Mistin’s
November & December
Newsletter
Happy New Year!
I hope you enjoy the newsletter and please forward it to anyone that you think might want to have a read.
What’s Coming Up?
Tamworth: Yet another countdown. This one, to the largest country music festival in Australia. 2007 will only be my second year in Tamworth and I can’t wait to get there. I’m very excited to say that I have been selected in the top 20 of the Toyota Star Maker competition. This is the largest country music talent quest in Australia. Some previous winners that you may have heard of are Beccy Cole, Travis Collins, Keith Urban and Samantha McClymont. On the 20th of January, all 20 competitors will take to the stage to perform two songs each. These 20 are then narrowed down to a top 5 which are then interviewed. The remaining five compete for first place that same night. What a day! Quite a few people I know have also made the top 20, to include Katrina Burgoine and Tim Farren who are classmates from last year’s College of Country Music.
What’s Been Happenin’?
Some Recent News:
· Down That Road places 2nd in the YELP Songwriting Awards.
· My first single ‘Head Over Heels’ made it’s debut on the Top 100 Country Hit Chart and now sits at #81.
· I placed in the top 10 of the MusicOZ Awards as Best Independent Country Artist.
· My first show in Goulburn was at the Goulburn Workers Club on the 24th of November.
· I was recently featured on John Nuttings ABC program ‘Saturday Night Country’
Down That Road: The second track on my EP is titled ‘Down That Road’. I wrote this song at the 2006 College of Country Music with Jessie Che, who also attended the College. The song came together after three days of effort and a bit of help from our group and group leader Mike McClellan. To our surprise it was selected to be recorded with producer Garth Porter. It was even more of a surprise when I found out several months ago that it was named the 2006 South Australian APRA Song Of The Year as well as placing in the top 5 of the ASA Songwriting Competition in the Australian category.
I’ve just finished filming my very first music video to ‘Down That Road’ which was released as my second single in December 2006. On Saturday the 9th of December the whole video cast and crew headed up to Camden, Sydney for the filming. Our first location was at the ‘Gledwood Homestead and Winery’. We were a little behind schedule because I had a little car trouble (not a very good start to the day). All the crew and actors had a meeting while I was thrown into my first costume and first round of make up. (Until last weekend, I didn’t know that so much makeup and hairspray could be used on one person! It was a remarkable feeling to be highly flammable for 48 hours.) Back to the filming, the homestead has a resident peacock that very much wanted to be in the film clip. He spread his tail feathers and pranced around us for most of the day. Very cool!
From left to right: Jakub, Mistin, Laura and Emily in Camden
during filming of ‘Down That Road’
Photo courtesy of Terry Phillpot
Sunday didn’t start out very well either, but ended on a wonderful high. The day started at 5am when I pranced (like the peacock) or maybe it was more like rolled out of bed and headed over for the first makeup call of the day. Filming was supposed to start at 8am, so to make sure I didn’t get lost and arrive late, I brought along my friend Daniel who was visiting from Alice Sprigs to read the map. Daniel didn’t tell me that being from Alice Springs, he’d never read a map before. So an hour after we were supposed to be there, we arrived. This was after about 20 phone calls, 2 dozen U-Turns, losing my phone in a taxi…and every local driver passing us, shaking their head saying ‘they’re not from around here’ (or at least that’s what I’d like to think they said). I survived the Sydney traffic yet again!
The highlight of the weekend for me was the filming of a scene where I’m singing on the rooftop of the Jive Hotel. The full band was up on a stage with skyscrapers towering above us. A few minutes into the shoot, people started coming out onto the balconies of other buildings, waving and dancing to the music. How cool!
So many people helped make the video shoot happen as seamlessly as it possibly could and I am so appreciative. Especially to Pauline who housed 11 of the crew. It was like a big slumber party. I’ll never forget making this video. Thank you so much to everyone who helped in any way.
Down That Road was released to radio as my second single on December 4th. If you would like to support the song you can call your local community radio station and request it. If you’d like your own copy, the song is available as a free MP3 download from the front page of my website www.mistin.net.
Halloween in Jerrabomberra: Talk about spooky!! Ha-Ha. A few people reading this newsletter may know that I was born in Arizona. Therefore I grew up celebrating Halloween. I was ‘oh so’ disappointed to find out 11 years ago when my family moved to Australia that Australians don’t celebrate Halloween. You guys are missing out! When else do you get to disguise yourself and knock on your neighbors’ doors to get free food?
After briefly stopping by a Halloween party (I was dressed as a superstar…from the movie ‘Superstar’) I headed over to the Jerrabomberra Hotel. Nobody was dressed up! I did have a good night after all despite the lack of festivities. It’s always a good night when Earl has to die…several times. (From Goodbye Earl by the Dixie Chicks, for all you non-Chicks fans.)
Marine Corps Birthday Ball: The United State Marine Corps celebrated their 231st Birthday on the 10th of November. To celebrate, every year they throw a ball. The evening includes an official ceremony, dinner and live entertainment, which is where I come into the picture. This was perhaps the most formal event that I have performed at and I 
was a bit worried that crickets would be the only ones busting any moves on the dance floor. I was wrong! It was a lovely night, and the band looked soo good dressed to the nines. Yes, there were a few gangsta hats, and perhaps a little bling bling. Poor Terry, the drummer, was severely traumatized after being forced to wear a tie until the end of the show J .This was my first ball, and I can’t wait for the next one. Very different from the pub scene!
‘Walk For Life’: The Tumut Cancer Council hosted their annual ‘Walk for Life’ fundraiser. I was lucky enough to be invited to perform for the crowd who were spending 24 hours walking around an oval to raise funds for the Cancer Council. I felt kind of bad watching everyone walk around the oval in the sun as I sang in the shade! The entertainment was happening in the back of a truck facing the oval. It was so great to see everyone supporting such a wonderful cause. What a way to spend a Sunday!
Where You Can Catch Mistin Performing:
You can keep up to date on Mistin’s gigs at:
www.mistin.net/gigs.php
Hope to see you there!
And now, for my monthly quiz! To the left is one of my very first publicity shots. (I know, I know, It’s all in the shoes, right?) Ha-Ha. I’ll be giving away free copies of my EP to anyone who can guess where this photo was taken. I am really on a rock and that is real scenery behind me. Want to give it a shot?
You can enter as many times as you like. Send your guesses to musicalmistin@hotmail.com. Happy guessing!
October’s answer: A lot of people sent in guesses for last month’s quiz but nobody guessed the goat’s name correctly!! (Some pretty cool goat names came through though) Maybe he should be renamed? The goat’s name is…drum roll…Sparky. He lives down the road… or is it ‘down that road’? I can’t remember. Sparky thinks he’s a dog and likes to buck anyone who gets too friendly with ‘Auntie’ Kimmy, our neighbor.
Happy Tunes,
Mistin
