Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

Following the enormous worldwide success of his recent hit single, “Too Close”, as featured in the multi-million dollar Microsoft internet explorer ad, Alex Clare has his new single “Treading Water”, released on August 13th through Island Records. Sales of “Too Close”(1.5 million and counting) exploded in all territories that carried the advert and that looks set to continue as the campaign is now being extended in new countries including France and Brazil. Both “Too Close” and “Treading Water” singles are taken from Alex’s hugely acclaimed debut album ”The Lateness Of The Hour”. “Too Close” peaked at #4 in the UK chart where it remained in the top 10 for 5 weeks, selling over 400,000 copies in the UK alone, while the accompanying video racked up over 12 million views. The album, released to widespread acclaim a year earlier, has now shipped 60,000 in the UK while Alex also recently made a triumphant return to the UK live stage with a triumphant sell-out gig at the Scala in London

Just over a month ago the career of Alex Clare, whose debut album “The Lateness Of The Hour” was released to widespread critical acclaim in July last year, had reached a bit of a standstill. Alex had returned to working for a friend as an estate agent and had put his music career he figured out his next move. In the meantime he kept receiving emails asking if his single “Too Close” could be used in a Microsoft ad. Eventually he agreed and thought no more of it. Fast forward to now and “Too Close” has turned into a bona-fide worldwide hit single flying high in the charts in the US and the UK and topping the charts in Germany - with his full album peaking at #2 on the iTunes chart there last week. Microsoft poured millions of dollars into a massive US ad campaign with 60-second spots broadcast during prime-time TV shows and in cinemas before major titles like "The Hunger Games." TV viewers and cinema-goers began Shazam-ing the song and searching for the track on YouTube and i

New Island Records signing Alex Clare, whose Diplo & Switch produced tracks “Up All Night” and “Too Close” have generated a genuine buzz across radio, press and the blogosphere, has his eagerly awaited debut album ”The Lateness Of The Hour” released on July 11th. Diplo & Switch, who are very particular about who they work with, are on fire at the moment, with Switch producing 7 tracks on the new Beyonce album while Diplo has produced the next Chris Brown single feat. Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne, which is shaping up to be a monster. In addition Beyonce has sampled Major Lazer “Pon The Floor” for her comeback single. “The Lateness Of The Hour” was recorded in New Orleans, Jamaica, Los Angeles and London and was produced in the main by Diplo & Switch, with Eg White (Adele) adding a couple of tunes. Featured tracks on the 11 song set which introduce Clare as an exciting new talent very difficult to pin down, include “Relax My Beloved”, Hummingbird”, “Whispering”, “Hands Are

Alex Clare's tour runs throughout July and his next single ‘Treading Water’ is out on July 4th. Also checkout Alex’s rendition of the Prince classic ‘When Doves Cry’ http://www.myspace.com/alexclare Alex Clare - Recent Posts

New Island Records signing Alex Clare, whose Diplo & Switch produced debut single  “Up All Night” has generated a genuine buzz across radio, press and the blogosphere, follows up with the April 18th release of his new single “ Too Close ” . The single, produced once again by Diplo & Switch, is taken from Clare’s forthcoming debut album which will be released in the summer. The 25 year old Golders Green native recently previewed tracks from the album during a couple of incendiary live shows and will be putting in more live shows in the coming months. Clare writes and sings his own songs but is not a singer songwriter, not in the traditional sense anyway. After playing in a succession of London bands and following a brief career as a chef, too many long hours and too many sliced fingers, Alex decided to go it alone and started writing songs and demoing them himself. Things happened very quickly from there. The demos found their way to Island Records and two weeks later a deal was