Fanatic is a music marketing company established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For 25 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent.
Latest album Godmuffin gets release by SONY Japan; Artist
launches “Songs Start To Finish” series, a fun look into his creative process.
+++
Mike Viola as photographed by Silvia Grav +++ Mike Viola is a Grammy®-nominated
producer, musician, songwriter and singer best known for his work with Panic!
At The Disco, Mandy Moore, Jenny Lewis, Ondara, Matt
Nathanson and Fall Out Boy. His original music has been
featured on soundtracks for movies such as ”That Thing You Do!,””Get Him To The Greek,” and ”Walk
Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.” Viola’s latest album Godmuffin is out now via Good Morning Monkey / Grand Phony. +++ Mike Viola | “We May
Never Be This Young Again”
[VIDEO]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I51HAhtVsXs +++ “I’m a huge fan
of ‘The Twilight Zone,’ especially
the episodes where Rod Serling
addresses some nuanced existential dilemma hidden inside a gimmicky science
fiction idea,” says Mike Viola of the video for his single
“We May Never Be This Young Again.”
Hear it now at Brooklyn
Vegan and see the video via The
Big Takeover. “For this video, the director, Silvia Grav, envisioned me running, just vaguely running through
Los Angeles at night. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be running from, but
she had this vision while listening to the song over and over. “There are a handful of ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes about Air Force pilots who are distressed
and disoriented by something or other. I bought a blue jumpsuit online and put
together a little crew and we drove around filming me running in downtown Los
Angeles late at night, which during COVID, was empty. “We knew we wanted to have vignettes of a couple not
getting along great, Like, normal stuff we all go through in our relationships,
nothing too dramatic. Just that kind of subtly that can slowly tear apart a
marriage. Something always saves us in these moments of subtle destruction. You
guessed it, love.” +++
Latest album Godmuffin gets release by SONY Japan; Artist launches “Songs Start
To Finish” series, a fun look into his creative process. Mike Viola has launched a series of fun,
short behind-the-scenes videos, documenting his creative process leading to the
completion of the 11 songs that comprise Godmuffin. See the “Songs Start To Finish” series at
YouTube now. The first two installments feature the songs “All You Can Eat” and “Drug Rug,” with new posts happening on
Wednesdays. Godmuffin
was also recently released in a special two-CD edition,
packaged with Viola’s previous solo
album The American Egypt, by SONY Japan. +++ Mike Viola Godmuffin Out Now (Good Morning
Monkey / Grand Phony) Streaming Link: STREAM FULL LP
Track Listing: 01. USA Up All Night 02. Creeper (STREAM) 03. Drug Rug (STREAM | VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO) 04. We May Never Be This Young Again (VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO) 05. All You Can Eat 06. The Littles 07. Superkid 2, Trying To Do The Thing I Was Born To
Do 08. Honorable Mention With Jam Show 09. People Pleaser, You’re The Man Of The House Now 10. Ordinary Girl (STREAM
| VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO) 11. That Seems Impossible Now +++
[VIDEO]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXQokPDo77c [STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/MikeViola-DrugRug +++ “Legend has it that vampires can’t expose themselves
to sunlight, but Mike Viola begs to
differ,” explains
Rolling Stone in its coverage of
Viola’s horror short for his latest
single. “He’s a pool-lazing vampire in the new video for ‘Drug Rug,’ a track off his upcoming LP Godmuffin. Directed by Caitlin Gerard, the video opens with Viola lying on a float in Mandy Moore’s pool. “Viola
channels his preternatural gift for directness and warmth into a celebration of
youth,” BuzzBands.LA says it its premiere
post of the song. Viola explains
that the tune is “a look back at my icy days in NYC. This is an ode to my
beloved classic rock, as well.” +++ Mike Viola | “Ordinary
Girl”
[VIDEO]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBQYXSlgeFM [STREAM]:
https://fanatic.lnk.to/MikeViola-OrdinaryGirl +++ “It’s a girl power song,” Mike Violatells
American Songwriter in its premiere
coverage of his single “Ordinary
Girl.” “We all have superpowers. For me, the scariest thing out there in
the world is blending in, disappearing into the status quo. This is like a John Hughes version of that concept.” An obsessive monster movie fan, Violacontinues the series he started
with the video (see
below) for “Drug Rug” (which co-stars
Mandy Moore (and her swimming pool)
alongside a hilarious turn as a vampire by Viola
himself) with the video for “Ordinary Girl.” With a team comprised of all women
creators, including sisters and co-directors Kelsey
and Rémy Bennett, alongside
acclaimed 26-year-old photographer turned cinematographer, Silvia Grav, “Ordinary Girl” redefines power as we
know it through the perspective of a horror obsessed suburban girl. The video, shot like a short film,
bears witness to the main character as she harnesses her transgressive creative
gifts in a manifestation of self-reflection, exploration, and an otherworldly
growth of inner strength that will break your heart just to see what it’s made
of. The lyric video for the song
finds Viola in a real moment with
his “monster thumb,” following his young daughter around the sidewalks of Los
Angeles as he teaches her to roller skate. Stereo Embers says, “While Springsteen’s songbook is filled with
tracks told from the perspective of a guy who wants to get out of town, ‘Ordinary Girl’ might very well be the
first song written from the point of view of a parent wishing the same for his
children.” +++ Mike Viola | About
Music lives in Mike
Viola. Shit, it’s his last name, right? Godmuffin
(Good Morning Monkey / Grand Phony) even opens with strings
and man, do they tug. Hard. “Don’t be afraid, no don’t be afraid / We still have
time, we still have time / There’s so much I wanna do” “I wrote ’Creeper’ the
morning I got the news my close friend died,” Viola says. “He
was my age. Now he can’t make music. I still can. I can still spend my time
looking for the secret cause, the next new song, even when it feels too late, ‘cause
I still have time.” Viola’s friend is the artistically immortal, Adam Schlesinger, to whom Viola will forever be publicly tied as
the voice of his friend’s perfect, Oscar®-nominated pop song “That Thing You Do!” At any other time, this association would be a fun
fact. A bullet point in a career full of them. But right now it’s painful to
listen to with Viola’s real-life
tragedy in mind. Somehow, hemakes
it sound beautiful. Godmuffin
follows-up Viola’s 2018 album The
American Egypt, and is his first return in over a decade to the more
conventional rock and pop sound that he first broke through with as front man
of Candy Butchers during that band’s
string of major label records in the late-90s to mid-2000s. Godmuffin
was written and recorded alone in Viola’s
home studio. He describes it as “11 songs about transformation” and Viola isn’t afraid to let you see. “It’s youthful in the chances it takes,” he says. “It
doesn’t give a fuck.” In the face of fine-tuning everything into oblivion, Godmuffin
is the least experimental-sounding experimental record you’ll hear this year. Viola records on half-inch tape and
mixes on a vintage Auditronics console without the advantage of digital
editing. “The
recording is linear, ‘cause I can’t punch and fix things very easily, especially
when I’m playing drums. On the computer, you
can repair all of your mistakes ‘til you sound perfect. Or even
worse, tune or beat detective the life out of it. I prefer rock music that’s
beautifully flawed.” “It’s
human,” he says. “Only the dead get to heaven / Here on earth we just
get lost” Human it is. Viola sings the chorus of the album’s first single “Drug Rug,” and it’s as if you’re
listening to recently re-discovered dedications from a high school yearbook. It’s not nostalgia, it’s time traveling written from
the point of view of the graduated Viola,
“who’s spent a lifetime doing windmills on Big
Star guitars, slick with Todd
Rundgren syrup hand-drawn from the tree.” Elsewhere on Godmuffin, Viola sings about being a teenager (“USA Up All Night”), about being the father of teenagers (“The Littles,”“Ordinary Girl”), and even offers up a sequel (“Superkid 2, Trying To Do The Thing I Was Born To Do”) to a
previously released song (“Superkid”)
about being a teenager. Youthful. Not giving a fuck. Is there a time in our lives when we feel more
invincible? Godmuffin is the sound of fearlessness. +++ Mike Viola | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : SPOTIFY : APPLE
: GRAND
PHONY +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL +++ Disclaimer: You have received this e-mail
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Arranged by Sidley as “an atomic-aged dream,” she
explains that “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” always “rescued me from
sadness.” +++
Samantha
Sidley as photographed by Kat Mills
Martin +++ PLAY, POST
& SHARE
Samantha
Sidley – “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” (Disney Cover) Samantha
Sidley’s new single and video
follows-up Interior Person(Release Me
Records), her “positively ebullient” (Billboard)
and “quietly radical" (Los Angeles
Times) debut album that “upends romantic jazz-pop tradition” (LA Weekly) with its “pro-lesbian
anthem” (Refinery29) “I Like Girls.” “A Dream Is
A Wish Your Heart Makes” is a Disney classic, and is one of Sam’s favorite songs to sing. Her
haunting, sensual, and pleasantly disoriented soaring vocal version of the tune
is streaming everywhere now. Hear it courtesy of Jazziz,
read an interview with Sam at Esthetic
Lens, or click the link below. [LISTEN]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/SamanthaSidley-ADreamIsAWishYourHeartMakes +++ PLAY, POST
& SHARE
Samantha
Sidley | “I Like Girls” “Best Albums
of 2019” — Los Angeles Times See the video for “I Like Girls” and read
an in-depth interview with the Los
Angeles Timeshere. “Sidley’s
quietly radical debut album, Interior Person, is premised on the
idea that a listener in 2019 shouldn’t have to decode a love song to hear
herself in it. Something you might not have realized you needed (though this
L.A. native certainly knew she did): a sweet, funny, tastefully arranged vocal-jazz
disc about same-sex romance.” “A sophisticated and delicious ice-breaker, serving
anthemic lyrical content for an evolving culture.”— Grimy Goods [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1glEdQNP13k +++ Samantha Sidley Interior
Person Out Now (Release Me Records) Streaming Link: STREAM FULL LP Private Download Link: DOWNLOAD FULL LP
Track Listing: 01. I Like Girls (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO) 02. Only You Can Break My Heart 03. Naked To Love 04. Butterfly In My Ass (STREAM) 05. I Can’t Listen (VIDEO) 06. Listen!! (STREAM | MP3) 07. Rose Without Thorns 08. Busy Doin’ Nothin’ (STREAM |
MP3) 09. Easy To Be True 10. Interior Person (VIDEO) +++ PLAY, POST
& SHARE
Samantha Sidley | “I Can’t Listen”
Samantha
Sidley’s “I Can’t Listen,” written by Inara
George, is about struggling with depression. But the Los Angeles-based jazz
singer is positively ebullient about the black-and-white,
noir-styled video. “I love that video,” Sidleygushes
to Billboard. The clip was
directed by Nigel DeFriez, a friend
who also helmed the clip
for “I Like Girls,” another
track from Sidley’s debut album Interior
Person. “It feels like a movie, an old French film, this woman riding
in a car, gonna get the fuck out of town, she can’t look at herself anymore...” “(DeFriez)
said, ‘Can I just film you singing the song with a handheld camera?’ I said, ‘Sure,
of course!’ We did it two days later. Barbara
(Gruska, Sidley’s wife and album producer) did all the lighting, just
switching things on and off. It was a real DIY thing, but I think it came off
beautifully and it tells a really beautiful story.” [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi3v2hCnUc4 +++ Samantha Sidley | About Samantha
Sidley is a jazz vocalist,
born-and-raised in Los Angeles, and she likes girls. The words “I like girls” are the first thing you’ll
hear when Sidley’s debut album Interior
Person (Out Now, Release Me Records) opens. The song is
an unassuming anthem, a future standard for an evolving culture. It’s also a
fun and funny ice-breaker that you’ll sing along with. “I Like
Girls” is a peek into what plays out
as a meticulously crafted debut album featuring Sidley’s beautifully trained voice taking confident ownership of
songs written for her to sing by some of the most important women in her life. These other “girls” include fellow musicians Inara George, Alex Lilly, and Sidley’s
“Top One” favorite musician of all-time, her wife, Barbara Gruska. “Inara and Alex and Barbara wrote songs that are all very personal to my story – they
literally are my story – and from my lesbian perspective, which I appreciate so
much,” Sidley says. In addition to
co-writing many of the songs here and playing drums (masterfully) on many of
the tracks, Gruska also produced Interior
Person in a studio constructed in Sidley’s
childhood bedroom. “My whole life was a song,” Sidley says of her childhood. “If I looked at a tree, it was a
song. If I felt happy, sad, joy, it was a song. When I first heard Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ I remember thinking: ‘I understand.’ I’ve
always considered myself an interpreter, which is sort of and undervalued art
form. I like to take a song and make the story true for me.” Sidley soon discovered Aretha
Franklin, Billie Holiday, soul
music in general, and her own personal “soulfulness” itself. You know, like all
seven-year-olds do. Later, considering how annoyed 11-year-old Sidley was when her vocal instructor
wouldn’t allow her to sing Holiday’s
“Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)” at
her first recital, it all made perfect sense. A decade later, Sidley
got to sing whatever she wanted, performing at NYC’s legendary Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, where she lived in Dorothy Parker’s room, listened to a lot of Anita O’Day and Ella
Fitzgerald, and landed a rave review in The New York Times. “She knows exactly how I express myself and what my
intentions are,” Sidley says of her
working relationship with Gruska. “Collaborating
on this record has actually been a much longer collaboration of us getting to
know each other.” Interior Person, the debut album from Samantha
Sidley is out now featuring the single “I
Like Girls”.Samantha Sidley is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information. +++ Samantha Sidley | Links ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : RELEASE ME RECORDS +++ Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
