Billy The Mountain Release Single
April 26, 2009

Switching their strategy as a band, Bangkok-based rock outfit Billy The Mountain have released their first new single in a series of singles to be launched over the next 8-12 months, band manager Tom Gray told Jungle reporters at the Nashville press launch of the new single Wild Water. He said the series of singles will be launched under the umbrella of a working album title Born On Mars.

“The band’s last album Drifting To Valhalla did well across the net but the single song Mem Will Dance outsold all the other tracks by a margin of five or six times. And when you think about it, fans often fall in love with just one or two songs so we’re working to give the widest cross section of BTM fans at least one song to like well enough and buy. And once we’ve got the best selling singles qualified and compiled, we can compile them on an album of Greatest Hits called Born On Mars for everyone else to buy - just in time for Christmas!”

Gray said the feedback on the new song Wild Water from US radio stations, European producer forums, private showcases and industry pundits has been “phenomenal”.

“It’s a moving anti-war song inspired by the kids who went to ‘fight’ in Iraq for a government bounty and never came back.”

“Nicolai’s (Kehlet) production and arrangement is once again totally state of the art and his guitar playing and tones surely justify his reputation as one of rock’s best producers working today. And the band just love his studio in Bangkok and the satellite studios like Gann’s Dynamic Studio he uses around town. The band is blessed to have so many cool people around them and watching out for their final sound and personality,” Gray said.




BILLY THE MOUNTAIN now on iTUNES....

Drifting to Valhalla, the new Billy The Mountain CD which has enjoyed a 'phenomenal' reception on the Internet since its release April 1 2008, is now 'live' on iTUNES around the world, London-based band manager Tom Gray told reporters January 1, 2009 .

Billy The Mountain are based in Bangkok.

"The band's music has enjoyed phenomenal success since the CD went up on the Net and we've shifted a load of CDs and individual tracks. On one site alone - www.noisehead.com - we've had more than 60,000 listeners across the whole album...and after two tracks 'Mem Will Dance' and 'Love' went 'GOLD' there in June - the Net equivalent of having two Number One singles on one album - the rest of the tunes are ‘GOLD’ now too!

"While all that was going on, here at the band's London office the girls have done all the legwork to get the album to a bigger audience and from January 1, 2009 we went live on iTUNES stores around the world - iTunes U.S., iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Japan, iTunes Canada, iTunes UK/European Union. That follows play on other important Net retail outlets including Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, GroupieTunes, Songplanet, BandForTheDay.com, Reverbnation, Noisehead.com, Amazon MP3, Lala and Shockhound. That means the band and its music is now represented on more than 30 major sites worldwide now!"

"Sales should go up a gear now we hope, as most of what we earn goes to the band's own special charity," Gray said.

Billy The Mountain - All About The Music

Progressive R&B rock band BILLY THE MOUNTAIN are based in Bangkok. The band - comprising Scot Zander Ran, Dane Nicolai Kehlet, Canadian Steve Wright and Brit Simon Bell on drums and a team of seasoned session players - has plans to supply three albums over a two-year period and to tour the albums internationally while retaining rights to ticket, merchandise and album sales on the road.

The band headline the Kathmandu Music Festival in November and hope to play South By South West 2009 in Texas, with Byron Bay in Australia and the UK’s Glastonbury Festival under negotiation and a raft of other international festivals looking to book the band.

“And this band will sell. We reckon they are the Pink Floyd of the new century - and throw in a touch of Little Feat and Steely Dan and you have a very powerful combination of grooves and rock steady tunes supporting cool lyrics and awesome musicianship - no shredders and no predictable cock-rock neither," says band manager Tom Gray, another Scot.

“To great response, we ran some of the tunes ‘naked’ on the band’s own www.myspace.com/thebillymountain site and then the band - principally Nicolai Kehlet - took over production and the result is an album of eight very special songs. And I have to say the big labels are now desperate to get their hands on this cool new music. But the band wants this to go to market via the Internet and we support that idea…err…given that we have little alternative,” he grinned.

“But the songs are awesome and I predict this album - this breath of musical fresh air - is going to be a classic!”

Producer Kehlet says the first album - Drifting To Valhalla - was written and recorded in Asia and features the songs and vocals of Zander Ran woven into a funky, laid-back fusion of blues and progressive rock ‘remniscent of days gone by but with a modern production feel,’ he says.

“We had a lot fun producing the album at my own studio here in Bangkok and we work well together with Zander’s great lyrics and tunes and dare I say my ear for a good beat and an FM-radio-friendly vibe. The truth is we write interesting stuff together and by that I mean we love our own music and play it all the time on our iPods, or in the car and at home. And if people want to buy it then that’s great too!

"Our fans tease us that we are the Floyd or Steely Dan of the 21st century and that’s crazy and scary…we are all Floyd and Steely Dan fans of course, but they are like gods to us…the idea that we are composers on the same planet is quite ridiculous. But we like the compliment that we might sound a bit like Little Feat and our new stuff is definitely going there - if anywhere at all.”

The band is already working on their second album tentatively titled “Head Restrictions” and are again working at Kehlet’s Paradise Productions Studio in Bangkok.

Ran describes the new work as “driven by a desire to not let Lowell George be forgotten and everything we are writing right now is kind of a tribute to him and his gift as a groovemeister, singer and slide god.”

“There’s a bit of Hendrix in there too and if we are exposing our origins and ages then so be it. It’s about time! I grew up listening and playing while those guys…Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Alex Harvey and Jimi and Zepp were changing the world and we're going back consciously or otherwise to a time when music was new and adventurous and worth queuing to see live. I just hope we can do the times justice.”

(c) BILLY THE MOUNTAIN 2008


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BILLY THE MOUNTAIN in April 2008 completed a bunch of tracks for release under MP3 conventions, meaning our fans get the best deal on our music on the Net. Noisehead is a true friend to us all and THIS is a deal...0.69cents a song... ENJOY! June 11, 2008

May 5: We have had an amazing response to our music on Noisehead and would like to thank everyone out there kind enough to have taken the time to listen and to comment on our work. We might never make any money, but we sure made a lot of friends in the name of music. How cool does it get?