1999 - Scraps of paper

After developing strong feelings for one of her close friends and then discovering that he was in fact gay, Ellectrika felt the need to express her emotions on paper. Song writing had always been one of her biggest passions and so two strong ideas flowed straight out from her heart. They were entitled "Just Like an Angel" and "Fly much higher". As ideas, they were to remain for the next three years (on the faded scraps of paper that she still has today).

Fast Forward to 2001

Ellectrika had been paying visits to a recording studio in France where her debut single "I Used To Be A Star" was being produced with French House label BS Traxx. During the summer she had been given an instrumental demo by the French producer, Galaxy who asked if she would be interested in writing around the funky house track. Loving the track, she agreed and inspired in a field of sunflowers nearby the recording studio, she remembered those old lyrics, her old flame and wrote a melody around the track, of which a demo was recorded in October 2001.

Although the result was a much liked record, a problem arose which prevented the project from going any further. Phil (Galaxy) had in fact produced his instrumental from a sample of another famous track. As a brand new record label neither BS Traxx (nor Galaxy) had the clout to get sample clearance for the record. Galaxy lost interest in the project and once again, the idea remained just an idea.

Orienta-Rhythm

BS Traxx had originally contacted Japanese production team, Orienta-Rhythm to create a remix for the original. Now that the original was obsolete, Orienta-Rhythm offered to produce a new main version in their trademark soulful style. Without consistent project management and the label's priorities set on its first release "I Used 2 B A Star" (Ellectrika's debut), Orienta-Rhythm were left to work on the project in their stride. It took a whopping 2 years for them to deliver the goods and yet a further year for them to produce the fully orchestrated master. Was it worth the wait? Of course it was!

Now armed with a killer Soulful House single, BS Traxx commissioned remixes from Fabrice Protec and the Italian Mix2Inside label. It was now 2005 and a release date was set for 2006.

Down To Business

This song's 7 year musical journey had gone from a scrap of paper in Hampshire UK, to a recording studio in Chateaubernard France, to a Production team in Tokyo Japan, and back again - but not without attributing some differences of opinion along the way. Tension had been increasing between Artist and Label over a multitude of issues. Up until now Ellectrika had only been thinking artistically (not financially) and the initial release date gave light to a series of business problems. Firstly, due to the highly informal friendship between Artist and BS Traxx director, there was no written contract. As a result, disagreements over anything from promotion to publishing rights were inevitable. There was now no way that the record could be released any time soon before all the issues were ironed out - but who was going to do the ironing?

Elation Music Management

By a complete chance, a record producer by the name of Maz Lunden had just laid down the foundations of his new entertainment company and was looking for artists to manage. He came across a "Sunflower" demo on the Internet in November 2005, he got in contact and after a meeting, agreed to manage Ellectrika. With a corporate approach, Elation took care of every detail, negotiated between Artist, Label and the producers and created a contract which all parties were happy with. In fact, Maz liked the record so much he sub-licensed it from BS Traxx and agreed to release it on Elation Records.

A Happy Ending

With two labels working to promote the same project, "Sunflower" has now become a two-volume single...