After years of pursuing a career as a musical artist, Ace Young first flashed onto the national scene as a finalist on season 5 of American Idol. Persistent weekly exposure to some 40 million viewers made Ace one of the most recognizable male faces ever to appear on America's most widely watched television program.
Following Idol, Ace traveled the country performing to 60 sold out arenas across the nation. With the help of Idol, the Tour, and his own work ethic, Ace was in position to fulfill his dream of a career in music. While interest from labels followed, they were pressing Ace for immediate release to capitalize on his Idol fame, but Ace felt that rushing to market would not allow him to produce the album he envisioned. Since he was performing 6 or more gigs a month with his band across the US for income, he could afford to be patient.
Next, Ace then made a short list of producers and songwriters that he respected and hoped to collaborate with and began reaching out to them. Incredibly, he was able to arrange a meeting with the first person on his list, Desmond Child, producer and songwriter behind hits from many artists Ace really admired. After two meetings Ace and Desmond agreed to share the album cost equally and form a partnership making Desmond the Executive Producer.
Together they came up with a plan to produce an album that molded the breadth of Ace's musical influences into one record where each song would stand alone - a Rock/R&B/Funk collaboration drawing from Ace's experiences and observations of life.
It became clear that this album was a throwback to methods and processes involved in creating the great albums of the seventies and eighties: amazing live Rock and R&B musicians, a 30 piece string section, live horns and talented contemporary producers. Over sixteen months this adventure took Ace from Los Angeles to New York, Florida, Nashville and Stockholm, Sweden to write with Desmond Child and other renowned hit-makers including Andreas Carlsson. Also included is a song written specifically for Ace by Diane Warren. As the album was coming to completion Ace was rewarded with a Grammy nomination for his co-write on Daughtry's triple platinum hit single "It's Not Over". As Ace wrote on seven of the songs on his own album, this nomination further validated the authenticity of his talent.
In the process of completing the album independently, Ace built a strong seasoned executive team of music professionals. He has now partnered with PAZZO Music to release his album through Fontana/Universal in June 2008. Many music industry insiders believe that Ace and his team may have created a model for the future of the recording industry.
