For Immediate Release

Prog Ensemble Exovex Releases Debut Album Radio Silence Featuring Members of Porcupine Tree, NIN, Devo, Sting & Steely Dan

Greenville, SC – The Prog community is buzzing with excitement about the new release by progressive rock ensemble Exovex featuring members of Porcupine Tree, NIN, Devo, Sting & Steely Dan! Radio Silence is the project’s debut album and features Josh Freese (NIN, A Perfect Circle, Devo) and Keith Carlock (Sting, John Meyer, Steely Dan) on drums. The album also showcases two members of Porcupine Tree, Gavin Harrison on drums and Richard Barbieri on keyboards and synthesizers. All songs on the album were written, performed and produced by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dale Simmons.

Two and half years in the making Radio Silence was completed in February of this year. The album’s musical style reflects progressive rock icons of the past while staying firmly rooted in the modern art rock genre. There is a broad range of influences in the music, but echoes of Pink Floyd and David Gilmour can be heard in several of the album’s tracks. The cover of the album features stunning works of art by Babak Tafreshi, an award winning photographer working with National Geographic, Sky&Telescope Magazine, and the European Southern Observatory.

Says Simmons about the concept behind the album, “The central theme of the album focuses on the downward spiral and ultimate demise of a man due to the psychological and physical effects of a long term, self-imposed isolation. The songs on the album are a sequence of events, which document his thought processes and eventual deterioration. They are snapshots in time that speak to personal circumstances that drive us to make life-changing decisions…both good and bad. The central figure in the story chooses a solitary life in a remote location only to find that he is unable to come back when he realizes his needs are still unfulfilled by his seclusion. Although the storyline of Radio Silence is set in the near future, it is roughly based on the life events of Sibond Alleman, a recluse, who lived in residence at Chateau d’Uriage in 14th century France. A great deal of the emotional content and lyrics for the album comes from my time spent as an expatriate in Europe and living in Chateau d’Uriage.”

In regards to the guest artists, Simmons explains, “In each case, I asked the guys to do whatever they thought would best serve the song, I gave them complete creative control over their contributions to the recording. These musicians are amazing artists, and I don’t think they would have delivered the great performances that they did had I tried to control the process more. That unknown creative variable was critical for me because it made the effort a true collaboration. Chance, chaos and the unknown can produce beautiful results if you can just let it happen. That’s more difficult than it sounds”.

Radio Silence has an approximate running time of 44 minutes and was mixed by multi-platinum award winning mixing engineer Steve Hardy. The album was mastered by Andy VanDette, at Engine Room Audio, in New York. Andy’s mastering credits are too numerous to list here, but they include David Bowie, Deep Purple, Rush, Beastie Boys, Porcupine Tree (In Absentia and Deadwing) as well as Steven Wilson’s first solo project Insurgentes.

About the Exovex sound, Simmons comments, “I have a broad range of influences with great appreciation for the work of artists like Steven Wilson, Peter Gabriel and David Gilmour. There are certainly degrees of influence by those artists in my music…some greater than others”. Simmons is particularly influenced by the progressive rock icon Pink Floyd and reverently reflects Gilmouresque melody and phrasing as a guitarist. As singer, songwriter, guitarist and front man for several bands since the early nineties, Simmons covered a wide spectrum of musical genres ranging from progressive art rock to jazz and funk.

The concept of an “unknown creative variable” led Simmons to conceive the name Exovex. A known function in mathematics can be written as f(x) (pronounced “F of X”). In the f(x) scenario, you know exactly what will happen to the resulting number because that function (f) is defined. On the other hand, if you have x(x) (pronounced “X of X” or “Exovex”) you are dealing with an unknown function (x) so you have no idea what the resulting output will be.

The Exovex debut album Radio Silence was released in March 2015 on iTunes and BitTorrent as a downloadable Bundle. A special limited CD edition is now available exclusively through http://www.exovex.com.

Buy the Limited Edition CD (begins shipping April 15th)
http://www.dalesimmons.com/store-2/?model_number=XOX0001

For more information:
http://www.dalesimmons.com
http://www.exovex.com (redirects to http://www.dalesimmons.com)

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com

For Immediate Release

Rock Ensemble Exovex Featuring Members of King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, NIN and Devo To Release Debut CD Fall 2014

Greenville, South Carolina – Exovex, arguably one of the most talked about prog ensembles of 2014, prepares to release its debut album ‘Radio Silence’, featuring Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) and Josh Freese (NIN, A Perfect Circle, Devo, The Vandals) on drums. The new project reflects progressive rock icons of the past while staying firmly rooted in the modern art rock genre. To date, two tracks have been released under the Exovex name: “Daylight” and “Seeker’s Prayer”. The tracks are pre-released versions of songs that will appear on ‘Radio Silence’, which is set for an October 2014 release. Both tracks are available for free download on the band’s website.

Exovex is the creation of South Carolina singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dale Simmons. Simmons explains, “The central theme of ‘Radio Silence’ addresses the psychological effects of long term, self-imposed isolation and detachment. It also speaks to personal circumstances that drive us to make life-changing decisions…both good and bad.”

About the Exovex sound, Simmons comments, “I have great appreciation for the work of artists like Steven Wilson, Peter Gabriel and David Gilmour. There are certainly degrees of influence by those artists in my music…some greater than others”. He is particularly influenced by the progressive rock icon Pink Floyd and reverently reflects Gilmouresque melody and phrasing as a guitarist.

As singer, songwriter, guitarist and front man for several bands since the early nineties, Simmons covered a wide spectrum of musical genres ranging from progressive art rock to jazz and funk. The most notable was the South Carolina-based band, Furious Styles. Several songs from their 1997 self-titled debut went into rotation on East Coast commercial radio stations. Polygram Records (now merged with Universal Music Group) took notice, and was working on a recording deal until creative differences caused the band’s demise in 1998.

In 1999 Simmons moved to Europe and would spend the next seven years, refining his songwriting and music production skills. He built a modest studio in his apartment at Chateau d’Uriage (a 13th century castle in the Rhône-Alpes region of France) and began experimenting with sound design. Although only one CD release (‘No Real Direction’) resulted from the expatriate effort, the experience would have a lasting impact on his songwriting and artistic vision. Simmons overdubbed all instruments for ‘No Real Direction’ with the exception of drums, enlisting Chilean drummer Cristian Perez (Patti Labelle) as percussionist. Simmons and Perez co-produced and mixed the project in Perez’s Strasbourg, France studio.

Repatriating to the United States in 2006, Simmons built a new studio and began working on a series of new compositions – some of which would eventually become ‘Radio Silence’.

In 2011, he recruited world-class drummers Gavin Harrison and Josh Freese to play on his new solo recording project. “I asked Gavin and Josh to do whatever they thought would best serve the track, I gave them complete creative control over their contribution to the recording,” Simmons comments. “That unknown creative variable was critical for me because it made the effort a true collaboration. Chance, chaos and the unknown can produce beautiful results if you can just let it happen. That’s more difficult than it sounds”.

This concept of an “unknown creative variable” led Simmons to conceive the name Exovex. He explains, “The name of the project is a simple mathematical function, “x(x)” (pronounced “X of X” or “Exovex”). It’s impossible to know the resulting outcome of the function because the function is undefined. It could be anything.”

The Exovex debut album ‘Radio Silence’ is scheduled for October 2014 release. A special limited CD edition (1000 signed copies) will be made available exclusively through the band’s website.
Subscribe for Exovex email updates at http://www.exovex.com, and stay tuned for the debut album ‘Radio Silence’.

Music Downloads:
http://www.exovex.com (redirects to http://www.dalesimmons.com)
http://www.dalesimmons.com

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com