Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

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Inside Imogen Heap's Interactive 'Creative Passport' Project & Mycelia World Tour

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The GRAMMY-winning artist and tech innovator brings together live concerts, interactive workshops and tech talks to nine cities across North America
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Dec 10, 2018 - 5:16 pm

Fans of multi-instrumentalist songwriter/producer and multi-media artist Imogen Heap have learned to expect the unexpected from their hero. Never one to disappoint creatively, Heap's latest endeavor is also one of her most ambitious.

The GRAMMY winner has announced a nine-city North American leg of her Mycelia World Tour, complete with the launch of a new project, 'Creative Passport,' which integrates concerts, workshops and discussions to push the typical limits of what a live tour can mean.

The continuation of her Mycelia World Tour follows successful stints across Europe during 2018 and will make stops in major U.S. cities between April and June 2019, including Miami, New York, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle and San Francisco. The tour is named after Heap's research and development hub aimed at cultivating a fairer payment system for artists by establishing a music maker database.

Billed in a statement from Heap as "promoting a fair and flourishing future for the Music Industry," her 'Creative Passport' project is geared toward, "realising a vision of the future which sees music makers connected through a verified and decentralised ecosystem, promoting artist-led, fair and sustainable operating practices."

The slate of events for each tour stop includes some or all of several elements, including solo concerts from Heap as well as reunited duo appearances with Guy Sigsworth as electronic duo Frou Frou for the first time since 2003.

'Creative Passport' also offers workshops with local music makers, technologists and industry influencers, workshops for families where children will get to build and code their own MIni.MU gloves (Heap's proprietary electronic instrument of the future) and talks given by Heap on "technologies which are positively shaping the future of the music ecosystem, building better business and audience relations with music makers."

“For years now we’ve been complaining about the state of the music industry and how it has been held back by old ways of thinking, negatively impacting music makers–a major pain point being that we are the first to put in any of the work, and the last to see any financial reward or even payment," explains Heap. "Through Mycelia and its ‘Creative Passport,’ as music makers we now have no excuse but to put our best foot forward and become open for business, decentralising the ecosystem so that it will ultimately benefit everyone. I am excited to be going on the road to bring this to life, in addition to showcasing other new technologies which will add to transforming the music industry into a fair, flourishing and vibrant place”.

Heap released her debut album, iMegaphone, back in 1998 and has spent the past two decades surprising her fans with her classically trained yet wildly innovative interpolations of pop music. While her work has always pushed the boundaries between music and visual media, her sounds reached her widest audience yet as a producer on Taylor Swift's GRAMMY-winning album 1989, which earned Heap her second career GRAMMY Award.

Tickets for Heap's North American dates of her Mycelia World Tour go on-sale to the general public on Friday, Dec. 14 at 10:00 a.m. For full details, visit her website.

Imogen Heap's Life Of A Song Project Shows Who Gets Paid

Jed Hilly of the Americana Music Association

Jed Hilly

Photo: Erika Goldring/Getty Images

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Americana Tour Blueprint Provides Musicians Valuable Booking & Routing Resource

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The new online tool from the Americana Music Association gives artist members info for roots music-friendly opportunities in over 100 markets
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Nov 1, 2018 - 2:10 pm

Touring is tough. For all the joy and rewards of playing your music in a new town each night, there are so many risks and challenges, starting with booking. Now, thanks to the Americana Music Association, a new tool called Americana Tour Blueprint makes routing a tour easier by connecting artists with venues in cities with a roots music-friendly support network of radio stations, retailers, and local press.

Watch: Jason Isbell Wins Best Americana Album

The brand new online tool, which was conceived two years ago, allows members of the organization not only to map out a tour route based on information about over 100 markets on the circuit, but to request a booking at the 20 or so venues that have agreed to receive pitches from Americana Music Association artists.

The locations covered by the blueprint stretches through the area roughly surrounding the Interstate 95 corridor, including northeaster cities like Boston and New York all the way down to Miami. There's also a path through Interstate 65 that leads through markets like Atlanta, Asheville, N.C. and more. The organization hopes this project will go a long way toward fostering the artists of today and tomorrow in the genre it champions.

"As an artist advocacy group, our mission is to support the authentic voice of American roots music," says Americana Music Association Executive Director Jed Hilly. "But as a trade association, we are mindful of working with the industry to not only support legends but also to work for the next generation of rising stars."

To commemorate the launch of the new tool, the organization is walking the walk, presenting the inaugural 2019 tour featuring Caitlin Canty and Oshima Brothers, the first artists to use the new resource to book their tour, which kicks off Jan. 4 at New York City's Rockwood Music Hall.

Americana is inherently a live performance-oriented music genre, known for the use of acoustic instruments, vocal harmonies and road-themed lyrical content. For a style so steeped in tradition, this innovative new tool promises to support roots musicians and free up more of their time to do what they should be doing, making music. See you on tour!

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Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

Photo: Walter McBride/Getty Images

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Imogen Heap's Life Of A Song Project Shows Who Gets Paid

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No more "Hide And Seek" for song payouts, as Heap's new open-source project visually shows where the money has flowed over the years from her iconic 2005 song
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Oct 23, 2018 - 4:11 pm

Ever an innovator, GRAMMY-winning musician Imogen Heap has recently been focused on creating futuristic tools to support music makers with her organization Mycelia, which bills itself as "connecting dots for music makers."  They launched their latest project, "Life Of A Song," on Oct. 23, which connects the dots of the royalty data from her song "Hide And Seek."

The data for "Hide And Seek" is comprehensive over the more than 13 years since the song's release in 2005, with more than $1 million in revenues. Mycelia's Life Of A Song project breaks down the revenue flow that viewers can explore in an interactive, detailed way. The changing geometry of the visual data representation shifts, letting a user turn off different sources of revenue — such as public performances, broadcast or digital — to see how that morphs the colorful, graph.

The Life Of A Song platform fits within Heap's — and Mycelia's — larger work using blockchain, decentralized computer systems and other cutting-edge technology-based projects. She explained to Forbes that Mycelia and her passion is "about convincing the music makers to claim the space which is theirs." For Heap, that includes making this platform open source, so fairness can ultimately become a feature of future computer-based, music payment-tracking systems.

Besides being on a tour that blends speaking engagements with music performances, Heap also supplied the musical accompaniment to the play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child — a sensation in the UK and U.S. Her reworked soundtrack will be issued by Sony Music Masterworks on Nov. 2 as The Music Of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Parts One And Two In Four Contemporary Suites.

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Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

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Lucinda Williams Plots 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road' 20th Anniversary Tour

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The celebrated singer/songwriter announces a 10-city celebration of her 1998 Americana modern classic
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Aug 20, 2018 - 11:41 am

By the time 1998's Car Wheels On A Gravel Road took home the honor of Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 41st GRAMMY Awards, Lucinda Williams had established herself as one of the most authentic and talented songwriters the genre had seen in a long time. Now, two decades later, Williams has announced a tour in celebration of the breakout album.

The special anniversary tour will kick off Nov. 2 in Collingswood, N.J. and hit 10 cities before wrapping in Berwyn, Ill. On Nov. 17. Williams will perform the album in full, including such classic songs as "Can't Let Go," "Drunken Angel," "2 Kool 2 B 4-Gotten," "Metal Firecracker," and more followed by selections of songs spanning the rest of her illustrious career.  

Williams just wrapped a tour with American outlaw Steve Earle and country legend Dwight Yoakam aptly titled the LSD tour. Williams also recently made a memorable appearance at Newport Folk Festival with jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd.

Earlier this year, the GRAMMY winner announced she's penning a memoir looking back at her Louisiana upbringing, her experiences in the music industry, and her remarkable career. The book is due out in 2020 from publisher Henry Holt.

Tickets for the Car Wheels On A Gravel Road 20th Anniversary tour go on sale Aug. 23. More information is available at Williams' website.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Maxwell

Maxwell

Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images

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Maxwell Announces 50 Intimate Nights Live North American Tour

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The GRAMMY winner will debut new material and perform his biggest hits during his 50-date trek this fall
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 23, 2018 - 8:22 am

With a new single out and a sprawling North American tour on the horizon, 2018 is shaping up to be a big year from Maxwell. The GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter has announced the 50 Intimate Night Live Tour will bring his powerful and sultry brand of neo-soul to audiences across the country through the end of the year.

The 50-date trek will kick off in Richmond, Va., on Sept. 27 and roll its way around the U.S. and Canada before wrapping in New York City at the Beacon Theatre on Dec. 9. The tour will make stops along the way in major cities including Atlanta, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago, and Boston.

The tour announcement follows last month's debut of "We Never Saw It Coming," Maxwell's first piece of new music since 2016. The song arrived complete with an ambitious short film as its music video titled "The Glass House" starring Maxwell alongside activist/actress/model Yomi Abiola.

Tickets for the 50 Intimate Nights Live tour go on-sale starting Friday, July 27, with a limited number of VIP packages becoming available July 25 via Maxwell's website.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"