Archives: client

Pop artists sometimes get a bad rap these days, but Payson is fighting back.  Armed with his intoxicating positive energy, Payson delivers music that you can’t help but move to. Payson’s brand is a garden of 80’s and 90’s influenced pop hooks, feel-good vibes, and live-your-best-life mentality.

A Philly kid born and raised, Payson was brought up on a steady diet of his older brothers’ old cassette tapes and mom’s gluten-free cooking.  Eventually, he found his way out to Los Angeles to study music at USC.  During his studies, Payson honed his craft as a member of the internationally acclaimed collegiate a cappella group, SoCal VoCals.

Payson’s infectious charisma and natural knack for show business led him to plenty of television appearances in LA.  As a tenor, Payson’s ability to hit the high notes landed him a spot on NBC’s “The Sing Off”, a show that ran for 4 seasons and launched the career of the multi-platinum and Grammy winning group PENTATONIX. This role not only served as a major gateway for Payson as a singer but also as an actor.   His acting credits include episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Revenge, The People vs. OJ Simpson, Rules of Engagement in addition to various theatrical performances.

While acting is certainly a powerful asset within Payson’s wheelhouse, his first love and ultimate mission is music.  Payson has generated an impressive buzz, not to mention thousands of subscribers, through his popular YouTube channel.  This channel showcases Payson’s artistic spirit through his numerous cover videos.  Among the most viral of these videos was his cover of Taylor Swift’s “Out of the Woods” and a creative mashup that combined Zayn Malik’s “Pillowtalk” with Rihanna and Drake’s “Work.”  These two covers made their way to a wide variety of press outlets, including features from Perez Hilton.

It’s clear that Payson Lewis is a jack of many trades.  Most recently, his talent is flourishing as an artist and a songwriter.  Drawing on the influences of his youth and inspiration from his life and the world around him, Payson is creating a new band-driven pop sound that simultaneously feels new and yet, familiar.  Somewhere between Coldplay, Walk the Moon, and the 1975 is where you’ll find Payson.  And when you do, you won’t want to leave.

Ashley Elle’s love for music was evident from an early age. She would spend hours singing and playing the piano and guitar. But despite her natural talent, she was always a bit humble and shy about it. It wasn’t until her dad encouraged her to record her voice in a studio that she realized her passion for music was stronger than she thought.

Since then, Ashley began to study the songwriting process as it is important that the music she shares will be authentic to her. As industry folks began to hear her early recordings, many quickly took notice and reached out to work directly with her. She has worked tirelessly with producers to hone her craft and develop her unique indie-pop sound. To date, the themes of heartbreak, maturing, love, and mental health are central to Ashley’s music. She writes deep from the heart, drawing on personal experiences and struggles. For Ashley, music is a way to express herself and connect with others. Her vulnerability as a songwriter is both scary and rewarding, and she hopes her music resonates with her listeners as much as it does with her. She always wants to stay real and authentic and for her, that includes sharing her most vulnerable feelings.

Ashley Elle’s hard work paid off in 2019 when she was signed to a publishing deal by Given Entertainment out of Nashville. She has since been writing and recording new material, pouring her heart and soul into each song. She has a deep catalog but is always working to make the next song better.

Now based in Los Angeles, Ashley attends Loyola Marymount University and collaborates with talented producers and writers. With her upcoming singles “Heavy Heavy Heavy” and “Somebody’s Somebody,” Ashley Elle is eager to share her music with the world and hopes that her authentic story will inspire others. Visit her website at AshleyElleMusic.com.

Pop, alternative, and glam rock updated with a vibrant spirit of celebration: A salvo of hook heavy singles, stylized videos, and ambitious cross-country touring introduces The Dirty Shirts, an exuberant new band from Dallas, Texas.

Debuting in 2021, The Dirty Shirts showcased at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland before releasing their first full-length, The Get Up From The Get Go, in 2022. National radio airplay for singles “Detonator” and “Please Me” (feat. Remy Reilly), served as an engaging introduction to an indelible musical signature as the band played for expanding Pittsburgh, New York, and Nashville audiences, and circling home to headline Texas shows.

“HEART ATTACK,” the new lead single, presents front man Nick Santa Maria’s falsetto vocals against a chiming backdrop of celestial bells before The Dirty Shirts come clean with their propulsive brand of “dance floor rock and roll.” With timeless Bowie and Bolan Seventies influences recast in the present tense for fans of Gorillaz, Foals, and The Weeknd, The Dirty Shirts are a formidable, hard-hitting live aggregation with Nick joined  by a cast of Dallas’ best musicians.

Respondent with black leather cool and sequined swagger, Nick Santa Maria characterizes charisma and empathy behind dark glasses. The fashion-forward sensibility is a shimmering thread in The Dirty Shirts presentation, an update of glam rock infused with a contemporary sonic sheen that mirrors the music, described by KXT radio as “…sweaty hedonism in the smoky haze of last call.” Videos spotlight the band onstage in a variety of settings; at Rockwood Music Hall and Rocka Rolla in New York City, Modern Electric Sound Recorders in Dallas; against a book lined wall, and with cocktails in hand at a well-stocked bar.

Nick Santa Maria was touring steadily as a sideman for country artists when the pandemic pulled the plug. Off the road, he began envisioning a band to encompass his love of rock. “Throwing influences at the wall – Oasis, The Rolling Stones, The Strokes – and developing the style from there.” Narratives are essential; Nick’s thoughtful and complex word play reflects his literacy and love of language. “Most of my lyrics are autobiographical, not directly, but in some raw emotional form,” he says. “My themes often express the duality of feeling two different things from one emotional situation and how to deal with that.”

Collaborating with the accomplished Dallas creative community of artists, curators, and tastemakers is vital to the totality of The Dirty Shirts’ evolving aesthetic. Bedazzling hues illustrate “Shake” – The Animated Video” with an inspired team of local creators. “People who are not only making the music, but are around the music,” Nick says of his hometown contemporaries. “There is something special about Dallas, the overarching artistic scene, but especially the music.”

While Nick is proud of the band’s debut — his first ever experience behind the board, co-producing with three-time Grammy award winner Tre Nagella — he avows that the new songs feel more cohesive and complete. “I’ve grown as a person and a songwriter. I believe that the greatest end results come from collaboration. It feels a lot less of me – I hear our producer’s influence and the band’s contributions, and it makes for better songs.

Tracking with co-producer Jeff Saenz, and managed by ZeroZero Music Group, at this juncture, Dirty Shirts are more than ready to rock. “My favorite thing about playing live and making records is the connection between us and the audience,” says Nick. “It might sound cliché, but it’s a family thing. We are new, still figuring it out, and we want our audience to join us on this journey. We live in crazy times. I want our listeners to know that whatever else is going on, they have us.”

Madison Watkins has always been drawn to music. Inspired by the voices of legendary pop artists with soul influences, like Whitney Houston, Tori Kelly, and Bruno Mars, Madison has captivated audiences and is cementing her legacy in the pop music space.  A multifaceted, prolific artist and singer-songwriter, she naturally stands out through her bold personality, resolution, and grit – her music has the intimacy of a conversation between girlfriends, never compromising the innate popstar glam that has accompanied her journey to date.

In 2022, Madison released her Electric EP, featuring a music video for the title track in partnership with Puma and LG. Her hit single “Someday” has surpassed 3 million streams on Spotify and Apple Music, while her song, “Blinded” was featured on CBS’s Love Island USA. As her music consistently gains traction, Madison Watkins is always finding new stages and audiences to connect with. Last year, Madison performed the National Anthem at the World Series and partnered with Meta to perform in their VidCon Social Lounge. She has opened for numerous internationally renowned artists, including Elle King, Gwen Stefani, and Jason Derulo, and performed with Tori Kelly. Last spring, The Recording Academy invited Madison to release an acoustic version of “Someday” for their Positive Vibes Only video series.

Madison’s drive extends beyond music, into a greatly successful presence on social media, lifestyle, and beauty niches, which she has leveraged for her singing career. Her passion for hair care landed her a social campaign with hair care mogul Aussie, the #CurlMagic TikTok campaign – which generated over 1.7 billion views and saw her song “Curls” licensed by the brand. Since then, she has partnered with leading brands, boasting collaborations with Toyota and Topo Chico, among others.

Madison Watkins grew up singing and playing piano and guitar during her childhood in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and eventually began performing on various stages and occasions, from churches to pageants. Making music is all she can remember ever wanting to do. Now, at 27, making music is still the only thing she wants to do. Stay tuned for more songs, and keep up with her bubbly personality by following her on Instagram @Madison_Watkins.

Greg Shilling and Stephen Santa Teresa are hosts of the musical party, The Attire. Friends since adolescence, their bond as artists is revealed in songs with buoyant hooks, iridescent choruses, and irrepressible optimism — an enticing invitation to an extraordinary soiree with a fabulous playlist.

Originating in Washingtonville, NY, a suburban enclave 46 miles, and a world away from the spires of Manhattan, their industrious kinship has endured from high school through college, the subsequent breakup of their pop-punk band, and the expectations of the corporate music industry. Initially signed to a publishing deal as artists who would also write and produce for other recording and sync projects, in 2019 they established themselves as a standalone entity. “That’s part of the process,” says Stephen. “As we’ve grown up, we realize how the industry works, and we’ve discovered what we truly want. We’re called The Attire, a fashionable statement in music.”

The Attire’s corresponding videos spotlight playful romanticism and compelling charm. And while they take their music seriously, the camera enhances the light that surrounds their spirit, focusing on bemused performances by the well-dressed duo with stylish verve and nonchalant magnetism.

Greg, whose first love was blues, grew up playing classical piano and studying as an opera singer. He filters the chords of Debussy and Liszt through a translucent gauze of blue-eyed soul and classic R&B, as he reveals his heart in beguiling falsetto vocals. Stephen, also a musical history buff, cites influences that shift backwards in time, from the Eighties, through Seventies funk and R&B, to street corner doo-wop. His percussive electric guitar serves as an insistent rhythmic backbone to the sound.

Greg is candid about the life challenges that he’s faced, from the loss of his father to a debilitating illness cured through the power of holistic restoration. In addition to creating lyrics, he is a devoted poet. “Lyrics are poetry,” he avows. “I would like to be a modern-day bard, a healer, and a storyteller.”

There can be an erotic edge to this lyricism. Featured on Spotify’s “Fresh Finds” playlist, their lead single “Something in the Water,” shares this narrative. “You have me driving 2 AM into the city… You’re all I think about, now all my thoughts are filthy.” Notes Greg, “Some songwriters invent what they think an audience wants to hear. We write what we want to say.” Confirms Stephen, “These are true stories. We are all about direct address.”

The Attire has relocated to Los Angeles. Previously writer-producers with SRP Music Group, under the auspices of the platinum team of Sturken and Rogers, and signed to the U.S. division of Japanese powerhouse publisher Avex, they are now affiliated with BMG Songs. On a prior trip to California, they connected with Julian Bunetta, the writer-producer for One Direction, Jason Derulo and Harry Styles, and tracked in the studio with Maroon5 and Louis Tomlinson hit makers, Afterhrs.

The party now continues coast to coast. While future forward productions and sterling songcraft coalesce into a musical aura that is charismatic and celebratory, beneath a polished sonic veneer, The Attire’s deeper philosophy reflects an authentic creed of faith and positivity. “Pain ends,” says Greg. “We have to latch onto hope. Stephen and I do it with music.”

Art is where we wander until our voice finds us. And like all truth, it finds us eventually. As stubborn as a sunrise, arriving to set the captives of darkness free, Natalie Lauren’s work is the “Art of Liberation.”

In the spirit of unrelenting audacity inherited from her hometown, the same womb that birthed Black Wall Street; Natalie Lauren is a multi-sensory storyteller. Advocating for untold stories of black women is a burden too significant to be restricted to one medium. So Natalie has set out to master a mixed media form of storytelling, utilizing Songwriting, Painting, and Creative Direction. Her art is an homage created to disrupt the silence and the monolithic identity seeking to oppress black women into a digestible narrative for everyone else but themselves. Natalie aims to curate a safe space for black women to explore the fullness of their humanity found in radical BEING instead of consistent DOING.

On her journey as an interdisciplinary artist, she has been instrumental in contributing to Grammy award-winning music and platinum-selling artists, all while directing visual pieces that have won the applause of TIME magazine and their peers. Currently, she is the founder and leader of Native Creative, a boutique creative agency for independent artists, and Curios Green, a 501 (c)3 non-profit re-imaging therapy for African American teens through the intersection of horticulture and environmental art.

A calming vocalist with a strong pen, songs by Olivia Reid rest well within the soul, with tempos mirroring the pace of a steady heartbeat, and lyrics that articulate the most intimate parts of the human experience. Her production style blends indie acoustics with exploratory electronic pop soundscapes, landing listeners in a visceral sonic world. 

As a self-proclaimed “chronic collaborator”, Reid has connected with audiences around the world via collaborations such as “Time is Mine” with Kidswaste, “What You Came Here For” with Jae Luna, and “Above the Clouds” with SŸDE – a track with over 20 Million streams on Spotify alone. Also a chronic creative, Reid is constantly exploring new ideas in innovation technology, education, screenwriting, and podcasting – notably hosting the Spotify for Artists and Noteable series entitled, Song Start. There, Reid brought her multifaceted approach to production, songwriting, and human creativity to the table, in conversations with the likes of Sam Smith, Victoria Monét, Take a Daytrip and Hayley Williams of Paramore. 

Olivia Reid’s debut EP Earth Water hit streaming platforms in 2021, with new songs on the way in 2023.  Fueled by deeply personal lyrics and boundary-pushing production, the new project conceptually details an artist’s slow descent into madness.

When it comes to making hooks, Breana Marin is a connoisseur. The R&B/Pop/EDM singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles has written for Keyshia Cole, Bridget Kelly, Mila J and Letoya Luckett – and even received a gold plaque for her work with Fifth Harmony. But credentials aside, Marin herself isn’t focused on lines from a resume. She’s fixated on the process itself – making songs that connect with a listener or serve as platforms for other artists to jump from.

“I love to inspire, motivate and relate,” she explains. “I’ve been releasing hooks and it inspires people to write verses, or their own versions of songs – which I love to hear. I love seeing how people interpret the concepts and lyrics.”

Marin has been reinterpreting songs from the very beginning. Raised on Sade, Michael Jackson, and Prince, she honed her skills as a teen in the backseat of her parents’ car, singing lyrics to songs on the radio – and standing in front of the TV taking note of Michael Jackson videos. At 13, she began writing her own music.

But it wasn’t until college where she started to find her stride. While enrolled at UNLV, she attended an audition at Musicians Institute in Hollywood for P Diddy’s reality show, Starmaker. Making it to the second round, Marin auditioned in New York in front of Diddy and MTV executives and ended up getting cut shortly before the show started filming.

“It turned out some of the people who got cut with me were actually students of MI and encouraged me to enroll. Six months later I moved to LA and began taking classes at MI.”

Marin’s move to Los Angeles propelled her career. While attending MI, she met songwriter Andre Merritt, known for his work with Rihanna. And through mentorship with him, she learned what it takes to be a professional songwriter in the music industry.

Since then she’s worked with Grammy award-winning producers, writers, and artists. and has music featured in television shows on various networks like Starz, OWN, and Showtime.

In addition to crafting hooks, Marin has a project called StarGzrLily, an alter ego of sorts that experiments with strange sounds, voices, and vibes – yet remains within the framework of urban pop. StarGzrs “Pills & Potions remix has racked up over a million streams on Spotify.

She says, “I want people to feel warm and fuzzy when they hear my vocals and instantly connected when they hear the lyrics. I want you to either feel like you need to change your life… or feel like you’re sharing a moment with one of your friends.” Breana Marin is currently recording new music. She plans on releasing more hooks, vocal kits, and singles in the near future.

Little Fuss is an art-pop duo consisting of Olivia Martinez and Cody Von Lehmden, a pair who bond over the strange daily humors of their little life in Boston, MA. After forming during the pandemic, the band broke onto the scene with their free flowing live energy and restlessly creative perspective on pop music.

The release of their 2021 debut EP, Hazy, saw the band exploring the outer peripheries of their sound. Their single, “Human of the Century,” perfectly embodies the dichotomy of their music, with inquisitive lyrics set against cinematic arrangements.

With their upcoming debut album, Girls at Parties set to be released in early 2023, Little Fuss has gotten meticulously specific with their exploration of the detailed aesthetic they feel embodies their sound. Drawing from a wide range of influences, from David Bowie and Kate Bush to a once-scandalous Paul Cezanne painting, Girls at Parties seeks to inject a rich variety of musical and lyrical content into a 9-track pop album.

Taylor Watson is an American singer-songwriter and social media star. Her signature pop music is blended with sharp-witted hooks, sticky melodies, and an unapologetic attitude reminiscent of Taylor Swift and Alanis Morrisette. Born into a non-musical family in Denver, Colorado, teenage Taylor began busking on the streets of Boulder before leaving home to hone her songwriting craft in Nashville under the tutelage of six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning songwriter, producer, and executive Paul Worley.

During her time in Nashville, Taylor penned many international hits including “Mine” for Australian sensation Jody Direen and the Canadian Christian Radio hit “Lay It Down” for Jordan St. Cyr – the latter being nominated for three Gospel Music Awards.

With over 2 billion views on social media under her belt in 2021, Taylor began working with a number of heavy-hitter producers, including GRAMMY® winners Rami Yacoub (Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato) and Skylar Mones (Dua Lipa, Kesha, Carlie Hanson). For her lead single, “That Bxtch”, Taylor has cultivated a catchy and conversational take on pop punctuated by sticky choruses and buttoned up with an anthemic tagline. The song thumps along on a bass-y beat and handclaps as she warns, “If I’m in your way, I guess it’s just not your day” before laughing and diving right back into some of her spicier lyrics. The second single promised to drop is “Not My Type,” produced by The 87’s (Iggy Azalea, Steve Aoki). Oozing danceable synths that underscore a fresh perspective on love, “I’m so fucking glad you’re not my type” is a tag Taylor penned to encourage listeners to stop romanticizing their “type” of partner if their “type” isn’t a good one. The unconventional love song is surprisingly self-aware, brutally honest, and endearingly romantic all at once.

With over 10 years of honing her craft as a songwriter and vocalist, Taylor Watson has finally found her sound as an artist and is already proving to be a powerful and dynamic new force in music, continuing to prove that there’s no one quite like her.