Blog/News

Today's album preview is "Lost". This is one of my favourite songs on the album. We will be launching the video for "Lost" next week but I wanted to give you a preview here first.

We had a great time recording this song with my producer Fab setting ups Dave Hingerty's drums in the crumbling six-story, concrete stairwell of Funkhaus to get this crazy booming natural reverb sound. When Dave hit the snare the first time, I thought a gunshot had gone off.

Also, on this track is Peter Cheevers on fuzz bass, Fab on piano, analogue keyboards and backing vocals and me on electric guitars, acoustic guitars and lead vocals.

Here is more information on the writing and recording of "Lost".

Eric Eckhart will launch his new album, 'This is where it starts', on March 12th, Friday 9pm with an special all-acoustic performance featuring numerous musicians from Ireland, France, Germany & Britain at Café Hilde,  Metzer Str. 22, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. Admission is free.

'This is where it starts' is on sale now at www.ericeckhart.com

Short Biography: ‘This Is Where It Starts’, was recorded in what was former East Germany’s main radio station. In typical Berlin-style, the eleven songs mix the old with the new, blending rootsy-pop with indie rock and roll, all with classic song-writing sensibilities at its heart.

Seven years ago, in a quarter-life crisis, the American moved to Europe and reconnected with his life-long passion for music.

Now in Berlin, Eric's music continues to branch out while also feeding off his roots in West Virginia.

Realised with the help of friends in Berlin’s artistic community, and the support of family in America, ‘This Is Where It Starts’ is testament to the belief that it is never too late to begin again.

Album info:  Co-produced by Eric and Fab Leseure (The Frames, Brian Jonestown Massacre).  A number of excellent musicians appear on the album including Dave Hingerty (The Frames, Josh Ritter), Peter Cheevers (Nina Hynes, Damien Dempsey) and Nina Hynes.

The album was mastered at the Exchange in London by Simon Davey (Bjórk, Depche Mode, Amy Winehouse, Moby, Scissor Sisters).

Watch the video for the first single "Happy"

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"Eric the King" - Hot Press magazine

"All seven songs on this mini-album betray a considerable songwriting and vocal talent - every track here is a potential candidate for radio play. - Hot Press review of 'Lost and Found' 2007

"This album encapsulates all that is good about the singer/songwriter genre" - O2's: Making Waves - The Best New Irish Music

"Eric sang us through his life to-date, with no shortage of applause from those glued to their seats before him" - Gig review - Dave Harrington, Radio Producer Dublin's Q102

"A seriously talented individual." - New Music Ireland

Today's preview is the wildest track on my new album, called "Better Way". It is the most adventurous track I have ever recorded with various tempos and musical styles and features a one-man orchestra Benoît Leseure on violins. These were recorded in his brother Fab's living room in Berlin.

Also on the track are Fab Leseure (The Frames, Brian Jonestown Massacre) on analogue keyboards and backing vocals, Dave Hingerty (The Frames, Josh Ritter) on drums , Peter Cheevers (Nina Hynes, Damien Dempsey) on fuzz bass, Jan Gropper on trumpet (done in one take also in Fab's living room) and me on electric guitar, classical acoustic guitar, piano and lead and backing vocals.

Please forward this as far and wide as you like and please do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Find out more about the writing and recording of "Better Way" here http://www.ericeckhart.com/better-way

Thanks very much!!!!

Today's preview of my new album is "I'm Gone". My days of growing up in West Virginia and hearing mountain music, blues and bluegrass must have stuck in my brain somewhere and came out when I wrote this song. I always resisted that type of music in the past but it found me anyways and forced its way out and I am happy for it.

This is quite a personal song for me and I love playing and singing it. In fact, we recorded it that way with just me playing my acoustic guitar and singing live. What you hear is take 2 or 4 takes. I also play a Melodica (mouth organ) and a floor tom hit with a fuzzy mallet. Fab Leseure is on tambourine.

You can read more about the writing and recording of "I'm Gone" at http://www.ericeckhart.com/im-gone.

Please forward this as far and wide as you like and please do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Thanks very much!!!!

Since we started the album preview on Tuesday with the first track, today I want to share with you the closing track, "I Saw A Light".

I had a great feeling about this song after I wrote it and felt straight away that I wanted it to close the album. It felt like a great bookend to the first track "From Whence I Came" and also to the album as a whole.

This recording features Fab Leseure (The Frames, Brian Jonestown Massacre) on backing vocals, Dave Hingerty (The Frames, Josh Ritter) on drums, Peter Cheevers (Nina Hynes, Damien Dempsey) on bass, Tom Fanore on percussion and me on acoustic and electric guitars, organ and lead and backing vocals.

Please forward this as far and wide as you like and please do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

For more information about how this song was written and recorded, check out the "Behind the scenes" section of my website.

Thanks very much!!!!

As a way of saying a huge THANK YOU to all of my friends on Facebook & MySpace who have been so supportive over the last year while I was writing and recording my new album, we are giving you the first listen to some of the songs on 'This is where it starts'.

The album will be released on March 12th and can be purchased now by clicking here. So, with three weeks to go, we will be highlighting two songs per week.

It makes sense to start at the beginning with the first track, "From Whence I Came".

"From Whence I Came" was written in summer 2008 in our first apartment in Prenzlauer Berg in old East Berlin. It was the first song recorded for the new album and features Fab Leseure (The Frames, Brian Jonestown Massacre) on piano, Dave Hingerty (The Frames, Josh Ritter) on drums, Peter Cheevers (Nina Hynes, Damien Dempsey) on bass and me on acoustic and electric guitars and lead and backing vocals.

We added "Happy" to the playlist above since most of you have heard this song thanks to the video being release two weeks ago.

Please forward this as far and wide as you like and please do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

For more information about how this song was written and recorded, check out the "Behind the scenes" section of my website.

Thanks very much!!!!

Here is the video for "Happy" in case you missed it.

"Happy", the first single from my new album, This is where it starts, is now available as a free download in MP3 format.

Please feel free to share it, post it or email it as far and wide as you like.

If you right click on the link below the MP3 player you can download by choosing "save link as" for Mac users or "save target as" for PC users.

Happy - free download

If you haven't seen the video yet, here it is in HD.

Directed by Graeme Pearce. Painters & helpers Kusi Okamura, Graeme Pearce, Julie Freedman, Gordon Raphael (producer for The Strokes, Imogen Heap), Roula Kontogianni, and Nijen Hegenbarth. Filmed in Berlin, Germany.

Track Information

Produced by Fab Leseure and Eric Eckhart

Musicians:
Eric:
Electric Guitars (Hohner Semi-Hollow body (live with the band) & Washburn), Classical acoustic guitar (weird tuning) Korg analogue synth, Lead Vocal, Backing Vocals
Fab:
Backing Vocals, Korg analogue synth, organ
Dave Hingerty:
Drums (two 16" cymbals put together as the hi-hat)
Peter Cheevers:
Bass
Tom Fanore:
Percussion

Lyrics

Happy

Happy. I’ll never be happy
I’m telling you please don’t come my way
Sorry. I’ll always be sorry
I begging you please don’t come my way

Chorus:
I know you’ll never understand
I know you’ll never understand
I try to fight it but the truth don’t lie
There's too much darkness in this heart of mine

Tempted. I’ll always be tempted
I’m hurting you please don’t come my way
Lonely. I’ll always be lonely
I’m saving you please don’t come my way

Chorus:
I know you’ll never understand
I know you’ll never understand
I try to fight it but the truth don’t lie
There's too much darkness in this heart of mine

I swear. The wind has carved upon the cliffs
A picture of the night we kissed. Now it’s gone

Chorus:
I know you’ll never understand
I know you’ll never understand
II want redemption but the truth don't lie
There's too much darkness in this heart of mine
I know you’ll never understand
I know you’ll never understand
I know you’ll never understand

We are very excited today to release the album's first video single "Happy".

"Happy" was the last song written for the album and is one of its main rockers. I have always loved the juxtaposition of upbeat music with downbeat lyrics and "Happy" is the most glaring example of this kind of my songwriting.

For this video, Director Graeme Pearce dreamed up the idea of filming four of us drawing or painting simultaneously on a big moving scroll of paper whatever were inspired to while we listened to "Happy". We had enough paper for four takes of this and finally settled on take 3. Then, Graeme had the bright idea of having me lay down on the paper and let everyone throw paint and feathers on me while I attempted to sing the song.

I have to say, we had an absolute blast filming this in my apartment in Berlin and I think it shows in the video. Many thanks to the painters and helpers Kusi Okamura, Graeme Pearce, Julie Freedman, Gordon Raphael (producer for The Strokes, Regina Spektor), Roula Kontogianni, and Nijen Hegenbarth.

We recorded the main tracks for "Happy" live together in the studio, which is a rare thing these days. Joining me in Studio East in Berlin was Dave Hingerty (The Frames, Josh Ritter) on drums, Peter Cheevers (Nina Hynes, Damien Dempsey) on bass, Fab Leseure (Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Frames, Nina Hynes) co-producing, engineering, mixing, playing keyboards and singing backing vocals. I am playing the guitars and singing lead and baking vocals. Tom Fanore added percussion a few weeks later.

Hot Press was first out of the gate to cover the release of 'This is where it starts'.

Thanks guys!!!

Have a look here -

http://hotpress.com/Eric%20Eckhart/news/Eric-Eckhart-announces-album-details/6207375.html

After seven months since recording commenced, numerous mixing and re-mixing and mastering and re-mastering, my new album is finally done and has been sent off to be pressed into CDs. We celebrated in good fashion.

The mixing and mastering proved to be very vexing because although we had a clear idea of how we wanted the album to sound, there were still so many options and angles to go at the songs. Plus, both Fab Leseure (my co-producer) and I can be perfectionist and had a hard time letting go of the project.

Also, for those of you who don't know what mastering is, it happens after mixing and is the last process that the music goes through before it is pressed into CDs. Basically, a mastering engineer takes the songs and runs them through both analogue and digital equipment trying to give the album an extra sheen, spit and polish and also to make sure the recording will sound good whether you are listening to it on your laptop speakers or through a hi-fi stereo system.

Sounds simple enough, but it is a real art form that requires a great deal of expertise, especially if you want your album to sound as good as any commercial release out there. We ended up having the album mastered 6 times with 5 different mastering companies involved over a 5 week head-melting period. The good news is we learned a huge amount and got the album to sound the way we wanted.

In the end, we chose mastering engineer Simon Davey who works at The Exchange in London. He has mastered albums for the likes of Amy Winehouse, Depeche Mode, Bjork, Scissor Sisters, Bad Company and yes, Spice Girls. Simon was a great help and guidance to us and needless to say, extremely skilled at his job. If was a pleasure having him master my album and working with the team at The Exchange.

So, the CD Master is now on its way to America where Oasis (not the band) will manufacture the CDs in about 3 weeks time.

We are now moving into full promotional swing and will be rolling out some new videos and previews of the songs and asking for your generous help and support in spreading the music as far and as wide as possible over the next few weeks.

Until then...