The Rock and Roll Report Band of the Week is Picture Me Broken

I was invited to see a “Melodic Hard Rock” band that just happened to have some “Screamo” thrown in. “Picture Me Broken” is such a band and I was invited to their open showcase in Los Angles a few weeks ago. Sure I live in the LA basin, but the show was at 7:00pm on a Friday evening in the heart of Hollywood and I just wasn’t sure I wanted to take the two hour ride with my husband and 14 year old daughter through the streets of Orange County and Downtown LA to get to the small studio to see a band belonging to a musical genre I am just not too into in the first place. But I went, because after a long week I thought it would be great to get out for a show that possibly (but unlikely) my entire family could enjoy and relate to… But I was so very wrong in my assumption… because all three of us had a blast!

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Stuart Epps Toured America with Elton John, Produced and Engineered Records for Led Zeppelin and Paul Rodgers and is Now Focusing on the Next Generation – Part 2 of 2

… Continued from Thursday, November 5th

Q: Over the years has there been one artist that’s particularly stood out as the best or most interesting to work with?

A: Definitely the main one is Elton: the most amazing songwriter and singer and all around artist and performer that I’ve ever met. But I’ve been very lucky; I’ve worked with lots of great bands. Jimmy Page was another one I learnt a lot from and Paul Rodgers is probably the best singer I’ve ever worked with [...] he made an album with Kenney Jones, the drummer from The Who, and they had a band called The Law and he’s definitely one of the best artists I’ve ever worked with. Not the easiest [but] usually the best artists aren’t the easiest to work with. Chris Rea who I worked with and sang with, I sang on backing vocals on his album [...] I’ve been very lucky. I have worked with Oasis, and I worked with Robbie Williams and, you know, I worked with some pretty big artists and it’s always, even if you’re not into their music, it’s always interesting to see what makes them the way they are.

My big hope now is to be able to [...] come across an artist for myself who’s in the early stages of their career that I can then use all my experience to help fulfill and hopefully make into a similarly big recording artist, which is what we’re trying to do with Kendal Sant at the moment. [...] You know I still love making music with people, still love making records, still good fun. Which is a bit surprising really because you think it’s something you might grow out of, but it’s still good fun.

Q: As you mentioned, now you’re focusing your attention on up-and-coming artists, how do you find them?

A: I don’t really look. I’ve got a twenty-four year old son and he told me about MySpace and initially I couldn’t work it out at all, I thought “This is really peculiar”, but it’s been brilliant for me. Bands just come, you know, it’s a way of people getting in touch with me who wouldn’t be able to normally. So I don’t actually do much looking. It’s mainly people just coming to me and that’s how I met Kendal and I probably worked with twenty bands or so from MySpace.

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CD Review: Andrew Petersen “The Universe, And Its Sense Of Humour”

Singer/songwriter Andrew Petersen (Brisbane, Australia) has released his first solo album entitled, “The Universe, And Its Sense Of Humour”. Petersen, the frontman for soul-rockers Shutterspeed, has been working on this project for 2 years, which he describes as: “It’s got definite country flavours but it’s not a country record, it’s got pop sensibilities but it’s not a pop record. It’s music with a melodic heart. It’s music with humour and passion”.

Petersen’s solo record distinguishes itself from Shutterspeed with its organic and acoustic feel, yet he has not abandoned his instinct for writing solid melodic hooks. Sprinkled into the mix you’ll hear some well-placed harmonica, mandolin, pedal steel, and banjo, but it would be a misnomer to call this country or folk – it’s more pop rock with an alt-country flavor. The production is remarkably good – bright, crisp guitars whether strummed or picked.

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