The New York Optimist
December 2008
"Combining high-tech with high artistry, Jillian Ann is a web icon and model
who has gained international acclaim as one of the Internet age's most
successful indie musicians. Her last album release generated more then 50
million search requests on the P2P networks, and her 2007 album release
promises to establish her as one of the 21st Century's most Innovative acts." -
Bravo Entertainment
"I like to give the audience a feeling of empowerment while expressing the
ability to confront preconceived notions, defined parameters, contrived
obstacles and offer a musically creative example of how energy can be used to
overcome, liberate and persevere" - Jillian Ann
"While she seems to have been compared with artists like Sopor Aeternus,
Portishead… I would link some of her influences with Bjork! I just feel the
same fascination to explore the limits of different styles and create an own
sound. That sound combines neo-classical elements together with pop
refinement while her vocals are also evoking the whispering style of Bjork.
This is an encouraging production that certainly deserves some attention!" –
Side Line Magazine
The short Bio
Jiliian Ann is a talent of multiple disciplines who got her start with humble
beginnings. Her early life was one of Home Schooling, with an emphasis on
Art and Music, and week-ends at Church. The formality of those structures
was balanced out by the woods behind her house where Jillian was free to
roam, letting her spirit soar on the wings of her unleashed imagination.
But the bright lights of the Big City beckoned to her, and at the soonest
opportunity, Jillian took flight towards those lights. First to New York, then to
Los Angeles, Paris, London and Milan as she became caught up in the high
velocity world of high fashion and haute couture. Jilllian quickly discovered
she had 'the look' that photographers were after and found work as model and
muse to fashion and glamour photographers and skirted the edge of the Art
House avant garde with shows and performances in numerous galleries.
However, the mercurial girl was not satisfied to stay in the world of
photography and Fine Art forever. Branching into film, and then into music,
Jillian opened up whole new levels of her talent and creative energies as she
expressed herself as an actress and a singer.
Teaming up with David Kirby, a kindred spirit, she created Elucido and set to
work recording her first album, an EP called 'The Fallen'. Inspired by the
underground Rave scene and warehouse parties she encountered in Atlanta as
well as artists as diverse as Beethoven to Portishead, 'The Fallen' was later
expanded into a full album. At the same time, Jillian and David started
recording 'Beta', a larger, more ambitious project; a theme album designed to
take the listener on a journey through ethereal soundscapes and emotions and
to serve as inspiration for creation or for meditation. Inspired by artists like
Boards of Canada, Thievery Corporation and Enigma 'Beta' was full of relaxing
sounds perfect for either making out or simply just chilling. David and Jillian's
creative paths diverged after this, and 'Beta' would be their last project together.
With Elucido now defunct, Jillian Ann concentrated further on modelling and
acting. With a home studio in Brooklyn built from money made through
numerous gigs, she went to work on 'Neverland', an album designed and
inspired by the streets of New York, heartbreak over the end of a deep love,
and the outbreak of war in Iraq. Moody and eccentric with a fusion of goth
and classical, industrial, electronic and IDM 'Neverland' was Jillian's first solo
album. She filled it with songs that were stories from a soul still a bit shy about
coming out from behind the walls of her past into a mad world, told with a
voice that was shy yet raw.
Next came 'Eden'. Working in collaboration with Chris James aka. Purity
Control, Jillian crafted a lush but dark canopy of beats and soundscapes that
blended glitch, dub, IDM and electronica into a tight little EP.
Her hard work paid off in 2003 with a grant from the New York Foundation
for the Arts, as well as a Grammy pre-nomination in the Best New Artist
category. 2003 also saw 'Neverland' get 50 million search requests in 9 months
on P2P. In addition, Jillian's modelling now included print and runway work
for L'oreal, Toni & Guy, Be Be, Versace and Chanel, and by 2004, FHM
magazine featured her in their annual 'Hot' list. Soon she was shooting
commercials in Japan for Nintendo, appearing in a music video with Moby and
was a panelist at the Global Entertainment & Media Summit on the topic
'Artists in a Digital Age'.
A big break-out year for Jillian Ann was 2006, which saw the young artist
performing at Ultra Festival with Kevens at several venues across the country.
As well, Jillian's own site was receiving between 10-50 million hits each month
and was ranked in the top 20 of electronica sites. At this time Jillian began to
garner interest from numerous record labels.
In 2007 Jillian began collaborating with Resurrector of Heavyweight Dub
Champion when she hired the talented artist to produce her show for that
year's Honda Ski Tour. Working together, the pair discovered a mutual interest
in each other's music and decided to form Liberation Movement.
A hybrid of sounds comparable to Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails, and
Portishead, Liberation Movement is a result of the mixture of Jillian Ann's
vocals and composition with Resurrector's deep beats, tribal grooves and
production and is the perfect balance between the two artists' energies.
Touring along the West Coast and as far inland as Colorado, the duo quickly
earned a core fanbase. This led to Resurrector inviting Jillian Ann to join
Heavyweight Dub Champion as a guest vocalist, performing music from
Liberation Movement in front of crowds as large as 10,000 people.
Jillian and Resurrector's mutual interests in music soon grew to include mutual
feelings towards each other and the pair were engaged in early 2007, with
marriage following .. Honeymooning in South East Asia, Jillian Ann returned
relaxed and refreshed to complete work on her latest two projects; 'Punk
Meditations' and 'Everything Else'.
Due in '08, 'Punk Meditations' is an album inspired by 10 days of silence and
fasting, a year devoid of love-making and a desire to meditate. Using
unconventional forms ranging from vocal samples to white noise along with
drums, strings, piano and keyboards Jillian set out to sculpt a soundscape that
both inspired and expanded the Mind, Body, and Soul with the knowledge that
amidst the Chaos, there is always Love.
Numerous requests from friends and fans for an album of simple piano work
has brought about 'Everything Else', also due in '08. A stripped-down album of
piano, strings and soundscapes to inspire the mind to dream and create, Jillian
Ann describes 'Everything Else' as an album "about all the things I have never
spoken of, stories that I have never found the words to tell. 'Everything Else' is
about all those things we long to say or express and cannot find the words for,
all the things we long to share but fear the consequences -this album is about
those things which haunt us, yet inspire us; our ghosts, angels and demons,
lovers and muses, the life and death, loves and lusts that both rapture our inner
mind and release it."
2008 also saw Jillian Ann receive another grant from the New Yok Foundation
for the Arts, which she will be using to complete her next album, coming in
'09. Tentatively entitled 'Cover' it will consist of music inspired by the Beat
Poets and the movements of the '60s, as well as current feelings of freedom
slowly being eroded behind our backs in these dark times. One track from the
album, 'King of Solitude', has received considerable interest from Sony/BMG.
Now living in California, Jillian Ann has been learning how to live a greener life
and learning to push the boundaries of her music, life and creations. As well,
Jillian and her partner are working on Liberation Movement's debut album, due
out in the Spring of 2009, and touring with Heavyweight Dub Champion up
and down the West Coast and throughout the Midwest.


JillianAnn333@Gmail.com
www.JillianAnn.com
www.JillianAnnModel.com
jillianann.livejournal.com
www.Myspace.com/JillianAnn33
www.modelmayhem.com/JillianAnn
www.onemodelplace.com/JillianAnn
Jillian Ann's past albums include
BETA
The Fallen
Eden
Neverland
Jillian has four upcoming albums
Punk Meditations
Everything Else
Hunt the Darkness &
Liberation with Resurrector from
Heavyweight Dub Champion
Get into the life of Jillian, Take a "peek" into her diary.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008  

Adapt or------

I should be sleeping
But I returned to my old home
and despite the fact that my life seems to be going well, and things are all unfolding
like magic. I am seeing things which cause me to pause and to dig and search. But
the truth seems elusive, conflicting stories, conflicting news, from the mainstream
to the depths of the conspiracy world, I have been glancing collecting connecting
reflecting. Then adding in the stories from people across the country, the globe on
the streets and then what I am seeing with my own eyes.

What I am seeing now, in the big picture is enough to blow my mind which has
been blown in so many ways already.It can handle it, and this, for this is expected.
but walking down my beloved streets I see store fronts closing all over, bars,
coffee shops, I see and hear of thousands losing homes, jobs, I see the
government spending billions of dollars we don't have which will have a
consequence which will hurt th
e middle class even more then the recent losses.
Systems...

We have been programmed to believe in them, to worship them to work for them,
these systems are not based on human rights, and often can be more sadistic then
the most intense experience I ever encountered involving sadism. These systems
were and have been built not to sustain, not to support the earth, humanity, human
rights, much less health, love, peace, and nature. Rather they have been built or
have become consumed and created a world that thinks consuming in our purpose,
is our God, is all there is.....
Contact the publisher
Model & Musician: Jillian Ann
MJ WEBER
Henry Ohello
Justin Hyte
Daren SF photo
Daren Sf Photo
Cherrystone
Daren Sf Photo
Efren H
Billy Sheahan
Caitlin Bellah
Becker
photo credits in bold
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