Indiana Gregg

Indiana Gregg born in Terre Haute, Indiana[1] is a singer-songwriter and tech entrepreneur living in Lenzie near Glasgow, Scotland.[2][3] Her music contains elements of pop, soul and folk. Releases include featured artist on Kool & the Gang's "The Hits Reloaded" where she performed their hit titled "Tonight" and a 2007 debut release of her album "Woman At Work" with singles "Sweet Things", "Love Is Blind" and "One of Us" released from the album in April, June and October 2007 respectively.

Indiana "Indy" Gregg
Indiana Gregg at Powderham Castle Exeter
Background information
OriginTerre Haute, Indiana
GenresCountry
Soul
Occupation(s)Song-writer, Entrepreneur
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, piano
Years active1999 —present
Websiteindianagregg.com

Indiana was also founder and director of Kerchoonz.com, a social networking platform and artist aggregation and marketplace that was launched in 2008 and bought-out in 2010. The model for which changed the face of the music industry today.[4][5][6][7]

Early years

As a child, Indiana's mother taught dance and her father worked in the aluminium industry. Her musical introductions stemmed from a rather rigid religious upbringing, because of this there are obvious gospel influences in her music today. Indiana suffered from a strong speech impediment in her youth. She underwent years of speech therapy where her therapist would ask her to write poems at home for her to practice singing to help overcome this condition. Indiana claims that her therapist encouraged her to become involved in music and is responsible for her development as a songwriter and an artist.[8][9] This is where her love of songwriting began and developed. As a youngster, she taught herself to play her grandmother's old upright piano by ear. Between the ages of 12–16, she wrote and recorded hundreds of songs on a Panasonic tape-deck with a friend. The Sunday Herald quotes Indiana saying, "I was five when I wrote my first song, about my cat, Herbert, who was hit by a train".[10]

At university, Indiana studied music and physiotherapy. In 1991, she won an all-American title and National Dance Association dance championship in Dallas, Texas.[1]

Career Stages

The roots and beginnings of Indiana's professional career began in 1994 when she moved to southern France and lived there for 12 years (amongst other countries such as Germany, Finland and England).[1] During her time in France, she worked in various bands exploring progressive rock, jazz, and dance music. She recorded several studio demos at Marilyn Studios,[1] Cagnes-sur-Mer over a period of three years revealing the songwriter's deeper retreat into her music exploring jazz and soul music and penning a number of songs. In 2003, she joined a progressive rock band and the musical influences turned to a more aggressive tone mixed with both alternative and gospel influences.

In 2004, she was invited to appear on the track Tonight from Kool and the Gang's album, The Hits Reloaded, other artists appearing on that album include Angie Stone, Beverley Knight, Lisa Stansfield, Big Brovaz, Jamiroquai, Tony Hadley. In 2005, she formed a Scottish-based independent record label called Gr8pop with her later-to-become husband Ian Morrow. Ingenious Venture Capital Trust (Avatar, Life of Pi) and Scottish Enterprise supported the project alongside the Gr8pop investors. Her debut album, Woman at Work, was released to the UK in April 2007. The diversity of her music has been explained as an artistic well or "stew": "It's like a stew that has been cooking for a long while: well blended and tasty. Ms. Gregg has achieved a rare feat in the world of music outside of jazz: she has created something organic. And it didn't happen overnight."[11]

In 2005 two of her songs, "Sweet Things" and "For Life", made it to the top finalists in the Pop category (56 finalists out of the 4000 songs entered) of The UK Songwriting Contest. These two songs were later also released on her 2007 album titled Woman at Work.[12] In 2005, Indiana also did a supporting tour with Wet Wet Wet. Five additional songs by Gregg made the semi-finalist category in the same year: "Something like me", "Crazy", "How Many Tears", "Love is Blind", and "Oh Me Oh My" all of which were also included on her debut album "Woman At Work".

In 2005, the demo album "Something like me" had a limited release on the independent label Onestone Music.[13] Later that year, Onestone Music did a deal with Scottish label Gr8pop Ltd. In 2006, Gr8pop ltd. did a deal with Ingenious VCT with a view to release Gregg's debut album in 2007.

Career as an Executive

Indiana was also founder and director of Kerchoonz.com, a social networking platform and artist aggregation and marketplace that was launched in 2008 and bought-out in 2010. The model for which changed the face of the music industry today.[4][circular reference][5][6][7] Indiana served as COO of Sportside.[14]

Other roles: Global managing director of Cosmetic Laboratory of Europe. and Founder of Wedo, a lifestyle platform experience that creates synergies between people, businesses, and their network.[15][16] She is a keynote speaker MIDEM on digital marketing and effective content delivery. Tippit Festival on the topic of Socially Conscious Creativity and Entrepreneurship.[16]

Indiana has served executive and non-exec roles and has founded several companies including Kerchoonz, GRUV, Gr8pop, Digital-Unicorns, Wedo and Eventous.

Tours and "Home Concerts"

Indiana received media attention in early summer of 2007 surrounding her "home concert" competitions where fans entered from all over the world to win a chance at having her play in their home for their friends. The competitions were covered in articles appearing in the Evening Times, Daily Record, Daily Mirror and various regional newspapers in the UK. Videos of her home gigs were posted to YouTube, Myspace, MSN and various other websites with a message about the free competition details. Winners for the series were announced on Myspace and subsequently, UKgigs TV began filming the new series in May 2007. Subsequently, videos of the home gigs were streamed on the front pages of Bebo and over the UK gigs and theatre networks.

The Home concerts first appeared in the press when the Express wrote about a surprise concert she performed for a fan's fiancée home in 2005 after he saw her live in Exeter supporting Wet Wet Wet. Indiana Gregg announced home concerts in the fall of 2005 which took place primarily in October. In December 2005, she embarked on Starbucks coffee house tour in every major UK city playing intimate acoustic sets in the coffee houses throughout 2006 whilst recording her debut album in the same year.[17] In February and March 2007, she played a UK support[1] tour with Lemar. Indiana, 35[18] married Ian Morrow, 50[18] during a 22-date[1] arena and theatre tour with Lemar on March 22, 2007, in Gretna Green's Famous Blacksmith's following her concert at the SECC in Glasgow. Immediately following the Lemar tour, in April 2007 she began a third "House Gigs" tour which led to UKgigs.tv taking interest in filming the home concerts. The first filmed home concert took place in her own Glasgow home on May 21. On May 23, she played a concert in Finchley North London for the Ovarian Cancer Support group. On May 25, she played a home concert for young fashion designer Hannah Marshall in Colchester. Subsequent gigs were scheduled and filmed across the UK in Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, and Edinburgh the week beginning June 10. Scotland's Daily Record featured the Indiana Gregg Home gigs on June 12 along with a contest for Father's Day where contestants could win a home concert for their father by texting or phoning The Daily Record in Scotland. On Wednesday, June 13, The Daily Mirror ran a feature on the front page of the "Your Life" section about Indiana Gregg's house gigs featuring a home concert she did in Clare O'Hagan's front room in support of Ovarian Cancer.[19]

The general awareness at this early stage of her career led to performances in festivals in the UK in summer 2007.[20][21]

On July 22, 2008, Indiana Gregg, instigated a series of e-mails with ThePirateBay.org concerning a perceived copyright violation. Indiana then wrote a lengthy article on the subject of respecting artists' copyrights internationally.[22]

Discography
  • Sweet Things (March 26, 2007, Gr8pop) (Single)
  • Woman at Work (April 2, 2007, Gr8pop) (Album)
  • One of Us (October 8, 2007, Gr8pop) (Single)
  • Sweet Things (November 6, 2007, Gr8pop/Playground Scandinavia)
  • Woman at Work (November 12, 2007, Gr8pop/Playground Scandinavia)
  • Tonight Kool & The Gang(August 2004)[23]

References
  1. "Indiana Gregg: In the mainstream but a long way from the scantily-clad pop singer". Cross Rhythms. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  2. "Daily Express". Daily Express. Glasgow, Scotland. July 19, 2008. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
  3. "C21 News" (7). Glasgow, Scotland: Glasgow Grows Audiences. May 2007. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2008. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. "Kerchoonz". wikipedia.
  5. "Kerchoonz Social Media Network Backs Illegal File-Sharing Legislation". Mi2n.com. Retrieved May 13, 2008.
  6. "Kerchoonz' Answer To Digital Dilemma: Pay The Artist". Kerchoonz. August 18, 2008. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  7. "Kerchoonz Ltd. – Company Check". Company Check. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  8. "Speaking Out: The Time of My Life". British Stammering Association. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2006.
  9. "Following Indiana Gregg Down The Yellow Brick Road". MusicDish.com. Retrieved February 19, 2006.
  10. "This Life: Indiana Gregg finds time to run a music label, bring up a family and go touring on the concert circuit, and says she'd die without music". The Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on June 29, 2008. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  11. "Following Indiana Gregg Down The Yellow Brick Road". MusicDish. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  12. "UK Songwriting Contest 2005 Results". The UK Songwriting Contest. Archived from the original on October 7, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  13. "Something Like Me [Demo Version] by Indiana Gregg on MSN Music". Music.msn.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  14. "Sportside We're Not Just Creating and App, We're Creating a Movement". Tech Round.
  15. "Wedo, Comming Together to Make Life Better". Wedo.
  16. "Indiana Gregg". Tippit Festival.
  17. Bourne, Dianne (December 3, 2005). "Coffee shop show for Indiana". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on April 21, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  18. Greenaway, Heather (April 8, 2007). "Love and Lemarriage for Indiana". Sunday Mail. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  19. "Cancer victims' anthem of hope". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  20. "Kilsyth International Carnival 2007". efestivals.co.uk. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  21. "5th & 6th May 2007". Big in Falkirk. Archived from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  22. "The Pirate Bay: The Sinking Ship…..My Response". IndianaGregg.Blogspot.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2009. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  23. "Kool & The Gang, The Hits Reloaded".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.