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Tom McKean and the Emperors - Rock
EUROPE: United Kingdom
Artist Bio:This is a new band of disillusioned idealists and disappointed optimists fronted by Scottish singer/songwriter Tom McKean and based in London, UK.It’s been an interesting year or two, dear reader. Our debut single was voted Record of the Week on Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s popular BBC Radio 2 show here in the UK. It was also Record of the Day on influential music industry website Record of the Day (a more appropriate name for it we can’t imagine) and garnered some great reviews from the press. We’ve been playing packed-to-the-rafters shows and enjoyed last summer’s festivals where, most memorably, we just about made it through a haze of sunburn and very strong cider at Glastonbury. We picked up a manager along the way and found ourselves in Texas earlier this year making our debut album with Grammy-nominated producer John Congleton. He’s worked with artists as varied as Modest Mouse, Antony and the Johnsons, The Polyphonic Spree, Explosions in the Sky, Marilyn Manson and Erykah Badu as well as more mainstream acts like Bono and Celine Dion. John also fronts anarchic noise rockers The Paper Chase. We're delighted with the results and you can here some of the tracks here on Indie Heart. It should be out early 2010. We wrote, rehearsed and demoed the album (and live in) a house that used to be the home of legendary poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Peter O’Toole was a long-standing lodger (in what's now Bobby's bedroom) and he, Hughes and Plath would drink and read poetry late into the night with friends David Lean, Jacques Tati and Albert Finney. Much of our record was conceived in the same room under similar circumstances and we like to think that we're in some way carrying on the tradition of the house. Dylan Thomas was often to be found drinking round the corner in our local pub. He inspired our track “Gazing at the Dying of the Light” which quotes directly from his poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. Through the vagaries of luck and hard work we’ve found ourselves making the kind of music we always wished we could. We very much hope you enjoy it. All the best, Tom McKean & the Emperors To receive a free download join their mailing list at www.theemperors.co.uk "The mixture of McKean's growl and the excellent lyrics evoke a sound reminiscent of Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits... quality songwriting" - Record of the Day “Nick Cave jamming with Tom Waits playing in a Jazz Bar during a Tarantino movie… toe-curlingly good” - livemusic.fm "Live, they're capable of making audiences weak at the knees" - Metro (One to Watch) Debut single This is the Year is “..a rather beautiful record” - Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2 “Really, really gorgeous” - Stuart Maconie, BBC Radio 2 One Thing on my Mind is "Plaintive, bleak and beautiful" - Stephen Merchant show, BBC 6 Music "They've been causing a stir and quite rightly too." - Strummerville Songs Available On IndieHeart Radio:
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