Ferras 'Aliens and Rainbows' album

Capitol Music Group debut artist Ferras has confirmed a month-long series of tour dates opening for fellow singer-songwriter Ryan Cabrera. Ferras will join Cabrera starting June 1st in Baltimore, MD through June 24th in Milwaukee, WI (full schedule below). The lead single “Hollywood’s Not America” from Ferras’ debut album Aliens & Rainbows (Capitol Records) became an instant hit after it played as the exit song during the Hollywood elimination phase of television ratings champ American Idol, early in the spring.

Over 240,000 digital downloads have been sold online during the song’s eleven-week Billboard Hot 100 chart run, and “Hollywood’s Not America” has also hit the Top 20 in the adult-targeted Hot AC radio format.

“I love playing live shows and having the opportunity to share my music with people,” said Ferras, who acknowledges Elton John, David Bowie, Queen and The Beatles among the central influences of his music. “I’m excited to be a part of Ryan Cabrera’s tour.”

Since the April 1st release of Aliens & Rainbows, produced by The Matrix (Avril Lavigne, Jason Mraz, Korn) with Gary Clark (Natalie Imbruglia, Lloyd Cole), the 25 year old Ferras has been a constant presence on the live stage and television screen. He has toured nationally with A Fine Frenzy, headlined a high school tour in conjunction with Nickelodeon’s The N, and performed numerous radio shows, including an electrifying performance in front of 17,000 at New York’s Z-100 “Zootopia” show, along with The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney, New Kids On The Block and Sara Bareilles. Among his many regional and national television appearances are performing slots on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Today show as well as CBS’ The Early Show. In addition to the dates with Ryan Cabrera, Ferras will continue his series of radio promos (schedule below), and will appear at Lollapalooza on August 2nd, and at the Halsted Market Days Festival on August 10th in Chicago.

tour dates
June 1 Baltimore, MD Rams Head
June 3 Alexandria, VA The Birchmere
June 4 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
June 5 NYC, NY Highline Ballroom
June 6 Lancaster, PA Chameleon Club
June 8 Hartford, CT Webster Theatre
June 9 Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
June 11 Salt Lake City, UT TBD
June 12 Pittsburgh, PA Rex Theatre
*June 14 Syracuse, NY WBHT Radio Show
* June 15 Wilkes Barre, PA WBHT Radio Show
June 17 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
June 18 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
* June 19 Nashville, TN WRVW Radio Show
June 20 Chicago, IL House of Blues
* June 21 Albany, NY WFLY Radio Show
June 23 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theatre
June 24 Milwaukee, WI The Rave
* June 28 Kansas City, MO KMXV Radio Show
*August 2 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza
*August 10 Chicago, IL Halstead Market Days

* indicates radio or festival shows

biography
Ferras approaches a big pop hook the way a Formula One driver approaches a straightaway — he floors it. Take the payoff of “Aliens and Rainbows,” the psychological and stylistic centerpiece of the 25-year-old artist’s album of the same name. Symphonic strings are cranked to the max, a vocal chorale summons up a celestial ahhh-ahhh, an electric guitar spins out a quicksilver figure and Ferras’ own elegant piano underscores the grandeur as he sings, “I would rather be with aliens and rainbows / On the other side of the universe / And finally...” — here he slides up into a goosebump-inducing falsetto — “This is me / This is my coup de grâce / My reality.” That urgent, stirring passage is a quintessential example of a risk-taking artist holding nothing back — which is what makes this audacious newcomer such a blast of fresh air.

Produced by The Matrix (Avril Lavigne, Jason Mraz, Korn) with their frequent collaborator Gary Clark (Natalie Imbruglia, Lloyd Cole), Aliens and Rainbows contains undisguised references to the greats — David Bowie on the anthemic “Liberation Day” and the widescreen rocker “Something About You,” Elton John on the narrative opus “Hollywood’s Not America” and Stevie Wonder on the silky ballad “Soul Rock.” Other songs isolate his own hot-wired psyche: “Dear God” is a prayer of desperation and defiance (“If you’re so full of grace / Then send it / On down”), while the sensual “Take My Lips” is a jaw-dropping expression of emboldened vulnerability.

“Because this was my first record, I decided to draw on the artists who’ve inspired me — Elton John, Bowie, Queen, the Beatles — because of the huge impact they’ve had on my own music,” Ferras explains. “But I also wanted to make a record that’s personal and tells a story, and every song is either something I’ve experienced, something I hope to experience or something I can really connect with. These aren’t just random pop songs— they come from a real place; they explore feelings.” Ferras comes by all of these classic influences organically. Growing up in a small town in southern Illinois, separated by a vast cultural and emotional chasm from his surroundings and contemporaries, the youngster turned to radio and the Internet for companionship and validation, conjuring up a world of his own to inhabit.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been rescued by songs on the radio. “When I was 5, right after my parents got divorced, my dad, who’s from Jordan, told me he was taking me to Disneyland,” Ferras recalls. “On the way to the airport, we stopped at a Wal-Mart and he bought me a little Casio keyboard so that I’d have something to do on the flight. When we got on the plane, I began to realize that he was kidnapping me and taking me back to Jordan. I spent three months in a big house in Amman, and his family treated me lovingly, but I missed my mom, and I somehow connected the songs I heard on the radio with my feelings. One day I picked up the Casio, made up a melody and wrote a song for my mom, bizarre as that sounds. When Iplayed it for her over the phone that night, she cried. Three months later, she rescued me and brought me back home.”

But Illinois didn’t feel like home to this self-described alien either, and he continued to take refuge in music. “I was attracted to choruses, melodies and expression,” he says, “especially the emotionality of ballads.” Also around this time, after Ferras got it in his head that he belonged in California, he somehow managed to convince his mom to make the move, and they relocated to Santa Barbara. As soon as he could drive, Ferras was regularly bombing down the 101 to L.A., on a mission to get a record deal.

There were nibbles, but nothing substantive — “They’d always say the same thing: ‘You’re great, but we don’t know what to do with you,’” he says. Then a ray of hope entered in the unlikely form of Limp Bizkit leader Fred Durst, who was so blown away by Ferras’ songs and singing that he put the wheels in motion to sign the kid to his Interscope imprint. But when Durst’s label deal began to unravel, Ferras was crushed, despite the fact that his benefactor vowed to get him signed to a major. At that point, Ferras did what any self-respecting prodigy would do — he applied to Boston’s Berklee School of Music, which accepted him despite the fact that he couldn’t read a note of music. But the academic life didn’t suit Ferras, so he was elated to find out that Durst had set up an audition with Capitol Music Group Chairman/CEO, Jason Flom, during spring break.

“We met Jason at the Beverly Hills Hotel,” says Ferras, “and I played him two songs on the piano in the lobby. Right away he seemed different — he was actually listening rather than messing with his BlackBerry. Then Fred told me to play ‘Take My Lips,’ this ballad I’d written when I was just 17, and when I finished, to my amazement, Jason said, ‘That’s brilliant — why didn’t you play it first?’ Four days later I was in New York doing solo demos, and he signed me right after that.” “From the start, all I wanted to do was write and sing songs that would make people feel something,” he says, “and I’m grateful to have gotten the opportunity to be who I am. At this point I can truthfully say that I’m proud of what I’ve done, the person I’m becoming and the journey that led me to this moment.”

It’s already been quite a journey for Ferras, and after listening to this album, you get the distinct impression the adventure is just beginning.

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Tracklisting

Ferras - Aliens and Rainbows