Allie Moss Single a hit for new BT Campaign
aaamusic | On 08, Oct 2010
“When I heard it was going to be in a BT advert I was stunned,” says Allie Moss of her winsome, acoustic pop tune “Corner,” now in heavy rotation in the UK and Ireland as the soundtrack to an attention-getting BT Infinity spot. “Someone contacted me on Facebook about it, and four days later it was on the air. It goes without saying that I’m thrilled … and still slightly in shock.”
In one of those rare, successful meetings of art and commerce, the song has started to climb the UK charts – before promo, press, radio play or online marketing has kicked in. In a thoroughly contemporary twist, a great many of the sales have come via Shazam – with the public holding up their iPhones and PDA’s to the TV screen, to discover the song and Allie’s music. Currently “Corner” is at 61 in the midweek UK Singles Chart and climbing, Number 1 on the Indie Breakthrough chart, and on the singles front page on iTunes.
The exquisitely art-directed ad – in which fibre optics illuminate the familiar BT family, frolicking kids, dancing urbanites and assorted animals to illustrate BT’s new fibre optic broadband service BT Infinity – has piqued public and music-industry curiosity about Moss, whose lovely pipes and plangent chords lend the images an emotional kick.
“When I wrote the song,” says the native of Long Branch, New Jersey, “it was about the idea that sometimes, when you’re braving a difficult situation instead of fighting it, you just need someone to hold your hand and help you get through. It’s saying to a friend: Take my hand and we’ll get through it together.”
The compassion of “Corner” – which has also been heard on the ABC series Brothers and Sisters – is evident in much of the singer-songwriter’s work. A version of the track was first released in 2009 as part of the seven-song EP Passerby, produced by Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown); now the celebrated song is slated for official release on October 11, concurrent with the digital album. The physical release will be in January 2011, a deluxe edition with bonus tracks and video.
Moss played UK and European dates with troubadour Josh Ritter in May 2010, before playing two key gigs in London with appearances in at the ASCAP showcase at a packed Regal Rooms, and two very special performances at the top of the BT Tower. With the album’s digital release date brought forward, a tour has been booked for Allie and she’ll be playing select UK dates and media appearances from November 15th-December 1st.
These live sets deepened the impression already made by “Corner.” Her emotionally naked solo performances have upped Moss’ popularity with the pop faithful, as the comments accompanying various live videos of that song, as well as “Dig With Me,” “Let It Go,” “Melancholy Astronautic Man” and other live favourites on YouTube (“angel’s voice”; “one of the purest voices on earth”; “simply amazing”) attest.
Though her reputation is just starting to go wide, Moss is no newcomer; she picked up the guitar at age 16, after an injury sidelined her athletic pursuits. “By the time I learned five chords, I was ready to start writing songs,” she recalls. “It became like an addiction. I’d always been able to sing as a kid, but it wasn’t until I played guitar – and could create something out of nothing – that music became my dream.”
She’s nurtured that dream ever since; still, the mass recognition from the BT ad is a new experience for a New Jersey girl who identifies herself on her own website as someone who “makes sandwiches.” But there’s little doubt that the added exposure will bring Allie Moss out of the “Corner” and into the mainstream.
