Selwyn

SELWYN www.selwyn.tv
ONE WAY
Australia's #1 champion of R&B is back and determined to officially put the country's growing urban music scene on the global map with his new sophomore album, 'One Way'!!

More accomplished and diverse than his debut 'Meant To Be', 'One Way' is the culmination of three years dedicated hard work spent honing his songwriting, developing his sound on the live front, and expanding his artistic direction.

Featuring an arsenal of the hottest writers and producers around including Paul Rein (Christina Aguilera's "Come On Over"), Skillz & Fingaz (Big Brovaz), Red Zone (Mya, Blu Cantrell), garage/R&B guru K-Warren (Christina Aguilera, Samantha Mumba), long-time collaborator Audius and innovative locals Israel and BNA, Selwyn has flexed his skills beyond performing on 'One Way', co-writing and co-producing many of the tracks.

The ambitious 12-track collection merges his effortless, soulful vocals with a myriad of fresh, dynamic beats and gritty attitude for a world-class urban album with a distinctive flavour all of its own. Revolving around themes of love, relationships and destiny, the album kicks off with the killer hooks and deluxe pop sensibilities of opening track "Satisfactual" before gliding seamlessly into the sexy garage and soul grind of "Breathe" and his well-perfected silky croon on the sublime acoustic flavoured "Hey Babe".

While the club anthem "Boomin" and the irresistible groove of "Rockstar" pack a serious punch and notch things up a gear, the seductive and mischievous odes to ladies everywhere on slow jams "Cutie" and "Could Be You" bring the pace back down for smooth cruising and round out a complete and varied listening experience. He even gives nods on the way to his heritage on the brilliant African-inspired, harmonica-loaded "King Of The Jungle" and "Just Let Me Know" - one his personal favourites - with its traditional South African pop (aka Kwaito) vibe.

One spin of this album and there's no doubt Selwyn has come into his own as an artist, stepping up to the plate and delivering a sophisticated album loaded with vitality and personality that's going to easily stand up against anything produced by his international peers.
CD Album

Satisfactual

Say Hey Baby

Boomin'

Breathe

Showbiz

Cutie

King Of The Jungle

Just Let Me Know

It Could Be You

Lil Miss Thang

Hero

Definition Of Music
Release Date: 01.11.04
Catalogue: 5176402000
At a time when the Australian music scene was flooded with stock-standard rock and pop acts, a fresh-faced young guy named Selwyn from Perth (via Durban, South Africa) took a gamble and decided to fulfil his dreams to bring his music - a hybrid of US and UK influenced R&B and pop, with a hip hop twist - to the ears of the world.

His leap of faith into a career making the music he was passionate about paid off and Selwyn captured Australia's attention with his youthful charisma, sharp dance moves and fresh new sound that dared to explore what, until then, had been a previously unchartered genre in Australia. It was a remarkable crossover success story: Selwyn was barely out of his teens when he stormed to the top of the charts with his 2002 debut album, "Meant To Be", an album that went on to achieve Gold sales, produce two smash hit Gold singles with "Buggin' Me and "Way Love's Supposed To Be", one Platinum single with "Rich Girl" and make serious chart impact in South Africa and New Zealand.

Now, finally, Australia's #1 champion of R&B is back and determined to officially put the country's growing urban music scene on the global map with his new sophomore album. More accomplished and diverse than his debut, "One Way" is the culmination of three years dedicated hard work spent honing his songwriting, developing his sound on the live front, and expanding his artistic direction.

"I'm so proud of this album. It is definitely a change, a growth, but not so much that it's difficult to digest. Of course I'm very proud of the first album, I wouldn't change anything about it. I still have more to learn and grow, but I'm back and I'm ready to go."

While he proved that he had a sensational and powerful voice on "Meant To Be", it's here on his dynamite second album that Selwyn has fully realised his potential. This is a self-realisation of the 22-year-old R&B sensation's immense talents; it's hard not to be impressed by his shining newfound confidence and maturity, both stylistically and personally. And although he remains resolute to keep raising the bar and evolving, this is the sound of an artist truly comfortable in his own skin.

"Although my fan base has grown, I'm still a young cat, so I'm still singing about what I do and how my life is," he says. "I wanted to pretty much stick with being the Selwyn people know, adding exciting and different things as I grow with the music.

"I take everything seriously, but not to the point where I'm like, 'my song didn't reach number one,' or 'why isn't radio playing my song?' I'm just me; if you like me that's great and if you don't, you don't."

It's this positive attitude and faith in what he does that has ensured his main focus has always stayed on the music. In preparation for the album, Selwyn travelled to the UK to immerse himself in the R&B scene and narrow down a crew of the hottest urban producers and writers around to help him perfect his cutting-edge vision for the album. Skillz & Fingaz (Big Brovaz), Red Zone (Mya, Blu Cantrell), garage/R&B guru K-Warren (Christina Aguilera, Samantha Mumba), long-time collaborator Audius and innovative locals Israel and BNA, all made the grade and added their specialised touches to the tracks, the complimentary combination of their musical wizardry taking the album's multi-dimensional sound to whole new level.

Selwyn also teamed up with writer Paul Rein (Christina Aguilera's "Come On Over") on the first single, "Boomin". One of the edgier cuts on the album, the infectious and anthemic "Boomin", with its thumping bass riff, is a fitting example of just how far the young artist has progressed with his craftsmanship.

The album also marks a reunion renowned producer Audius, who co-wrote his previous hit singles "Buggin Me" and "Way Life Is Supposed To Be". Audius not only put his inimitable production stamp on some of Selwyn's new tracks, but also co-wrote several with him.

"I co-wrote a lot of the tracks on this album, but I'm still growing in my writing abilities," Selwyn says. "I'm always studying. I'm constantly listening to music, watching awards shows, reading, and learning. I understand our audience here in Australia wants to see something original in R&B music, and I'm going to do my best to give them that."

With "One Way", he's more than delivered. The ambitious 12-track collection merges his effortless, soulful vocals with a myriad of fresh, dynamic beats and gritty attitude for a world-class urban album with a distinctive flavour all of its own. Revolving around themes of love, relationships and destiny, the album kicks off with the killer hooks and deluxe pop sensibilities of opening track "Satisfactual" before gliding seamlessly into the sexy garage and soul grind of "Breathe" and his well-perfected silky croon on the sublime acoustic flavoured "Hey Babe".

While the club anthem "Boomin" and the irresistible groove of "Rockstar" pack a serious punch and notch things up a gear, the seductive and mischievous odes to ladies everywhere on slow jams "Cutie" and "Could Be You" bring the pace back down for smooth cruising and round out a complete and varied listening experience. He even gives nods on the way to his heritage on the brilliant African-inspired, harmonica-loaded "King Of The Jungle" and "Just Let Me Know" - one his personal favourites - with its traditional South African pop (aka Kwaito) vibe.

One spin of this album and there's no doubt Selwyn has come into his own as an artist, stepping up to the plate and delivering a sophisticated album loaded with vitality and personality that's going to easily stand up against anything produced by his international peers. As he sings "Can't see nothing wrong with having fun", you can't help but believe that he's in his element on this album and revelling in every second of doing what he was born to do.

"I'm living my life and loving it," he agrees. "Life is short and I'm making the most of every opportunity I get."

SELWYN Track By Track

"Satisfactual"

I heard "Satisfactual" when I was in the UK on a songwriting trip; it was written and produced by a UK writer/producer named K-Warren, who I hooked up with. I really dig this song because it has both strong pop and R&B sensibilities. It's one of the main tracks on the album that creates its diversity.

"Say Hey Babe"

Audius did an amazing job on the production of this track. I'm not producing music yet, but I'm looking forward to learning how. This song is basically about a relationship I was in during the last album; I had a girlfriend on and off for about four years. It didn't end too well - she did wrong and so did I - and it finished for the wrong reasons. So this song comes from that.

"Boomin"

"'Boomin' is a very different track and that's why I like it so much. We had Israel (Melbourne-based writer/producer/singer) come in and beef up the production on it and it came out sounding awesome. Standing out from all other young male R&B singers out now is something very important to me, and I think ?Boomin' just has a very different feel. There's a lot of really good artists coming through at the moment and I want to make sure I stay ahead of the pack."

"Breathe"

"This is a wicked cut written by C. Tricky Stewart and his Red Zone production crew (a crew who have produced for B2K, Mya, and Blu Cantrell). I heard this track ages ago. Red Zone actually heard my first album, Meant To Be, and let it be known through the record label they wanted to submit a track for my second album. So we chose both this one and ?Could Be You.'"

"Rockstar"

"This is such a hot track. I wrote this in my hotel room while I was staying in the UK. I just thought about the line, ?There's no business like show business,' and went from there, including my own experiences. Big Brovaz's Skillz did the production. I wanted to do a straightforward track that people could sing along to). It's also saying a big thank you to everyone who has supported me so far. It's definitely from the heart."

"Cutie"

"I did this track with some up and coming producers called BNA from Sydney. It's one of the first songs I ever wrote ? so I thought of the line, ?Cutie in them jeans' way before Ginuwine did! ?Cutie' is definitely one of those R&B jams for the ladies."

"King Of The Jungle"

"I really wanted to go back to my roots, so I wrote ?King Of The Jungle,' and Skillz and Fingaz, who have also worked Lemar, did the production. I want to show people who I am, and being from South Africa is a huge part of me. The beats are African-inspired and I would definitely love to do a video to this one."

"Just Let Me Know"

"I worked with Audius on this one, and he also ended up producing it. It has a little bit of a kwaito (South African urban pop music) feel to it, which I love. In the future I'd love to incorporate more South African sounds into my music."

"Could Be You"

"This is the other song on the album written by Red Zone and produced by Israel. Another jam for the ladies!"

"Lil Miss Thing"

"I did this track with Israel, I think he's so talented and is on his way definitely. He's good, he's different, and he knows exactly what to do because he knows so much about music."

"Hero"

"This track was written with Fingaz in the studio in the UK."

"Definition Of Music'

"This one is from BNA and myself. The idea for this track came from me wanting to write about how music is universal, that there's no definition to it. To be honest, I was never open to other music besides R&B and hip-hop. But now, as I grow and learn more, I'm open to all types of music, like I really love Nickelback, for example. I'm open to melodies and lyrics from all different forms of music now. So now I'm listening to all types of music so I can be different and create my own sound.