insightful material ("Ambivalence/inconsequence/a paranoid world view/siamese threats of conquest as they choose to use your love against you") has its own momentum.
"The minute people hear White Lights it's a slam-drunk on many levels. The songwriting, the vocals, the hooks, the choruses, the harmonies, the amazing sound quality, crunchin' guitars -- it's all there, with the necessary gravity as a backdrop to elevate it to serious status.
Although the album is expensive, reaching into six figures (Ex. Prod. Ian McGrady won't reveal how much), he says "Many talented artists, due to the bureaucratic process of major-label input, have achieved less using more. We've accomplished a cohesive artistic statement for the artist, in total service to the artist, at a fraction of the cost because we believe artistry and efficiency are inseparable."
It was under McGrady's guidance that Kapeller chose Daniel Wise, but it was ultimately McGrady who had to pay for Wise's multiplatinum effort on this album. "Dan asked us to record a demo of Jerome's songs, just a guitar and his voice, on one track, with nothing. Bone-dry, he asked for. I gave it to him 3 days later after a six hour recording session in my living room, on my Powerbook with a Blue USB microphone. Dan called me back 2 days later and we began negotiating a deal that would work. "Jerome's voice has this thing -- it's just built for radio," he says.
Perhaps it was easier to reach Wise because the songs had been vetted by veteran songsmith Lawrence Dvoskin (multi-gold songwriter, Meredith Brooks, David Bowie). "Jerome's songs defy convention. Usually people write verse-chorus-verse, and Jerome's songs need a verse, a-chorus, b-chorus, verse, chorus, verse, c-chorus structure to handle what's going on with the song. It's totally unpredictable, but somehow he still manages to build trust with the listener in every song."
Everywhere this project goes it seems to build momentum. Renowned artist Les Perhacs in California contributed White Lights Go Bang iconic image of his sculpture, "Circle Control".
"We chose Circle Control because it's everything the album is: It's fluid but solid, balanced not by symmetry but by natural liveliness. Like the sculpture, the album is a wonderment."
Though the album lyrics reach into pain (from You Want Some: "Our world is a secret world of power and pain/so self absorbed, so self-contained... there might not be much left of you, but time rides me and I need to feel clean too")
"The way this album seems to land on the exact moment of our culture is astonishing, even though it's a long time in the making," says McGrady.
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Ian McGrady operates Flowers Media. He supports artists and intellectuals to develop books, records and media aligned with their deepest truths in order to produce useful, good, and timely works for the public.
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