Joel Pelletier
Chamber Pop
The Way Home Media CD9801 (V. 2) - released 31 January 1999

Joel Pelletier is a musician, composer and multimedia artist living in Los Angeles, CA. A pop singer/songwriter with a unique, honest and sometimes humorous point of view on relationships and the world, his lyrics combine the personal with social, historical and ethical topics. His vision of personal pop with strong classical influences deserves a worldwide audience, and his skills as a composer, producer, performer and multimedia artist insure a creative and successful career.

Chamber Pop, his first commercial release, represents 6 years of writing, arranging, recording and producing his original pop/classical hybrid music. Many of these Beatlesque songs fall into the current CHR/Pop-AAA-Hot AC format (esp. What Are You Now, Lie To Me, Same to You, Birthday Song and Not Afraid of the End), with some of the more acoustic/classically arranged material walking the line between those formats and NAC/Smooth Jazz-Classical Crossover formats (Rather Have You, Wall Inside, 20th Century, Touch, Sword and Never Be the Same). With stylistic influences including pop, rock, folk and classical music, Joelıs accessible melodies and lyrics form a unique modern hybrid with some of his more adventurous arrangements. Besides the Beatles influences, many have mentioned Crowded House, Sting, Paul Simon, Joe Jackson, Bruce Cockburn, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne and Leonard Cohen as recording artists with similar stylistic approaches to writing and performing.

The 12-song Chamber Pop CD, recorded and mastered at some of Los Angeles top and legendary recording studios, is an Enhanced CD with an additional 10-language CD-ROM, playable on any MAC or Window computer. The CD-ROM section of the CD features Joelıs original animations, videos, illustrations and music scores, as well as all lyrics and credits from Chamber Pop in 10 languages - Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish and Swedish. The international style of the project, along with the multi-language presentations, enable Joel to offer his music to a worldwide audience. The CD is available worldwide from many websites, including his own extensive site, www.joelp.org (featured in November 1998 on The CBS Evening News). National and international distribution is pending, and the artist plans to be touring regionally and nationally be late 1999.

Raised in Massachusetts, Joel received a degree in Music Composition from The Hartt School of Music at The University of Hartford, while playing in bands at night. In Los Angeles since 1988, he has been a vocalist, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist/pianist, Chapman Stick player, composer, arranger and musical director for many bands and ensembles, including his own. He is also active as a "sideline musician," appearing in films and TV shows including Star Trek Voyager, Jim Carey's "The Man In The Moon", Family Matters, Celine Dion Special (CBS), INK, Fame LA, Murphy Brown and Columbo.

His band includes Chuck Crowe on guitars and backing vocals and Joe Lizama on drums and percussion (Joe has been the live drummer for Johnny Mathis for the last 15 years). He regularly performs with his band and a string quartet made up of some of LA's finest session and live performers, including Marci Dicterow, Eric Gorfain, Kristen Autry, and Jimbo and Nika Ross. Joel performs regularly in Southern California with his ensemble, consisting of his band and a string section. He is endorsed by or in artist's programs with HARTKE SYSTEMS, STEINBERGER SOUND, THOMASTIC-INFELD and LABELLA STRINGS, QUINTUS COMPOSITE INSTRUMENTS, EASTERN ACOUSTIC WORKS, MONSTER CABLES and EMG PICKUPS.

For promo/interview info contact:
The Way Home Media/Music (BMI)
Box 1842, Hollywood, CA 90078 USA
phone: 818-373-7511 fax: 818-373-7512
email: joelp@joelp.com, website: http://www.joelp.com