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David Sneddon

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David Sneddon
David Sneddon at Highbarn, Essex
David Sneddon at Highbarn, Essex
Background information
Birth nameDavid Sneddon
Born (1978-09-15) 15 September 1978 (age 46)
Paisley, Scotland
GenresPop, soul
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, musician, record producer
Instrument(s)Vocals, piano, keyboards
Years active2003–present
LabelsSony/ATV Music Publishing

David Sneddon (born 15 September 1978) is a Scottish musician and singer-songwriter. He has performed on British television, radio and theatre. Sneddon won the first BBC UK series of Fame Academy in 2002. Sneddon released his debut single "Stop Living the Lie" in January 2003 which was a number one hit single selling over 250,000 copies, and making it the 12th highest selling single of the year. Seven Years – Ten Weeks, Sneddon's album released in April 2003 four months after he won the show and containing his own compositions, entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 5.[1] He also had three further UK Singles Chart hit singles with his own compositions - "Don't Let Go" No.3, "Best of Order" No. 19 and "Baby Get Higher" No.39. Sneddon's song "Baby Get Higher" has since been a success hit on the dance floor for Almighty Records and was also a Singles Chart hit for Dutch singer in 2006 VanVelzen.[2] He took the unusual step of moving from being a popstar to working as a songwriter for other singers. In 2005 he wrote the international hit "The Message" for UK soul artist Nate James. In 2009 Sneddon signed to major music publisher Sony/ATV Music Publishing as a songwriter and he describes his music as 'melody-driven indie pop'.[3]

Since 2003 Sneddon has worked with James Bauer-Mein as producers and songwriters. They have written songs for artists such as Hurts, Morten Harket of A-ha, X Factor winner Matt Cardle and number one selling American singer Lana Del Rey.[4] Sneddon writes with producer and guitarist James Bauer-Mein as "The Nexus" songwriting and music production partnership for both high profile and highly-anticipated emerging artists in both the US and the UK. They have been building a strong reputation as songwriters the past years. They wrote songs for the synthpop duo Hurts 2010 debut album Happiness - "Illuminated", "Silver Lining" and "Blood, Tears & Gold."[5] The Nexus have written for 2010 The X Factor (UK) winner Matt Cardle's debut album Letters which was released in October 2011,[6] and charted at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart.[7] The song "National Anthem" was written by "The Nexus" for Lana Del Rey's number one selling [8] UK Albums Chart debut album Born to Die released in January 2012. [9] In 2012 The Nexus wrote the song "Keep the Sun Away" for Morten Harket's solo album "Out of My Hands".[10] In 2012 the singer Emin Agalarov released "Baby Get Higher" - the song received BBC Radio 2 A List airplay and Emin will perform the song on the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.[11] The Nexus song "National Anthem" will be released as Lana Del Rey's fourth single from her album Born to Die in July 2012.[9][12]

Origins

David Sneddon was born and grew up in Paisley, Scotland, with mother Anne, father David Sr. and younger sister Pauline. He enjoyed performing in musicals from a young age, and when his parents bought him a piano he discovered he had a talent for writing songs and taught himself to play. Sneddon was inspired by his father’s record collection of The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison and Elton John, and he cites The Beatles as a big influence. He studied music at school, won several talent competitions and played lead roles in musicals both at school and at PACE Youth Theatre. "The person who has inspired me the most is Elton John. I love the Beatles, but as I was growing up, I always wanted to play the piano like him. I've never had any lessons, so he has been my only teacher.".........?"[13] After attending The University of Paisley for a year where he met Danny Dyer, with whom he forged a good friendship, Sneddon decided to pursue a career in music. He performed in musicals and sang with bands in Scotland for several years, while he continued working on his songwriting and sending off demos. He was offered a role in a musical in London, and a part in a young boyband called Arena. He presented Inside Out, a children's show on Scottish TV.

While acting in Romeo and Juliet he met John Kielty (Sneddon was Romeo and John played Juliet's father). After performing some acoustic nights together at the Tron theatre in Glasgow in 2001, they decided to start a band and called themselves The Martians. The Martians busked and did shows during the Edinburgh Festival. Sneddon was performing with The Martians in 2002 when he decided to enter the BBC's first series of Fame Academy. After David won the show he brought John down to London to co-write his debut album and go on tour with him. Sneddon also played in the indie-rock band The Sham with John Kielty in 2004 and 2005. Since then The Martians won the Highland Quest for a new musical in 2006 - The Sundowe was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and toured the Scottish Highlands in early 2007.

Music career

Fame Academy

Sneddon was brought to public attention when he won the BBC's first Fame Academy (a reality talent quest television show) in 2002. He was not selected for the first show, but was drafted in as a replacement when one contestant withdrew from the TV show due to illness. Sneddon soon became a favourite with both the audience and his fellow contestants. He won the final program of the show winning the voters attention for his versions of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John, "I Don't Want to Talk About It" by Danny Whitten, and his own composition "Stop Living the Lie". He won the public vote with approximately 3.5 million votes in December.

Sneddon signed a record contract with Mercury Records and was given a luxury penthouse, Audi car and more as part of his prize. He shot his music video for his first single at Abbey Road Studios. His first single "Stop Living the Lie", was no. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in January 2003, and in the UK Top 40 for a full nine weeks. Sneddon is the only artist from a reality TV show to have a number one hit single with his own composition. He had three other UK Singles Chart hits with his compositions - "Don't Let Go" No. 3, "Best Of Order" No. 19 and "Baby Get Higher" No. 39. "Baby Get Higher" has since been a hit on the dance floor for Almighty Records and a singles chart hit for Dutch singer VanVelzen.[2]

Seven Years - Ten Weeks Sneddon's album, was released in April 2003, four months after he won the show, and entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 5. The album contains all original compositions written by Sneddon, two co-writes with Scott MacAlister and four songs co-written with Martians' member Kielty. Sneddon wrote songs about his seven years after leaving university when he performed with bands, and on stage in Scotland - and about his ten weeks singing live on the BBC television series. It contains his three chart singles "Stop Living the Lie", "Don't Let Go" and "Best of Order". The album was produced by Hugh Padgham, and was recorded with Elton John's band. There was a Scottish album launch for the release on 27 April, when Sneddon performed seven gigs in ten hours all over Scotland.[1] Sneddon was given three months to write, rehearse and record original material for his debut album.

After the show he toured with a band that included James Bauer-Mein. David has continued to the present day working with Mein as a songwriting and music production partnership in London, ever since 2003 to the present. Throughout 2003, Sneddon and his band played a university tour, the Box Live and Summer XS tours, headlined at the 'Pop on the Rock' music festival in the Channel Islands, and supported Bryan Adams in Bristol and Elton John in Hull. Sneddon also performed on TV many times, including the BBC's chart music program Top of the Pops. David was also a guest presenter on The Saturday Show (BBC TV series) and the BBC Scotland Children in Need Appeal, and he took part in Avid Merrion's comedy show 'Bo Selecta' on Channel 4[14]

Sneddon signed an exclusive publishing deal as a songwriter with Universal Music Group in October 2003. Sneddon's main focus has always been his songwriting. He said "I've loved all the music side of it, it's everything I hoped it would be - the recording, the studio, writing, but the other stuff..........?"[13] He took the unusual step of moving from being a popstar to working as a songwriter for other singers.

Performing

In 2004, Sneddon was songwriting in London when he formed a rock band called The Sham with John Kielty. They played gigs in London, Scotland and the North of England and headlined at the Hogmanay Celebrations in Aberdeen.[13] The Sham included Jay Mein (bass), Ed Carlile (drums), Si Jones (guitar), Jake Gosling (keyboards) and John Kielty (guitar).

Sneddon performing Bedford London

In 2006, Sneddon started writing and recording for a new solo album. In July he showcased his songs in a series of acoustic gigs with Kielty on guitar in London, Essex and Scotland. In an interview for FPR Radio in October 2006, he said "It's not what people are expecting, I’m trying something a bit different. The feedback, from people who know me from the show, on the new songs has been incredible."[15]

From July 2006 to October 2007, he performed occasional gigs mostly in London - at the Bedford, the Regal Room, The Cobden and the Troubadour venues. When Kielty moved to America in late 2006, Sneddon brought in David Mullins as his backing guitarist. He also presented a radio sports show "Keep Off the Grass" on BBC Radio Scotland in June 2007. Sneddon performed a few gigs in Scotland over this time at the Oran Mor, Dunstaffstage, the Jazz Bar and the Kilsyth festival.

Sneddon released an acoustic five-track EP called "White Noise" in January 2007, his first recorded work for several years. It was recorded in 'one live acoustic take' and included the songs "White Noise", "Time", "Lady Lullaby", "One Old Soul" and "Wish You Well".

He played gigs and festivals across England and Scotland in 2007 and with Mullins. In August 2007, he performed three sold out gigs at the Jazz Bar Edinburgh Festival to good reviews.[13][16] David's songs Insomnia, Anticipation, One Old Soul and Scars proved popular with his fans.[17]

Sneddon's 2007 EP sold well and re-entered the top of the Indiestore chart in 2008 where it has stayed into 2010. In 2008, Sneddon played several gigs in London, while he continued with his songwriting work alongside guitarist James Bauer Mein. He describes his music as 'melody driven pop'.

Songwriting

David Sneddon's musical journey and songwriting successes have drawn from his influences from the songs of Elton John, The Beatles, Paul Simon, Dylan and Coldplay. In October 2003 Sneddon's song "Baby Get Higher" had reached No.39 in the UK Singles Chart and the song achieved further chart successes in November 2003 when the dance label Almighty Records produced an exclusive promo remix which was a dance hit. The label then recorded a version featuring Belle Lawrence, which was included on several dance compilation albums.[2] In November 2006, the song was also a singles chart hit for Dutch singer VanVelzen. In 2005 Sneddon wrote the international hit "The Message" for UK soul singer Nate James,[3] which was released as a single in the UK, and was on James's debut album, Set The Tone.[4] It charted in Italy and Japan in 2006.

In 2009, Sneddon signed a new deal with music publisher Sony/ATV Music Publishing and will be writing for labels Decca Records, Universal Music Group and Syco, which is Simon Cowell’s label. Sneddon stated in the Paisley Daily Express, “This deal has been in the pipeline for a year and we wanted to wait for the right deal. I don’t think there has been another reality TV winner who took a back step to this side of the industry but I like being able to get on with my work. We had to prove ourselves...and so that’s why we did a lot of development work."[18] In 2008, Sneddon focused on his songwriting career while he also performed a few occasional gigs in London over this time. He signed in 2009 with new management Three Six Zero Group and to Sony/ATV Music Publishing in July 2009 as a songwriter.[18]

Since 2003, Sneddon has worked with James Bauer-Mein in a London recording studio discovering, producing and writing with new talent. Sneddon and Mein have written songs for other artists such as Hurts, Morten Harket of A-ha, X Factor winner Matt Cardle and number one selling American singer Lana Del Rey.[4] Sneddon writes with producer and guitarist James Bauer-Mein as "The Nexus" songwriting and music production partnership for both high profile and highly-anticipated emerging artists in both the US and the UK. They have been building a strong reputation as songwriters the past years. Mein worked with Sneddon when he toured and recorded his debut album in 2003 and he has been writing with him for the past ten years. In 2009 they decided to call themselves "The Nexus".

They have written songs for the synthpop duo Hurts 2010 debut album Happiness - "Illuminated", "Silver Lining" and "Blood, Tears & Gold."[5] Hurt's Happiness reached the Top 10 in 12 European countries, and has sold over one million copies worldwide. The band has also sold more than one million singles worldwide.[19]

Sneddon and Mein (The Nexus) have also written the songs "Letters" and "Slowly" (co-written with Cardle and Eg White) for Matt Cardle's debut album, Letters, which was released in October 2011,[20] and charted at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart.[6] [7] In 2011, Sneddon became engaged to his long-term girlfriend, who works in television in London.

It was revealed in January 2012 that Sneddon, as part of The Nexus, had written the song "National Anthem" for Lana Del Rey's debut album Born to Die. [9] Born to Die which reached No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart and became one the fastest-selling albums of the year, selling 116,745 copies the biggest first-week sales of 2012. The first single from Del Rey's album, "Video Games" has received over 40m hits on YouTube. They also wrote the song "Driving in Cars With Boys" with Del Rey.

In April 2012, The Nexus were listed as the writers for the song "Keep the Sun Away" for Morten Harket, best known as the singer of the Norwegian synthpop/rock band A-ha, solo album Out of My Hands released April 2012 .[10] In 2012 the singer Emin Agalarov from Azerbaijan also released "Baby Get Higher" as his first UK single from his "After The Thunder" album. The song received BBC Radio 2 A List airplay and Emin will perform the song on the Eurovision Song Contest as well as present the show in May 2012.[11] The Nexus song "National Anthem" has been confirmed in May 2012 as Lana Del Rey's fourth UK single from her album Born to Die and will be released on July 8, 2012. [9][12] Del Rey filmed the official music video in May 2012.

Awards

  • Winner BBC Fame Academy 2002.
  • Awards - Nordoff Robins Award for Contribution to music 2003.
  • Radio Forth (Forth One) Best Newcomer award 2003.

Discography

Albums

Album information
Seven Years - Ten Weeks
  • Release Date: April 2003,
  • UK Chart peak: no. 5 (UK Pop)
  • IMPALA Sales Certification: Gold (100,000)
  • Worldwide sales: 100,000
  • Singles: "Stop Living The Lie", "Don’t let Go", "Best of Order".

Singles

  1. "Stop Living the Lie" (2003) #1 UK
  2. "Don't Let Go" (2003) #3 UK
  3. "Best of Order" (2003) #19 UK
  4. "Baby Get Higher" (2003) #38 UK

EPs

"White Noise" (released Indiestore January 2007)

  1. "White Noise" (2007)
  2. "Time" (2007)
  3. "Lady Lullaby” (2007)
  4. "One Old Soul" (2007)
  5. ”Wish You Well” (2007)

References

  1. ^ a b "Seven Years - Ten Weeks". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  2. ^ a b c "Belle Lawrence Handbag Heaven Boulevard of Broken Dreams". Almighty Records. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  3. ^ a b UK. "David Sneddon on MySpace". Myspace.com. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  4. ^ a b c Karen Bale (November 24, 2006). "1 Million Notes for Sneddon". Daily Record. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  5. ^ a b "David Sneddon's a write talent | The Sun |Showbiz|Bizarre". The Sun. 2011-06-30. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  6. ^ a b "Matt Cardle teams up with David Sneddon". The Sun. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
  7. ^ a b "Radio 1 - Chart - The Official UK Top 40 Singles Chart". BBC. Retrieved 2012-01-01.
  8. ^ Jones, Alan (6 February 2012). "Official Chart Analysis: Lana Del Rey album sells 117k, 43% digital". Music Week. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  9. ^ a b c d "Musicfootnotes". Musicfootnotes. Retrieved 2012-01-06. Cite error: The named reference "musicfootnotes" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b "Morten Harket". {{cite web}}: Text "song-lyrics-and-credits-for-out-of-my-hands" ignored (help)
  11. ^ a b "http://www.emin-music.com/eurovision.htm". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  12. ^ a b "Lana Del Rey". {{cite web}}: Text "lana-del-rey-confirms-new-single-national-anthem" ignored (help)
  13. ^ a b c d "David Sneddon Fansite". David Sneddon Fansite. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  14. ^ Bo Selecta at IMDb
  15. ^ "FPR Community Radio | Paisley Blog". Paisley.org.uk. 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  16. ^ Ruby Soxer (2007-09-04). "David Sneddon & Chris Townsend (Accoustic Sessions)". EdinburghGuide.com. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  17. ^ david sneddon - YouTube
  18. ^ a b "Pasiley Daily Express". Paisleydailyexpress.co.uk. 2009-08-03. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
  19. ^ "Hurts". Three Six Zero Group. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference matt_cardle was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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