Ready For the Living Room NYC

We spent most of the past week getting ready for the Elisa Girlando showcase this Thursday August 6'th at the lvingroom nyc. The show will be well attended by SONY/RED music folks and will start promptly at 7pm.

Much of the work we did was getting the band ready for the show, coordinating the show with the Livingroom and RED music, and energizing the Elisa fan base for the show. I think we are ready on all levels.

The band set is very solid and it showcases Elisa's amazing voice and talents with her on Piano and straight vocal. We go from modern pop to ballads to blues rock and ELisa handles it all. Out of Truth is sounding great and although we had a small health scare everyone should be there. A founding member did go down but was released from the hospital in time for the dress rehearsal. You think Phil was nervous in the past you should have seen him when he heard Bob was in the hospital. Think Xanax BIG DOSES!!HAHA  Well it all worked out and everyone is ready to go.

Alan Becker over at RED is acting as ELisa's A&R man and was instrumental in getting the show together and getting the RED team fired up for the show. Its amazing how things can come together quickly and easily with the right people behind you. Thanks again Alan. 

Alan assured us and the club a strong RED turnout and asked me if we could bring some people over to the city to support the show. I guaranteed him a strong Elisa turnout. Because this was my first guarantee I have been working non-stop to make sure we have a great turnout for the show. I have a few tricks up my sleeve which I will tell you about if they work next week. Needless to say the fan base will be there in force.

We also had to coordinate with the club getting in and unloaded and getting a sound check and having our own sound man work with the living room sound people. Cu dos to Candy for making all that happen.

Well the band is ready, Elisa is ready, the club is ready, and RED is coming so here we go everybody...........

dave.hitplay

here is a sneak peek at rehersal this will only be here for a few days so check it out then its gone forever!!

I forgot to tell you "another songbird" held number one pop slot on singingfool this weekend and was up to number five on the California Music Channel this week!

In The RED; music that is

This past week we spent some time in the city working on the Elisa Girlando project.

Our first meeting was a lunch meeting with Tom Carrabba of SONY. He has been a fan of ELisa's and was instrumental in bringing hitplay and RED music together. He offers us guidance and other sagely advice and Phil and I appreciate his time and effort. Most of the meeting revolved around working with RED and the things we hope to accomplish with the livingroom show.

After lunch we caught a quick cab ride down to RED music for our strategic planning meeting. We met with ALan Becker and two of his staff Billie jean and Brandy. They work the RED Internet marketing department and a lot of our meeting was devoted to promoting ELisa Girlando over the Internet and how RED can assist us with this. The other half of the meeting revolved around promoting the livingroom gig and getting folks to the show. I found this to be a very comfortable group and the ideas they have are going to be very helpful to the cause. Everyone was psyched when I told them about the FUSE on demand add for September!

Phil and I then hopped down to the livingroom to get a feel for the room before heading home.

We had a long day but it really was a lot of FUN.

This week more video adds to report???

peace, 

dave.hitplay

Summer Heating up at HitPlay

We have a lot of stuff happening this month at HitPlay.

First up the Elisa Girlando "another songbird" video campaign is kicking off! Kudos to Andy Gesner and HIP video for being so passionate about the project. With that enthusiasm it cant miss. The video is going for adds across the country starting tomorrow!

Next up the band is rehearsing for our live support of Elisa. We have three shows lined up:

1. Friday July 10th 7pm at Dykstra Park Sparta NJ with Daniella Cotton

2. Tuesday August 4'th 7pm at The Living Room NYC. This is our SONY/RED showcase-very important

3. Friday August 21'st Maxwells Hoboken NJ. This show is a showcase for HIP Video with some live clips being shot and interviews etc. 10pm.

More to come,

dave.hitplay

CD COMPLETE !

The debut Elisa Girlando CD is finished and will be delivered to RED music tomorrow. The CD contains 10 tracks. We anticipate a digital release in approximately four weeks and a hard copy release four weeks after that. Now comes the real work marketing and playing live. Should be Fun!

DAVE.HITPLAY

Elisa Girlando breaks first top ten chart!

Elisa Girlando (aka E-Girl) has just broken her first top ten chart! We just came in at number nine on the reverb nation blues chart, on the strength of our upcoming single "another songbird". You can listen to the song on the reverb nation site. Our first milestone before we even get the song over to RED music. I hear a buzz, do you?

Elisa also top 18,000 hits on myspace this week and is rapidly moving towards 19,000 hits. Our strategy at hitplay seems to be working. Find great songs, mix them with great musicians (out of truth band), and let Elisa finish them off and we would have that "retro-fresh" sound, the "HitPlay Sound". Slowly start to spread the word and let it build.

Don't miss Elisa and out of truth at boodles opera house Sat March 28'th at 9pm

Its fun to be here at hitplay 

peace,

dave.hitplay

The Blues or not the Blues? That IS the question.

We had an interesting conversation today at hitplay. We posed a question vital to the success of the E-Girl CD. On the surface easy to answer but when we really thought about it it became much more difficult. 

And what is the question you are asking?

How should we characterize Elisa Girlando's music. Is she blues, contemporary blues, aor, pop, RnB? 

On the surface we felt that E-Girl was definite contemporary blues. But what about the single "another songbird". That's not blues that's definitely pop, and so the dilema. If we push blues the audience may be smaller, but it would be easier to climb up the charts. This is evident by our reverb nation chart climb with minimal promotion (currently number 20 on the blues chart). But there are more pop fans and although it is harder to get noticed when you do the rewards can be greater.

So we are going to sleep trying to decide what we will ultimately do with the Elisa Girlando CD. Although we thought we had it all down we go and start thinking again, and that can usually means trouble my friends.

Listen to the songs and tell us what you think.

dave.hitplay

Elisa Girlando playing Boodles Opera House Chester,NY

We had a great weekend in the studio. Completed the drum tracks for 7 songs on the Jon George project. The songs are great catchy tunes and I cant wait until you get to hear some of it. Perhaps when they get further along Wayne George and Phil Garland will let me put a tune or two on-line???

We also recorded a new track for Elisa Girlando, and man is it good. We all felt very strong on this tune as a possible single for the new CD so much so we had to get in and record it immediately. I am here to tell you it will be a monster- remember you heard it hear first.

If you cant wait to hear the new tune "scheming", click over to E-Girls reverb nation page and check out "songbird". The song is rising up through the blues charts before the release and is now as of today number 20 on the reverb nation charts. Wow number twenty before we release it on SONY/RED music. Do you hear a buzz?? I do.

We are ready to start playing live and the first show will be at boodles opera house in Chester, NY. If you want to see a great artist backed by an awesome band them come to this show you will love it!

peace,

dave.hitplay

A Drummin Kinda Weekend

Hey there hitplay fans. This is gonna be a fun weekend for our hero (that's me). I get to go to the studio and play drums all weekend long. Boy this hitplay lifestyle is really tough on a boy!

First up is a new song for ELisa Girlando. The hitplay studios and E-Girl teamed up with talented songwriters Max Huber and Jav (his central American sidekick) to write an awesome song.Max, Elisa, and Jav are a great songwritting team and we cant wait for more. We at hitplay feel so strong about the song that we want it on the finished CD. SOOOOOOO its back t the studio I go. When you get that special feeling with a song you gotta run with it.

Next up is a great project and a possible future release at hitplay. The Jon George project. This is a tremendous project and I'm honored that Wayne George asked me to be a part of it. Once this gets a little further along I'll have more to say about it.

Well I need my beauty rest cause I'll be drumming all weekend long.

peace,

dave.hitplay

Candace Giaquinto joins Out Of Truth band

We are pleased to announce the addition of Candace Giaquinto to the "Out Of Truth" band. Candace is in rehearsal with the band and will be playing percussion, some bass, some harp, and backing vocals. The band will be supporting Elisa Girlando with her up coming CD release on HitPlay records.

Candyce Giaquinto’s powerful and distinctive vocals reflect a unique blend of influences ranging from R&B, soul and blues, to jazz and rock. But whatever the style, one of her greatest talents lies in her ability to always deliver a genuine and emphatic performance.

In addition to her vocal prowess, Candyce also plays flute, bass, harmonica, mandolin and percussion. She is an accomplished writer as well and one of the primary writers on the most recent album by The Suits, as she was for her former bands, Bliss and The Adults. Working out of her home studio, she has also written and produced several soundtracks.

Candyce's compositions are as diverse as her vocal talents and reflect a variety of styles from austere and moody to searing Latin, jazz and Afro-Cuban inspired pieces. Lyrically, she will take you on an emotional journey, often told through the eyes of one of her vivid characters.

Throughout her musical career Candyce has performed in numerous venues where she has shared the stage with Black Sabbath, Colin Quinn, Room Full of Blues, Papa John Creach and Kathleen Turner. She has also entertained many foreign dignitaries including the Prime Minister of Italy.

In the summer of 2004, Candyce traveled to China as the featured vocalist and percussionist in an R&B / jazz / reggae band, touring seven cities including Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In addition to her live performances, Candyce has spent a great deal of time in the studio recording her own compositions, jingles, corporate tracks and has recorded work for “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos”.

Wherever and whatever the performance, Candyce’s expressive renderings are sure to leave a lasting impression.

You can see Candace live with Elisa Girlando and the Out of Truth band throughout 2009. Its shaping up to be an awesome year isn't it!

New Video from Elisa Girlando and Out of Truth Band

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

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