James Durbin Era 3

[Outcast]

Hello everyone, I'm back!

Did you miss me, cause I sure missed this place.

So Durbin news for album #3, that's what this thread is about...

James is busy recording the album which is funded through Pledge Music, it's being recorded at Rocker Studios in Santa Cruz and is being produced by Rick Vieara.

This is the latest update from James Facebook page:

Hey Everyone!
Today has been a fantastic productive day for Team JD.
We've been choosing & editing brand new PR photos from a recent photo shoot AND looking at tour routings through October!! Getting super pumped to come and rock you all with new tunes!! Also we will be recording a brand new music video next week for my next rock single from my upcoming 3rd album. We'll be posting behind the scenes photos from the set & you're not going to believe how much fun we're going to have! Stay tuned for more updates as things are just starting to pick up.
PS I've got a big surprise to announce soon.
Till then,
-JD

https://www.facebook.com/DurbinRock/?fref=ts

The album (yet to be named) is planned for release in mid to late summer this year. The lead single, Smackdown, will be released in early April.

Here are some new songs:

Smackdown (lead single):

Good sports anthem, especially for the WWE, hopefully it will get picked up as such. This is definitely his heaviest single ever.



City of Nightmares:

Good song, it's about how new artists struggle in the music biz, I can post lyrics for anyone interested as I have the demo.



We Are the Unknown:

Good power ballad.



Lost in the Shadows

Your Love (cover of the song by The Outfield):



Track list: https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xt...e=5710B57C

[Outcast]

Found this post after rereading his PM page:

20 JANUARY, 2016
ALBUM UPDATE

I…WANNA ROCK N ROLL ALL NIGHT!!!

Happy Paul Stanley’s Birthday to all of you hahaha

Happy 2016 Everyone!!

Im incredibly excited to tell you that I will begin Pre Production on my record during the last week of January!!!!! If you don’t know what that means, I’ll feed ya baby bird original.gif Pre Production is when we plan out all aspects of the recording process. From what days are set aside to record each instruments parts, to bringing in a choir (I like to dream BIG! After all this record is MINE, NOT a record labels).

After Pre Production we BEGIN RECORDING DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY!!!!!

NOW…I don’t have a release date set or have one in mind…BUT I am planning on using part of the Pledged funds to send a single to Rock Radio in the Spring!!!!! That will get the buzz going and set the stage (so to speak) for the album’s release.

I’ll update you all again REALLY REALLY SOON!!

Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World!!

JD

I'm very curious to see how this works out. Smackdown is a really good song, had a band like Shinedown or Papa Roach released it, it would easily become a top 10 hit on Active Rock. The question is whether James can make it a hit there, and without a label backing him to boot. I'm rather surprised that he can even afford to do this. Pushing singles to radio costs money, though Active Rock is a much smaller, and less costly, format than CHR and even HAC. Maybe he's scored some kind of licensing, sponsorship or promo deal with some well known brand, could be as this song sounds very WWE, who knows. Well this has my attention and I hope it works out for him cause the song is good.

[Outcast]

James has filmed the wrestling themed music video for Smackdown. It will be released this coming Friday.

[Miguel]

I have trouble making out the words, but I think the new material sounds good.

The question is whether James can make it a hit there, and without a label backing him to boot. I'm rather surprised that he can even afford to do this. Pushing singles to radio costs money...

I think there's only so much an artist can do to "push" singles to radio. Probably put together a press kit and make themselves available for telephone interviews. Having a video to support the chosen song is likely standard too.

Beyond that, the other traditional element is probably a radio-station tour. That, I think, requires backing because of the expense of traveling. But, as we saw with "Free" for Haley, it doesn't guarantee any airplay.

Program directors (and record labels) are no longer adventurous. They don't want to break an artist. They want to capitalize on someone already generating buzz.

We saw that with Haley and "Can't Help Falling in Love."

It seemed to have captured their attention when it topped the Spotify Viral Top 50 late last year. So in December we caught word radio stations planned on adding it to the rotation...a month or two later. So when Haley rolled into town for her radio promos her appearance seemed like a bigger deal for the stations this time around.

Note though that they made the decision to add it to the rotation before she did the radio promo tour.

If the WWE did highlight "Smackdown" to the point it generated a lot of downloads or streams that would be a big help in getting radio play.

[Outcast]

I have trouble making out the words, but I think the new material sounds good.

Here is James performing Smackdown acoustically, it's easier to make out the lyrics in this vid:

[Outcast]

Program directors (and record labels) are no longer adventurous. They don't want to break an artist. They want to capitalize on someone already generating buzz.

That is true however Sirius XM Octane seems to be an exception. Everyday from 3-4pm they have a special program called "test drive" where they showcase unknown/lessor known/upcoming acts. They've broken quite a few bands into the market, notably the band Nothing More who have become very popular as of late. Wind-Up did release Stand Up to Active Rock and Octane played it a lot. James has also been a guest DJ on Octane. It may be a satellite station but it has a huge influence on the hard rock/heavy metal market. Octane sponsors a lot of events in that market. The airplay Stand Up got on Octane was probably the biggest contributor to Stand Up making the Top 20 on Active Rock; and that was without Wind-Up even pushing the song, they never sent James on radio tours to Active Rock, only HAC.

My guess is Smackdown will probably chart on Active Rock when James releases it, but in order for him to crack the Top 10 he'll need backing of some sort. Hopefully he'll be able to score some kind of sponsorship for promo. But, as you said, that still doesn't guarantee anything.

[Outcast]

James is gonna premier the music video for Smackdown on http://loudwire.com/ this Friday:

durbinrock
Who else is pumped to hear some new #JAMESDURBIN music? #SMACKDOWN video out THIS FRIDAY exclusively with @loudwire .com & digital download with @cdbabymusic. @itunes @amazonmusic & @googleplaymusic to follow

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDmYna5LySX/

[Outcast]

[Outcast]

It's here! It's everything I expected to be and more!

#Smackdown

http://loudwire.com/james-durbin-smackdo...-premiere/

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And if any of you here like it, you can buy it here:

http://www.cdbaby.com/CD/jamesdurbin2

[Outcast]

In respect of Loud Wire's exclusive premier right I didn't embed the video yesterday but I can do so now: