Welcome Amanda Carl

HitPlay records is proud to announce songwriter and recording artist Amanda Carl has joined our team. Amanda has co-written several of the songs on the upcoming Elisa Girlando CD. The songs, co-written with Phil Garland, include the first single on the CD "songbird", as well as  "rise up" and a little bit".

Additionally, Amanda produced the live "in the studio" video for Elisa Girlando, and performed background vocals on "a little bit". 

Amanda has also been seen around the studio and that raises the possibility of a studio album. Finally, Amanda can be read on the hitplay blog from time to time.

HitPlay is about the "artists" and we feel we have a great one with Amanda; so stay tuned....

dave.hitplay

Decisions decisions

The CD is mastered and we have it in our little fingers. Man does it sound good. 

Now we are faced with very BIG and very IMPORTANT decisions here at HitPlay.

First: Do we go with our gut and release "songbird" the ballad as the first single. When you get a vocal performance like we have on this with the power of a great song it just seems to be a tremendous way to introduce Elisa Girlando to all of you.

Second: Do we bring RED all the songs we have complete for digital upload or do we just bring a couple of the singles to go digital.Digital uploads plug the songs into the SONY/BMG/RED universe. We would only wait because we have one more song to record that we feel could also be an extremely strong single and want RED to have the entire package before we give it to them.

Third: Now that we have most of the music complete do we start placing the songs online for you all to hear  through the hitplay core platform we have spent the last three months developing, before RED releases them? My feeling is lets get the tunes out to the public.

Fortunately we at HitpLay have some pretty good music brains working through these questions this week (myself excluded). Tom Carraba at SONY/BMG has an advanced copy of the CD and we are looking to ask his opinion on these questions as well. Tom was instrumental in introducing us to Allan and Bob at RED music so all parties involved value his thoughts and opinions.

These are important questions and it gets to the meat of the blog; this is the stuff success or failure is made from.

More to come,

dave.hitplay

Elisa Girlando - "Another Song Bird"

my tiger bill odyssey

I love to see great players hell you might just learn something so when I heard world famous drummer tiger bill was playing in PA this weekend well I just had to go. Well it didn't turn out exactly as I planned.

First the club was like 65-70 miles from my house and I was driving back roads out of the deliverance movie I could hear the banjos in the distance. Finally we arrive and after three songs we had to leave. It appears that the law in PA doesn't allow everyone into restaurant/clubs if they have smoking so we had to leave.

Three lousy songs no world famous tiger bill drum solos no thinking man I have to pick up a different instrument cause this guy is "sick", nothing just more back roads and highway.

Now I guess I was in a hurry to get home cause I got pulled over going a little over the speed limit. Now we at hitplay are law abiding folk but sometimes these speed limits seem like they were for cars built in the 1950's not today. At any rate I beat the rap because of my (I'm going to give you a trade secret here, one that keeps me out of tickets for 20 years) monopoly get out of jail free card the police love them.

Any way we have a lot of music to bring you and it really starts next week so I thought I'd just ramble a bit tonight. If you get a chance check out tiger bill he is the last of that buddy rich joe morello type monster drummer left.

peace 

dave.hitplay

we are who we are,and who we are is hitplay and thats cool

We at hitplay love music. We are in a position to take the music we love and bring to the world via or relationship with RED music and their relationship with SONY/BMG. Not a bad place to be here at hitplay.

But whats the point? why would major label people (who we love) give us the opportunity to develop artisit's like ELisa Girlando? Well thats the interesting thing.

I think I know why, do you?

The answer came to me while I was perusing a billboard magazine the other day.

While looking at that magazine I had an epiphany. Yes I said an epiphany. I noticed that many of the top selling albums where from bands that I listened to years ago (pink floyd, led zepplin etc) SSooo why does our deal relate to "the dark side of the moon" record??

Well great artists and great bands often need time to develop Page needed the Yardbirds and Pink Floyd needed many records (and many bong hits) to get to dark side of the moon. Its like a major leaguer: you don't hit 320 with 45 home runs out of high school. Even with a daily dose of testosterone, it takes time to develop.

And that's why HitPlay is SO important to the big label. We will give artist's with great talent like Elisa Girlando the ability to develop. There will be no pressure that if we don't sell 850,000 units of the upcoming CD that we will be forced by corporate ($$$) pressure to try a different act. No we know Elisa is a star and we know we need to develop her audience and her career. That's the importance of hitplay to the mother label. Without us they continue to drift from act to act until they find one that hits or move on.

We are making careers here and that's why RED and ultimately SONY wants?needs? us to succeed. As our artists grow the revenue stream to the mother label grows while we use our money time and effort to develop the acts we love and know will succeed.

And that's my opinion, tell me what you think.

Dave.HitPlay

Elisa Girlando - At Last A capella

Elisa Girlando in the Studio

Ted Jensen To Master Elisa Girlando CD

Tomorrow is a major day at HitPlay. World famous mastering engineer Ted Jensen chief mastering engineer at Sterling sound NYC will be mastering the Elisa Girlando CD. His credits include: Kid Rock,Fallout Boy, Bjork,Lifehouse,Dishwalla,Ian Hunter,Mighty Mighty Bosstones, GooGoDolls, Thw Wallflowers,Collective Soul, Hole, David Byrne, B52's,Replacements, Moby, Slipknot, Staind, Pantera, Korn, David Sanchez, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Annie Lennox, Dave Mathews and literally thousands More!!! He is the senior mastering engineer at Sterling and we are honored he will put the final touches on the E-Girl CD.

Once the CD is complete we will be bringing it to RED music for their finally review and then come up with a release game plan.

peace,

dave.hitplay 

Another Good Day At HitPlay

We had another great day at HitPlay today. First, Phil landed legendary sterling sound mastering engineer Ted Jensen. He will be mastering Elisa Girlando's album. Ted has a resume that reads like a roll call for the rock n roll hall of fame, and we at hitplay are psyched to get his finishing touches on the CD.

We also were able to get our first video uploaded too YouTube today. The nonperformance video features scenes taken during the fall recording sessions set to the song "you cant change". Go to the link and check it out. Its the first in a series of videos we hope to release over the next two weeks.

As always: more to come

peace,

dave.hitplay

noodling along until.......

my uncle George passed away this week and it got me thinking and that's usually trouble (and yes i know it has nothing to do with music),so here it goes..

we all "noodle" along in life not thinking of all the troubles around us: poverty; disease; anger; rage. Then suddenly it comes up and bites us. When bad things happen they shock us back to a dark reality and then if we survive we move on and slowly forget until this next time.

that is the model of most of our lives, and so i say don't sweet the small stuff its not worth it. somebody said something that annoyed you; you didn't get a promotion; you cant go away to Disney world this year; someone is doing better than you; it all doesn't matter because there are troubles on every horizon. enjoy the time you have trouble free, enjoy your family, your friends,your work, your life: those are the things that matter and when trouble strikes, know you didn't waste anytime on something that didn't really matter.

that's the preaching for today tomorrow we are back to work with Elisa Girlando, out of truth and hitplay records with more news about something that matters : great music :)

peace,

dave.hitplay

the goal is to keep the goal the goal

My goals are simple:

1.work as hard as i can to make "out of truth" the best band it can be. Then support ELisa Girlando so she can shine live. If that happens E-Girl has a great career and out of truth supports her for years to come. and i may get to play with her through those years!
2. work as hard as i can to make hitplay records a real success. when that happens we can continue to put out music we love and make a living doing it. love what your doing and get paid for it how good is that?

Whenever the garbage gets in the way I look to these simple goals and see if anything is worth mucking it up and if not I mentally and physically move on.

Its a good idea in life to have a goal or three and recognize when stuff that has no bearing on your goals is getting in the way. when you recognize it put it down and get back to the goal.

That's what I think what do you think?

dave.hitplay

some news

Elisa Girlando CD is complete and is getting mastered this next week.

Elisa Girlando just passed 13,350 my space hits today

Out of Truth is rehearsing for first live show of the year supporting Elisa Girlando

should be able to get new YouTube video up next week

peace,

dave.hitplay

ETTA JAMES AMERICAN DIVA

Unless you've been living under a rock this week you've heard about the rantings of ETTA JAMES. She seems pissed off. Mad at beyonce mad a Obama mad at the world. 

Why would she feel this way?

People have attitude for various reasons: they're pissed because they perceive they've been wronged; there are the talentless and they use attitude like a Southerner uses a 12 gauge or a neurologist uses a Ferrari(read compensate for small schwanzstucker)definitely not ETTA. But why Etta James? and whats the Obama thing? Could she be the only African American in America not happy he is President? I don't get it.

Well my guess is Beyonce is hot, hotter than Etta ever was physically and she is pissey that she gets more attention and Etta isn't feeling the love. Also perhaps Etta wants people to check her out online and is using this for attention.

Well Etta we at HitPlay love you. We love the voice, the weight gain, the weight loss, the bad attitude: we love it all so when Elisa Girlando sings your tunes don't be copping BAD attitude with us because for hitplay we play em with LOVE.

PS. what do you think of the new photo??

dave.hitplay

The Peanut Gallery

Hey all, Its a new voice on the blog! I'm Amanda Carl, longtime pal of the Hitplay crew and songwriter for Elisa Girlando. I've co- written with Phil Garland on four of the songs for the 2009 release so far, and they all sound great! I'm so excited for this endeavor, and am so proud of the Hitplay crew.
I've been working with Phil for over five years now, since he produced my independantly released album "On What You Love". so that leaves me at the ripe ol' age of twenty. I'm very wide-eyed during this experience of helping launch the new label, and I feel very privelaged to be doing so, with so many talented people.
Anyway, that was just a little preface, here's some good stuff.

I've been working on a small video of Elisa in the studio for promotional purposes, and its coming out really well. It is of us in the studio recording "Rise Up" its really lighthearted and fun, and I think it really shows Elisa's adorable and funny personality. I just recieved some footage that Dave (creator of this blog) recorded during the session with all the brass players for "You Can't Change"! I think its gonna turn out really great. So that's what I'm doing right now, besides trying to come up with some new song ideas to "keep producing material" in the words of Phil the great.

Thanks Dave for lettin' me on the blog, and I'll keep updating as new things keep popping into my head!
-Amanda

who is Zander Bleck?

Phil was approached by the ad agency in NYC to see if HitPlay was interested in the possibility of releasing the Zander Bleck CD. He is a very talented young man, and the NYC ad agency can be seen throughout his web presence. May be a great find. He'll do great with or without HitPlay.

 

Phil is still working the mixes to get ready for the release of Elisa Girlando CD, I'm pushing for mastering this week.

 Amanda Carl is working with HitPlay now. She is "wicked talented" and a release may be in the cards  with Amanda as well. For now if she comes onto the blog enjoy the show.

dave.hitplay

10 things I like about our RED music deal

1. RED has great reputation

2. Long term deal allows time to develop our acts

3. Has the support of management at SONY

4. We own the content

5. Great resources at our fingertips

6. Going to NYC for meetings

7. Having a SONY affiliated label

8. People want to get involved

9. We call the shots

10. We can take our time and develop a career for Elisa Girlando 

The making of Hit Play Records: good meeting no meeting

The making of Hit Play Records: good meeting no meeting

good meeting no meeting

Today we had an excellent phone meeting with some of our SONY friends to review our plan for Elisa Girlando. This was very positive conversation were we learned how positive they view E-Girls vocals and their hopes to develop her.

We were scheduled for a meeting with a booking agency but that had to be cancelled due to illness.

CD is being readied for mastering once that's done we will sit down with RED and develop a comprehensive marketing promotional plan. We feel its premature to do much of this without the CD done as the RED folk need to see the entire package to get it. Once seen they will be even more excited to get the word out.

more to come,

dave.hitplay

a special night

Played a memorial concert last night for Dr Roland Johnson. Dr Johnson was a very very bright guy, old school doctor, who passed away prematurely. I was honored to play for this event. Roland loved music and was seen at many an Out Of Truth concert in the past.

Played this show with the band Silver Train. Straight blues rock ensemble with decent players.Its not Elisa Girlando but they are a good group. We had a great night. 

It important to play with different musicians. You'll appreciate the great ones when you come in contact with them, you'll learn new styles and material, you'll keep your chops up.

We'll be working the Internet next week at hitplay as the songs go to mastering.

dave.hitplay