MYSTERY MAN: Roy certainly doesn’t seem willing to reveal too much about himself. His website contains nothing but the video for Cool.

By Geoffrey Rowlands


Many music fans have been asking about Roy English, the apparent mystery man whose voice perfectly complements Alesso’s music on his latest UK top ten single, Cool.
Roy certainly doesn’t seem willing to reveal too much about himself. His website contains nothing but the video for Cool, in which he does not appear, an audio posting of his own single, Julianne, and an Act!on Remix of the track.
His SoundCloud page is similarly lacking in personal information though a few remixes of Cool and Lana Del Rey’s song, I Can Fly, which Roy co-produced, are posted here. Julianne can also be heard and acquired as a free download.
A few random photographs await those who click on Roy’s Tumblr webpage. His social media accounts are a little more forthcoming, at least in terms of discovering Roy’s friends in the music business. It is ironic that one of his Facebook fans, Hadley Savory, posted a message saying, “I dream of a world where everybody knows the name Roy English.”
Roy, apparently, does not share this view. He may perhaps like to have his name and music known but little or nothing about himself as a person.
So, what do we know about the man behind the voice. Well, his real name is Brandon Roy Wronski. His first serious foray into music came in the mid-2000s as a member of the Los Angeles-based rock band Dead Letter Diaries.
After the band broke up, Roy became a founder member of the indie rock quintet Eye Alaska. The band were active between 2006 and 2011. They signed to Fearless Records and released their debut six-song EP, “Yellow & Elephant,” in 2008. This was followed a year later by the band’s only album, “Genesis Underground,” which reached number 38 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.
Roy was very much the leading light in Eye Alaska. He wrote and co-produced their songs, sang lead vocal and played multiple instruments. The band’s recorded output is still available to hear at (no www.) myspace.com/eyealaska/music/songs
The eventual demise of Eye Alaska left Roy seemingly disillusioned with the music industry. He intended to move to Boise, Idaho, to work in the fast food business but a chance meeting with Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhasker changed these plans.
Under Jeff’s guidance, Roy honed his songwriting and production skills. He was rewarded by a deal with Lava Records in 2013. Although this didn’t work out as he would have hoped, Roy showed enough promise to secure a music publishing contract with Sony/ATV.
Despite chalking up a number of songwriting and production credits, Roy’s vocal ability couldn’t be ignored. When Swedish DJ/producer Alesso decided to reinterpret the vocal and orchestral piece originally written by Roy, it made perfect sense to retain his voice on the track we now know as Cool.
“I had actually seen Roy singing his own songs and absolutely loved his voice,” Alesso stated. “I didn’t think anyone else could possibly provide a better vocal.”
With Roy performing Cool alongside Alesso at various music festivals, it surely can’t be too long before he signs a new recording contract. If so, let’s hope his record label can convince Roy of the publicity benefits gained from allowing potential fans to learn a little about him.



in
brief

De La Soul

Hip hop legends De La Soul have used a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to fund what will be the first album of new material from the trio since 2004’s “The Grind Date.”
The intervening years have seen them issue some new songs on mixtapes. Kelvin ‘Posdnuos’ Mercer and David ‘Trugoy the Dove’ Jolicoeur also released what some people consider to be a De La Soul album in 2012.
But Vincent ‘Maseo’ Mason was not involved in “Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present... First Serve.” Indeed, Kelvin and David adopted the new persona of a hip hop duo named First Serve and gave themselves aliases as Jacob ‘Pop Life’ Barrow and Deen Witter respectively.
Now reunited as a trio, the forthcoming album will be compiled from more than 200 hours of jam sessions recorded over the years. Guest artists include Damon Albarn, 2 Chainz, Little Dragon and David Byrne.
Fans are certainly looking forward to hearing the album. Their US $110,000 Kickstarter target was surpassed in two days with the final sum being in excess of US $600,000 contributed by more than 11,000 backers.
The new album, “And The Anonymous Nobody,” should be released in September.
Some free music is available now from the band. Tucked away amongst the merchandise at www.wearedelasoul.com is a mixtape, “Smell The DA.I.S.Y.,” plus two singles, God It and The People.

Brandon Flowers

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers releases his second solo album, “The Desired Effect,” next Monday.
Four tracks have already been issued as promotional singles. The latest of these is I Can Change. The song features a sample from Bronski Beat’s 1984 classic, Smalltown Boy, and includes a voicemail line spoken by Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant.
“There was a gap in the verse,” Brandon explained. “(Producer) Ariel (Rechtshaid) and I were talking about it being a speaking part and the greatest musical ‘speaker’ is Neil Tennant.
“I texted Neil to ask if he would send me a voicemail of him saying ‘When you’re looking for a change.’ He didn’t ask to hear the song or anything, he just sent the voicemail, it was perfect and we put it straight from the phone into the track.”
An audio posting of I Can Change is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRewzFp8XE4
Videos have been made for the other three tracks released from Brandon’s new album. Can’t Deny My Love, Still Want You and Lonely Town can all be accessed at www.youtube.com/user/BrandonFlowersVEVO/videos

Seafret

East Yorkshire duo Seafret are starting to attract deserved critical acclaim. It also helps to have an actress from TV blockbuster Game of Thrones star in one of your videos.
“We thought this might be a good idea,” laughed singer Jack Sedman. “We’ve had nearly one million YouTube views for the Oceans video featuring Maisie Williams.”
Oceans is the title-track from the EP Seafret released in January. The video, plus audio postings of the other songs, can be accessed from www.youtube.com/user/SeafretVEVO/videos
Also here is the official video for their new single, Atlantis.
“We grew up by the sea and have always been fascinated by the legendary lost city of Atlantis,” explained guitarist Harry Draper. “We thought we could use Atlantis as a metaphor to evolve the song into something more than just a standard heartbreak track.”
Some of the duo’s earlier work can be heard at (no www.) soundcloud.com/seafretofficial

The Strypes

Irish rock and blues band The Strypes have yet to enjoy any significant singles chart success. But their 2013 debut album, “Snapshot,” reached fifth spot in Britain and number two in their homeland.
The band are all still in their teens. A good thing too as they need the boundless energy of youth to cope with the hectic touring schedule promoting their forthcoming sophomore album and the newly released three-song EP, “Flat Out.”
Scumbag City is the lead single from the EP. An audio posting can be heard at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVcjb0dtMjU
“Snapshot” is available to hear in full at www.youtube.com/watch?v=u34KCGAYSyE
Their earlier home-recorded EP of four blues covers, “Young, Gifted & Blue,” can be heard at (no www.) soundcloud.com/the-strypes