Andy Grammer And Alex & Sierra At Masquerade

The Bowery Presents:: Andy Grammer Alex & Sierra w/ Paradise Fears, Rachel Platten Thursday March 12 Masquerade: Heaven 7pm Doors // $20 ADV Tix: http://bit.ly/AndyGAlexSierraATL Twitter: @Andygrammer @AlexandSierra @paradisefears Andy Grammer - http://www.andygrammer.com/ From hustling street performer on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade to Platinum-selling recording artist, it seems like just yesterday that ANDY GRAMMER was discovered by Steve Greenberg and signed to S-Curve Records. With his 2011 self-titled debut album, Grammer became the first male pop star in a decade, since John Mayer in 2002, to reach the Top 10 at Adult Pop Radio on his first two singles, “Keep Your Head Up” and “Fine By Me,” certified Platinum and Gold respectively, selling more than 1.5 million downloads combined. In just a few short years, Grammer has gone on to sell over 100,000 albums, play sold out venues nationwide, perform onstage with Taylor Swift, Train, and Colbie Caillat, appear on an array of national TV shows, receive major song placements in film and TV, receive two BMI Pop Music Awards, grace the cover of national touring trade magazine Pollstar and present at their annual awards show, among many other accomplishments. While hard at work on his highly anticipated sophomore album titled Magazines or Novels, due outAugust 5 onS-Curve Records, Grammer released “Back Home,” a joyously anthemic track that illustrates his knack for writing infectious, relatable songs remains strong, as does his soaring voice. It also showcases the musician’s growth since his last full-length release. On the new album, Grammer reinforces his place among elite male pop artists through honest reflections of the impressive ride he’s been on during the past couple of years. “‘Back Home’ is about those friends, specific places and vivid memories that remind us who we are,” says Grammer, who wrote the song while far from home on a national headline tour, hoping to recapture that which is always part of him. “Back Home”is already wowing critics and fans alike. Since its debut on RyanSeacrest.com in March, it has been said “Back Home” has “the same infectious feel as his former chart-topping singles” and it also debuted at #8 on Spotify’s Top 50 Viral streaming songs across the U.S. Since then, a lyric video for the single premiered on OK! Magazine’s website, as well as Vevo, and the official music video premiered on Billboard.com. Grammer played an acoustic version of “Back Home” for Perez Hilton TV recently as well, serving as a tantalizing preview of the full album. The son of a Grammy-nominated children’s performer Red Grammer, he often joined his dad on-stage to sing, promoting his fierce ambition to succeed. His father instilled his work ethic and taught him to respect his audience. “I saw what it took to cultivate an artistic career,” Grammer says. By ninth grade, Grammer taught himself to write songs on his dad’s guitar, with a first group, Out of the Blue, which played his first original composition, “Doorstep,” at a battle of the bands contest. Hearing the 1998 Grammy-winning album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill “shifted things inside of me and I loved it,” says Grammer, who cites Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Common and Coldplay among his musical influences on his mix of hip-hop, acoustic singer/songwriters and piano rock. His self-titled S-Curve Records debut was the product of intensive, deliberate practice and a personable performance style that involved entertaining on the streets of Santa Monica with his car battery-powered amplifier and acoustic guitar. Songs from the upbeat “Keep Your Head Up” and the breezy “Fine by Me,” to the jubilant horns of “The Pocket” and the emotional “Miss Me,” found Grammer creating pop songs with both heartfelt, relatable lyrics and instantly hummable hooks. His background singing on the streets helped him hone his performance style, and clued him in on audience expectations. The success of his debut album brought him to places he had dreamed of, but never expected to visit. “I’m just trying to track down the truth,” says the L.A.-born performer, who grew up in New York. “My favorite thing is writing from a bird’s-eye view, whether it’s a break-up or a good relationship. I like to be far enough away to see the whole scope of what’s occurring.” His platinum debut Top 5 hit single “Keep Your Head Up”was admonishing himself to maintain the faith in the wake of frustration. The groundbreaking interactive video – a partnership between VEVO, S-Curve and innovative tech company Interlude – won an MTV O Award for Most Innovative, topping Arcade Fire, Robyn and OK Go! The clip starred The Office’s Rainn Wilson, whom Grammer calls “a gracious, amazing guy,” he met through a former roommate. “Keep Your Head Up” has been heard on several TV shows and films, including a prominent placement in the movie “Pitch Perfect” where the main characters sang the song. Grammer’s second single off his debut album,“Fine by Me,” also sailed into the Top 10 on the Adult Pop chart and wascertified gold. Grammer describes the track as “about having my heart stolen” talks about love as “an all-or-nothing emotion.” Although he initially tried to play it cool, he proceeded to “falling so hard in about four days.” “Miss Me,”his third single off his album, climbed to #15 at Hot AC. Music videos for all three hit singles reached the Top 10 onVH1’s “Top 20” weekly video countdown. Grammer’s 28-date Back Home Summer Tour, featuring opening acts Andrew Ripp, Kate Voegele and Brendan James, gets underway June 10 in Phoenix, and includes a June 16 date at the Hollywood Bowl, where he will perform on a bill which includes Ed Sheeran, Demi Lovato and Colbie Caillat, and a show at New York’s Irving Plaza on June 26 following his first nationally televised morning show performance of “Back Home” on “Good Morning America” that morning. “I appreciate the opportunity to get in and move things around in people,” he says. “The best gigs take place when you can see the whole room has moved somewhere together.” This summer, he’ll be taking those audiences “Back Home,” a place where Andy Grammer still lives in his heart, even when he’s far from there. In the three years since Andy Grammer released his self-titled debut album, the Los Angeles native singer-songwriter known for his vibrant pop/rock/soul mix has taken an incredible journey. Emerging as one of the biggest success stories in 2012, Andy has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (three times) while sharing the stage with Taylor Swift, Train, and Colbie Caillat. He was named the first male pop star, since John Mayer in 2002, to reach the Top 10 at Adult Pop Radio on his first 2 singles, “Keep Your Head Up” and “Fine By Me”, both certified Platinum and Gold respectively with more than 1,500,000 singles sold together. Now, in 2014, the acclaimed musician who began as a street performer in Santa Monica, CA is preparing for the release of his second studio album – an album he has been quietly working on and pouring his heart and soul into while in the midst of touring his first record. On March 25, Andy surprised both fans and critics alike when he debuted his lead single, “Back Home”, off of his upcoming sophomore album. The anthemic feel-good jam blends his infectious pop style and an upbeat folk production, leaving summer graduates and listeners repeatedly singing along to the contagious chorus and nostalgia-induced lyrics. For Andy, “Back Home” is “about those friends, specific places, and vivid memories that remind us who we are”. It was an important song for Andy to write while he was away from home and on a national headline tour. On April 8, Andy surprises his fans by announcing his second headline tour, the Back Home Summer Tour, in conjunction with the release of “Back Home” on iTunes. With 26 confirmed tour dates in the summer, Andy is poised to make this year another big success story. It’s widely known that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert at anything. Andy Grammer logged his 10,000 hours of practice on the streets of Los Angeles. With his car battery-powered amplifier and acoustic guitar in tow, Grammer managed to sing his way from the streets to the center of the music industry. One listen to Grammer’s self-titled S-Curve Records debut and it is clear that this young man has become an expert. From the buoyant “Keep Your Head Up” to the breezy “Fine By Me,” to the jubilant horn-laced “The Pocket,” and emotionally-charged “Miss Me,” his irresistible pop songs blend heartfelt, compelling lyrics with instantly unforgettable melodies. Even though he knew music would be his path, Grammer never assumed it would be an easy road or that he could take any success for granted. He played any corner that would have him—using every experience to hone not only his songwriting craft but to learn how to understand his audience. His desire to be heard led him to the streets: “I didn’t know what else to do. So I just went out there and started playing.” The success of Grammer’s album would exceed even his expectations. “That I even get to play a sold-out show where people know the words, and I'm singing about things I'm connected to is such a blessing,” he says. “It’s the equivalent of a nine-year-old saying ‘I want to be an astronaut when I grow up’ and then getting to go to the moon. This year I've been to the moon, and it’s awesome.” Grammer recorded the album in New York and Los Angeles with a collection of top producers, including Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5), S*A*M & Sluggo (Train, Neon Trees), and Barrett Yeretsian (Christina Perri). “Basically, it was show up somewhere, really dig in with someone who’s going to help you get your creative vision across and then go somewhere else and do it again,” he says. “We got some really great stuff that I wouldn’t have gotten if I just worked with one producer.” Every song that Grammer wrote on the album had one goal in mind: “I’m just trying to track down the truth,” says Grammer, who was born in Los Angeles and grew up in New York. “My favorite thing is to pop up above everybody and write from a bird’s-eye view. It may be about a break-up, it may be about a good relationship, it may be what we’re doing on this planet here. I like to be far enough away to see the whole scope of what’s occurring.” While much of his music is upbeat, Grammer is quick to add that he’s hardly “pink and fluffy.” I’m not intentionally trying to be positive, I’m just trying to be real.” In fact, Grammer wrote “Keep Your Head Up” as a letter of encouragement to himself after he’d spent an exhausting day street performing and had little money to show for it. The video--which features groundbreaking interactive technology in a partnership between VEVO, Interlude and S-Curve--won an MTV O Award for Most Innovative Video, topping entries from Arcade Fire, Robyn and OK Go! “The most challenging part about the video was the sheer amount of times we’d have to tape each cut so people can go through the video thousands of different ways,” Grammer says. “It was crazy.” The clip stars “The Office’s” Rainn Wilson. “He’s such a gracious, amazing guy,” says Grammer, who met Wilson through a former roommate. “He gave me tips on how to look in the camera. The video has gotten so much more exposure because of him coming and hanging out.” Another album standout track is “Fine By Me,” with its intimate lyrics, sparkling pop melody and funky undertow. “‘Fine By Me” is about having my heart stolen,” says Grammer. “It’s a story about a girl who came into my life and just robbed it right from under me. In my experience love is an all-or-nothing emotion. We are all really protective of ourselves because we know that if we fall in love we'll fall hard. So we kind of dance around the edges with our tippy toes in the water playing it cool. I went from playing it SO cool to falling SO hard in about four days.” Grammer grew up in a musical household. His father, Red Grammer, is a Grammy-nominated children’s performer who gladly indulged his son’s desire to get on stage...to a point. “My dad would bring me up to sing with him. I’d just have a couple of lines,” Grammer remembers. “Afterwards, I’d say, ‘Dad, I think I’m going to need a bigger part in your show because I nailed that. Seriously, it was intense. I can see it in their eyes, they want more of me.’ I was six or seven and he just laughed and laughed.” His dad gave Grammer an insider’s insight into what happens off stage as well. “The most important thing I learned from my father about being a musician was the work ethic,” Grammer says. “He worked really hard, he traveled all across the country. I saw his respect for his audience, respect for himself. I saw him take days off where he wouldn’t talk to rest his voice. I saw the work it takes to cultivate an artist’s career.” In 9th grade, Grammer picked up his dad’s guitar and taught himself to write songs. “I knew one chord, so I was like, ‘I’m going to write the coolest song with one chord ever’,” Grammer laughs. His first band, Out of the Blue, got off to an auspicious start after playing some covers as well as Grammer’s first original song, “Doorstep,” at a battle of bands contest. “We did not win...at all,” Grammer says. “I thought it was going to be a big concert moment. It was fun, but it was like, ‘This is really hard and we suck.” Around the same time, Grammer had a musical epiphany when he heard Lauryn Hill’s seminal solo album, 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. “It felt like it was shifting things inside of me and I loved it,” he says. Other artists who helped him influence his sound include Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Coldplay and Common. “For me, it’s always been about a mix of hip-hop, acoustic singer/songwriters and piano rock,” he says. “I pull all those together. Each song may lean more heavily on one than the other, but they all have all three pieces.” So that’s what he did. Now based in Los Angeles, Grammer began playing everywhere he could, including gigs at more than 100 colleges and universities, as well as birthday parties and high school dance classes. “I’d send my music to a choreographer and she would choreograph a dance, then I would come in and play while 100 high school students would dance to my music,” he says. “They’d know all my music and come to my shows. It was all really fun. Any time you make the transfer of ‘I’ve created something and I’m giving it to you and I hope it makes you happy,’ that’s good.” Performing live remains a communal experience for Grammer, who’s toured with Train, Gavin DeGraw, Colbie Caillat, Mat Kearney, the Plain White T’s, Parachute, and Natasha Bedingfield - among others. “As an artist, you have an opportunity to get in and move things around in people. It’s one of the only times during the day where they say, ‘I’m going to open up to some other stuff here,’ and you have that hour to get in and move stuff around and put it all back together. Those are the best gigs, where you can see that the whole room has moved somewhere together.” Alex & Sierra - http://www.alexandsierraofficial.com/ Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton met on the beach in Florida when they were in high school, not realizing at the time that it was the fortuitous beginning of a musical journey. Alex was a musician, inspired by the infectious music and optimistic attitude of Jason Mraz, while Sierra was a competitive dancer with a love for all things artistic. The pair eventually moved from a friendship to a relationship, always singing together for fun in the car. Every week Sierra would drive over an hour to see Alex perform at venues around Daytona and New Smyrna Beach and it was only a matter of time before he began calling her up onstage to sing. As this continued for a year, the collaboration became more and more significant and eventually transitioned into Alex & Sierra. "We realized we could do more than just a song or two," Alex says. "It felt like more than that. I've always had confidence in music – that's the only thing I could ever really see myself doing. And then when we started performing together I realized I would get more applause when Sierra was onstage. That made me feel even more confident in performing music. It really was something special." In early 2013, the duo filmed themselves singing the Civil Wars' "Barton Hollow" in front of a rubber ducky shower curtain in Alex's college dorm as an audition for The X Factor. Months passed and the group continued performing around Florida, including a show outside Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran's Amway Arena performance in Orlando in the spring of 2013 for top 40 station, XL 106.7 where Sierra was an intern. In May, news arrived that Alex & Sierra had scored a spot on The X Factor, which they eventually won in December. The experience quickly took the pair to the next level, expanding their musical skills as they offered fan-favorite renditions of songs like Taylor Swift "I Knew You Were Trouble" and Sheeran's "Give Me Love." Alex & Sierra's versions of A Great Big World's "Say Something" and Sara Bareilles' "Gravity" reached No. 1 on iTunes. Overall, their X Factor numbers have sold over one million copies and earned 69 million views on YouTube. "The thing we lived by on the show was making sure what we did represented us," Alex says. "It didn't matter if we made it one week or until the end, it all had to be what we would do after the fact. The show was amazing because it's a great platform for musicians who want to be musicians in the long run. It was a place to start our career." Only a few weeks after becoming the first group to win The X Factor, Alex & Sierra headed back to Los Angeles to start work on their debut album. The idea was to create original songs that reflected the duo's thoughtful, amiable aesthetic. Their first writing session yielded over 20 songs, eight of which appear on their debut album It's About Us. The lyrics were particularly important to the musicians, who wanted to thread the songs together with an overall idea. "We wanted to develop our own sound, rather than make other people's songs work for our voices, like we did in the past," Sierra says. "We knew what we liked and didn't like, and that helped guide the way. The lyrics have always been really important as well. We wanted them to make sense and be meaningful so that others could get lost in the songs and feel the messages. As we kept writing we eventually chose to call our album It's About Us because the thing that connects all of the songs is exactly that- us and our own experiences." Alex & Sierra worked with various musicians and producers, including Toby Gad, Sam Hollander, Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, John Shanks and Martin Johnson, over the spring of 2014 in Los Angeles and Orlando. The pair spent time writing with Mraz at his home in Southern California where Mraz played a song that eventually became the album's interlude, also titled "It's About Us." "All For You," a jazzy love song, is the first song Alex and Sierra ever wrote together. "Jazz is one of our favorite genres," Alex notes. "It's a really important song for us." The first single, "Scarecrow," is a rollicking folk pop stomper that perfectly melds the singers' voices. "We feel like there's something for everyone on the album," Sierra says. "The songs are all different – some are pop songs, some are quieter ballads. But they all fit together like puzzle pieces that make up one piece of work." All these years later since their meeting on the beach, Alex and Sierra remain connected to Florida, where they still live with their families. The pair received the key to Daytona in December and the week of Christmas was dubbed "Alex & Sierra Week" in the city. The sunny sensibility of their hometowns resonates through both the music and the musicians' attitude around it. "It helps us mentally and emotionally to stay connected to Florida and our families," Sierra says. "Life is so good there that it makes it easy for us to remember that this world is beautiful and that we've gotta stay grateful for everything we have." "In the end, our ultimate goal is to have fun and show people that you can have a career having fun doing something you love," Alex adds. "We want to have fun and be as successful as possible just to show people that if you follow your passion and dedicate your time to it, it will pay off. You can do something you enjoy." Paradise Fears – http://www.paradisefears.com Paradise Fears are an American alternative, pop-rock band from Vermillion, South Dakota. On June 14th, 2011, the band released their debut full length "Yours Truly" and set out promoting themselves on several major US pop-rock tours. In six months, they sold 24,000 total records, peaked at number 9 on Billboard's Uncharted Chart, and generated a powerful and active digital following. This landed them tours with All Time Low, The Ready Set, The Cab, The Summer Set, and Forever the Sickest Kids. During the summer of 2012, the band sold out headlining shows in eight major US markets. They have since released their most recent EP "Battle Scars". Along with their original music, the band has released several covers on Youtube, including a cover of Payphone by Maroon 5 which has accumulated over 2.8 million views. Rachel Platten - http://www.rachelplatten.com Rachel has landed a Top 20 hit at Adult Pop Radio with her song "1,000 Ships", becoming the highest charting independent release on Adult Pop Radio in the past 10 years. She has shared the stage with The Strokes, Lady Gaga, Matt Nathanson, The Fray, Gavin DeGraw, and Regina Spektor. Signed to Sony ATV Publishing, Rachel's songs have been featured on many popular TV shows and films including Annie, One Tree Hill, Finding Carter, The Biggest Loser, and most recently the Christmas special of Pretty Little Liars in which her latest single "Fight Song" was used in the pivotal part of the episode. "Fight Song" has charted within the Top 100 Songs under iTunes' Pop Charts. Believing so firmly in the power of music, Rachel has worked with Musicians On Call for the past 10 years, brought music to low income schools as an ambassador for Music Unites, and most recently arranged a surprise performance of her uplifting single "Fight Song" for a fan with a terminal condition. Rachel is also a supporter of the LGBT community, having performed for Project Service LA on various occasions, and she has spread awareness of the effects of world hunger as an ambassador for Live Below the Line.