Category: Current and Notable Campaigns

Emily Keener is a seventeen-year-old singer/songwriter from Wakeman, OH. Since her exciting journey into the Top 12 on NBC’s The Voice, Emily has been writing and recording diligently in an effort to capture the energy of this most transformative year.

Emily started playing the guitar when she was 11 years old and began writing songs when she was almost 12. A natural curiosity and passion for music quickly got her performing frequently and writing constantly. Almost 6 years later, she has written over 100 original songs and released four EPs and two LPs. Her songs are distinctly original, and the ideas she manages to express in them belie a soul that seems to be much older than seventeen. Before training with renowned vocal coach, Joan Ellison and master guitarist, Tony Schaffer, Emily was entirely self-taught and thrived on the time she spent locked away with a guitar and a notebook.

With the guidance and support of her family and friends, fellow musicians, and many zealous music-lovers, she continued to grow in and experiment with her artistry. At 15, she recorded East of the Sun; an original EP backed by the amazing musicians of Norwalk, OH that once made up “The Womacks”. A year later, she suddenly found herself in front of millions of people on national television with her astonishingly well-received debut on Season 10 of The Voice. She had the honor of performing the songs of some of her greatest inspirations, including “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, “Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon, and “Lilac Wine” by Jeff Buckley. After advancing to the Top 12, Emily arrived home with a newfound sense of self as she walked directly from the plane into the studio at Waveburner Recording. Now, a few months later, she is ready to unveil her latest work and prove that this year is just the beginning.

At the White House on a bill with Aretha Franklin; singing duets with Adam Levine and Celine Dion; showcased on a float at the Rose Bowl Parade and headlining massive festivals worldwide: Tessanne Chin’s supple, soulful voice and impressive inventory of credits are equally stellar.

Still, her greatest ambitions are all future tense. As she launches the next phase of a storied career she is writing and recording songs for her latest project, partnering in new businesses and product endorsements, and most of all, delivering her remarkable voice and charismatic star power to loyal audiences worldwide. “Every day I’m reminded that I am doing the right thing,” she notes “It’s a wonderful thing to travel the world doing what you love, and most of all to share the music.

This music flowed from multi-cultural ancestral bloodlines in Kingston, Jamaica as Tessanne grew up with two accomplished musicians in a home equipped with a recording studio. “I am blessed that they encouraged me,” Tessanne says. “It’s a hard business. They knew, and always showed support.” Leaving home at age 12, Tessanne lived in England and channeled the emotions of separation into songs.

Returning to Jamaica, she fronted the rock-reggae band Mile High and her musical education was uplifted when she joined Jimmy Cliff as a backup singer and toured the world with the reggae legend. “I learned so much,” she says of this experience. “He is such an incredible personality. No matter how big or how small the audience, I learned the importance of treating every performance the same. I learned to leave it all on the stage.”

Recording solo, Tessanne released a series of popular singles that gained attention both at home and with Caribbean audiences in the U.S. Her full-length debut, In Between Words was an introduction to a global audience.

With her televised triumph as the winner of Season 5 of the hit NBC show The Voice, the promise of Tessanne Chin was fulfilled. Live, onstage for millions of viewers worldwide, performing classic songs, becoming the first contestant to hit #1 on the iTunes chart not once but twice, and reaching #4 on the Billboard Heatseekers album charts, she enraptured an enormous audience and delivered her inaugural Republic Records release, Count On My Love.

Her last recent single, “Fire” embodied what she described as “woman power…a modern anthem.” Now working on with a select studio of first call producers, Tessanne is prepping a new project. The sultry “Love Suicide” reveals new sonic dimensions. “’Love Suicide’ represents a soulful, sexy but edgy side to me,” says Tessanne. “I love the concept of giving your being completely over to love and surrendering yourself to this emotion. I feel that everything from the production to the lyrics to the melody supports that feeling and paints that picture perfectly.”

In this phase of her evolution, songwriting is an essential element. “I have to be completely real with myself; more honest than with a diary. It’s therapy,” she says of the creative process. And in her lyrics, she delivers what she describes as, “My point of view, my interpretation, and the message that captures the emotion.”

In tandem with her two sisters, Tessanne has opened Blow by Blow, a full-service beauty salon in Jamaica, and with its success, envisions expanding to additional locations. “It’s a wonderful thing to see people walk in and then to leave feeling beautiful,” she says. She has also partnered with Bellami Hair Extensions. “In this age, you have to be multi-faceted, to put yourself out there in any way you can. Just as in performing: you have to feel good and you have to look good. The message is to embrace who and everything that you are, with or without makeup.”

For audiences who know Tessanne Chin through her live shows and her rich catalog of songs; who follow her on social media or who witnessed her remarkable ascension on a top-rated television show, she offers this message. “A lot has happened since The Voice. There is so much more to me than that. I want to reintroduce myself and say, ‘Hi – how are you doing?’ I want listeners to come on this journey with me.”

Levi Kreis is one of the most honest communicators you will find. He executes his craft with profound vulnerability, a soulfulness that leaves you feeling as though you’ve experienced something deeply personal. In every area of his expertise, Kreis has been awarded for his commitment to the highest quality of entertainment. However, what people value most about Levi is how he makes them feel. To Kreis, art is a real-life conversation that is healing as much as it is entertaining.

In theater circles, Kreis is known for originating the role of Jerry Lee Lewis in Broadway’s Tony-nominated musical Million Dollar Quartet. The role won Levi the 2010 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, a 2010 Outer Critics Circle Award, and a 2010 Drama League nomination. Kreis began workshopping the piece in 2004, also arranging music for the show. His performance demonstrates that even the nuttiest of comedic characters have a human longing, a vulnerability that endears us to their struggle, a truth that offers us hope. Kreis recalls, “I’ve always been a meaning maker. I see art as an opportunity to convey something deeper, something spiritual. When you touch an audience at this level, they remember it forever.”

Other notable stage credits include the Tony-nominated revival of Violet starring Sutton Foster, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and the national tour of Rent. Kreis’ interest in new works has drawn him to a few theatrical developments such as One Red Flower with Emmy Award-Winning director Paris Barclay and Mozart L’Opéra Rock with Tony-nominated director Lonny Price. These works have appeared at The Kennedy Center, The Village Theater, The Goodman Theater, and the North Shore Music Theater.

In film, Levi is best known for his role as Fenton, Adam’s brother (Matthew McConaughey) in Bill Paxton’s directorial debut Frailty (2001). Levi began his acting career with film and has recently returned to screen with roles in The Divide (2016), The Storyteller (in pre-production) and A Very Sordid Wedding (in pre-production)

Surprisingly, acting was never Levi’s primary pursuit. Kreis is a singer-songwriter whose piano-pop recordings have been featured in key moments on network television shows including The Vampire Diaries, Sons of Anarchy, So You Think You Can Dance, Mob Wives, The Apprentice, Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless, and several films. With four albums to date and a 2009 OutMusic Award for “Stained Glass Window”, the theme song for the Del Shores film Southern Baptist Sissies, Kreis has built a humble but loyal following that continues to expand the reach of his own label imprint Vision 9 Records. Levi is currently writing his 5th album and developing a stage show to accompany the new release.

In the beginning, a 6 year old Levi came home from kindergarten graduation after hearing Pomp & Circumstance and started playing it by ear on the piano with both hands. Soon Kreis was writing his own original classical compositions. His mother held a phone over the piano as Levi played for a professor at Vanderbilt’s Blair School Of Music. A freshman in high school, Levi was given a full scholarship to study piano and composition at Vanderbilt University under a special pre-college program. Upon graduating high school, his credits were transferred to Belmont University where he studied music business. Kreis recorded his first album at 12 years old and began a life of touring. As a young songwriter, Levi had his first Top 10 hit with “Timeless” recorded by the Christian group Selah. Kreis confesses that, to him, songwriting is therapy. Consequently, his lyrics give remarkable insight to the complexities of life and reveal profound emotional intelligence, a distinguishing quality you can expect from all of Levi’s work.

Originally from Ashland, Oregon, Hollens began singing after his mother forced him to join the choir at the age of 14. Little did he know that his participation in that class would cultivate his love for music and change his life forever. He went on to attend the University of Oregon where he co-founded the first collegiate a cappella group in Oregon, On The Rocks. Hollens graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal performance, where he was classically trained as an opera singer. Upon his college graduation, Hollens traveled the world singing on cruise ships alongside his wife, Evynne. After their adventure abroad, he became increasingly involved with collegiate a cappella; including recording, producing, and judging a cappella competitions throughout the United States. While he continued to pursue music as a career, he largely remained behind the scenes.

During Peter’s adult life, it wasn’t until the unfortunate passing of his biggest fan, his father, that he was given some lasting encouragement. While fighting brain cancer in his ending stages of life, Peter’s father urged him to keep doing what he loved by sharing his music with the world. That was a turning point for Peter, who then began diligently pursuing his career in music in honor of his father. In 2010, he participated in NBC’s hit show, The Sing-Off, receiving acclaim from judges Shawn Stockman, Nicole Scherzinger and Ben Folds for solo performances. In 2011, he started his own YouTube channel, posting multi-tracked a cappella covers and music videos. He frequently collaborates on content with some of the internet’s biggest influencers. Hollens records and produces music from his studio in Eugene, Oregon, and has recorded for Sony and Epic Records as well.

After signing a record deal with Sony Records, he quickly learned that being on a label wasn’t the best route for him and bought himself out of their contract. Today, he continues creating entertaining content as an independent artist and is entirely self-managed. One Voice Productions was born out of Peter’s independence and freedom that he found after leaving Sony. To support his musical endeavors, he joined up with the newly founded crowdfunding site, Patreon, which he now advises. This platform truly is what allows Peter to create his art for a living while supporting his family. Peter is married to Evynne Hollens, founder of the premiere female a cappella group at the University of Oregon, Divisi. This group inspired the book, (and later blockbuster films) Pitch Perfect. Evynne has her own YouTube channel, posting music videos and occasionally collaborating with her husband. They currently have a son, Ashland James Hollens.

Identity, and the search for it, has long been a theme for alt artist talker. The name “talker” (intentionally spelled lowercase) stems from Celeste Tauchar’s given last name – notorious in her family for being misspelled and mispronounced. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, she grew up in Sacramento, California with a German Catholic mother and Jewish Agnostic father. Early musical influences ranged from Nirvana to Alanis Morissette to Led Zeppelin, whom her parents would play in the car and during family jam nights when she was young. Throughout these formative years, she grappled with mental health and feeling comfortable displaying her true artistic self. Over years of exploration, she went through different phases and musical styles – something she further experimented with while attending the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

After graduating, talker moved to Los Angeles where she immersed herself in the songwriting scene. Through a co-writing session, she met James Sunderland and Dan Sadin of Frenship, an electro-pop group formed and led by James Sunderland and Brett Hite, and was offered the opportunity to play keys and sing background vocals for the band. During her ongoing work with Frenship, she has performed on several tours and played to sold-out crowds at Lollapalooza, Life is Beautiful, Bonnaroo, The El Rey Theatre (LA), The Bowery Ballroom (NYC), and the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

Playing with Frenship had her questioning her own role as a musician, singer, and songwriter, eventually leading to talker’s current project – something she terms “grunge-pop.” A hybrid of her musical influences, “grunge-pop” is heavily influenced by bands such as Nirvana and Soundgarden but with a more pop oriented sound, borrowing from such artists as Banks and Vérité. For her latest solo project, she collaborated with Dan Sadin (guitarist, Frenship), April Bender (Glassnote), and Phil Simmonds (Jessie J, Eryn Allen Kane). The first track talker released was “Collateral Damage,” a commentary on an emotionally abusive pseudo-relationship that she describes as autobiographical. It made its way to #5 on the HypeMachine charts, and saw coverage from a number of highly respected music publications including Grimy Goods and We Found New Music. talker’s second single is “Changes”, a personal song dealing with anxiety and trying (and sometimes failing) to take control of one’s life and situation. As a solo artist, she has played to a packed house at Hotel Café and Madame Siam in Los Angeles, The Troubadour, Lodge Room Highland Park, and has been a finalist in Guitar Center’s Songwriter 5 contest.

In a business where brand and persona are as important as the music, talker is authentic in a way that is instantly tangible, identifiable, and relatable.

From the beautiful central coast of California, Black Match consists of singer- songwriter duo of Hannah and Ian. They have been friends since childhood and grew up playing music together.

Ian comes from a rich history of musicians in the family that go as far back as his great grandfather while Hannah uses music as therapy to more clearly process the world around her. Their name and musical style reflect the coastal and woodsy landscape they have grown up in and they have aimed to create music that draws us into contemplation and wonder through honest and raw songwriting.