Alexz Johnson (self-titled album)
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| Alexz Johnson | |||||
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| Studio album by Alexz Johnson | |||||
| Released | Late 2008 | ||||
| Recorded | 2005 - April 2008 Kensaltown Studio, UK / Capitol Records, Hollywood |
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| Genre | pop, indie, progressive | ||||
| Label | Epic (U.S., Canada) | ||||
| Producer | Greg Wells, Brendan Johnson | ||||
| Alexz Johnson chronology | |||||
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This article contains information about a scheduled or expected future album. The content may change as the album release approaches and more information becomes available. |
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Alexz Johnson (album title is subject to change over time) is the debut studio album by Canadian pop singer-songwriter Alexz Johnson slated for release late 2008 / early 2009 under the Epic label. This is also Johnson's first full length record away from the "Instant Star" franchise.
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[edit] Sound / Influences
Johnson has been reported as citing people like Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Rickie Lee Jones as her main influences. Saying, that she herself felt the album sounded like nothing else out today, because she was not trying to sound like one certain genre or artist during the recording and creative process.
On the actual creative process, Johnson said "I pull from a lot of artists that I love. Nothing really recent; a lot of the artists I love like David Bowie, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Rickie Lee Jones. They’re all kind of not considered cool, hip artists of this time for young listeners. But I pulled from a lot of cool eclectic sounds, so I think my record’s kind of…just an eclectic pop record. It’s pretty different, actually, from anything I’ve ever heard cause it’s not coming from anything that’s being made right now in the music industry so I’m looking forward to hearing the fans reactions."[1]
[edit] Recording
After Johnson appeared on So Weird, there was interest in signing her to a record deal, but she preferred to wait for the right deal which would allow her more creative freedom. After recording the soundtrack albums for Instant Star 1 and 2 with the Orange Record Label in Toronto, she negotiated a deal for a solo album with Capitol Records. However, with the merger of the Capitol and Virgin labels within the EMI Group, there was a shake-up, leaving her without the support she had anticipated for her solo album.
The arrangement with Capitol records was in place long enough to affect the line-up of artists for the Instant Star 3 soundtrack, as her record label allowed her a maximum of four songs on Instant Star 3, for reasons which remained unexplained.
Most of the work on the solo album has been completed. She worked on it for several months in 2006, co-writing songs with her brother Brendan, who writes and produces music. There are two updates on her early work on the album from Stephen Stohn the Executive Producer of Instant Star - one saying that "she's written stacks of songs for her CD" (June 17), and the other saying that he had listened to some of "the rough demos" (November 8) which, in his view, were "absolutely stunningly amazing".[2]
In writing songs for the album, she has also worked with UK writers Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall, Jason Mraz) and Sasha Skarbek (James Blunt), as well as producer/songwriter Brio Taliaferro (Sugababes, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, James Blunt).[3]
On June 25, 2007, Johnson appeared on the Canadian version of MTV. She confirmed that all of her songs have been written and recorded. She planned on shopping for a label over the next few months and hoped to release the album in the winter. She said she was in no hurry for it to be released. As of October 2007, as confirmed by her current management -- Watchdog Management -- she remained without a label, but was very close to finding a new home for her music.
[edit] Signing With Epic Records
On February 15, Alexz Johnson announced in her MySpace blog[1] that she had signed a record deal with label Epic Records, part of the Sony BMG group. Since it was founded in 1953, Epic has been the label for a highly diverse set of artists: other female singers on the Epic label have included Gloria Estefan, Mandy Moore, Shakira, Fiona Apple, Heart, Tori Amos, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Cyndi Lauper, and Celine Dion.
With the songs already written, Alexz Johnson is currently half-way through the studio work for the album, and expects to be finished recording by the end of March, 2008.[2] Having heard the first six songs, Stephen Stohn, in his MySpace blog of Feb. 16, 2008, commented that, "they are just incredibly good - very different from the songs you've come to know through Instant Star, much more rhythmic, with almost a world beat."[3]
The producer for the album is Greg Wells - a Canadian (from Peterborough, Ontario), who now lives and works in Los Angeles as a producer / instumentalist / songwriter. As noted in Stephen Stohn's blog, Wells has previously worked with Pink, Natasha Bedingfield, Michelle Branch, Jewel, and Celine Dion, among others.
In her MySpace blog of February 15, 2008, Alexz Johnson indicated that she is planning an extensive tour around her new album, saying of her songs that, "I can't wait to perform them live! Looking forward to seeing all of your faces!"
Alexz has said of her search for a label - "I basically just wanted to find a label that would support everything that I was feeling. And it wasn’t about going with the biggest label or anything like that; it was just about finding a label that would let me have my artistic freedom and be able to help me get this album distributed everywhere. I mean, that’s kind of what a label does. You know, they kind of just help you get your record all over. But for me, the most important key to this album was finding the right producer to produce it, even before the label. And I actually ended up meeting with and planning on working with Greg Wells before I even had a record deal because for me I just wanted to do this great record with Greg. So that was kind of key for me, and then once I started working with Greg, labels became interested because I was released from my last Capitol deal and I finished filming Instant Star so I had some freedom then to actually go and meet with the labels and just focus on the music. And yeah, I just finished a couple of weeks ago."[4]
The recording process ended in April 2008 with the cd entering the master stages as of May 2008.
[edit] Tracklisting
| # | Title | Writers | Producer | Time |
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| 1. | "Running With The Devil" | |||
| 2. | "Swallowed" | |||
| 3. | "Mailman" | |||
| 4. | "Chicago" | |||
| 5. | "Golden" | |||
| 6. | "Lost & Found | |||
| 7. | "Saving The Train" | |||
| 8. | "Weight" | |||
| 9. | "Easy" | |||
| 10. | "Shout" |
subject to change in the near future.
[edit] Other Recorded Tracks
- "Shake It Off" [confirmed through BMI with Alexz as the main songwriter.[5]]
- "It Isn't Like You"
- "All In Disguise"
- "Killa" ft. Brendan Johnson
- "Shutting You Out"
- "Crawl"
- "Zeppelin" [confirmed through ASCAP with Alexz as the main songwriter.[6]]
- "Hero In Me"
- "LA Made Me"
- "Hurricane Girl"
- "What Rock Have You Been Under?"
- "Spin"
- "Take Your Breath"
[edit] Credits
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Production
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Personnel
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