Vintage Trouble, based in Los Angeles, is the brainchild of Ty Taylor (vocal) and Nalle Colt (guitar). Combining their love for original soul and rhythm & blues, the two set up a basic home studio in Venice Beach and started crafting the beginnings of Vintage Trouble. Already a friend of both, Rick Barrio Dill (bass) came along and added his shared bass influences and energy into the newly formed project.
GRAND WAZOO is a legendary 13 piece band, which provides the most authentic and entertaining Soul Music experience in Australia—featuring the great hits & dance tunes, rare gems not performed by other outfits, along with Grand WaZoo originals in that same big brassy style. .It is also a quality reading, backing outfit of 10 musicians + 3 singers, who can perform any style or genre, in the vein of the extraordinary Funk Brothers. And not only does Grand WaZoo sound musically wonderful, but it also looks like ‘Soul’, with a multi-generational, multicultural line up — with wide appeal to all ages.
Mayer Hawthorne (real name Andrew Mayer Cohen) grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier...
Musiq Soulchild (born Taalib Johnson on September 16, 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American, neo soul and R&B artist, and was one of the most popular artists on the Def Jam/Def Soul label. Since 2001, he has gone by simply "Musiq", he dropped the "Soulchild" from his moniker, because he said he had not mastered his craft yet, and thus was not yet "music's soulchild". Since 2007's "Luvanmusiq," however, he has reclaimed the surname.
Taio Cruz (pronounced Tie-oh Cruise) (born 23 April 1983) is a Brit Award winning and MOBO-nominated English singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and music producer. In 2008 he released his debut album Departure which he arranged and produced himself. In October 2009, he released his follow up album Rokstarr which includes his number one single "Break Your Heart". In between the two albums and at present, Cruz has been working on productions and writing songs for Cheryl Cole, Brandy and the Sugababes.
letlive. is a progressive post-hardcore band formed in Los Angeles in 2002. They have released three albums, the latest of which, Fake History, was recently re-released under Epitaph Records and has propelled them to the forefront of the hardcore scene, being called "a post-hardcore album fit for many of 2010's best-of lists" and representing "their exhilarating brand of progressive hardcore". letlive is also notorious for their very intense live shows in which vocalist Jason Butler involves the whole audience in his antics and raw vocals.
Frank Ocean (born October 29, 1987) is an American singer/songwriter and member of the gleefully hedonistic hip-hop collective OFWGKTA. He was born Christopher "Lonny" Breaux in New Orleans, Louisiana, and now resides in Beverly Hills. He has helped pen tracks for Justin Bieber, John Legend, Brandy, and Beyonce Knowles over the last few years. In 2011, Ocean released his debut mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, for free via his Tumblr.
Rolling Stone recognised her as a rising Australian star to look out for, She features on Paul Mac’s ARIA chart topper ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You”, she’s toured world wide with Urban Roots Crew Blue King Brown, she was hand picked by John Butler to play prior to his set at the 2009 East Coast Blues & Roots Festival in Byron Bay and her sound attracted an invitation to support Texan blues singer Ruthie Foster on her Australian tour in 2009. Currently creating waves of excitement with her recent foyer into the live Australian music scene as an incredible artist to look out for.
Space Invadas is duo from Australia: Katalyst - a Sydney-based award winning producer signed to BBE & Invada Records, and from the UK, Steve Spacek - the acclaimed voice behind the ground-breaking genre-pushing group Spacek (championed by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to Mos Def). Their award winning collaboration, "How Bout Us" was one of Gilles Peterson's top 20 tracks of 2008. Their forthcoming album is entitled "Soul-Fi".
Stan Roto Walker (born 23 October 1990), is an Australian born New Zealand R&B/soul recording artist who rose to fame in 2009 as a contestant on Australian Idol, becoming the winner of that season.
Walker's debut single, "Black Box" was available for digital download immediately following his win on Idol, on 22 November 2009. The single peaked at number 2 on the ARIA Charts, and on 5 December 2009 debuted at number 5 on the RIANZ Charts in New Zealand, climbing to number 1 the next week. His debut album Introducing.