Hi guys!

I'm new here and I'm trying to get my head around all of this. I'm a jazz saxophonist and pop pianist and I'm currently in the process of finishing the debut album for singer songwriter Maria McAteer. We've produced and written the songs together. I'm going to set up a squeeze page and autoresponder emails.

I've been thinking about this with the story. I know for a fact that a good story is enticing and it is usually the thing you share about an artist to friends. "Did you know Tom Waits screamed into a pillow each night in order to get that voice..." - whether it's true or not. My problem, which I guess is a luxurious one, is that I feel that Maria and I have so many different stories we could tell and I don't know which one to choose. Or do we have to choose?

1. We are engaged to get married and found each other through our music. I moved from Stockholm, Sweden to Brighton, UK to be with her and we wrote one of the songs on the album the very first time she visited me in Stockholm. The entire album could be called our love story.

2. Maria's father was a jazz saxophone player and calypso pianist/singer from Trinidad who came to the UK in the 50's. He was encouraged by the Duchess Pannonica Koenigswarter (who has many jazz tunes named after her) to go to New York where he played with Thelonius Monk and Sonny Rollins. His name was Al Timothy and he met Maria's Irish mother in London and they fell in love. However, it didn't work out and her mother moved away to Newcastle, in the north of England when Maria was only 3 years old and she grew up without knowing her father. She wrote on the of the songs on the album, "The Quiet Girl" when she was 9 years old, longing for her father. When she was 20 she moved down to London for acting studies, looked him up and discovered she has 3 brothers (one played with Terence Trent D'Arby and was a member of Massive Attack). She reconciled her mother and father but then he passed away. There are more things to this story really.

3. Maria had an Irish mother and as an hyperactive child her she convinced her to try Irish dancing. After learning to hold her arms to her sides she quickly became very good. She was the only mixed race girl at the time to compete and always got diverse results from the judges. She did manage to win the All England and All Ireland competitions and ranked 6 in the world. Later, whilst living in Cologne, Germany she set up her own irish dance troup and toured the country with two shows. Several of the songs on the album has Irish influences.

There are more things than this as well. I'm, as I said both a jazz saxophone player who has released a couple of jazz/world records as well as a pop piano player currently on tour in Brazil as "Benny" in ABBA the Show. Now, as I'm writing this I see that it is a goldmine. The question is however: Where do we start? What should be the main story? How have you guys done it? Everyone has several angles to their life they could choose from. Is it confusing for people if you tell them too much?

Thanks for any help and discussions.

Björn