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| One of Australian’s most loved artists and nominated by revered music legends as one of the great voices of Australia, Guy Sebastian was born in Malaysia to a multicultural Sri Lankan family, which moved to Australia where all sons became involved in music through their Para |
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One of Australian’s most loved artists and nominated by revered music legends as one of the great voices of Australia, Guy Sebastian was born in Malaysia to a multicultural Sri Lankan family, which moved to Australia where all sons became involved in music through their Paradise church in Adelaide. Guy’s elder brother Oliver Sebastian has written many recorded gospel songs, while Chris, a younger brother has also commenced his musical career.
At 4, Guy taped and sang along to his favourite songs. Eventually, despite several setbacks in his teens, he became a drummer in a band and only after a couple of years when he found the band another drummer was he permitted to sing. Finally the urge to make his own music became so strong that despite his own familys disapproval he gave up university and commenced classes as a vocal coach, while he also studied music and music technology. During this time he was also part of the great Australian band, The Planetshakers, with whom he travelled Australia and overseas and also recorded. There is also a track or two available with SA Youth Alive albums. Early in 2003 Guy Sebastian submitted the song “NO MORE” for an Australia wide competition held by PilotPen and was awarded the winner’s prize.
In 2003 he was talked into attempting to try out for the inaugural Australian Idol contest, which format was completely new to Australia. During the competition, when he re-arranged songs into his own unique format which also displayed his almost 4 octave range, musicians and critics of reality shows – and the judges – were vocal in their appreciation of his superb musical talent and it was no real surprise when he won, despite the very great talents displayed by the other competitors. Some comments included “I think your voice is the most beautiful instrument I have ever heard” (Marcia Hines, celebrated US/Australian artist), “I simply never tire of hearing you sing, a true joy and privilege - you are a sublime talent” (Mark Holden, musician/singer and writer of numerous No. 1 hits), “You’re the best unsigned talent I’ve ever heard – you’re destined for enormous success” (Ian Dickson former marketing director of BMG record company).
Guy Sebastian was given “Angels Brought Me Here” as his debut limited edition single, which almost broke all speed barriers in sales, and his DEBUT ALBUM “JUST AS I AM” , which features three of his own original songs, reached almost 7 platinum, due to the frenzy of obtaining something of his voice. It sold over 2 ½ platinum in the first week. (However, there are many other tracks available from pre-competition, including two solos and of course “No More” for those lucky enough to obtain that). He not only had no.1s in Australia but also in New Zealand and several Asian countries, where other singles reached the top 3.
It appears that no-one was quite prepared for the incredible whirl of fame that continued in 2004. Guy toured with the group to huge sell-out crowds in entertainment centres and theatres, he appeared in Asia and New Zealand to continuous accolades, took part in his church’s recording of GOSPEL ALBUM “PARADISE LIVE – ADORE” cd/dvd album (in which he sings the major part in three tracks, on of which he wrote with his Pastor). He even flew back from Malaysia to take part in an Easter Gospel Festival at Toowoomba, before flying back again to Malaysia the same day. He was then sent overseas to write for the 2nd album, writing with such well knowns as Robin Thicke, Beau Dozier, David Ryan Harris, Brian McKnight etc. Unfortunately, the timing for the 2ND ALBUM BEAUTIFUL LIFE (October 2004) coincided with the amalgamation of Sony/BMG record labels and while the launch was tremendous, and overseas interest was immense (see www.alexa.com), that very successful tour was rushed and lost momentum (only 4 weeks from the announcement of the tour and its start, and the album), with New Zealand and Asia ignored, they felt snubbed.
Guy continued to tour and write for his 3rd album, and meanwhile he was in huge demand for private corporate gigs and TV appearances, barely able to field everything that was offered. Guy again took part in the recording of the 2nd Paradise GOSPEL ALBUM – PARADISE – SET ME FREE (cd/DVD) and toured Asia with that group.
He also became a World Vision Ambassador as well as being a McDonalds ambassador, and was nominated for Young Australian of the Year.
In 2006 Guy Sebastian’s star was continuing to rise even higher and he was asked to appear in the series “It Takes Two”, where he showed Australia once again why he is considered such an innate artist. A well known journalist penned an article, the gist of which was while Guy brought his extraordinary talents to the show which was greatly enhanced by his presence on it, he was simply too ‘big’ and ‘too popular’ to take part in such competitions. The TV media however continued to ask him to appear whenever they could.
At the finale of that show Guy sang an inspirational song penned by him, Gary Pinto and Phil Turcio, “Taller Stronger Better” which received such huge acclamation that it was decided to make it the first single off the 3RD ALBUM (CLOSER TO THE SUN). However, while it may have been cool to play similar songs by ‘gritty bands’, radio was loath to play it as Guy is a committed Christian and has a major ‘nice guy’ image which they apparently felt was not cool enough. And yet during this same period those same stations might play “My Sweet Lord” by the late George Harrison. However, even despite the lack of airplay the single went gold and is generally considered around the world as one of the true anthems of recent years. It is available on the World Youth Day Album 2008
So much is he in demand that quite often around the busier parts of the year he will be doing two gigs per night, especially at Christmas time.
Guy Sebastian’s stunning shows early in 2007 set a new height for artistic and musical integrity, pulling in even more fans. The Australian Philharmonic Orchestra approached him and he had two shows at the Sydney Opera House and one in Melbourne, which again showed his continued evolution as a musician / singer. UK conductor Gavin Sutherland accorded him the highest label of ‘a musician’s musician’ as an artist, and gave him the accolade of ‘streets ahead of the rest!’ During these shows different groups and individuals in the audience would simply be overcome and gave standing ovations, with finales reaching a peak of seven standing ovations by the entire audience at the end of the shows in Sydney. Unfortunately due to new prior commitments Guy was unable to do more of these shows, as after a world wide search by the WYD organisation, his song written with Gary Pinto had been applauded as the theme song for the World Youth Day 2008, with all the recording, filming and appearances that was thereby entailed. The song “Receive the Power” is available from the WYD08 site and Itunes, and the song and video are open to the public on many sites. The WYD 2008 ALBUM, “RECEIVE THE POWER” is available from Sanity.
Guy travelled to the US, and was accorded the absolute honour of recording with (Booker T and) the MGs house band at Ardent Studios, where they recorded with 14 tracks out of the 15 as first takes, including his own “I’d Like to Get to Know You”; jammed with Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn at BB Kings Restaurant, following Sheryl Crow and her father; sang in New York to an explosion of applause as people rushed the stage and tours with his legendary band the MGs. Steve Cropper describes Guy (see youtube) as “mind boggling”. John Fry of Ardent Studios is so impressed with his 4TH ALBUM “THE MEMPHIS ALBUM” and Guy that he is already suggesting that it be placed in the Stax Museum in the Here and Now. The Memphis Album has already gone 2P in 10 weeks.
Spoken fondly of as “the coolest guy”, “the nicest guy on the planet”, the “most beautiful person I’ve ever met”, and “my favourite person in the whole world” by the cool media, Guy Sebastian has only just started to soar! We look forward to his own 5TH ALBUM (expected around mid 2008) and he has been writing with David Ryan Harris.
THE MEMPHIS ALBUM has been reviewed as astonishing and authentic, oozing freshness and excitement, technically amazing, fresh, electrifying, an awesome jam session and superb, while Guy’s supreme talent and gravelly voice shows joyous individuality. Even the Memphis Flyer bowed down!
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Discussion Topic
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Creator
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Steve Cropper in High Praise
for Guy Sebastian
Great 'special' yesterday on
Allmemphismusic.com
here is just [u]SOME[/u] of the
transcriptions from just SOME of the special
interviews that were also run, in between the
tracks from the album. Thanks to Adelaidefan
who transcribed these interviews (which can
also be heard, on the OF)
:D
[b]Steve Cropper [/b]
[quote]Hi this is Steve Cropper, guitar
player with Booker T & The Mgs. I just want
to say it’s great to be here on
AllMemphisMusic.com radio show. You know
recently I had the pleasure of bringing in an
Australian Idol winner. I brought him to
Memphis. He wanted to do a Memphis tribute
album, and we brought him down to Ardent
Studios. Needless to say I’ve done a lot of
things in my career, had a lot of fun, but we
had more fun working with this young guy who
just sings the rings around everything. You
know there’s a lot of great singers out there
today, a lot of them extremely talented. You
never quite know where they learned, or where
they’re coming from, or what their musical
tastes are, but this kid came into Memphis,
and just blew everybody’s socks off. [u]He
had the grit and the grind and the soul of
Otis Redding, and he had the sweet soul of Al
Green, he had the wonderful sweet church
sound of Sam Cooke. He just took us by storm,
and it was like every song we did, we just
looked at each other and like all said we
can’t believe this kid can sing this good.
His name is Guy Sebastian, and we are going
to be playing some of his music today.[/u] We
hope you like it, and I was fortunate enough
to play guitar on it, and produce the record.
I brought up my good buddy Donald Duck Dunn
up from Florida, and we had our drummer Steve
Potts who plays with us The Blues Brothers
and Booker T & The Mgs, and the one and only
Lester Snell from Memphis Tennessee who
played with Isaac Hayes, and played with
everybody on keyboards. And we just had, just
had a ball. That’s all I can say. So it’s a
pleasure to be here on AllMemphisMusic
radio.
*****************
I was sitting at home one day, and I was just
looking through my emails, and I got an email
from a publisher out in Los Angeles, a
Universal publisher, a guy named Lance Reed,
and he wrote me a little email, and he said,
“I just talked to a friend of ours Bob Aird,
who represents Universal Music down in
Australia, and he says that he has this
Australian Idol winner that has had a lot of
success, he’s had about 3 albums, he sells a
lot of records. He’s got a big following down
in Australia, and he has come up with the
idea that he’d like to do a, a album filled
with Memphis songs, and Lance explained he
said “This singer’s going to sing Memphis
songs? Why don’t you bring him to Memphis,
and maybe call Steve Cropper and get him
involved, and maybe you can put together some
of the old band members, and cut it for real
in Memphis Tennessee". And that
message went back, and next thing you know
we’re getting a phone call. And I emailed him
back and said “Yeh I’d be interested in
this”. So we went back and forth, and they
called and they said “Would you really be
interested in coming back to Memphis, and
putting some of the guys together, and
cutting some of these old songs” and I said
“absolutely”. If anything it sounds like fun.
If it makes it or not. It isn’t really an
important thing. The fact that we come to
Memphis, and hang out, and go over to our old
studio. You know we did a lot of work for
Stax at Ardent Studios on Madison. I actually
had an office over there at one time after I
left Stax. So it was like a home coming
week.
And we set it all up and I got Donald Duck
Dunn to come in from Florida and Steve Potts
who still lives in Memphis, Lester Snell, and
we got those guys together. Got some of the
existing Memphis horns together, and we went
in there and started cutting a little Al
Green, a little Wilson Pickett, and a little
Sam and Dave, and a little Otis Redding. And
the next thing you know we’re about 14 tracks
into an album. And everybody who came by said
“Who is this kid? Where did you find this
guy? and I said. “Hey I didn’t find him. He
found me. And he wanted to come to Memphis
and make a record”. And they said [i]“We
haven’t heard anybody sing like that in
years. This is awesome. Wait until we tell
people about this[/i]”.
With the good help of AllMusicMusic station
we’re going to get to hear some of this great
music, and I tell you, I don’t know when they
are going to show this, er play this back,
but I just recently came back from New York
and played for the executives of Sony Music.
The record has been released by Sony down in
Australia. Let me tell you the record at this
point has gone Triple Platinum in Australia,
which gets a lot of people’s attention, it’s
absolutely that good, and we went out and did
a little showcase last Tuesday. We played for
the executives of Sony. They were totally
overwhelmed. And we’re just waiting by the
phone. To see when they’re going to call and
say “Ok we’re going to release the record in
the States”. But in the meantime you guys get
an early jump on this because you’re going to
get to hear the album today, and hopefully
you will phone in, or get on your computer
and punch it in, and say “I like that, play
it some more”. That’s what we’re looking for.
So we want to thank all of our new fans
coming along to hear Guy Sebastian.
*****************
You know it’s pretty neat to go down to
Australia. It’s always great. I’ve been down
there a couple of times, and when I come home
to the States I can’t brag enough about the
people down there, and the fun that we had,
and the food and just the whole idea of it. I
know that they’ve got kangaroos that everyone
knows about and all that, but they have so
much more to offer. It’s just a wonderful
place to go and see. And to go down there
with an artist that already has a major,
major fan base. He’s an American Idol, I mean
Australian Idol winner. He finished 1st place
about 4 years ago, and he just has this huge
following, so there was a little apprehension
about us going down to play behind him,
because the people who were fans were there
to see Guy. Well they were there to see some
of the old Memphis guys as well. And that
comaradarie with everybody, and hearing him
singing our music, which was born and raised
and produced and recorded in Memphis
Tennessee. It was just something I, its hard
to explain the excitement coming from being
on stage and that excitement coming out of
the audience. It just filled our hearts.
Because they really liked us, and they really
liked that good old Memphis music, and here’s
one of the biggest Idols singing that music,
Its just pretty much overwhelming experience
that we will probably never ever get over. I
hope some way we can do it again.
[/quote]
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prinia |
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Replys
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Listener
| Tucson Weekly
10th April 2008
At the time of this interview, though, Dunn
had returned from a month in Australia. He
was recovering from jet lag and a virus he
picked up on the plane.
He and Cropper had played a national concert
tour there with Australian Idol winner Guy
Sebastian. A powerful young blues and soul
belter, Sebastian had recorded his third CD,
The Memphis Album, a collection of soul
standards released last year, with producer
Cropper at the helm.
Said Dunn of the Sebastian tour Down Under,
"That was fun, because those were
songs I have been playing for my whole
life." | prinia | Arizona Daily Star
11th April 2008
And Dunn and Cropper just recently returned
from an extended tour in Australia where they
played with "Australian Idol: Season
One" winner Guy Sebastian.
In 2007, Sebastian was looking to do a
tribute album to the Memphis soul sound and
recruited Cropper and Dunn to appear on the
release.
The recording went double-platinum Down Under
and exposed a whole new generation of music
lovers to some of the essential players from
back in the day.
Dunn and Cropper toured across the continent
with Sebastian from Perth on the west coast
to an 11-day stint in Sydney.
"He is really good, Guy
Sebastian," Dunn said. "He has
a lot of Al Green and Al Jarreau in him. | prinia | Introducing Denny...
Move over Jay Sean and Raghav, we've got
our own
South Asian R&B star right here in Australia!
After
opening up for R&B superstars like Donell
Jones and
Joe, it was only natural that we showcase
this up and
coming talent.
By Ashlene Nand
What do you think of the urban music scene in
Australia? Do
you think our local talent has a chance on a
global scale?
The urban music scene in Oz…I think is still
growing and has a
long way to go. I think the biggest let down
is people trying to
be something they are not. I think someone
needs to be step
up and just be themselves and say what’s on
their mind. I believe
some production crews have got what it takes,
and
maybe one or two artists come to mind that
maybe can take
it to the next level – the main one is Guy
Sebastian – he may
not be everyone’s cup of tea but he’s got the
package.
But overall, the scene is developing and yeah
eventually it will evolve. | prinia | AUSTRALIAN IDOL 1 (2003)
Winner: Guy Sebastian
The stand out from all winners to date, an
excellent musician and, from all reports, a
fine live performer and nice guy to boot. But
I have my suspicions about the future of Guy
Sebastian. Just a sense, but something tells
me he maybe doesn't like the game he's
having to play and may pull the pin on
playing it the way it's been played to
date.
A-OK on the Guy Sebastian front.
http://www.bmusic.com.au/links/whatsnew/ne...
o196.html#where
| prinia | the above was from a general checkout, and
shows his thoughts were right. | prinia | | | |
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