Amplifier

09.01.07

Engagement of Yulia Townsend & Glyn MacLean

In bringing our lives closer together, we hope to further inspire people towards self love, the love of others and to encourage people to embrace their unique and shared life purposes. Yulia and I will knuckle down and write and arrange around 50 songs over the next three months, initially at least, we aim to release via digital downloads and have chosen Amplifier to launch this next phase in Yulia's musical evolution through the single Love Seige.

OUR STATEMENT:

After numerous failed attempts and equally numerous misalignments over the years AND after totally trying to avoid it, I fell in love over Christmas. It can take a lifetime to learn how to "truly" love and perhaps it's only when we find the real things that we should love about ourselves that we are able to love the person who is right for us.

I'm sure we'll write a book about it sometime, but it transpires that after stoically trying to avoid having any feelings for Yulia, it turns out we are each others soul mates, as it were. How does one prove that one has found ones... "soul mate"...? Well, I think it's when you find yourself naturally aligned, naturally sacrificing yourself for the other, when matters of the flesh become irrelevant and when you just know the other person because they are like a version of yourself. It's also when you go through trials and tribulations and in the darkest moment of servitude to their humanity, you find yourself deeply loving them with the virtues listed in 1st Corinthians 13:4 - 8. I found myself being much more patient, kind, without envy, not boasting, not being rude or easily angered, unable to keep records of wrong, rejoicing in the truth, persevering and most of all, forgiving.

Isn't it funny that you can think, "I'm her manager, I must be professional", thinking that integrity lies in keeping it professional and keeping your distance. Only to find that the real integrity lies in finding your true feelings and testing them. You see, at a dinner, Yulia realised I loved her and she actually challenged me, even then I would not reveal I loved her and remained stoic, but it was when she needed words of comfort that I could no longer justify being "distant" if I truly cared. If they (feelings) are real, then the only integrity that exists is in communicating these true feelings, but only after being dutifully tested. I tried ever so much to avoid that feelings based communication only to realize that to not love Yulia would be the greater crime. And so it happens that on 12th Jan we celebrate our engagement in CH CH with Yulia's parents.

In the process of so doing I took this very seriously and sought the approval of all parties involved, meaning the approval of the music publisher, the lawyers, Yulia's parents and so on. It was no easy path I can assure you! It is however a conduct I am very proud of as I have earned her heart and her hand in marriage based on nothing more than who I am as a real every day person and not based on what is in it for each other.

I guess you could draw parallels to Celine Dion and her husband Renee in that there is an age difference. Yulia is 22 and I'm 39. Wisdom knows no such boundaries and Yulia's own life path has been remarkably similar to mine. In fact, we are perfectly aligned in the sense that we share the same sense of vision, mission and values. How important it is to find and be with people with whom we are truly aligned. We have both suffered in some way as children with our fathers and this has shaped our sense of living and giving.

In the months we've been working together we built a strong friendship based on mutual respect. We kept our distance and were both very professional, even respecting each others prior relationships.

We're also both fundamentally Christian's with a love for Jesus and a passion for accepting the viewpoints of other religions. I'm studying the Koran (Quran) right now and aim to also study the Torah this year in order to embrace the commonalities between Christian, Muslim and Judaism. I also hope to similarly explore Bahai, Hindu and Buddhism faiths. Yulia and I are very well studied and we read books all the time, always exploring and hoping to grow in understanding, accepting that humanity has more in common than it has different. I am very, very well studied in terms of Christian faith, having completely worn out no less than four NIV Concordance Bibles, I can quote a great deal from Old and New testament scripture. however that means nothing without love. Love is the most important aspect of anyones humanity. We make no excuse for putting our values first in an age where it is just not cool to have good values, we say to hell with what people think as we make our own way in the world.

Yulia and I are broad minded people and we also study Quantum Physics, String Theory and the "unified theories" along with The Secret, Personal development books along with all the usual books like Celestine Prophecy and so on. We believe that humanity as a whole, is searching to move forward, that there is one God and a common sense of purpose amongst many people. We believe that music can communicate what words can not and that music and creativity can bring people together. Lets see where that takes us.

In bringing our lives closer together, we hope to further inspire people towards self love, the love of others and encourage people to embrace their unique and shared life purposes. Yulia and I will knuckle down and write and arrange around 50 songs over the next three months, some are already well on the way to fruition and will appear in top 40 charts in various places, having already been signed to EMI UK through various artists and so on, so it's an exciting year for us in 2008.

Far from being too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, we are practical and developing our artistry commercially for international release, often bypassing NZ music industry focussing on UK and international markets.

I remain as genuine as ever in my pursuit of inspiring, encouraging and empowering people (KIWI's) through creativity. However, now we have a much more powerful vehicle with the beautiful and versatile voice and song writing skills of Yulia Townsend and the Piano/Keyboard, Arranging/producing and song writing skills of Glyn MacLean. We've given ourselves permission to be truly creative and explore our perception of the world through our values.

Watch this space.

Love to you all

Glyn & Yulia