Album Title: DETONATE
Artist: Edward Barát
Release Date: December 29th, 2014
Recorded: 2013-2014
Label: Songs To Live & Die By
Genre: Synth Pop, Synth Rock, Electropop, Alternative Rock, Electronic Rock
Producers:Edward Barát [exec.], Joel Little [exec.] Brandon Rogers, Tat Tong , James Urie, Chris Corner, Alex Hope, Jim Abbiss, Olly Alexander
BackgroundDETONATE is the highly anticipated and long awaited debut album by recording artist Edward Barát set to be released through Songs To Live and Die By on
December 29th, 2014. This marks the first official album release by Barát since he emerged in the industry years ago as apart of the second season of Starfactory. Luckily for Barát, who stood out as being a destined future star from the very moment he hit the stage stapled himself as a future star in music even with leaving the show just weeks later for unknown reasons. Despite popular belief, Detonate hasn't ever experienced numerous pushbacks like many believe but instead was never a main focus of Edward's until he felt the very time was right. He began work on the album 2013 and finished the record in mid 2014. When Edward left Starfactory in 2012, the up and comer went very quiet and some looked at him as just another act that faded into obscurity, fortunately he emerged a year later and surprised his anxious fans at 2013 GOLDIE's with exciting information. He exclaimed that he was working on a full length debut studio album. The ever so stylish singer also confirmed that he had signed a record deal and just days later it was announced that he had signed an album deal with popular independent record label, Songs To Live and Die By. After signing the record deal, Edward began writing for the album and began gathering ideas for the record and producers he was interested in working with for the project. The early stages of the album was put on a stand still in 2013 as Edward signed up for Celebrity Big Brother. Being on the show gave Edward some exposure but not for long. Edward explained that he was "too busy" thinking about his album as opposed to having his heart in soul in trying to win a reality tv show competition. The studio homesick Barát resumed work on his album after he was voted off the competition and even stated that as soon as he dropped his bags off at home after he left the show, scheduled a studio session with Chinese producer, Tat Tong. It would be a while for before we got the first official single from the album as Edward was not only in the process of writing and recording material, he was also finding his niche musically through all of this.
Until 2014, when we first got a taste of the sounds of Edward Barát we were exposed to his very first release the alternative rock driven demo "Showman", a song Edward often performed in small night clubs in California while trying to make a living and make it big in music. The record was much more rock driven but it's quite different from what we hear in Edward's music today. Edward also reflects on that whenever he is asked about his decision to change up his style musically and experiment outside of rock.
"Today, my music is a lot different from what I sounded like in 2011, and that's because I grew as a musician and heard and saw and got inspired by so many different things and sounds. Rock n' Roll will always be in my blood but there is so much more different sounds I've always wanted to experiment and today I've grown not to pigeon hold myself in rock music and in the album you see that I've created a balance between who I am today musically and my love for the genre that made me". While in the studio, before even production and recording began, Edward reflected on how he wanted to sound on the record. He always had a love for alternative pop and dark pop music and wanted to incorporate that in his music when re-emerging musically some months later. The dark beats, rigid bassline's and deep hooks seemed to go extremely with Edward's vocals, sensuality and overall lyrical content written so far at the moment in the albums early stages. Although nervous about how it would be received in a pop and rock dominated world, Edward felt that going for an entirely new sound of his own would create a lane for himself musically to continue to experiment and flourish as his own identity in the ever changing music industry and at that moment, his identity meant the most.
Background [cont.] & Production When the writing process of the album was finally finished in October of 2014, Edward was finally ready to record the album. He was very specific about initial sound of the record and was very hands on in the general production values of the album. Edward called on producers Brandon Rogers, Tat Tong , James Urie, Chris Corner, Joel Little, Alex Hope, Jim Abbiss, and Olly Alexander to help him create the production values of Detonate. These producers worked very hands on with the record with Joel Little executively producing the album along side Edward. Edward reflected on his love for Joel Little and his eagerness to record the album and make it everything Edward wanted.
"And it was like, wow. Joel Little. I remember meeting with him for the very first time in New Zealand after a show and he's just like telling me how much I have what it takes and I've heard that all before and I was very, very flattered but I didn't really know what he would be like to work with and he really stuck with me because he genuinely had my best wishes at heart and was just very eager to work and it was really nice to see someone who believes in me as much as he did. I spoke with him through email for days since we kind of crossed paths after meeting that one time and a month later we met in the United Kingdom. I told him exactly how I wanted my music to sound and sent him some earlier cuts from the extremely early stages of Detonate and in the studio he presented me with the demos and cuts of the tracks he produced on the album and I fell in love with each and every one of them and I'm just like, dude, you totally get me. You need to be the executive producer for my album and we just vibed out and finished two records that same night. One of them being Gin & Juice, and the other being Unholy Ones". Over the course of the next few months, Edward would meet, talk and record with with a range of other producers stated above to birth, Detonate". The album was finished inlate summer of 2014 and it took some weeks for each of the tracks to be mixed and finalized before the first single of the record was to be released. In October the first single was chosen for the album and that was
"Fucked It Up Again"SinglesEdward Barát took to social media to announce the first single [Fucked It Up Again] of the album and it was premiered just days later and was set to be released on October 26th, 2014. The record was met with a universal acclaim mostly due to Edward's surprising choice to release a heart tugging and captivating electrorock driven dark pop ballad like F.I.U.A since the record generally wasn't what people were expecting since before this release, Showman, was the only thing people heard from Edward musically and so didn't know the direction he was set to go in. Fucked It Up Again proved to be a major success for Edward reaching #2 on the Airplay Charts and #5 on Digital Outlets. Surprisingly, Edward went through some trouble to have the successful single released in the first place. He states
"I fought with many people, mainly my former manager about the first single of the record and that's why I don't work with him today. Generally, there were a few choices as to where we were going to go with the first single of the album. Fucked It Up Again was not in the equation in my managers mind because of the curses in the chorus and even though he loved the song as just an album cut, he didn't think radio would embrace the record and audiences wouldn't take to it. He was MUCH more in favor of track number 10, the only major uptempo on the album,"Tongues", since he felt it connected better with my showman persona people know me as but I wasn't in favor of that. I didn't want to give people what they were expecting and he didn't like that Tongues wasn't what I wanted to go with at the end of the day. Things got really heated, he told me if he wouldn't like to work with me if I didn't go with his career advisement and we just broke off. At the end of the day, it's my career and what I choose to do with it is really solely up to me in the end. I was told Fucked It Up Again would flop and I would be nothing, but when it took off all I could throw up is middle fingers".
The single did in fact took off, after the success of the single "Detonate" was green lighted by Songs To Love & Die By and the second single was chosen. When Edward saw that his edgy lyrics were embraced, he looked to take it a step further with the next release from the album, it's second single
Unholy Ones. The controversial record which was produced by the albums executive producer Joel Little, drifts off into the subject of homo-eroticism and was released as the albums second single. The sensual record easily showed Edward "overarching talents in crafting a song that not only bolsters chart-worthy propensity, but quality" was premiered and released to radio and digital outlets on December 4th, 2014. The record became a massive success topping the Airplay Charts, giving Edward his first ever number one single. The single also became a crossover pop smash record as well topping the pop radio chart, and alternative radio chart. The single received the same success over on the digital outlets charts coming in at #1 and selling a massive 305,000 copies. Some look at Edward Barát's "Unholy Ones" as the gay anthem of late 2014 and 2015 and some even went on to say Edward changed the way gay acts will release future records that can and will appeal to their demographics and not what they feel will be accepted by others. With the cultural shock still in place, Edward wasted no time in releasing another taste from the album.
"Someone To Watch Over Me" was released just alittle more than a week after Unholy Ones as a promotional cut from "Detonate". With James Urie by his side, Edward really returned to his rock roots with Someone To Watch Over Me, still synth heavy and electronic rock driven like his previous singles from the album...Someone To Watch Over Me really drifts into the depths of alternative rock that screams his "Showman" days. Edward reflects on his choice to record and release Someone to watch over Me:
"I mean like, Someone To Watch Over Me as well as some other cuts on the album was recorded to really say fuck you to the people who insisted I sold out on rock music. I never sold out or even had those intentions. Never have I wanted to completely abandon rock music but that's not all I am capable of doing. Someone To Watch Over me is really a personal favorite of mine and James is just so perfect on it. I know people will love it as much as I do. My older fans who have been with me from the beginning as well as the new ones I've picked up this year, they'l be able to listen to all the other cuts on the album and then reach Someone To Watch Over Me and still be able to listen, it has a great balance and even though it's harder, it fits very well with the other songs on the album". Someone To Watch Over Me has impacted radio with official numbers soon to be determined. This was the last release so far from the album.
Composition & Title Sonically, from a musical standpoint "Detonate" is an alternative album that reaches the depths of electronic music, alternative rock, synth pop, dark pop and electro rock music that has Edward show is strength as a vocalist, songwriter and versatile artist making the collection of musical sounds come together as one piece and project. As he sings about subject matters having to do with love, depression, heartbreak, overcome, addiction, homo eroticism among other topics with the initial title being thought up by Edward, respectively. The album name was used to represent the album in two different ways and was named just a day before the artwork was created.
"Detonate was literally chosen as the name of the album the day I shot the artwork. I was really contemplating a few names and never wanted to name the album before I even recorded music for it. I told myself that I wanted to wait to see what place I was in before the album was released and how the album sounded as one before I gave it a name and just before I named the album I'm just like, I feel like I'm blowing up hypothetically. Fame wise, this album has put me on a platform where my life is going to change forever, it has already changed forever. Now, everywhere I go people know who I am. This album really set it off for me it seems that I've just detonate as I burst in to fame, literally. That was one way I thought about it, also, I felt like detonate was the perfect title because there's just an eruption of different emotions presented on the album and there's just a boom of topics and emotions. Detonate was just perfect and I wouldn't go with any other title for the record. And i seriously, could not be happier with the outcome.
TRACKLISTING1. Finish The Fight
2. Fucked It Up Again
3. Gin & Juice
4. Hate The Way It Hurts
5. Awaken
6. Unholy Ones
7. Whispers In The Dark
8. On Fire
9. Someone To Watch Over Me (feat. James Urie)
10. Tongues
11. Richer Poorer
12. Have A Life
SINGLES
1. Fucked It Up Again
Chart Positions
Airplay: #2
Digital: #5
2. Unholy Ones
Chart Positions
Airplay: #1
Pop Radio Requests: #1
Alternative Radio Requests: #1
Digital: #1
*Promotional - Someone To Watch Over Me (feat. James Urie)
Chart Positions
Airplay: #5
Pop Radio Requests: N/A
Alternative Radio Requests:TBA
Digital: N/A
3. TBA