Alexander Arundel

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Alexander Arundel is a songwriter, guitarist, and DJ. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he has lived in London, New York City, and Nashville, Tennessee. He is married to Adrienne, a native New Yorker.

Contents

Early career highlights

1980s London

In 1980, Alexander Arundel was living in London. He met up with Alexei Sayle, Tony Allen, and Rik Mayall. They formed a touring troupe called Alternative Cabaret, a group of politically motivated performers. One of its founder members, the late Tony Allen, described it as "a sort of collective of comedians, musicians – dope smokers, dole scroungers, tax evaders, sexual deviants, political extremists." [1]

Alexander wrote a song called "When The Gold Runs Dry" [2] . and asked Alexei Sayle if he wanted to have a live recording from the Comic Strip Live on the B-side. The single was released in 1980.

In 1980, Chas Chandler, famed bass player of The Animals and manager of Jimi Hendrix, asked Alexander to write a song for his artist Steve Petters.The song "Change Of Heart" was released on Cheapskate Records. [3]

1980s New York City

In 1985, Alexander met Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar, aka Sly and Robbie. They liked a demo of three songs and agreed to record with Alexander at Park South Studios in Manhattan. Chrysalis Records decided to get Richard James Burgess to produce the sessions. Ed Buller, formerly of The Psychedelic Furs and Suede producer, met Alexander in New York and, along with Mars Williams, the band recorded "Indigo" and "Knight In Arms" for Chrysalis Records.

1990s New York City

In 1993, Alexander met the band Warrior Soul, signed to Geffen Records, and joined them to write and record Space Age Playboys. The first single, "I Wanna Get Some", was on heavy rotation on MTV, [4] and they toured Europe extensively. They performed at Dynamo Festival in Holland to 134,000 fans. Alexander was a guest VJ presenter during that show for MTV's Headbangers Ball, where he interviewed the bands backstage. [5]

Metallica invited the band personally to play at their Monsters Of Rock Festival at Donnington. Shortly after headlining Brixton Academy, Alex decided to leave the band.

In 2005, The Space Age Playboys album was ranked number 323 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. [6] Metallica's Lars Ulrich has rated it one of his favourite albums, and has recently said they are one of the most under rated bands of the 90s

Late 1990s / 2000s New York City

Jon Zazula, the manager who discovered Metallica, Ministry, and Anthrax, was a good friend of Alexander. He was now managing Canadian artist Bif Naked. Jon asked Alex to recruit a band in Canada, rehearse, and tour with Bif in Europe. During this tour, Arundel (aka xfactor) and Bif co-wrote the first single, Chotee. [7] ", off her new album I Bificus . The single went platinum and was used in the Susan Sarandon / Natalie Portman movie "Anywhere But Here". The Jay Leno Band played an instrumental version of the song for an entire week.

A new sound

Since leaving the band, Alexander was writing songs not just with guitar but also with Technics 1210 turntables and keyboards. He was a friend of Maxwell Jayson (Mackie), [8] formerly of Cro-Mags, Bad Brains, and later Fun Lovin' Criminals. Together, they teamed up with Zowie, bass player from NYC hard rock band Circus of Power. They needed a DJ, and Alexander asked his friend DJ Spinbad to join them. DJ Spinbad, one of the best turntablists in New York and host of Hot 97 Hip Hop radio show, joined their rehearsals and recordings.

There were four songs recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, New York: "Truth", "Say What", and "Lay Down". Although never officially released, Alexander has the masters in Glasgow. Remastering and releasing these songs in 2025 was being discussed.

Pseudo a hybrid

Alexander wanted an even more hybrid sound with turntables as part of the sound. He teamed up with Alex Bovone from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They performed their new hybrid sound with Arundel on vocals, guitar, turntables, and keys, and Bovone on keys and mixing live.

There was a new Web Live Streaming studio in SoHo, Manhattan called Pseudo.com. It was created by Josh Harris, the financial guru of the new dot-com era.

Live performances of these shows are rare but TRUTH performed a 2 hour live electronic show that has been captured on film. [9]

Alexander, along with Dec and El and Alex Bovone, performed three more live shows with full rave banner visuals created by Adrienne. The focus in these performances was more on songs that were truly a live band with a DJ. By this time, the TRUTH sound was established. Videos of these live events are rare but have been preserved. [10]

2000-2003 Williamsburg to Dublin

Williamsburg was where TRUTH built their studio. As a three-piece, they recorded songs like "Before You Fall" [11] , "Out Of The Rain" [12] , and "Spare Me Those Lies". [13] .

The band moved to Dublin in 2003 and performed a live three song set on RTE on the Cormac Battle live show. They would break up shortly after that three-song set was aired.Alex moved to London where he met Michael Ward-Bergman [14] .


They recorded three of the TRUTH songs with a more organic feel, with Michael on the Hyper Accordion. Alexander moved back to New York and recorded "Dogs Of War" [15] with Matt Johnson on drums, who was drummer for Jeff Buckley and later Rufus Wainwright.

Alexander Arundel was living in Nashville, Tennessee in July 2008 when a proposed bill called The Orphan Works Bill was being rushed through Congress. He, along with the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Illustrated Partnership, helped to prevent this bill from being passed. The bill was a major piece of copyright reform that could have removed copyright protection for many songwriters. Alex (Gene Poole) wrote an article that appeared in the Nashville Business Journal [16] in July and helped spearhead the campaign.

Alex (Gene Poole) was a regular at the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville, performing three song live sets of new material every night. He recorded and worked closely with many of Nashville's musicians. Co-writing and recording the song "California's Almost Gone" with Lincoln Parish, founder and guitarist for Cage The Elephant.

He would sign a publishing deal with Fintage House and discussed with them at length the idea of implementing blockchain technology. This would be a period where he and his wife Adrienne would advocate for the use of this new technology as a frictionless file and monetary exchange

Imogen Heap invited Alexander to the launch of her "Tiny Human" release in London, in a first ever blockchain release of a song. Blockchain and later non-fungible tokens (NFT) would be a constant theme in Arundel's work.

He Toi Recording Session

"He Toi" was written about the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris. Alexander had an idea for a Symphonic / Break Beat sound with acoustic guitar and saw tooth synth and worked with Spitfire Audio to achieve the contra bass intro, with Dave Eggar (Alex's close friend the renowned cellist best known for his work on Coldplay's hit "Viva la Vida".) scoring the haunting string lines. Alexander and Dave recorded the instrumental piece "Mood Divisi", cutting it in one piece with Ron Saint Germain producing.

Ron Saint Germain is credited with creating the symphonic explosion at the end of He Toi

Alex continued working on a hybrid sound in Cincinnati Ohio with Lief Erikson, the synth and piano player, with a strong emphasis on organic piano and Moog bass to accompany Alex's acoustic.

The three songs are "Beautiful Dreamers", "Second Skin", and "Orphans and Widows".

In 2016, Alexander (aka Gene Poole) performed his new hybrid acoustic / electronic set of politically charged songs at The Basement East in Nashville. He performed with his friend from Cage the Elephant, Lincoln Parish. The pair had developed a strong chemistry.

2019 to 2024 Nashville to Glasgow

During COVID, Alexander Arundel, aka Gene Poole, performed live DJ shows on Twitch from his studio in Glasgow, complete with green screen backdrop visuals. Immediately after the January 6 United States Capitol attack, Alex wrote the song "A Season To Kill", followed by "I Am A.I.", and during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, he wrote "Almost Midnight".

Alexander has taken the 24 track 2 inch masters of the recording made with Sly and Robbie, restored and digitized the 1985 tapes. He extracted beats from Sly Dunbar and bass lines from Robbie Shakespeare and wrote a new song as a celebration of the late Robbie Shakespeare. The song (and video) is called "That Sly and Robbie Groove".

Most recently, he wrote "October Dance" after the events in Gaza. A 20-minute documentary titled 20 years in 20 minutes has been produced to illustrate the musical journey this artist has made and the transition from a hard rock guitarist to a hybrid performer, copyright reform advocate, and technology advocate.

New live stream platform

Alexander Arundel is creating a new live stream platform called Southside Mix. It will be owned and run by artists, and allow them to have a much higher percentage of ticketing. There will also be Bronze, Gold, and Platinum packages for users, with an à la carte menu of purchases. Enabling them to participate monetarily in a variety of ways, and not just a static one-time ticket buy. This will include NFTs and the ability to rent/lease or sell their streams, in part or in total. This new form of micro publishing benefits artist and fan. [17]

This new live streaming platform is in code build and development phase. It is expected to launch in beta in September 2024, with invitees from across the globe taking part in the launch.

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References

  1. ↑ Double, Oliver, Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up, Methuen Drama, 2020, p.132
  2. ↑ "When The Gold Runs Dry on Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  3. ↑ "Change Of Heart on Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  4. ↑ "I Wanna Get Some on Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  5. ↑ "MTV Headbangers Ball at Dynamo Festival". YouTube. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
  6. ↑ Best of Rock & Metal - Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Rock Hard. 2005. p. 81. ISBN   3-89880-517-4.
  7. ↑ "Chotee on YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  8. ↑ "Maxwell Jayson (Mackie) on Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  9. ↑ "1999 Pseudo Interview.mp4". genepoole.vids.io. Gene Poole Videos.
  10. ↑ "TRUTH FRAMED.mp4". genepoole.vids.io. Gene Poole Videos.
  11. ↑ "Before You Fall on Disco". Disco. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  12. ↑ "Out Of The Rain on Disco". Disco. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  13. ↑ "Spare Me Those Lies on Disco". Disco. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  14. ↑ "Michael Ward-Bergman". AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  15. ↑ "Dogs Of War on Disco". Disco. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  16. ↑ Poole, Gene (July 27, 2008). "Proposed legislation could wreak havoc on ownership rights for musicians, writers". Nashville Business Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  17. ↑ "Alexander Arundel and the New Livestream Platform". Medium. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
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