Music
Press
For those of you who have made it this far, go to www.myspace.com/extortionisnotcool for a sneak preview of the new album! The page features 4 new tunes, roughly mixed and unmastered. - Freddy Litwiniuk
“Freddy has rediscovered and reinvented the true art of songwriting! His voice is singular, his melodies are intoxicating and his sense of harmony and chord structure is rich and sophisticated. All of this is dressed up in a fresh, new sensibility. The strongest new artist I have heard in a long, long time.” - Sam Cardon, EMMY™ winning composer
Review by: Craig Curtice
Date: 3/14/04
By now my expectations are extremely low for music mailed to me from unsigned and indie bands. But much to my surprise, Freddy – a singer/songwriter from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who coincidentally looks like a member of the Barenaked Ladies – has a really good album on his hands titled Things You Never Thought I’d Say.
It’s perfectly harmless acoustic and electric rock that begs to belong as background music for the television show The O.C. Every week on the program, the characters get into trouble with the law, feel betrayed, or bemoan being good looking, but at the end of the hour there’s always some mood music playing over the apologies and sunsets. This is it.
Think Oasis styled Brit-Pop minus the whiney drone, mixed with Green Day’s left-field hit “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”
Several songs stand out, particularly “A Moment Away,” "Change It All In One Night,” “Apart,” and “Free.” The album’s R&B closer “Secret (You Know What)” hints at a real future in music while making Justin Timberlake jealous. Freddy’s soft voice and gentle lyrics should enamor the quiet coffeehouse crowd and sentimental high school seniors pent up with tearful emotion come graduation.
- 2 Walls Webzine
05/21/04
I am beyond impressed with the quality and content of this guy's work. He knows how to craft an inquisitive song, while bringing the appropriate alternative rock sounds into it...you know, to really make it stick with you. "Things You Never Thought I'd Say" is a bitterly awesome "tell off" track, featuring stingingly gripping lyrics. He gets more acoustic during "Stay", while continuing the soft lullaby-like ballads he's good at in "Thinking It Over." Lyrics are his strongest asset, and he excels at emotional songwriting. His music is comparable to a mix of Radiohead and Goo Goo Dolls, and his vocals are raspy and introspectively suiting. Go out and get this album, it's worth it.
Favorite Tracks: Things You Never Thought I'd Say, Stay
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
- DiscoveringArtists.com
He may look like the sixth Barenaked Lady, but Canadian artist Freddy definitely has his own style, mixing standard pop sounds with a smart, sensible musicality that evades most pop music today. The most noticeable part of Freddy’s album is his voice. Throughout the album, his vocals soar with distinct beauty and a lovely fluidity similar to that of the Goo Goo Dolls and Oasis.
While lyrics are his strong suit, Freddy’s musicianship separates him from the rest of his class. Wonderfully unique chord structures, instrument orchestrations and vocal harmonies express a cleverness and intelligence that show his willingness to explore different genres, such as the soul-driven “Secret,” the country-ish “Stay” or the R&B-tinged title track.
Another attribute of Freddy’s music is the ear-turning nuances he injects into his songs that add a slightly hard, un-pop flavor to the mix. From the string runs in “Apart”to the sitar-sounding guitar riffs on “Free,” Freddy adds an edge to his music. With emotionally involving lyrics, fantastic arrangements and one hell of a voice, Freddy makes his Things You Never Thought I’d Say a brilliant gem. —JS
- Performing Songwriter Magazine
Discography
Things You Never Thought I'd Say (LP) 2004
Tracks receiving airplay:
Apart
Let It Go
A Moment Away
Secret (You Know What) feat. Holly Litwiniuk
Christmas Yet to Be (Single) 2005
Doublespeak (LP) 2008
Photos
Bio
Freddy is nearly ready to release his new album Doublespeak, the follow -up to Things You Never Thought I'd Say. An indie success story, Things resulted in airplay and film and TV placements, most recently on ABC's new show, Cupid, and ABC Family's Kyle XY, as well as the hit show Men In Trees, and in the Sony feature film Wieners. Three singles from the album, and an original Christmas song, spun at commercial (Neilsen Reporting) Top 40 and Hot A/C stations across North America. The album was serviced to radio in Canada by Music Media Network and Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion, and in the United States by Bryan Farrish and Evolution promotion. Freddy has been seen and heard in interviews on radio and television across North America. He has performed on live television in Canada and in the United States, including a live interview and performance on Salt Lake City’s ABC 4, to coincide with the placement of Freddy’s song A Moment Away (Patiently Waiting) on ABC’s Men in Trees, starring Anne Heche. He has been featured numerous times on Europe’s largest Top 40 radio station, Big FM, based in Stuttgart, Germany. Each feature has been accompanied by an interview, and a profile on Big FM’s website. To bring the album to a wider audience, Freddy partnered with Coca-Cola and Fresh Tracks Music (now MyTracks) as a featured artist on the MyCoke website. Physical distribution of Things was done through Canada’s venerable Fusion 3, and the album was a featured pick of one of Canada’s largest music retailers, Music World.
Freddy’s film and television placements have largely been a result of his work with Los Angeles-based Music Publisher Crucial Music (www.crucialmusic.com). Crucial specializes in placing music in Film, Television, Advertising, Video Games, and Film Trailers, and they have long and strong relationships with all the major studios. Freddy joined the Crucial Family in 2006, and the relationship continues to be fruitful. Tanvi Patel, President/CEO of Crucial said of Freddy: "In addition to being a talented songwriter and vocalist, Freddy is a savvy businessman who understands the business of music, which includes understanding promotion, quality production, publishing, and sales. He just gets it. It's refreshing to see an artist with depth and talent. Crucial Music is honored to be able to work his music to the film and TV music industry."
Freddy also has cultivated publishing relationships with Audiosparx, Blue Pie, ETNC, and J2R Music. More recently, Freddy has been negotiating with Judy Stakee of Warner Chappell publishing, one of the world’s leading publishing companies, and part of the Warner Music Group. In addition to the placements that Freddy’s publishers have found for his music, Freddy has also negotiated directly with television producers and music supervisors, including MTV’s Rodarick Harden, and John Simpson and Noella Choi of TV’s Chris and John to the Rescue. Five of Freddy’s songs are featured in episodes of Chris and John, now available worldwide on DVD, and which is seen in Canada, the United States, and Australia.
Freddy’s first development deal was signed with Briton Max Wilson of Pink Scales. Fresh from her work with James Sanger and Keane, Max discovered Freddy and signed him to a production and development deal with Pink Scales, based out of the United Kingdom and France. During his time working with Max, Freddy had the good fortune to meet, and work with, London-based engineer, producer, programmer and DJ Jez Clover (The Animal Farm), and French producer David Coulomiers (Keane, Shaggy, Star Academy). The relationship dissolved amicably in 2005, and Freddy once again took the creative reins of his career, and began work on his latest album, Doublespeak. For this new effort, Freddy has once again teamed up with his friend and producer Craig Poole (Kaskade, Joslyn, David Archuleta, Doug Osmond, Jibe Project, SoVery). Other friends appearing on the album include drummer Joel Stevenett (SheDaisy, JoDee Messina), and guitarist Doug Collins (Sara Evans).
Freddy’s Internet presence remains strong. A Google search of Freddy Litwiniuk will bring up nearly 10,000 results. He has thousands of fans all over the world, as evidenced by his website, iTunes, MySpace, iLike, LastFM, Amie Street, The Sixty-One, Broadjam, Garageband.com, and many other online music stores, sites, and blogs. Doublespeak was chosen as the CD of the day by the influential music blog, Absolute Powerpop. Freddy’s song Apart is #6 all time on Garageband.com’s pop charts, placing him in the elite company of the Falling Wallendas, Geoff Byrd, Randy Coleman and others. Many of Freddy’s songs, including Apart, have been featured as songs of the day or of the week at Garageband.com, and have reached the top of the charts at Broadjam.
When not pursuing his artist career, Freddy spends time in Nashville, exploring opportunities as a songwriter, and expanding his catalogue beyond pop music. He has opp
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