OK, here goes!
I've emailed Andy to get his final OK on our push to get Ryan Seacrest to check out To Have Heroes. I asked him Yea or Nay, do you want us to try and get this started for you and his reply this morning was "Please do what you can to help "the cause". That sounds like a great idea! so Yea....thanks Kathy!" How can you not love this guy!?
So I've done some homework on how to get hold of Ryan and this is the best I've come up with,..any of you that are smarter and have more info than I do, I'll gladly defer to your superior knowledge! First Ryan has an online website www.ryanseacrest.com and you can send him an email from there, but the site didn't look too up-to-date to me, so I don't know if he's really maintaining it these days. The email address there is "email@ryanseacrest.com". I don't suppose it hurts to send one there. If he doesn't get it there we'll try his other page at KIIS-FM. The radio station has an online networking site that you can join that's a lot like a myspace page. You set up a profile and then go to Ryan's page @ http://vipnetwork.kiisfm.com/ryan, ask him to add you as a friend. Once you're added, which is automatic, you can then send him messages. It's simple to do, but I had to fib when I signed up, because when you input your address they will only take California as your home state. Oh well, it's all for a good cause, right? I kindof had some fun with it to be honest, I downloaded a picture of sesame streets cookie monster as my avatar My sign in name is kentuckykat there too, so you can find me if you want. There is also a place on his page that you can click to chat live.
So let's get this ball rolling, Ladies and Gents, Cubs and Cougars, Cookies and Word Nerds! Let's see if we can get Andy some much deserved attention!

kentuckykat:

I just read your post. I really don't know anything about Andy except that he is a dear friend of David's and they played together in the band.

What I saw of Andy in that little interview when he was in LA - he looked great.

Is some of his music posted anywhere that I can hear some of it.

Anything i can do to help promote Andy - I will certainly try.

Thanks,
Annette

Hi Annette!

He's on MySpace and he has an amazing voice and song writing ability. http://www.myspace.com/tohaveheroes

He just added me as a friend and vice versa.

BTW, nada yet. I'm dying here but I have other ideas. too if this one doesn't work out for now.

Hey ladies,

I thought that I'd include a copy of the letter that I sent Ryan at his KIIS page, just to give you an idea of what I personally wrote. I hope it doesn't sound too dumb! I want to get his attention not make him think I'm a nutter!

"Hey Ryan!
Are you totally inundated by David Cook fans? I'm a Cookie fan from Canada (not California, I know..I fibbed when I signed up so I could write to you!) and I wanted you to ask him about his buddy Andy Skib. Before Dave came to try out for AI he was in a band in Tulsa called Midwest Kings and Andy was the lead singer, Dave his back-up! Dave left the band to sing solo and record Analog Heart. Andy is now in California trying to get some recognition for his talent and has set up a webpage on MySpace for his project called To Have Heroes. I went to check it out after he was interviewed by some funny/nutty lady at Jay Leno's Tonight Show and she posted it in YouTube. He's an absolutely fabulous singer! We Cookies and Word Nerds at David-Cook.org are trying to promote Andy and get him some much deserved recognition, in hopes that someone with some pull in the industry can get him noticed, and the first person we thought of to try to convince was you! Please check him out at www.myspace.com/ToHaveHeroes and let him know what you think. I'm hoping that you'll hear from lots of us Cookie fans, cause we love us some Andy too! We are OF COURCE also loving us some Ryan Seacrest too!"

What do you guys think?




Please share your other ideas with us! We can certainly do more than one campaign for Andy at a time

kentuckykat:

Thank you for sending me the myspace information. I actually saw it on one of the other messages on this board from you (probably the initial message). I did go up on Andy's Myspace Page and listened to the music that was available and actually did the equivalent of Itunes and brought the songs down to my MP3.

I too requested that Andy add me to his friends list - I let him know that we were glad to get to know him through David and wished him all the best.

This letter you wrote to Ryan is great. I was thinking the same thing - with the People's Hot Batchelors - that David and Ryan are in the same company.

Over the next couple of days, let me get my wording together I too will write Mr. Seacrest.

Since I am here in the NJ/NY area - we really do not experience any of the talent that is in the Mid-West and I am sure there is so much talent out there. It is nice to see a new breed of talent coming onto the scene.

...Annette

Thank you ! Thank you! Thank you!!!

Another email address for Ryan if you don't want to sign up at KIIS for a page to add him. Email him at ryan@kiisfm.com. Let's stuff his mailbox girls!

Andy has a very soothing voice. I almost want to say he sounds like Cat Stevens a little bit.

I just sent an email to that email address. Anything I can do to help 'stuff' ...

Thanks for letting us about about contacting Ryan. I will definitely do so. Andy has a REALLY great voice and great music (I've been listening to him a lot today) and I think he deserves some recognition.

~Steph

bump!

Andy is great. Best 7 bucks I have spent in a while.

Ok I sent off my email!

I kept it short and to the point as much as possible as I'm sure Ryan has very little time to go thru emails. But I think once he gets enough emails about the same subject he'll get the jist. LOL

Hey I just got a reply back....oh lol it was a generic form letter thanking me for contacting Ryan and assuring me it will be read just not to expect a reply.

I sent it to the kissfm email addy by the way.

Definitely.

I sent mine and mentioned that it would be a great story as well.

I swear Andy is such a doll! He has never failed to respond anytime I message him.

He deserves every good thing that comes his way!

I'm on board for helping Andy! I adore him!! I've sent an email to the morning prgram director at Mix 93.3 here in Kansas City. They are good about pointing out new groups and stuff, so I figure it couldn't hurt! Here's what I sent...I hope it doesn't sound stupid!

"Hey all! David Cook fan here, would love to hear more of him!

BUT...I also want to say, I know you guys are great about pointing out new bands and stuff. Please check out David Cooks friend Andy Skib, with his group TO HAVE HERO'S. He is amazing! Great vocals/songwriting/musician! He's been trying to break into the business for years as well (used to be Midwest Kings) and is now working this project. Please check out his music on MySpace "http://www.myspace.com/tohaveheroes." Please...you will NOT regret introducing yourself to him!!"

Thank you! Thanks to all of you for your help with this! Everyone is being so positive and great! Serenity, I think that to write a letter to anyone who could help is NEVER stupid! Go for it all of you! I also added the email address for Ryan on Andy's Myspace page and so people who add comments there will see it too. One of the fans on there told Andy that he should tell Dave that the Word Nerds were cheating on him If this comes off, we can all be proud of ourselves, for helping a great guy get the break he deserves. And the payoff really comes when we get to hear lots more music from Andy! Thanks again, girls, keep it up! And spread the word on here to your friends, OK?

Already have him and DC plastered all over my MS page! He deserves props for great music!

I'll be emailing Ryan in just a bit.

I just hope he will, at the very least, read our emails.

Oh my god, Annette, I love Cat Stevens.
Tomorrow AM I must head back to To Have Heroes to see if I can hear that!

I really like Andy too and would like to help him get the attention his talent deserves.
So you guys think Seacrest is influential? At least he shares the David Cook connection.
I'm in Calif but beyond the range of KIIS. (It's 4am now, so I'll pay closer attention to the Seacrest contact suggestion tomorrow.)

Also very influential is KCRW (Santa Monica and online/podcasts). There's the Morning Becomes Eclectic program (a very big deal) and Today's Top Tune each day (among others). Does anyone have a connection there?

Kat, this is a great idea on getting him known to Ryan. I have already e-mailed my local radio station (hitz.fm) on Andy sometime back. I'm stoked! It's his time to shine too!

I just emailed Ryan.

Here is my email to him:

To: 'ryan@kiisfm.com'
Subject: Wishing you well and Andy Skib

Dear Ryan:

I hope that you are doing well and starting to recover from the recent American Idol journey.

I have to admit, I did not watch much of the initial shows, but I happened to turn it on the week that David Cook sang “Hello” – like so many others, David “pulled me in” and I watched and supported for the reminder of the experience.

David is such a wonderful individual and as we get to know him more and more through his interviewing and his music and what he stands for, it is so easy to embrace him. Looking forward to following him through his journey which I am sure will exist for many years to come.

During this experience, I have had the opportunity to meet via the video technology, David’s dear friend Andy Skib.

Someone introduced Andy’s Myspace page to me http://www.myspace.com/tohaveheroes and when I went up on the page, I got an opportunity to listen to some of his music.

I was wondering if you could please log into Andy’s site and listen to his music to see if there would be opportunity to expand the public’s knowledge of this individual.

I am from the NJ/NY Area and I am so excited that there is so much talent out there – and it is great to see new blood coming into the music scene.

BTW, I always enjoy when you are hosting various shows, and I enjoyed that both you and David made the Hottest Batchelor List. Both David and you deserve to be a part of that and so much more.

Thank you Ryan.

Take good care,


Annette Ciattarelli

Woody Jo, could you find out if there is a program director for these programs that you could email? I think that any person that any of you think could have some influence with "the powers that be" either in LA, since Andy's out there right now or in your own area could be of use. After all if we can get a grassroots campaign going across the country, word of mouth might do the trick too. I suppose you never know who knows who or has what kind of connections! I chose Ryan because he seems to know everyone (including Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller, don't forget) If he takes the time to read even some of these emails, who knows what he might do. Like before, I would like to reiterate that anyone who has any other ideas for Andy, please throw them out there! This is just what I came up with. If you have any email addresses for any new artist development people at any of the music labels, for instance, let us all know and we'll email them too! I did ask Andy if he had a particular label he'd like to sign with, so we could write them, and he said any label would be great...So if there's any other ideas floating around out there....Share!

Kentuckycat:
I have an an email for the Business Development Manager at 95.5 WPLJ here in NY. I had a conversation with him back in January regarding stuff for work - let me email him to see if he could help me get Andy's music in front of the right people.

Also, I have someone who has a music production company in Florida - that I can share Andy's music with.

I'll try to send these notes out over the next few days.

...A

If you have a MySpace page, send a post with the THH widget to your peeps, telling them to give a listen!

Annette, your my hero!
This is exactly what I was hoping people would do! Please let us know what kind of feedback you get if any. I've asked Andy to let us know if he gets any response too, so we know that someone is listening. Thanks to all of you for your attention to this crazy scheme You're the best!
Love ya! Kathy

I am personally going to send a regular email to the two individuals I have - I had a working relationship with one and the other is a friend. Families have known each other for years. i will link Andy's myspace page to the email so that they can hear the music.

Bump!

Sorry, I've been away from here for a few days.

I suspect that most radio stations are limited to released music, so we may have a much better chance with these efforts after the To Have Heroes EP is released. That should be soon.

But I will dig around KCRW's website in the meantime and see if I can figure out who does the Today's Top Tune (podcast). Lots of people subscribe to that and hear their daily selection.

(BTW, I happened to send an email to Andy Sunday and he wrote right back. What a nice guy he is!)

I was looking for another thread about Andy tonight, because I read someplace (a few days ago) that some of our members had purchased songs from his myspace page. I haven't downloaded his songs yet; I was waiting to buy his EP or to learn what is the quality of music you buy from snocap/myspace.

Does anyone know who has bought them so I can ask about the quality (128 or 256 kbps?) and the snocap store?

Sabra has pimped Andy and MWK on this board so much that I went to check them out... holy freakin cow, I LOVE their music! I have one of Andy's songs up on my myspace, and I have promises from the husbrat that I can buy whatever I want.

There are also codes to get his music store and banners put up on your pages, and once I get a few minutes (I'm on my way out the door for work right now), I will be.

I'm all about getting this music heard!

Ah yes, there are banners in Andy's MySpace profile that I've used one of them in another message board as my siggie banner, to raise awareness of his music.

I bought THH music from Snocap last week, and the quality is great - just like anything I have bought from iTunes. How do I figure out if it's 128 or 256 kbps? I am in idiot when it comes to this stuff. I just hit PLAY and hope for the best...

And Andy is AWESOME at replying to comments and messages on Myspace. I was shocked actually at how quickly he responds!

Hey everyone, Andy has a fan video on his To Have Heroes page of himself singing "reasons" at a bar or something that the fan downloaded to youtube. It's on his myspacepage, or it's available at youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxLrR6XISMQ

There's actually a couple of videos up at youtube of him singing now, though the one mentioned above is better if not too clear. There is a couple others of him singing "reasons" & "undertow' at a different venue, not as close up and the crowd at the bar is really noisy. It makes me wish I'd been there to smack a few around and tell them to listen up, cause this guys great and could be really big one day!! But after giving the computer hell instead, I calmed down and decided to share with you all instead, who appreciates him. I'm going to post this in a seperate thread so it will get the attention of those who've already been reading this thread, so please excuse the double post if you're reading this twice!

I know there are a couple other KC peeps out there for Andy, so here are some of the local Kansas City (Metro) stations, if anyone is wanting to email them about promoting him and To Have Heros. I have mainly been focusing on Mix 93.

Mix 93.3
Program Director (Ponch)

98.9 The Rock
Program Director (Bob Edwards)

98.1 KUDL

Hope that helps!

Andy also has a Facebook page. He was on line when I invited him to be a friend and he accepted me immediately. Then we exchanged a couple of emails - he's awesome.

Let's also try to send an email to Indie 103.1 (KDLD). Especially if you live in Southern California. That station WILL start playing music brought to them by fans, or if a song/video goes "viral" on youtube. Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk" and "Mansard Roof" did that and they play those two songs all the time now.
www.indie1031.fm

I hate to sound dumb.. but what can I do? What exactly does it mean to have a video "go viral"? I know that I've heard the term used before, but not really in the know as to what it entails! I think that you guys are really doing what Andy asked for by going to these stations, so YAY to you! I live in , a tiny (think miniscule!) town in Canada so I don't know what I can do to help. I feel kind of left out actually! I've wanted so much to help get something started for him and now I feel like it's all passing me by Oh well, all that matters is that he gets heard, right?

Scott, I added him to my facebook too, but I have a fear of making a nusience of myself, so I haven't really done much with him there. It seems to be much more of a personal site and I would think it would be good to have a private place since this is getting all so crazy for him. So it is there, and he's still a sweetheart about adding and talking to us, but I myself am still going to give him a little space on that site. But I do realize that there are some who don't have myspace and DO have facebook that might want to give that a try! I only opened a MS page myself originally to get on to David's friends list (sad isn't it? ) and use my facebook page much more than MS.



Oh yeah, I guess the only real update if anyone is reading this that hasn't followed the OTHER Andy thread is that Andy in a blog on his MySpace page reqested that all of us email our local radio stations and ask them to play his music.
link to his blog here
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...logID=410631952