Serendipity affects us all at some point in our lives and for the most part it is only after the event we discover what it all means. When Producer OD Hunte overheard an American passer-by in London talking about ‘ten days till Washington’, the phrase struck him and he knew it had to be filed under ‘for future use’. At first he thought it might be the basis for a movie but then after meeting and recording three songs with singer songwriter Lifford from Artful Dodger’s ‘Please Don’t Turn Me On’ fame, he knew that he had found the place for Ten Days Till”. Lifford and OD met several months before they finally made their first studio recording. Lifford was a performer on the Soul Stage at In The City 2005, the UK’s biggest unsigned music event and industry conference. OD had produced an artist who was also performing and Lifford’s then manager introduced the two and suggested that they collaborate. It was to be several months before the two could tie down a studio date together because of their respective workloads. When OD and Lifford eventually commenced recording, one of the two tracks they completed was ‘Get Them Hands Hi’. “We recorded that track for a specific project but the more I listened to it and the more I played it to people, many of whom were going bananas, the more I thought ‘nah this is too good to give to that project’” explains OD. This was confirmed when the worlds biggest games company EA Sports placed “Get Them Hands Hi” in NBA Live 07 alongside Black Eye Peas, Lupe Fiasco and Gnarls Barkley. This was the second game placement with EA Sports for OD in 2006, the first being “Crook Dancin’” by Slic One in Fight Night Round 3. It was a major achievement to be alongside multiplatinum artists such as Akon, Dipset, Dilated Peoples, and Obie Trice and demonstrated OD’s international standard of production. It was then that singer / writer Lifford and Producer OD officially joined forces to form Ten Days Till. The next track they completed was ‘I Am What I Am’ and sensing the momentum gathering from the international requests for more material, the pair decided to continue work on the album and officially start promotion for ‘I Am What I Am’. The forthcoming EP and album MusicSoulLife promises to be a heady commercial cocktail of both artists’ influences. Born to South African parents who later moved to the UK, Lifford Shillingford cites his influences as Al Green, Billie Holiday, Dina Washington, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. Lifford’s career began at school, taking part in end of year performances and talent contests which led to other projects with bands such as Public Demand signed to ZTT, touring with East 17, Gabrielle, many summer festivals and shows. As part of the TV and radio promotions campaign for ‘Please Don’t Turn Me On’, Lifford made appearances on Later with Jools Holland, CD UK, Top Of The Pops, London Today (news channel), TFI Friday, The Big Breakfast, MTV Base interview with Trevor Nelson, The Disney Channel, T4, the Jo Whiley radio show, Children in Need, Smash Hits Poll winners party (ITV) and across dozens of live performances Europe. As further evidence of his command of singing and songwriting technique, Lifford taught vocal technique to some now famous artists including the Sugarbabes and was involved in summer projects funded by the EEA where he taught children how to write and arrange songs. Trinidadian born Producer, writer, remixer, mixer, musician, author and entrepreneur OD Hunte has witnessed his music’s international success grow to the point where his tracks are currently placed in the who’s who of American youth culture TV programming. 2006 shows include MTV’s Pimp My Ride, Punkd, Yo Mama, Making The Video, Date My Mom, Making The Band, Next and Run’s House, plus hundreds of previous shows such as: Ride With Funkmaster Flex, The Osbournes, Dirty Pretty Things, Knock First, Las Vegas (New), Constant Craving, Night and Day, Africa Within, Resurrection Boulevard, Girlfriends, Switched!, Hollyoaks, Bargain Hunt, Sausage Factory, Black Like Beckham, Child Of Our Time, Four Fathers, Miss Universe Pageant 2002, Everything Must Go, Futbol Mundial, Trefor Only, Velvet Soup, Si J Etais and Garden Makers but to name a few. Commercially, OD has worked with scores of artists and labels most recently lending his remix skills to Leela James’ ‘Music’ OD Hunte Remix (Warner Brothers International) and Maxine Braham’s ‘I Wish’ (Jus Soul Remix), the latter of which reached number one in two separate UK pre-release charts. The Ten Days Till album will allow OD to exercise his vision of eclectic contemporary Soul, Hip Hop, R&B, Reggae, and Jazz brought about by his influences. He has cited some of these as the Outkast,Fugees, Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, The Alchemist, Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, Jam and Lewis and Grover Washington Jr. Ten Days Till make real music that’s a positive soundtrack to your life whoever, or wherever you are. |
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