Heaton has been on the internet music since the beginning of the millennium. He began writing and recording music from as early as 1997 at the age of 15 and it's been quite a journey ever since.
The year 2000 brought about a change of location and direction. Heaton moved to Manchester (UK) and set about working with The Brooklyn Foundation on new material. The BF helped co-write and produce an album of electronic based pop aptly named "Lableless" in a bid to land a UK record deal. Sadly there were still lessons to be learned and due to disputes with managers an important meeting with EMI ended with no deal being signed.
Determined to promote the album and it's tracks Heaton flew solo without representation and launched his own website to promote and sell his music online. A re-recorded version of the album was released in a non exclusive internet deal with the Vitaminc Music Group. "100 Miles" was promoted as the single and entered the mp3 charts @ #1. The album sold respectfully with virtually no promotion relying on word of mouth. At the same time Heaton was busy writing and recording more new material with the BF and in May 2003 the first track from the forthcoming Computer Music" album was released. That track was called "Let It go"
"Let It Go" exploded onto the net and entered the download chart at #1. It remained there for several weeks and remained in the top 10 of the chart for the best part of 12 months. During it's rein it topped a total of 5 different unsigned music sites and received both critical and commercial acclaim. Over the year that one track was downloaded and streamed over 10,000 times. "Better Than B4" & "True Blue" were the next 2 singles released. "Better Than B4" reached #1 and "True Blue" a respectable #4. In March 2004 new track "Nothing Beautiful Remains" was released and went straight in at #1 followed by the independent release of "Computer Music" the album. With Heaton's internet presence cemented the initial release of the album was a huge success, selling heavily in the UK market but also seeing sales from Australia, Japan & the US. Some Manchester record stores actually sold out of copies at one point and more stock had to be brought in.
During this period Heaton was keen to extend this success to live venues but wanted to represent the album with a live band. In October of that year he did just that and played a sell out gig at the infamous "Retro Bar" in Manchester. The night was a huge success and featured press coverage fromThe Manchester Evening News who crowned Heaton "The Download King".
2005 saw the official release of the updated album through iTunes & Tower Records. A radio interview with Nekkid Radio took place on the eve of release and saw Heaton speak openly about his music and his journey so far.
Heaton has been out of the spotlight since working on new material and taking anew direction with his music. New material is expected next year (2007). The new material is said to be less electro and collaborations with Phil Irelend and Liam Frost have been recorded. |
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