| Magic Number / Music Blog |  | | Latest News ... | Ross Hillard has once again moved his sound forward with his brand new project under his new psudonim 'The Orchard' his new album is nearing the final stages of production and is sounding superb. Watch this space for more information.
Check out Ross's studio at:
www.thepaddocks.net
Check out Ross's myspace at:
www.myspace.com | | 2007-09-18 14:44:58 | | | Biography ... | Ross Hillard was born in 1980 and as a young boy dreamed of being Goalkeeper for his beloved Arsenal. With this in mind he practiced every day and when at the age of nine was offered a trial with his home team Leicester City , he was left so offended that he felt the only option was to pursue a career in music. Luckily for us all he was also very talented in this field.
He took a demo of his song ‘That Day' to Mantis Recordings back in 2001. It was a fabulously soulful, Latin flavoured song, with a wonderful vocal performance from local session singer Rachel Foster and Rhodes piano by non other than Raymond Angry from The Blackbyrds. Mantis main man Martin ‘Atjazz' Iveson was suitably impressed, and helped Ross to produce the track. Which was released later that year, receiving high praise from many well respected DJ's and producers, including the likes of Larry Heard, Laurent Garnier and Ben Watt. The music press also added their own encouraging reactions.
The follow up single ‘Sorry' featuring Jane Hamilton, gave a further indication of the abilities of Ross, both as a musician and a lyricist. These skills teamed with Jane's soulful vocals, the soaring string section plus Iveson's immaculate programming and production helped shape the track into a much sought after future classic.
Keeping the winning lineup of Ross as writer, and Atjazz as producer, an album gradually began to take shape. It was as the album was nearing completion, that a CDR of some of the songs fell onto the desk of Germany 's Stereo Deluxe label. They were suitably impressed by the strong, and expressive songs, and licensed the album from Mantis Recordings to release worldwide.
Jane Hamilton went on to become the vocal heart of the Magic Number project. She makes no less than five appearances on the album. As well as Jane, other collaborators on the album include the vocalists Dawne B. Stewart, whose voice made Atjazz's ‘Harmony' an indispensable Mantis Recordings release and Clara Hill (Jazzanova / Sonar Kollektiv), who has co-wrote the track “Turn Back”.
As well as writing music, Ross DJ's regularly around the UK , with his turntable fusion winning many friends on the floor. Ross has put together a band to take the Magic Number sound live, and has had an incredible reaction from the gigs they have played. | | 2007-09-18 14:43:27 | | BLOG ARCHIVE
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