When my good friend and previously featured artist, KeV Atomic from Atomic Honey, told me about his project to record five songs from Duke Sherman’s poetry collection A Soldier’s Thoughts and donate proceeds to United States war veterans, I jumped at the chance to help. I reached out to Duke Sherman and his manager Dawn D, founder of #ShoutOutWithLove. I interviewed both KeV and Duke as co-featured artists. Amused Now plans to distribute Atomic Honey’s album, A Soldier’s Melodies, on Amused Now. Dawn will distribute A Soldier’s Thoughts through her distribution channels: http://shoutoutwithlove.blogspot.com, http://Xlibris.com, Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Duke wrote his poetry collection because he’s plagued with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Writing poetry became a creative outlet for Duke. “I opened a site to help the veterans, because they’re my brethren and I can relate to them. I know what’s happening out there. I’ve got problems myself.” Duke and KeV met on Twitter over two years ago. KeV’s father was also a veteran; he shared with Duke the story about the bullet he wears around his neck from his dad’s funeral. KeV wrote a poem for Duke’s website. KeV describes the start of their project: “We just kind of bonded, connected after that. He was kind enough to send me a copy of his book. I was reading through the poems and I was inspired by so much. It gave me a whole new perspective about what our soldiers go through. ” It all began with the song Black Horse, which is “extra special to Duke. I wanted to thank Duke for all that he had done.” Black Horse is Duke’s unit in Vietnam. “Once a trooper, you’re always a trooper. Everything in that song is reality. The war poems, the battle poems, they’re real battles. I love the Black Horse. I’m Black Horse until I die.” Duke really liked the KeV’s rendition of Black Horse, so KeV thought, “It would be really neat if we could do something for Veteran’s Day.” KeV chose another poem, Something Different, to record (my personal favorite). That song is about his manager Dawn D. “I call her Angel. I don’t know how to explain it, but we connected too. She’s in Florida and I’m in Louisiana, but we talk every night. She calls me Papa.” KeV informed us that Something Different is getting radio air play right now. Awesome! KeV picked the remaining three songs on the album “because they jumped out at me for different reasons. Some were chosen because of the way the words were constructed; they seemed more fitting to go into a song. My Life is at an End just was so meaningful to me, it just had to be a song.” KeV gave My Life is at an End a light melody to take some of the darkness out of the lyrics. Duke gave KeV artistic freedom to record the songs as he felt they should be musically experienced. Get your very own copy of Soldier’s Melodies on Amused Now and support our veterans. To watch the YouTube interview: http://youtu.be/fapJmPZDsNk Amused Now Featured Artist Series Duke Sherman http://www.duketheman1.com/ @DukeTheMan1 KeV Atomic http://www.atomichoney.net/ @Atomic_Honey Cynthia Kahn, Founder of Amused Now @Amused_Now Facebook Google+ YouTube...
Atomic Honey – Just Press Play...
posted by Cynthia Kahn
Last week, I had the opportunity to interview KeV Atomic, the lead for the band Atomic Honey. Here at Amused Now headquarters, we were super excited, because we’ve been following Atomic Honey for the last year and a half. The band has released a wide range of music, which is why they appeal to a wide audience. With David Bowie is a major influence, how can they go wrong? Always busy producing new songs, Atomic Honey recently released a new album called “Operation: Moondust” and a new EP called “Just Press Play.” KeV is a big literature fan. He describes “Operation: Moondust” as a mellow journey, where they convey stories through songwriting. After the album released, they made “Just Press Play” for their hard rock fans. We asked KeV how he gets his message out to his fans. Twitter is his social media vehicle of choice. He likes that Twitter allows for open dialog. According to KeV, Twitter is “like a never-ending interview.” He does not like Facebook, because he feels it is not setup well for responding to posts. KeV believes the standards for artists have changed. It’s a lot more than just making music. Fans expect to interact with their favorite artists. KeV uses Twitmusic to post songs for his most dedicated fans. These may be concept songs that never make it into an album. He uses Twitmusic to “let people know where we’re at musically at any given time” and to keep people interested between albums. Atomic Honey has albums on iTunes, Amazon, ReverbNation and CD Baby. KeV doesn’t recommend one site over any other. His idea is to “flood the internet, then roll with as much music as you can.” He sees a lot of artists trying to promote the...
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