Tyler Hilton & Kate Voegele

Kate Voegele and Tyler Hilton share a common bond:  they were both cast members on the hugely successful series “One Tree Hill”.  Both artists have spent the better part of 2015 thru 2017 traveling the globe, selling out venues in Europe, Canada and the US, garnering great reviews from both critics and fans.  

On social media, the duo has a strong following, including 360,000 followers on Instagram and over a half million “likes” on Facebook.

About Kate Voegele:

Hailing from a little suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Kate Voegele first picked up a guitar at age 15. Influenced by the rock and roll history of the city and her father’s songwriting, she began to pen her own songs from the minute she learned to play her first three chords. Voegele embraced this newfound passion, recording her first EP during her freshman year of high school, and soon after landed gigs alongside artists like Counting Crows and John Mayer. Those shows quickly led to attention from labels in New York and LA, and Kate spent the majority of her high school years diving headfirst into a career in music.

After high school, Voegele decided to attend Ohio’s Miami University, where she quickly found new inspiration, and simultaneously found herself uploading song after song to her MySpace page. Kate managed to get the attention of the social network’s founder, Tom Anderson, and just a few weeks later, she became MySpace Records’ first signed artist. In spring of 2007 Voegele finished recording her first full-length record with Marshall Altman in LA and decided to swap her text books in for a tour bus and a year full of shows throughout the US.

Over the next couple of years Voegele toured the country playing hundreds of shows. While traveling through LA, Kate auditioned on a whim and would eventually land the role of Mia Catalano on the CW show, “One Tree Hill.” What was supposed to be a two-episode run became a four-season recurrence, and Kate found herself performing eleven of her original songs to millions of viewers over the course of the show. Record sales jumped dramatically after Voegele’s first appearance on the show, and she was subsequently upstreamed to Interscope Records in January of 2008. At this point Kate toured internationally with artists like Natasha Bedingfield and Jordin Sparks. She split her time between the road and the television set, and released a second full-length, “A Fine Mess,” in spring of 2009.

After her first two records sold over 500,000 units, Voegele signed with ATO Records in 2011, releasing “Gravity Happens.” She spent the next two years continuing to tour the US and Europe, writing new songs from airplane window seats and ultimately embarking on a new chapter in her life.

In fall of 2013, Voegele moved her home base from LA to Nashville, getting back to her songwriter roots. Being in Music City has given Kate the opportunity to work with writers like Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose, and open up opportunities to work with the country’s best creative talents. In November ’14 Voegele released the “Wild Card” EP, which debuted in the top 10 on the top pop albums chart on iTunes, and currently carries a 5-star review across all distribution outlets. For more information go to www.katevoegele.com.

About Tyler Hilton:

Tyler Hilton was singing and playing in coffee houses as a 15 year old, when a chance encounter with Los Angeles radio personalities Mark and Brian from KLOS led to multiple appearances on their radio show, live concert dates with the duo, and national exposure. He released his first album independently shortly thereafter, which led to major label interest and eventually signing to Maverick/ Warner Records where he released “The Tracks of Tyler Hilton” which garnered two singles on the Billboard Top 40 charts. While on tour promoting the album, Tyler was cast as his child hood hero Elvis Presley in “Walk the Line” where he worked with T-Bone Burnett on the soundtrack, and for which he received a gold record.

An opportunity to sing on TV’s “One Tree Hill,” a notorious breeding ground for new musical talent, led to a series long run, several appearances on MTV’s “TRL” with the cast, and a national tour with Gavin DeGraw and Michelle Branch who also sang on the show. Taylor Swift admitted to being a fan, and asked Tyler to star in her music video “Tear Drops on My Guitar” which became a huge crossover hit. The two appeared together live several times and later Tyler appeared via interactive video on her stadium tour. The independent comedy “Charlie Bartlett” followed with Robert Downey Jr. and Anton Yelchin and where Tyler met his wife, Megan Park, who was also in the film.

Tyler moved to Nashville where he began exploring his family’s country roots and made several records with well known producers including Dan Huff, Nathan Chapman, Matt Serletic, and John Alagia. Sadly, none of these records saw the light of day as staff and roster upheaval plagued Warner Brother Records, and eventually led to Tyler’s departure. One of these unreleased songs made their way to Joe Cocker who recorded it on his final album. Tyler then started his own label, Hooptie Tune Records, and released “Forget the Storm” the following year. It became the first record of Tyler’s to gain international success and led to several European tours and a new fervent fan base. His follow up, the mellow folky country album “Indian Summer,” was recorded live in studio with a bluegrass band including his uncle, Tommy Hilton, on guitar. While recording, Tyler landed a role in Halle Berry’s “Extant” on CBS and continued to film the show over the course of its two season run, touring and filming the holiday movie “Christmas on the Bayou” with Randy Travis, Ed Asner, and “One Tree Hill” alum, Hilarie Burton, for which he also recorded the single “One Foot in the Bayou”.

Following the end of “Extant,” Tyler landed a starring role in ABCs sitcom, “The Fluffy Shop” alongside Gabrielle Iglesias where he played a character named after himself but, ultimately, the show wasn’t picked up. Tyler’s currently based in Los Angeles where he’s working on a new album and gearing up for a Winter 2016-2017 US Tour.

Wakey Wakey

“There was a point in my childhood when I thought I was going to be a preacher,” says Michael Grubbs, the frontman-songwriter behind Brooklyn’s Wakey Wakey. “I was going to have a congregation, talk to them about life, about how to get by. I guess this is kind of my pulpit now.”

Ever since his single “War Sweater” jettisoned him into stardom five years ago (thanks to a game-changing plug on One Tree Hill), the indie-pop singer has built a following that’s as passionate as his compositions. His fans have bought 45,000 copies of his self-released debut, the exquisitely tortured Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said the Last Time I Saw You. They’ve permanently inked his lyrics on their bodies (you can find them on display at the “W!W! Tattoos!!!” Pinterest board). And in the ultimate gesture of support, they crowd-funded his self-released follow-up album, the fittingly titled Salvation—and even exceeded the goal by 141 percent.

“My whole childhood was like boot camp for music,” he says, fondly. “When we were growing up, I think my mom wanted me and my sister to be The Carpenters.”

A fan of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, Grubbs majored in theater during college, but upon graduating, high-tailed it to Manhattan to chase his dream of being a serious actor..” He soon quit to pursue a more storied New York occupation: struggling-artist bartender. After 10 years of playing bars and open mics—notably, as a regular during the anti-folk scene at the East Village’s Sidewalk Café—he simply gave up. Around that time, he’d penned songs such as the sweeping “War Sweater,” mostly out of necessity. “I wrote stuff that was so syncopated, so aggressive, because half the time you played in bars, people wouldn’t shut up,” he says, laughing.  In May 2009, the creator of One Tree Hill discovered Wakey Wakey through a friend. He placed “War Sweater” on a season 6 episode of the show and cast Grubbs in a small role as a bartender.  “Literally a day after ‘War Sweater’ debuted on One Tree Hill, it was Number 13 on the iTunes chart,” marvels Grubbs. “Being an artist feels like you’re in a marathon. You see what you think is the end, but you realize it’s the starting line. You run, and you run, and you run. I was so beaten down. But…here I am!”

What he has now is vantage. On his upcoming third album, Wakey Wakey combines experience and lessons learned through the filter of the emotionally-political landscape of being an independent artist, pushing the bounds on his music to push the bounds on this exploration of self.