Ed Hale’s newest single “Scene in San Francisco” was released to radio and retail this week and debuted at #2 on the FMQB Most Added Chart tying with Kelly Clarkson and Roberta Flack. The unstoppable Train took the #1 spot with their latest release “Drive By”. Hale’s “New Orleans Dreams” is still in the Top 40, falling to #33 this week.

The new Ed Hale single, “Scene In San Francisco,” debuted at #33 on the Hot AC Chart this week. Hales’ previous single, “New Orleans Dreams” is still on the AC chart at #15 this week, effectively giving Ed Hale and Dying Van Gogh Records 2 songs in the Top 40.

Another acoustic-pop gem, “Scene in San Francisco” is a catchy beat-driven romantic ballad that features Hales’ traditionally heartfelt singing and poignant lyricism. But this time Hale turns his attention toward the heart and turns the heat up with a timeless and heartbreaking story of “two lovers lost in the heart of San Francisco”. The result is a gorgeous melody that stays in your head for days and a story that nearly everyone can relate to.

The single will be released on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital retailers on January 17th, 2012.

Take a listen on SoundCloud:

1. What are you currently up to?

a.       Currently up to our necks is what we’re up to! Total madness. But a very cool kind. Semi-controlled madness. Just a lot of incredible things happening right now all at the same time. It’s a thrill and a rush for sure. But it also requires extreme focus and attention, which isn’t usually the stuff of artists if you know what I mean… More than anything else I’d say we’re all very excited about the upcoming release of the new Transcendence album All Your Heroes Become Villains. It’s hitting retail and digital stores all over the world as we speak and people are loving it. The concept of the album is resonating with people at this time. One critic called it “The perfect soundtrack to a beautiful apocalypse.” That pretty much sums it up I’d say. So that’s a good thing. Right now t’s making a big splash on College Radio here in the States.

b.       Oddly enough, at the same time we’ve got this other thing happening with my last solo album Ballad On Third Avenue which was totally unexpected. The second single “New Orleans Dreams” has been climbing up the Adult Contemporary charts here in the US and spinning in 21 other countries. Including the UK of course. Right now the song is currently #10 in the US. Because of this, there’s a whole new interest in this solo album. We didn’t see this coming. So we’re literally working PR and promo on two totally different albums at once by the same artist. AND trying to book two separate tours to support these two very different albums. It’s insane.

c.        We’re doing a ton of press, which is always fun, and at the same time we’re working on the music videos for the “Villains” album. Of course we are also planning the US tour, deciding which cities to hit and which other countries to books some shows in. That’s a daunting task. But obviously well worth it once we’re on that stage. We love performing live. It’s THE rush of all rushes. If that doesn’t sound like enough, we’re also in the studio and just about halfway through recording two new “Ed Hale solo albums”. We’re still attempting to get our minds around what these new albums ARE… what their all about… We recorded about 20 songs so far and we’ve found that about a third of them sound like Adult Contemporary, a third of them sound like a more mellow singer/songwriter vibe, and another third sound more like they belong on a Transcendence album. They’re more alt-rock. It’s weird how we work like that. It confuses some people… but not us. We’re used to it.

d.       And of course there’s the mysterious The Great Mistake album that we still haven’t officially released, but it’s been sneaking around the internet for a few years. We just found the master tapes and gave them a listen and they sound incredible. Just over the top raw garage rock but catchy as hell. So now we are all involved in this heated debate as to “when should we release this new-new album?” It obviously doesn’t make sense for us to release it now. And yet it sounds so damn good we want to! Take French band Phoenix and mix it with some Strokes and Vampire Weekend… add some early seventies Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground or Wolf Mother and you get a pretty good idea of what the sound of this new new album sounds like. It’s done. Just needs to be mastered. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. I just love it.

          Check out the latest issue of the music magazine Magnet for a special feature on Ed Hale. The singer prepared a little holiday present for the uber-hip magazine’s Editors in the form of a custom Mix Tape featuring a list of his “Ten of the Most Important Songs of All Time and Why”. Each song is accompanied by a brief explanation of why Hale chose it and how it has influenced his own music, along with a link to the music video on YouTube.

The article also features a code listeners can use for a free download of the new single “Solaris” from Ed Hale and the Transcendence’s new album All Your Heroes Become Villains. Curious? Though many of you could probably take a damn good guess,  we’re not gonna tell you which songs or artists Ed chose. You’ll have to pick up a copy of the magazine for the full list; or simply click here to read it online. The December issue, #083, hit stands today, December 29th.

Tune in to Liverpool’s RadioHope 1350 radio station in the United Kingdom NOW! Oh don’t you love the music business?!?! An live call in interview that was supposed to start at 4:00 PM EST (10:00 PM UK time) is actually starting now!!! To hear a one-hour live call in interview with Ed Hale of Transcendence. RadioHope is the student-run radio station of Liverpool’s Hope University. If you’re in the UK, tune in to the radio station. Everywhere else, simply CLICK HERE and listen in LIVE on the web.  Questions can be emailed in to onair@radiohope.co.uk to be answered live on the air. The very brave and adventurous can call in by dialing 011-44-0151-291-2067.

Tune in to Liverpool’s RadioHope 1350 radio station in the United Kingdom at 4:00 PM EST (10:00 PM UK time) to hear a one-hour live call in interview with Ed Hale of Transcendence. RadioHope is the student-run radio station of Liverpool’s Hope University. If you’re in the UK, tune in to the radio station. Everywhere else, simply CLICK HERE and listen in LIVE on the web.  Questions can be emailed in to onair@radiohope.co.uk to be answered live on the air. The very brave and adventurous can call in by dialing 011-44-0151-291-2067.

We’re super excited to offer these beautiful Ed Hale print tees for sale, and just in time for the holidays!

Also available, are these stylish American Apparel black shirts with “All Your Heroes Become Villains” across the front and Ed Hale and The Transcendence on the back.

          It’s official! Ed Hale’s “New Orleans Dreams” broke into the Top 10 this week on the Adult Contemporary Top 40 Chart! The song landed on the #10 spot and gained over 100 additional spins and two more stations. “New Orleans Dreams”  is now rotating over 1000+ times per week on radio stations across the USA. Congrats to the entire Dying Van Gogh Records team and the Transcendence crew!

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          What if someone asked you to turn them on to “the top 10 greatest pop-rock songs of all time”? Where do you begin? How is that even possible? It’s not. That’s the answer. Unless of course you’re willing to make a list of at least 500 to 1,000 songs. And that’s a maybe. Of course Rolling Stone and Mojo and other music magazines attempt this feat every few years and sell them for ten bucks a pop, and most of the time they’re a good read, create a bit of controversy, and piss us all off a bit because there’s just no way to decide what ORDER to put all these great songs in… Besides the fact that there are so many that we are forced to NOT include.
Ed Hale was recently assigned this impossible task by the super-cool music magazine Magnet. Says Hale, “I thought about the idea of this list for a while,  in terms of the “how” of it. What’s most important? What’s not? Eventually I decided that the goal would be to assemble a list for these groovy people not of “the greatest songs of all time” but rather a “list of my own personal favorite songs of all time” instead. I tried as hard as I could to resist the urge to be “political,” as in dropping names of the hot new indie artists currently swelling underground, as well as to equally resist the urge to “just go old school”; which was also tempting.”

“What we’ve ended up with I hope is a good mix of everything, both old and new, famous and not so famous, well known and not so well known. More than anything else at least, I think the list is a very real and sincere representation of some of the music that has been most influential on me and my own output as an artist.”

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