Deep Obsession

Deep Obsession
Origin	New Zealand
Genres	Pop, EuroDance
Instrument	Singing
Years active	1996–present
Members	Zara Clark Charlie Lawson
Past members	Vanessa Kelly Christopher Banks

''Deep Obsession'' first emerged in 1996 in the Auckland More FM ad studios.

They were the only NZ Euro-dance/pop group in the country at the time. Co-founded by Michael Lloyd, Chris Banks & Zara Clark. The group started writing and recording their debut album 1996, with the European market firmly in mind.

Zara Clark is the voice of Deep Obsession (Nominated Best Female Vocalist 2000, VMANZ). Her powerful and distinctive voice dominates every part of this Euro-dance album.

Chris Banks was the sound of Deep Obsession, unique skills, programming the electronica sound into musical maestro mastery .

The album "Infinity" was almost complete when Vanessa Kelly was invited to join the group, early in 1998.

"Lost in Love" was a Euro-dance inspired cover version of the 1980 hit by Australian group Air Supply.

It was to become the first song, to reach Number#1 on The Official Recorded Music NZ Singles Charts from Deep Obsession.

The group became the first unsigned New Zealand group to receive widespread commercial radio airplay when a demo recording of their first single, "Lost In Love" was picked up by the nationwide More FM network.

Deep Obsession was also the first group to sign with the newly formed Universal Music Group NZ George Ash.

Airplay of "Lost In Love" brought them the attention of several major record labels.

1st release "Lost In Love" was remixed by Malcolm Welsford, and then picked up by the remaining major radio networks in NZ. It climbed to the Number#1 spot in August 1998, and achieved gold sales status.

2nd release was in early 1999 "Cold" written by Chris Banks and Zara Clark. It climbed to Number#1 and also achieved Gold status. "Cold" was nominated for Best Song at the 2000 NZ Vodafone Music Awards.

Co-founder, producer and key songwriting partner Chris Banks, left the group 1999. Chris was encouraged to take a producer role at Universal Music NZ and left the band before "One and Only" was released.

UMGNZ were interested in marketing the two girls, and offered Chris what looked like a good opportunity. Chris was unaware of the underlying motivation of this move by the record company.

3rd release "One & Only", written by Chris Banks and Vanessa Kelly, was the next song to reach Number #1.

Deep Obsession is the first and only NZ artist to achieve three consecutive number #1 singles from their first album "Infinity", in their home country. The album "Infinity" was produced in Australia and New Zealand by Michael Lloyd and Christopher Banks in conjunction with Australian producers Steve Peach and Paul Goodyear.

"Infinity" went platinum when it was released in 1999 and climbed to number #8 on the Official New Zealand Recorded Music Charts.

The 4th release "You Got The Feeling" charted at Number 8. Then the 5th release "I Surrender" a big blunder was made by Universal NZ.

"I Surrender" was released and two versions of the song were serviced to radio. UK version and the US version. The two versions of the song appeared twice on the same top 100 chart list.

Universal NZ were unable to get a true reading of where the song would have placed. It had charted in two separate places in the same top 100 chart for a number of weeks before the mistake was picked up.

Grant Kearney (aka Sample G) was A&R for UMGNZ and manager for Deep Obsession. He decided not to release the song for sale as single, or make a video for it, even though it was the song choice of Universal Music Group International.

A new international version of the album Infinity, was remixed and released in Japan 2000 by Universal International, (at a cost of NZ$500,000) available at Amazon.com and Discogs. Featuring remixes of "Lost In Love" and "One & Only" by Grammy Award-winning Cher producer Brian Rawling. Also available at i-tunes.

Vanessa Kelly was awarded "Most Promising Female Vocalist" at the 2000 VMANZ. To hear Vanessa sing, she performs one lead vocal from the album "Infinity". The song is called "Powers in You". Also her voice is featured briefly in the middle 8th of the song "You Got the Feeling".

Zara and Vanessa recorded harmonies and backing vocals for the Deep Obsession "Infinity" album.

In 2001 Universal NZ, Adam Holt, offered Vanessa a solo album deal, she accepted and left Deep Obsession.

Adam Holt released Zara from her record contract with Universal Music NZ, and he wrote off $500,000 investment Universal Music Group had made in the Deep Obsession.

Deep Obsession 2001 had no record deal, but still had a publishing contract and obligations to fulfil when Vanessa left.

Charlie aka (Sharleen Lawson) was recruited as the new blonde bombshell backing singer, in 2001 and the girls became fast friends.

Charlie's authentic confidence allowed her to seamlessly step into her role in the group. She brought a new harder sexy rock edge to the group.

Zara's distinctive voice is captivating and with Charlie's solid support vocals this is a delicious blend. Their attention grabbing performances are a rare pleasure to experience. These two ladies have great chemistry on and off stage.

To check the viability of the third incarnation of Deep Obsession in the current radio trend, Zara leaked the song "Miracles" to a friend at the ZM Radio Network in 2001.

"Miracles" was play listed immediately by a friend of the group at the ZM Radio Network. More FM and Classic Hits followed suit soon after, and the song entered the charts , and began to climb.

Without the support of a record company, Deep Obsession had very little chance of releasing the track.

However, the consistent support of NZ Radio, and NZ on Air "Miracles" climbed to number #34 from radio airplay alone.

This set another music history record in NZ. "Miracles" was the highest charting song that was never available for retail.

With the help from NZ on Air funding, a video was made for "Miracles". It was a nominated for a Tui Music Video Award 2001. See YouTube.

Zara and Charlie are best friends, they perform together for selected clients.

No second album has been recorded by Deep Obsession.

Another song available on YouTube for your listening pleasure is "I Am" by DeepObsession feat. Kantuta. This song has not been serviced to radio or retail. Enjoy!!!

Deep Obsession is not signed to recording deal. However in 2015 Zara and Deep Obsession are still signed with Universal Music Publishing Australia.

Watch this space...

Members

Current Members

• Zara Clark (1996-
• Charlie Lawson (2001-

Past Members

• Vanessa Kelly (1998–2001)
• Christopher Banks (1996–1999)

Discography

Albums

Date of Release	Title	Label	Charted	Country	Catalog Number
1999	Infinity	Universal NZ	#8 (Platinum)	New Zealand
2000 Deep Obsession ["Infinity" Remix Album] **Japan Release	"Infinity"	Universal International	**	Japan	MVCE-24212

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions	Certifications (sales thresholds)	Album
		NZ
1998	"Lost in Love"	1	Gold	Infinity
1999	"Cold"	1	Gold
	"One & Only"	1	Gold
2000	"You Got the Feeling"	17
	"I Surrender"	25
2001	"Miracles"	34		New single (not released for sale)
2004	"I Am"	—		New single (never released)

External links

• NZ Music article documenting their record three #1's
• [1] Audio Culture Profile
• Discogs commentary
• [2] Last fm commentary