Album Capsules And Kelly Keeling Concert Preview
by Mark E. Waterbury
Rise - Uncertain Wonders
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Elaine Lachica - Self titled
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Enode - Memory Still Fresh
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World Class Noise - Day & Night
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99 Names of God - Interwoven
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Furniture Music - Satellite Life
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Geomancer - Self titled EP
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Plum Village - self titled
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Michael Johnathon - Homestead
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Living Space - Fade Into Existence...n
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Kelly Keeling Live In Concert At The Velvet Underground/Hard Rock
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Feature Article: Ego - Your best friend or your worst enemy
by Mark E. Waterbury
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MAD Booking asst. talent buyer Tania Taschereau
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Indie Artist Spotlight: Kris Manvell - Drummer for Rise
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Scott Turner's Song Publisher's Perspective
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Music Biz Opportunities
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Music Industry Marketing Showcase
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Copyright 2004 by Music Morsels, a Serge Entertainment Publication.
Editor: Sandy Serge
Contributing Columnists/Writers:
Mark E. Waterbury, Scott Turner
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 TM© May 2003
Indie Artist Spotlight: Kris Manvell - Drummer for RiseBy Mark E. Waterbury
Artist Name: Kris Manvell - Drummer for Rise
Musical Genre: Alternative Folk with Celtic Influences
Birthplace: London
Current Residence: Isle Of Bute, Scotland
Years In Music Biz: 15
Size Of Fan Base: Thousands
Web Site: http://www.riseband.co.uk
 MM: The members of Rise came from diverse musical backgrounds. What did it take for your styles to mesh into what would become the music style on "Uncertain Wonders"?
KM: It really just happened. When we play together, it's very natural and we didn't really think about it. We didn't think about genres and we didn't think about what was happening in the music scene. Gerry (Geoghegan) wrote most of the songs and I wrote some. At the beginning, we decided that we didn't want to play a specific type or style of music because we didn't like the idea of being compartmentalized. We just started playing and it all came together naturally.
MM: So is that how your songwriting goes, like something spontaneous and everyone else just sort of ran with it?
KM: Actually I always knew that Gerry had a songwriting ability and was a special musician, but I knew that he had also been kind of dubious about writing lyrics down. It can be hard to put your feelings down on paper and show them to people. So I was living on a different island at the time and I bombarded him with poetry that I had written to provoke him into writing lyrics, and it started to have the desired effect. We would fax each other back and forth and he would play music he had written over the phone, and we got pretty excited. We wrote the whole album in six months, and when I got back, we realized that we still believed in it. So we bought some digital equipment for a home studio and started recording it. We still weren't sure because we thought it would be just a demo, but it actually took a year to finish. It just kept snowballing and getting bigger and we got more serious about it.
MM: The first time you sat down and listened to "Uncertain Wonders" all the way through, what was your reaction to it?
KM: I was incredibly excited, because I realized we had written and made something we really felt good about. Usually when you finish, you think you could have done this this way or this that way, but I actually felt good about what we did. It was a very moving piece of work; half of the songs when we played them in the studio made me cry, and they still do. I know that the passion and intensity are there and every one of us really believed in the stories we were telling.
MM: You've all been in other bands before. After you were done recording did you feel like this is it, this is a band that can really take off?
KM: For sure. I used to play in various punk and progressive bands, and while I had fun with that I never had the feeling I have playing with the members of Rise. We were friends first, and were friends before we realized what each other had musically. For me, there is no one else I would rather be playing with now.
MM: What were the initial promotional avenues you took to get the CD out to the public?
KM: I had never done anything like this before but once we had it finished we started mailing it out to radio stations. We got an incredible response right away, especially from America, Canada and Australia. The DJ's really were raving about it, and we basically spent about a year promoting it and sending it to people who were asking for it. We've had a lot of feedback in America and have been played in over 600 radio stations there as well as in twenty other countries.
MM: Is that how you connected with Angel Davis at Sheheshe?
KM: I hooked up with her through an on-line source called Indigo for female indie artists. I came across Angel through Indigo and sent her an album, and we sort of hit it off and started communicating more. It was just a real nice relationship and we found out we had a lot of things in common and in what we believed in. Last year they made us their band of the year and they asked us to come on board with their record label.
MM: What have you been doing with live performances?
KM: We haven't done that much yet because in the time we have been together we have spent a lot of that time recording the album and then getting it out there. We went to America last year and did a tour of fourteen radio stations and one TV station. We're going to be coming back to America for another tour after we finish a new recording, and in the interim we have done a few shows in Scotland. There hasn't been a lot of time to tour and we do feel it would be better concentrating our touring in one place, and that would be America. Once we've established ourselves more there, we will think about touring in other places.
MM: What else do you feel you have to do to keep the buzz growing about Rise?
KM: The thing I am doing right now is I have actually been keeping personal contact with all the people who have bought our album or are playing our album. This is my life and I spend most of the day on the computer communicating with people about the music. I've developed wonderful friendships with these people and I make sure that every time I find out that someone new has bought the CD that I personally write to that person. I keep track of the people playing it on the radio as well, and always make sure that they get copies of the album that they request for giveaways and promotions. The more airplay we get, the more the music gets out there. Personal contact has become very special to me.
MM: Do you think that Rise has what it takes to be successful and why?
KM: I think we've got what it takes to get there. We write about subjects that are interesting and look at different aspects of life from unusual points of view. We put real feeling and passion into what we do. Musically and technically we have the ability to do it. To me, it's also the fact that there are so many formulated bands now and too many people that are only interested in becoming famous and making a lot of money rather than making real music from the heart. I know that we are getting a lot of feedback from people who are so encouraging and want us to keep making music. I have no doubt that if we keep focusing in the same way we are that we can be successful.
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