New York, NY (Top40 Charts) D.D. VERNI & THE CADILLAC BAND today unveil "Olivia…that's Who!" the second single and video from their debut album LET'S RATTLE, due out
September 17 (via MVD). As with the album's lead single and video "Cadillac Man," the new single underlines the high-energy original swingin' and rockin' big-band sound from D.D. VERNI, the songwriter/founding member/bassist for heavy metal pioneers Overkill who've sold millions of records worldwide and have released 19 studio albums dating back to their 1985 debut album. Listen to the song, which D.D. wrote about his daughter
Olivia at Top40-Charts.com.
"While the song is about my daughter, I think it speaks to anyone who has a bubbly outgoing spirited girl in their life," says D.D. "It could be your mom, wife or girlfriend. And I think the drawings capture the spirit of the song. The song lyric says "There's always enough love to go round" and I think that's the spirit of the song and the drawings. It's about how a girl like that in your life can brighten your day and make things always seem OK." Read more quotes about the song and video below.
LET'S RATTLE is the result of VERNI's longtime dream of recording a big band album, as his love for the sound dates back many years. The New Jersey-based artist began by writing a fantastic collection of soon-to-be big band classics. Next he recruited longtime
Brian Setzer Orchestra upright bassist, John "Spazz" Hatton, to do horn arrangements and play upright bass, while bass player D.D. switched things up playing some guitar on the album. Then D.D. brought in the LA based horn section from Phat Cat Swinger to play the horns and added
Brian Setzer Orchestra drummer and current
Doobie Brothers member, Tony Pia. Add jazz pianist Dave Moscoe and Hot Rod guitarist Damian Bacci, and you have a star-studded line-up of big band greatness that made this album shake and swing.
With songs like "Cadillac Man," "Shake It Swing It" and "Olivia…that's Who!" the album features 13 tracks (nine originals and four covers), was produced by VERNI and mixed by Greg Reely (Coldplay,
Sarah McLachlan, Overkill), and recorded in Los Angeles and New Jersey.
In addition, D.D. VERNI & THE CADILLAC BAND have confirmed their first-ever live show, Saturday, October 30 show at the Vogel (Count Basie Center for the Arts) in Red Bank, NJ, the same venue where they filmed the video for "Cadillac Man," the album's first single. Tickets are on sale now.
Q&A WITH D.D. VERNI ABOUT THE "OLIVIA…THAT'S WHO!": SINGLE + VIDEO:
-For the "Olivia…that's who!" video, what inspired you to have a video created with storyboard illustrations?
That was actually my wife Lisa. She thought a storyboard following the lyrics etc. would be a cool idea for a video for that song. I had worked on many projects with an illustrator named Gery Nible for years and she suggested I call him. So I reached out and he was very excited about the idea. We went back and forth on a bunch of ideas and character development, what people should look like and the style/tone for it. I would get sketches from Gery and I would send to Lisa and she would send to
Olivia hahaha…so it was a fun project to work on. I really liked her storyboard idea, where it felt more like sketches rather than finished inked and color drawings. I am a comic book fan, as well as Pixar/Disney animated film fan. I have a ton of collectable toys and such from movies, so this was great chance to do a little of that with my own song. I had done an animated video a few records back and had so much fun doing it and this one was similar. Fun to see it come to life.
-How do you feel the video captures the spirit of the song?
While the song is about my daughter, I think it speaks to anyone who has a bubbly outgoing spirited girl in their life. It could be your mom, wife or girlfriend. And I think the drawings capture the spirit of the song. The song lyric says "There's always enough love to go round" and I think that's the spirit of the song and the drawings. It's about how a girl like that in your life can brighten your day and make things always seem OK.
-Who directed the video and who did the illustrations?
The video was edited by Steven Bartashev who was the editor on the
Cadillac Man video we just put out. I was really happy with how that turned out so I contacted him about doing this one as well. The illustrations were done by Gery Nible. As I said Gery is a friend who I have worked with on a bunch of projects before. We've done album art, t-shirts, all kinds of stuff. He has a similar DNA to mine as far as stuff we like and so the process of doing this was pretty easy. He really ran with the idea, I thought we could get by on a dozen or so drawings and I think it wound up more like 60+ . He even sent a video kind of walking us through it and his ideas which made it very easy to visualize what it would be like in the end.
-You've said that your second daughter
Olivia told you: "'where's my song!' and then on her 16th birthday I wrote and recorded "Olivia…that's who!" What does
Olivia think of her song and the video (if she's seen it)?
She loves it! For years she would run around and tell people she has her own theme song. Now she has a video to go along with it.
The track listing for LET'S RATTLE is:
Cadillac Man
Shake It Swing It
Give Me Your Number
Olivia…That's Who!
Powerhouse
Cold Hearted Woman
School Of Rock n' Roll
L-O-V-E
Just Say U Love Me
Manhattan Baby
Close Your Eyes and Dream
Ain't That A Kick In The Head
The One Who Loves You
