|
|
|
|
|
|
September 15, 2008 Newsletter from Matthew Tavis Johnson
Hi Everyone! Wow, it has been too long since my last newsletter – sorry about that!
It has been for good reason though, and I’m excited to fill everyone in on what
has been happening with me lately =)
In this newsletter I’ll be covering….
- ‘Dark’ CD Preview and Information
- Sheet Music
- Concert News and Information
- Matt On the Radio, and other places you can hear my music for FREE =)
- Albums in mp3 bundle with CD Art now available
- Promote Me!
Alright!! Let’s get started!
So about my new upcoming album “Dark”…
As I have been talking about for many months, my new cd “Dark” is already coming
close to release! Well, not THAT close, but in my experience time always seems to
fly by incredibly fast, so it’ll come sooner than you know! The “Dark” album is
an album in response to my previously released “Light”. “Light” generally had softer,
light hearted songs. With “Dark” I’m going to do the opposite. This is going to
be an album of very powerful, very distraught pieces. I’m really excited because
I think this is going to be by far my BEST album yet.
Although I haven’t quite decided on the final track list, I for sure will be putting
AT LEAST 13 tracks on this CD, which means plenty of new songs to listen to! Another
reason I’m looking forward to this album is because…I have been experimenting with
writing songs with lyrics lately and have received amazingly good responses about
them. Therefore “Dark” will also be my first album every to contain a piece that
I’ve written and composed with lyrics! I have an amazing singer in line to do the
piece for me as well. I’d sing it myself, but I don’t think that would help sales
out too much =) YESS!! That is so cool!! At least I think so :) That is news for
my special contacts alone, by the way… as is the track list! Just to give some titles
and maybe a little info. about some of the upcoming songs…
So this is in no way a FINAL track list, but this is what I have in mind as of now,
in no particular order:
1) Sakura (In Japanese, this means ‘cherry blossom’) I was trying a new idea, and
wanted to create a song with an Asian feel. This was the result! Very beautiful,
and for lack of a better word, ballady.
2) Flowers – the one song on “Dark” that is clearly a ‘bring pure happiness into
the heart’ type.
3) Chasing A Dream – this song was originally written for a friend of mine looking
for an idea for his techno music. It is so well liked though, that I decided to
put it on the album! It is very fast paced and high energy.
4) The Chant – Another song a bit out of the ordinary for me. A dark, fast paced,
and mysterious piece that I believe everyone will find very likeable.
5) My Angel VOCAL – this is the vocal piece I wrote. A slower romantic piece that
is consistently among my top 10 most liked songs with lyrics for listeners. I hope
you will love it too!
6) My Angel Solo Piano Version
7) Song for Retribution – A rather positive piece that celebrates whatever is good
in your life. A very catchy song with a generally happy feel.
8) My Incomplete Thoughts – Often times, I will write a song by chance, on improvisation
and in the middle of playing nothing in particular for fun. Some of my most popular
pieces have come from writing in this way, and this is one of them; one of my favorites
on this album.
9) Classical Theme – There have thus far been no classical songs on any of my albums,
so this is another first! Think Mozart mixed with my style…or something along those
lines J
10) Blackness – I have a video of this song up on youtube.com right now. A very
powerful, fast paced minor piece. Fits the album title perfectly, I think :)
Moving on to Sheet Music…
I love having sheet music made for you all, but sadly, the amount of requests coming
in for pieces hasn’t been strong enough for me to have any made recently. I can
have sheet music made for my most popular songs no problem, but what I would rather
do is take the requests of my fans and decide from that! Your voice is very important
to me, and that is what I have been basing my released sheet music off of so far.
(For those who don’t know, I currently have 4 pieces transcribed – ‘Sad Again’ ,
‘Little Sister (Bem’s Theme)’ , ‘A Glimpse at Happiness’ which are all from my ‘Reach
for the Sky’ album. Lastly ‘Spiral Dance’ from the new ‘Light’ album)
My goal is to have a chart put up on my website allowing you all to easily click
on your favorite composition; the one you would like to see transcribed the most.
That is a work in progress though currently. So for now, emailing me (or myspacing
etc) is the best way to do it. I love to hear from everyone ANYWAY so feel free
to even just say hey! It always makes me happy to know there are people interested
in what I’m doing, and messaging me because of it…even if it isn’t music related
:)
I do want to release some more sheet music this upcoming year, so I’d love to have
some opinions about it. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks ;)
Concert News and Info...
Recent events…
The concert I arranged for myself and Whisperings solo piano radio in Corvallis
was a huge success, and a blast! Thank you everyone that attended and talked to
me! It’s always fun getting to meet new people and hear about experiences. I actually
have professional video footage of the concert, and I will soon be putting those
up on www.youtube.com/user/matthewtavisjohnson. You should check them out! They
are actually my first ‘official’ live videos :)
My next concert will probably be a difficult one to attend, because it’s in France!
Actually, I’ll be playing for a very special ‘used to be fan’ now close friend’s
wedding, and am very excited to do so. So congratulations to her, and thank you
for having me ahead of time!
If you’re in the Portland, Washington area be on the look out for another Whisperings
concert in the Tacoma! Another goal of mine is to arrange another concert up there,
and it will for sure be a blast!
If you would like me for a concert, be sure and email me about it! What I charge
is very reasonable, even for those hurting on the cash end. Let me know what you’re
thinking, and we’ll try to work something out! There is more concert info. on my
website as well (www.matthewtavisjohnson.com).
Matt on the radio, and other spots to hear me for freeeee :)
I’ve received a few ‘What’s this radio thing?’ questions lately, so I thought I’d
take a second to talk about Whisperings. Whisperings is a solo piano radio station
that was created a few years back, and quickly rose to be the #1 radio station on
Live365 (Live365 hosts 1000’s of radio stations). It has my music of course, as
well as many other talented pianists. It’s free to listen to as well, so if you
want to check it out, just go here! – www.solopianoradio.com. If you would like
more details, feel free to message me personally about it. That is one avenue you
can hear my music, but not every one of my songs is on the station. Not all of my
(or any other artist!) music is suitable for the station, hence the name ‘Whisperings’
;).
For those of you that don’t know of the myspace world, if you go to myspace.com/mattsoccer7
you can hear 6 of my full songs for free! Hopefully they will inspire you to buy
an album :) but if not, you’re always welcome to come by and listen. I change the
songs every so often (about once a year), and will be changing them upon ‘Dark’s’
release. Come be friends with me! Cdbaby.com, where my CDs are sold from, has two
minute previews of ALL my songs! You can always go and check those out if you’re
curious. The CD pages are all linked – but if you’d rather type than click, go to
www.cdbaby.com/cd/mtj - Reach for the Sky
www.cdbaby.com/cd/mtj2 - Walk With Me
www.cdbaby.com/cd/mtj3 - Light
Also, my website gives access to good length previews of almost all of my songs.
Quick note on mp3 Albums
Did you know that CDBaby recently started offering albums available for download
in .mp3 format?
Yep! Basically, if you would like to avoid waiting for the album to ship or simply
don’t think you need the case and physical cd, you can go to my album page and download
all the songs with the cd art coming along as well! You can buy them as digital
downloads from Itunes too, but they come in .mp4 format which not as many media
players can read. If you go to any of my CD pages, the link for ‘mp3 download’ will
be there on the left. Just wanted everyone to know!
Please help promote me!!!
I can only do so much on my own to get my music out, but if any of you can help
get a ‘buzz’ started about my material, it would be greatly appreciated! You can
do this a number of ways, by playing my piece for your family or friends, recommending
me in music forums, playing my music in your car: my music seems to sell itself
when it’s heard (which I’m pretty sure is a good thing!) so as long as people are
hearing it, that is very fulfilling for me; I think that is awesome. The more I
have going on with fans and supporters the more motivated I will be to keep releasing
albums and sheet music! So again, any help is appreciated so much.
Well, that's it for this months newsletter. I hope it was fulfilling and exciting
for you all to read :) Feel free to message me with any comments or questions or
WHATEVER you might want to message me about! I'll get back to you asap.
Keep enjoying piano and life!!
Matthew Tavis
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reach for the Sky
October 2006
|
|
Matthew Tavis Johnson is a self taught pianist that composes beautiful new-age melodies
said to sound like a combination of Jim Brickman and David Lanz; with an extra hint
of emotion. Piano is Matt's life, and way of self expression; please take a moment
to listen, you'll be happy you did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
