How Many Miles To Hollywood?

"How Many Miles To Hollywood?" is the debut album by URAPS Idol 12 winner, Regina Harper. The album was released on July 9th 2012 on CD and digital download via Fusion Records. It received a release in the United States on July 17th. The album was proceeded by the single "American Pie" and debuted at #1 on the albums charts.

The album was re-released in April 2013 with 4 new tracks, including the single "The Pact". The Babylon Edition of the album peaked at #2 on the UK albums charts. Since the release of the Babylon Edition, How Many Miles to Hollywood? has been certified diamond for sales of over one million copies in the United Kingdom alone.

Background
Regina began writing and recording tracks for her debut album in October 2011. She was flown to LA, New York and Miami to work with producers such as Max Martin, Shellback, Deryck Whibley and S*A*M & Sluggo. Harper stated she was working on a "fun, carefree pop-rock album" due for release in spring 2012. Plans were altered when Regina announced her pregnancy and she gave birth to a baby girl on January 1st 2012. During the month of January, demos Regina recorded for the album were accidentaly deleted and she lost a huge chunk of the work she was planning on using for her debut album. She began re-recording the songs as best she could. But Regina began writing new material, stating that she felt a "whirpool of different emotions" while in gestation and felt "inspired to write songs from the heart". She finally announced the release of "American Pie" and the album in May 2012, with both being released in July. All the songs on the album have been recorded since January. The only song known to be from the previous sessions is "Tornado", the B-Side to "American Pie".

Production
The album includes a variety of producers such as Butch Walker and Liam Howe. Regina worked with Butch Walker during the pre-demo-deletion sessions. She worked with him again on a number of tracks after the demo incident, claiming the pair had "great chemistry". She called Walker a "musical genius" and cited him as someone she would love to work with for the rest of her career. When Regina's demos were deleted, she took it as an opportunity to change the sound of the album from pop-rock to sadcore music, with elements of hard rock, country and baroque pop. She started working with Brian Higgins of Xenomania in February 2012 and crafted the tracks "American Pie" and "Pink Blood". After that, Harper worked with Liam Howe, who she called "quiet" but also stated he was "a miracle worker" and new "exactly the sound I wanted". Linda Perry produced the indie-pop number "Chinadoll" and Chris Braide worked on three tracks for the album. Finally, Regina flew out to Los Altos, California to work with American producer Rick Nowels, who produced "Sydney".

Writing, themes and lyrical content
The main theme of the album is feminism and opression, strongly evident in the Liam Howe produced track "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers". The track was inspired by the poem of the same name by Adrienne Rich, an American poet, essayist and feminist who sadly passed away in March 2012. Regina says the track speaks about a girl and her aunt Jennifer, who embrodiers tigers on the firescreen. Regina describes the pair as sneakily self-harming themselves then laughing about it over a cup of tea afterwards, while the uncle remains clueless. Harper says the track takes its own spin on self-harm. She says many people who do cut themselves hide it and but on a brave face and that is the main message behind the song. She claims it is very personal to her and hopes it speaks to people out there who are contemplating self harm. The 'tigers' in the track are also represented as wild and free, but the speaker and her aunt are only represented by their wrists, symbolising their incompleteness. "Cough City" is about a make-believe city where woman gather to prepare for war against dominating males. Regina said that: "We, as humans, cough to get rid of all the bad things inside us. And that's what the women of Cough City do. They try to get rid of everything that could destroy them".

Tracks like "American Pie", "Pink Blood", "Chinadoll" and "Shooting Star" speak about the topic of success and failure in life. "American Pie" and "Pink Blood" speak of Regina's thirst for success as an artist, while "Chinadoll" speaks about failure in life because you can not be who everyone expects you to be. "Shooting Star" is about loosing your way in life and not knowing how to get back.

The more love-orientated tracks include "Sydney", "Your Own Reflection (Echo)", "Key To My Heart" and "Sleeping Pill Polly". "Sydney" speaks of Regina's fear of a lover cheating on her, while "Your Own Reflection (Echo)" is about the breaking point in a relationship where you tell yourself it's over, but deep down you don't want it to be. Similar to "Your Own Reflection (Echo)", "Key To My Heart" is about a relationship which is perhaps about to explode, but it is unclear whose fault it is. Regina touches on the sensitive topic of domestic abuse in "Sleeping Pill Polly". She speaks about (or in the point of view of) a girl named Polly whose only escape from the harsh reality of her inferior position in the relationship is to end it all with an overdose of sleeping pills. Polly describes this as a "revolution", but she knows what she's doing is admitting defeat. "Sleeping Pill Polly" is considered one of the highlights on the album and is a fan favourite. Regina said the song was written when she was "having a bad day" and did not intend for it to be on the album until Chris Braide found the lyrics in her scrapbook and begged her to record it.

"Dead Man Valley" is a song about being in a constant state of depression. The melancholic lyrics speak of "giving up" and loosing contact with reality. The second bridge, middle 8 and final chorus of the song are vaguely upbeat as the lyrics hint at striving to bring yourself back together and getting back on top. "Once More With Feeling" is about expelling all the bad things in your life and realizing that you're just as good as everybody else, if not better. Regina says the song is very personal and she wrote it from her own experience.

Composition
The main genre throughout the album is soft rock. Tracks like "Your Own Reflection (Echo)" and "Key To My Heart" are perfect examples. Regina explores sadcore and baroque pop in "Dead Man Valley" and "Once More With Feeling". "Sleeping Pill Polly" is a simple piano ballad. "American Pie" is influenced by country music and "Chinadoll" is considered an indie-acoustic track. "Pink Blood", and "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" are electronic, synthetic pop music and are considered to be the most 'mainstream' songs on the album, despite their complex lyricical content.

Artwork, titling, concept
The album's artwork is meant to represent the album's concept about Hollywood being a metaphor for a world rid of male dominance. The artwork sees an image of Regina, set over a nightime Hollywood backdrop, squinting through a pair of sunglasses, banishing the harsh lights of the city from her eyes. Speaking about the artwork, Regina said "I made it myself. Something a lot of people don't know is that I am quite the Photoshop master!".

The album's title represents the desperation for a world where females are equal to men and is a lyric in the song "Key To My Heart". It also reflect's the album's visual concept of place (America, Hollywood, Sydney, China, Brazil)

Overall, the album's concept came about due to a past relationship Regina had, involving an abusive lover. Regina found herself reading the poetry of late feminist Adrienne Rich who she considers to be the brains behind the project. "Without Rich, this album would not exist" says Regina.

Release and promotion
The album was released in the United Kingdom on July 9th, with minimal promotion in the country. Regina Harper was the name on everyone's tongue around the time of her homophobia and drunken party girl scandel. Regina did a half hour long special for 4Music, where she performed "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers", "Sleeping Pilly Polly", "Pink Blood" and "American Pie and did an interview". She did no other promotion in the UK.

A "listening party" was held in a small, secret location in London. Fans were selected via a competition and given tickets to the party. Regina appeared and stayed for the entire event and gladly took photos with fans and signed numerous items for them. Melissa Hart, a fan of Regina's, claimed the singer was "very down to earth" and spent at least 15 minutes simply having a chat with her. Once the listening of the album had finished, Regina performed "American Pie" acoustically and gave a speech.

The Spanish edition of the album came with 2 new tracks recorded in Spanish, specifically for that edition of the album. These tracks were "Miedo de Ester Sola" (which translates as "Scared of Being Alone") and "Playas de Asia" (which Regina stated was also recorded in English as a track called "Asian Beaches").

Critical Response
Upon release, How Many Miles To Hollywood? managed to receive overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and the public. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 80, based on 24 reviews, indicating "extremely favourable reviews". Allmusic praised the album highly and cited "Sleeping Pill Polly", "Your Own Reflection (Echo)" and "Sydney" as their favourites. Some of the album's praise has been directed towards the versatility of genres on the album. Throughout the record, Regina explores many genres such as rock, pop, electro and sadcore. BBC Music noted how, despite the many genres, the album flowed together very well. Entertainment Weekly called the album a "cohesive, coherant" effort and said that "Sleeping Pill Polly" was the album's highlight and also called it "a hidden gem". The Guardian's Emily Scott said that "if she continues to release albums of this quality, she's going to be a massive world-wide star". Production and vocal performance were also praised by The Sunday Times. One critic at NME thought the album was "too deep and meaningful to come from an Idol winner" and claimed Regina did not fit the idol niche.

Background
Regina revealed in December 2012 in an interview with Elle Magazine that she planned on re-releasing How Many Miles to Hollywood? in Spring 2013, and had recorded a number of new tracks. Regina confirmed the release date for The Babylon Edition on February 4th 2013 to be April 8th 2013 and it would be released alongside a new single, "The Pact"

In a press release issued on February 19th 2013, Fusion Records revealed at 4 new songs would be appearing on the re-release, including "The Pact" and a collaboration with Nyla Harley from Hey Lolita. Upon release, The Babylon Edition peaked at #2 on the UK albums charts and pushed the album to diamond status.

Singles

 * "What I Started" was released as Regina's Winner's Single from Uraps Idol 12 on September 26th 2011. The track was written and produced by China. It peaked at #3 on the UK singles charts. It has sold approximately one million copies worldwide. It is available on the UK deluxe edition of the album.


 * "American Pie" was announced as the album's lead single in May 2012. The country-pop song was produced by Brian Higgins and was released in the United Kingdom on July 9th 2012 and in the United States and Canada on July 17th. It charted at #1 in the UK, #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on the Canadian Hot 100.


 * "Your Own Reflection (Echo)" was chosen as the album's second single and was released on September 24th 2012. It peaked at #3 on the Uraps singles chart and sold 268,183 copies.


 * "Sydney" was released as the album's third official single on January 7th 2013 and peaked at #2 on the Uraps singles charts. The single did not make much of an impact internationally.


 * "The Pact" was released as the lead single from The Babylon Edition of the album, and was the album's 4th and final single. It was released on April 8th, 2013 and charted at #1 in the UK, Ireland, Scotland and Spain, spending 2 weeks at #1 in the UK.

Promotional Singles

 * "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" was given away as a free track on Regina's official website in March 2012. The track's release sparked interest in Regina's album and caught the attention of The Sun, who gave it a 5 star review and called it "mind numbingly amazing". A music video was released on December 25th 2012.


 * "Pink Blood" was released as a promotional single on June 25th 2012. The track was available for digital purchase on iTunes only and available to the UK customers only. It reached #2 on the URAPS download charts. Regina shot the music video in early June and it premiered on her official VEVO on the day of release. It featured a modern day Cinderella theme, with Regina turning the 'prince' down after she learned he only wanted to have sex with her and not begin a romantic relationship.

Personnel

 * Writing - Regina Harper
 * Composition and production - Regina Harper, Butch Walker, Liam Howe, Rich Nowels, Linda Perry, Brian Higgins, Chris Braide.
 * Lead/main vocals - Regina Harper
 * Background vocals - Elizabeth Grant, Lambrini Kakalamani, Valerie Poxleitner, Nuhdeen Coyle, Carly Rae Japlip.
 * Guitars - Regina Harper, Butch Walker, Chris Braide, Linda Perry
 * Drums - Nestor Maxwell
 * Keyboards/piano - Regina Harper, Liam Howe, Brian Higgins