Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Former Vipers Defenceman Brownlee Succeeds With New Formula For Hearts On Fire:

Here is an article on former Vernon Vipers defenceman Chad Brownlee.

Brownlee a current Country music star took home two awards at the 2016 BCCMA Country Awards in October, won Album/EP of the Year (Hearts on Fire) & Male Vocalist of the Year.

"The Best That I Can (Superhero)",  his first single, was released in November 2009. Brownlee's self-titled debut album, produced by Mitch Merrett, was released in August 2010. Brownlee won the 2011 CCMA Rising Star award winner, also a recipient of his first JUNO Award nomination for Country Album of the Year on February 19, 2013.

Brownlee played two years in Vernon (2001-03). In 113 regular season games with the Vipers, Brownlee collected (14-goals-28-assists-42-points). Brownlee was drafted in 2003 in the 6th round, by the NHL Vancouver Canucks but retired from hockey after a short stint in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Idaho Steelheads following a series of injuries, before becoming a Country music star.

Chad Brownlee's Player Profile:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=72703

Chad Brownlee's website:

http://chadbrownlee.com/

This was in the Regina Leader Post Newspaper:

Chad Brownlee succeeds with new formula for Hearts On Fire

Jeff DeDekker, Regina Leader-Post

Published on January 16, 2017

When it came to his latest album, Chad Brownlee chose quality over quantity.

Hearts On Fire, which was released on April 29, 2016, is an extended play recording — an EP, as it’s labelled in the business — and not a “full” album. The industry norm for an album is 10 to 12 songs with perhaps up to five of those songs being considered strong enough to be released as singles.

Brownlee has three complete albums to his credit — Chad Brownlee (2010), Love Me Or Leave Me (2012) and The Fighters (2014). Although these albums were successful with a number of singles garnering extensive radio airplay in Canada, Brownlee felt it was vital to record the strongest songs possible for Hearts On Fire.

“That’s why we went the EP route,” Brownlee explained in a recent telephone interview. “In the past, releasing an album of 10 to 12 songs, there’s a lot of songs on there that didn’t get released as singles and with people buying singles rather than albums these days, you get a lot of songs that stay in the closet and don’t see the light of day.

“With the EP approach, you want to put every song on there with the potential for it to be a single. If you can do five singles from six or seven songs on an EP, then you’re winning.”

Chad Brownlee - Somethin' We Shouldn't Do Video (Official HD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJDgtQCYtxk

It appears that Brownlee’s strategy is working as he already has three successful singles off the EP — Hearts On Fire, I Hate You For It and Somethin’ We Shouldn’t Do — with plans for further singles to come.

“We’re still riding the success of Something We Shouldn’t Do, it’s continuing to do well at radio and digitally,” said Brownlee, who will play the Casino Regina Show Lounge on Jan. 19 with Tim Hicks. “It’s kind of a play it by ear process — if a song is doing well then you want to hold off the next release and get the most of out of it. Look for at least one more (single) but we’re planning on two more, actually, off this record to release to radio.”

Brownlee has earned a dedicated following of fans over the past eight years with songs like Hood Of My Car, Love Me Or Leave Me, Smoke In The Rain, Listen and When The Lights Go Down. The singles from Hearts On Fire have also found an audience but they’ve also shown an evolution in Brownlee’s songwriting.

Hearts On Fire and Somethin’ We Shouldn’t Do have a familiar feel about them but I Hate You For It was a little different. Written with Ben Glover and Mitch Merritt, the song has a bit of a bite to it. Brownlee admitted he was attracted to recording I Hate You For It because of its edginess.

“Yes, I think that’s why we were so excited about the song,” said Brownlee. “As an artist, you want to evolve, you want to bring something fresh but obviously not too different because your fans might not like it. We were confident in the creative and artistic direction of the song. We knew that it pushed the envelope, especially with the word ‘hate’ in the title.

“I’m the complete opposite of hate, I’m all about love — if you really listen to the song, that’s what it’s about. It’s a facetious hate, you’re just so in love with somebody that you facetiously hate the fact that they have control over your life. We were really excited because the song just sounded great. It had that edge to it. I like to test songs on people, even before I put them on records, and it unanimous across the board, everybody was freaking out about that song so we knew we had something special.”

I Hate You For It Video- Chad Brownlee (HD Uncut Version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0x-NWrffx0

The Regina show is one of eight shows Brownlee will play with Hicks. Combining Brownlee’s Hearts On Fire tour with Hicks’ Shake These Walls tour, the two artists hit the road on Jan. 6 in Kelowna and will end the brief run on Jan. 16 in Winnipeg.

Brownlee said the partnership was just a matter of common sense.

“We were both actually planning our own tours around the same time and we just didn’t think it made sense for both of us to go through the same markets a week apart,” said Brownlee. “My people talked to his people and we decided it was a good idea to package the two tours together and bring the best show that we could possibly bring for the fans in these markets.”

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