With the success of his new solo album Ballad On Third Avenue still climbing, singer/songwriter Ed Hale of the rock band Transcendence has been keeping busy. One of the activities that seemingly go hand in hand with rock stardom is product endorsement deals. But don’t expect Hale to show up on TV talking about a new car or sporting a new signature pair of sneakers just yet. In the past month though the singer has signed numerous product endorsement deals but so far has been keeping it in the biz, the music biz that is.
First came a two year exclusive agreement to use only Dean Markley guitar strings, both on stage and in the recording studio. Next was a new microphone for the singer known for crafting songs where the vocals are everything. Hale chose to go with American made MikTek. “I’ve been using Neuman U-87s for so long now… I really didn’t think there was anything better. But I was wrong,” said the singer about the microphone company. “A sales guy at Sweetwater actually turned me on to the MikTek CV4 and C7 microphones, and lo and behold days later I received an offer to try them out for myself and endorse them professionally. Total flow. What amazes everyone about these mics is that they sound as good and sometimes even better than microphones that are two to three times the cost! They are absolutely awesome in every sense of the word. And what’s more they’re made in the USA. And right now, at least to me, that’s a very good thing.”
Regarding Dean Markley guitar strings, Hale commented “Man I’ve been using Dean Markley strings since I was a kid. They’re it. Their technology is mind blowing, this new Alchemy Series they have is incredible. The strings are frozen so they last like ten times longer than other strings, and they’re double and triple wound which greatly reduces string buzz and keeps them in tune a lot longer. For someone like me who uses a lot of open tunings, this was a dream come true, a guitar string made for players who stretch the hell out of their strings in ways that aren’t necessarily traditional. I am more than honored to use Dean Markley strings exclusively. Keep ‘em coming. They’re awesome.”
Hale is known primarily as a singer and guitarist. He has fronted the modern rock band Transcendence for more than ten years and also releases albums and tours as a solo artist. Integrity has always been a calling card for the singer and his music. Thus he has attempted through the years to avoid product endorsement agreements that don’t make sense to his basic ethos. “I think random product placement in exchange for cash is bullshit,” Hale stated rather bluntly regarding the announcement of this new series of endorsement deals he has entered into. “There are always other ways to get funding if you’re serious about maintaining your integrity and still raise capital for your projects. Actors wear a different freaking watch every year just for cash. It’s prostifuckingtution is what it is. I don’t wear watches so how the hell can I endorse one? But microphones, guitar strings, these things make sense. I use them. If someone sees that I use a particular piece of gear they can be guaranteed that it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with how much I like the company and its products.”
Next up Hale is set to tie up agreements with keyboard mavens Kurzweil and Nord and is eager to speak with the Gibson and Taylor guitar companies.
ED HALE INTERVIEWED LIVE ON VANCOUVER PERSIAN RADIO TONIGHT AT 10:00PM PST/1:00AM EST
Ed Hale will be interviewed live on the radio program Vancouver Persian Radiotonight, Saturday August 28th 2010, starting at 10:00PM PST (!:00AM EST). The two hour show is broadcast live every Saturday night on 93.1 RedFM in Vancouver BC and surrounding areas and can be heard globally on the internet at http://redfm.ca/. Hale and band are in Vancouver for their performance at the International Pop Overthrow Festival which has been running all week and weekend long in the city. They performed an electrifying set of five songs for an exuberant sold-out crowd on Friday night at The Railway Club in downtown Vancouver and then headed to a one hour interview with local TV station SHAW Channel 4 afterward. The Vancouver Persian Radio Show is a popular 2 hour current affairs program featuring interviews, listener phone-ins, commentary, and entertainment related to the Canadian Persian and Iranian community. Ed Hale is the co-founder of the non-profit organization PeaceWithIran.com, and is very active in Iranian Human Rights activism.
ED HALE TO BE INTERVIEWED FOR ONE HOUR TV PROGRAM TO AIR IN VANCOUVER BC NEXT WEEK
The power of pop music, the challenges of life on the road, converting to Islam, making babies, getting in and out of Iran, Peace in the Middle East, the illegal invasion of Iraq. All topics surely to come up in the next episode of ICTV’s television program The AfterHours Show, the full hour which will be dedicated to the American singer/songwriter turned activist Ed Hale. The one hour show will air on SHAW Channel 4 in Vancouver, BC three times next week, Monday and Tuesday at 11:00AM and Saturday at 10:30PM. For fans who want to get in on the action and on TV, the Channel 4 camera crew and the show’s host Ebby Mohseni will be filming Hale’s final concert of his West Coast tour at the Railway Club in Vancouver at 8:00PM. Full details are available on Hale’s Facebook Page.
Hale has been mesmerizing audiences touring the West Coast of the United States and Canada for the last two months with a four piece band made up of his hypnotic vocals, Cheshire Cat grin and signature open-tuned acoustic guitars, two cellists, and virtuoso keyboardist Peter Capelle who provides everything from ambient electronica to straight up mind-blowing piano embellishments. The band has performed in major cities from Los Angeles to Seattle promoting Hale’s latest solo magnum opus entitled Ballad On Third Avenue. Their final concert of the tour in Vancouver is being filmed for use in the next episode of the weekly television series The AfterHours Show. The show will also feature extensive interview footage with the singer, who will hopefully shed some light on the recent rumors about the breakup of alt-rock supergroup Transcendence, which Hale has fronted for ten years, which also includes Ex Norwegian singer Roger Houdaille and Dreaming In Stereo guitarist Fernando Perdumbo. The critically acclaimed indie band’s record label is months away from releasing their long awaited new album All Your Heroes Become Villains. Leaked copies of the band’s last recorded work have garnered hyperbolic raving reviews in the music blogosphere for over two years, but rumors abound about the album’s release date being delayed due to the band’s secret demise while the members have busied themselves with various solo projects.
Regardless of whether the Transcendence mystery is cleared up or not, Hale will certainly make for an intriguing subject on Mohseni’s AfterHours Show. Controversy, mischief and intrigue are as ubiquitous when Ed Hale is in front of a camera as are his always present scarves and eye makeup. History, politics, art, music, beauty, truth, philosophy, sex, technology and design and just about anything else pop-culture usually abound whenever the singer is interviewed. Not to mention a conspiracy theory or two. Viewers can also look forward to discussions about Hale’s recent interfaith wedding and subsequent conversion to Islam, his upcoming trips to Pakistan and Israel/Palestine, as well as his non-profit organization PeaceWithIran.com and his controversial meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year at the United Nations. All this while openly professing to be “an active practicing Christian and member of the United Methodist Church, but entirely understanding and empathetic to our fellow atheist brothers and sisters around the world…” make Hale an enigmatic figure. Perhaps Mohseni and company are biting off more than they can chew in a one hour show. But hey there’s always the sequel!
ARTIST WEBSITES: www.edhale.com, www.myspace.com/edhale, www.facebook.com/edhalemusic
ASCOT MEDIA’S CONTACT INFORMATION
Rodney Foster – Ascot Media Group, Inc.
rfoster@ascotmediagroup.com
281-324-2180
Ed Hale Music video for the song “Ballad on third avenue (beautiful losers)”
ED HALE WEST COAST SUMMER TOUR CITIES AND DATES COMING IN!
Dying Van Gogh Records has confirmed that Ed Hale and band will tour as promised in support of his latest Ballad On Third Avenue solo album. Starting on July 23rd 2010 in San Diego and ending in Vancouver, British Colombia five weeks later, the band will also perform shows in Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Eureka, Eugene, Portland, Bend, Tacoma, Spokane, and Seattle. Four of the concerts will be at the International Pop Overthrow festival series: Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.
The concerts will feature at least the same five piece lineup Hale has been performing with over the last six months since the new solo album’s release: Hale, seated as he’s been for all of the dates supporting the new album, on acoustic guitar and vocals; accompanied by piano, keyboards, cello, and bass guitar. Drums may or may not find a place on stage with the band this time out. “The last show we did was at the IPO concert in New York and we didn’t have Derek there [drummer], and frankly we all thought it actually sounded better. You could hear more of the subtle intricacies and melodies that all the other more melodic instruments were playing without the pounding of the drums,” Hale commented. “I think it just has to do with the idea of these songs being acoustic, very soft and intimate. We also tend to be able to improvise a lot more without drums… the crowd loves it, it’s trance-like man, and let’s face it, that’s a dream come true for us to be able to just go off like that into these nether worlds of sound whenever we want to and break free from the rhythm completely. We can’t easily do that with drums on board.”
Cities and dates are being posted on ReverbNation.com and on the Ed Hale Page on Facebook so check periodically as more cities are added. No plans yet for Mid West or East Coast have been announced.
NEW ED HALE INTERVIEW IN EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE TALKS ABOUT RECENT WEDDING, TRUE LOVE, AND CIVILIAN DIPLOMACY
A new interview with Transcendence singer Ed Hale in Exclusive Magazine. The singer, who just recently released a new solo album, Ballad On Third Avenue, and more recently surprised friends and fans by getting married to the beautiful Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai in dual Persian and Christian Ceremonies.”
‘All Hale, Ed!’
Ed Hale, the iconic singer of the rock group Transcendence, never known for doing things ‘ordinary,’ definitely did it his way in what may be the ‘interfaith wedding of the year!’
On February 13, Hale’s last Triple A radio hit single, ‘I Walk Alone,’ no longer applied to him as he and the beautiful Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai, began their life together in a style that crosses all cultural barriers.
At a church on the corner of Park Avenue in New York City, they were joined in a formally Islamic fashion in a traditional Persian wedding, followed immediately by a traditional Christian wedding.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Ed Hale about all this, and first wondered, being that he just married his soul-mate (congratulations!) in a Multi-Interfaith, one-of-a-kind wedding, if he could kindly explain this a little more. “Thank you for the congrats. Nahal and I knew that if we were going to have a wedding that it needed to be special. Something that was bigger than just the binding of the two of us as one. If we wanted to do that, we could have just eloped off alone the two of us and done it privately. But we felt a responsibility to our friends and fans and family… we wanted to share it.”
“Many people already knew our story. How long we had been together. How in love we were. Always the iconoclast, I wasn’t too knowledgable about weddings per se, but I knew that if I was going to get married in public that it had to be about more than just the two of us. So we really worked hard at this idea of ‘celebrating love,’ in all its shapes and forms… rather than just making it about us.”
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ROCKSTAR ED HALE GETS MARRIED – DOES HIS PART IN CROSSING CULTURAL BARRIERS TO ACHIEVE WORLD PEACE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY, February 22, 2010 – Ed Hale, singer/songwriter and social and political activist, whose latest solo album Ballad on Third Avenue was recently voted one of the best albums of 2009, has possibly started a trend in creating a little peace between the U.S. and the Middle East – by doing it his way in his one-of-a-kind wedding last weekend! East meets West and judging from the comments of the over one hundred and fifty guests from all walks of life and religious denominations, they were deeply moved and had never experienced such a depth of love and peace within a wedding ceremony before!
On February 13, at a church in Manhattan, Hale (who took the Muslim name of Hafez in order to be legally married to his bride in the country of Iran) and Iranian-born Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai began their new life together by first being joined in a formal Islamic ceremony at a traditional Persian wedding known as Sofreh Aghd that dates back nearly four thousand years. This service was followed by a traditional Christian wedding where the bride and groom’s own vows were integrated into the formal ceremony, followed by a few minutes of candle-lit darkness and silence for world peace.
The enlightened couple did not stop there though. The newlyweds then “jumped the broom,” a centuries-old African American wedding tradition, to express their solidarity with people around the world who are still victims of human trafficking and slavery today. Hale then surprised his new bride by releasing two white doves into the air, and then at the reception a traditional Native American wedding blessing Deer Dance was performed for the couple and their guests by ancient Persian Sufi musicians. Hale’s initial concern that it might have been ‘too much’ for their guests was assuaged after hearing feedback that everyone felt humbled and inspired by the love and spirituality they felt that day, many expressing that their lives were changed forever by the experience.
Hale ’walks the talk’ once more when it comes to his nickname ‘the Ambassador,’ even bringing the idea into his own nuptials. Not content simply working with Habitat for Humanity in providing homes and a new beginning for those less fortunate, he strives daily to make the world a better place in his honored role as a civilian diplomat for the United States. In fact, it was in this role that he first visited Iran in 2008 to discuss peace between the US and Iran. Six months later he met directly with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations in an effort to promote world peace. Contrary to what many believe, Hale did not meet his future bride during this visit – they had, in fact, been best friends for almost a decade prior to becoming engaged.
As the rocker-activist couple began their first day as husband and wife in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, they found it both sad and ironic when Nahal read aloud from the New York Times Hillary Clinton’s plan to impose more economic sanctions on Iran, where much of her family still lives. One wonders that If Ed Hale and Nahal could cross multiple cultural and religious barriers and achieve peace on a small scale for one day with hundreds of guests from countries all over the world, couldn’t we imagine what the whole world could accomplish if we worked together in similar fashion and made peace our ultimate goal. Peace between the United States and Iran was possible, at least for one day, through true love in action by these two beautifully inspired love birds.
Find out more about the artist at www.edhale.com or connect with Ed Hale personally on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/edhale.
Rodney Foster – Ascot Media Group, Inc.
rfoster@ascotmediagroup.com
281-324-2180
ED HALE’S BALLAD ON THIRD AVENUE VOTED “ONE OF BEST ALBUMS OF 2009″ BY NEW TIMES MAGAZINE
Ed Hale‘s latest solo album, the acoustic leaning ‘whisper pop’ CD entitled Ballad On Third Avenue was voted “One of Best Albums of 2009” by New Times Magazine. The end of year edition came out of the tri-county wide South Florida area where Hale first got his start in the seminal underground band Broken Spectacles along with Americana Music pioneer Matthew Sabatella when the two were in college.
Music critic Lee Zimmerman wrote,
“Bundled in sumptuous arrangements and a prog-rock posture, Ed Hale’s regular gig with Transcendence sometimes seemed to overshadow his true worth as a songwriter. Happily, Hale’s solo debut remedies that by emphasizing the songs’ emotional content rather than their window dressing. The support cast is still terrific – among the members are several Transcendence bandmates – but what truly shines are some brooding, introspective tunes informed by a sense of quiet contemplation.”
“Fact is, Hale’s always been quite the entrepreneur. His Dying Van Gogh label has fostered some of South Florida’s most talented artists, among them Dreaming in Stereo’s Fernando Perdomo and Ex Norwegian’s Roger Houdaille. It still provides him a local connection, even though he’s relocated to New York, where he now finds the muse best suited to his ambitions. Even so, Ballad on Third Avenue isn’t restricted to any particular setting — “Scene in San Francisco,” “New Orleans Dreams,” and “Thoughts of California” reference various locales while maintaining a solitary sense of longing and desire. Consequently, only “I Walk Alone” emulates the sweep and spectacle of Transcendence. However, like the songs that surround it, it maintains a lowered gaze, making this Hale’s most intimate and alluring set yet.”
– Lee Zimmerman
ED HALE WEDDING DATE ANNOUNCED – FEBRUARY 13TH, 2010
Singer/songwriter Ed Hale, who was engaged to be married to Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai in September of this year, announced this week that a date has been set, February 13th, 2010, creating a “Valentines Day Weekend in New York City for friends and family” and invitations have been mailed. The couple will hold two wedding ceremonies back to back, both in Manhattan. The first of which at 10 AM, will be a Traditional Persian Wedding, where Hale is said to be converting to Islam in order to travel with and be considered legally married to Mishel-Ghashghai in the Middle East, immediately followed by what is being called “an eclectic take on the traditional Christian Wedding,” where Mishel-Ghashghai is reportedly converting to Christianity. A reception will follow in the same location. The couple shared that they are foregoing the usual DJ and wedding band at the reception in favor of more personal group activities such as readings by different guests, a meditation on love candle ceremony, a blessing by a Tibetan Buddhist Monk from the Nechung Center, and of course several musical performances by friends of Hale’s in the rock ‘n’ roll world. In lieu of wedding cake the couple will be having the 200 year old New York Italian bakery Viniero’s provide over two-hundred and fifty fresh cannoli. The reception will also feature a string quintet with sitar performing both classical and standards, and a Traditional Persian Classical Trio. Honeymoon plans have not been announced, but the couple has set up a wedding website at TheKnot.com that lists flight and accommodation information for guests. Hale commented “The only other time I’ll ever get to have this many of all my different friends from around the world gathered in one place will probably be my funeral, if I’m that lucky, so Nahal and I really wanted to have things be more personal and manageable so we could have the opportunity to spend quality time with people we don’t get to see very often. Introduce everyone to each other. You know, like that.” When asked about the “eclectic take” comment on the couple’s upcoming nuptials, Hale said “Well I think I’ve got her talked into doing a big group Stevie Wonder sing-a-long, but I’m pretty sure she’s nixed the idea of me walking in wearing a cape and top hat.”
HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY VIDEO MONOLOGUE BY ED HALE
Recorded in October 2006 in Miami, Florida while recording the Transcendence album All Your Heroes Become Villains, the two-part “Happy Columbus Day” monologue video by Ed Hale was one of the very first videos posted to the YouTube channel TranscendentTV. Since that time, Hale posted over one-hundred and twenty videos of a wide variety of content to YouTube in a little more than half a year citing it as a cultural experiment. Often misunderstood, the controversial video is straight-faced, biting, sarcastic, and entirely tongue and cheek the singer claims. Happy hunting and happy Columbus Day!