DownTown Mystic
started
as the alter ego
of Sha-La Music President, Robert Allen and morphed
into a group project with
Bruce Engler, an artist that Robert had once
managed.
Their 1st effort would be the "Rock'n'Roll 4 The Soul" cd,
which caught lightning in a bottle when a
track they co-wrote, "One More Chance" was heard by
WBCG PD, G. Michael Keating,
who immediately added it to his playlist...quite rare by today's
standards! This
led to radio airplay at commercial & non commercial AAA, as well as at College
& Internet
Radio.
Having had
success with their 1st CD, Robert & Bruce decided to head back into the studio
to record a follow-up. The result would be "Read The
Signs", with
Robert & Bruce being ably aided and abetted by
Steve
Holley (Paul McCartney/Wings/Ian Hunter)
on Drums and Paul Page
(Dion/Ian Hunter/Smithereens)
on Bass, with a bit of extra help again from Garry & Max.
The genesis of DownTown Mystic
had its beginnings as an experiment when Robert was working in the studio with
one of his artists,
The Discontent. Robert became
intrigued with the idea of playing his more classic rock
sounding songs with modern rock musicians. So he
recorded some tracks with the band and liked the results from the sessions. He
would continue to work on the tracks in his spare time, and included some of his
other artists.
Robert thought some of the
tracks came out so good that he decided to test out a song to see what the reaction, if any,
would
be. He found out in a rather dramatic way when he got a call with the news that veteran tastemaker Jed The Fish
played the track
"Lost
& Found"off of an Industry
compilationcd ashis
"Catch of The Day" on "World Famous" KROQ
in LA,one of the
most influential modern rock stations.This
would lead to
some national airplay.
When the "Mayor of The Sunset
Strip", legendary KROQ DJ Rodney
Bingenheimer, played another track, "Brian
Jones", to honor the anniversary of the fallen Stone,
Robert knew it
was time to go back into the studio and finish recording enough
tracks for a
full-length album.
It was at this point that Robert would hook up again with Bruce.
They had a karmic connection and they also had very similar tastes & styles.
The timing seemed right to try something together and they felt like they had
nothing to lose. It was in that spirit that they released "Rock'n'Roll 4 The Soul"
and the results took them totally by surprise.
Now having recorded their next cd, "Read The
Signs", DownTown Mystic
has come
full circle...from an experiment evolving into a fully realized group project.
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