Biography
A red rose left on the doorstep of a pretty girl. This romantic act by a young man gave him the name of his alter ego—his name as an artist: The Rose Phantom. Friends have known him by that for years, though the man behind the curtain is Ted Newsom. He is a musician, songwriter, photographer, videographer, painter, and performer. With music being his medium of choice to create with, he began making it in 2003 when he started his first solo musical project, revideolized, when he was still in high school. The debut album by revideolized released in December of 2005, was an instrumental exploration of dark electronic soundscapes, with haunting whispers to the influential artists he idolized, Depeche Mode, Clan of Xymox, Tears for Fears, Jean Michel Jarre, Alphaville, and Red Flag, though the music he created was his own—a dark road into the night with splashes of color on the pavement, and ghosts watching from the forest of sound.
TheMooNDriveNDark continued the journey of revideolized and the second full-length album was released in January of 2007. This sophomore project showed the growth of The Rose Phantom and his continued evolution as an artist, who still liked to drive in the darkness, but now with a more evolved, layered, and mature sound where outside musicians performed and helped complete the album. The lone ghost in the woods, and the ones in the machine, had become a choir.
Wanting to challenge himself on the follow-up album, Look-In (December 2007) he decided to do everything himself and push the limits of his own creativity. He performed, engineered, and the mastered the recordings. The album has a very consistent sound and became a fan favorite, and his most commercial and popular revideolized album.
Sounds From The Canyon (December 2008), the fourth revideolized release was the culmination of years of making electronic music and showcased the peak of The Rose Phantom’s journey as an artist. The entire album was recorded live, on location in his favorite canyon in spectacular Utah. The music was inspired by the natural surroundings and he served as a conduit, letting the feelings generated by that beautiful place flow through him and give voice to the land.
Deep, engrossing, and imminently listenable over and over again, make the four all instrumental revideolized albums fascinating soundtracks as you go about your life.
Music and art runs deep in his family, and from 2005-2010 The Rose Phantom was the keyboardist/back-up vocalist in his brother, Zakkary Hale’s progressive/rock/alternative band, Melodramus where Zakk was the lead vocalist and guitarist. Melodramus played numerous live shows and released two albums, 30 Silver Pieces (July 2007) and Two: Glass Apple (October 2010). Soon after the second album was released, The Rose Phantom and bassist, Mikey Collard left the band, which continued until January of 2012 when Zakkary Hale put the band to rest to pursue other projects.
While recording his second album with Melodramus the The Rose Phantom wrote songs with lyrics for the first time, and decided he wanted another outlet for his creativity. He formed the goth/rock duo, Sleep Slid iN with Whitney Willow where he explored songwriting, and made his debut as a vocalist. Sleep Slid iN’s album, The Open Diary (December 2009) showed he could sing, and with Whitney Willow’s vocal talent created a potent mixture of goth/rock brilliance.
All of his projects, especially Sleep Slid iN, were a prelude to things to come, and set the stage for another incarnation of the constantly evolving artist who in late 2011 abandoned all previous project names, and decided to use his alter ego’s identity, The Rose Phantom for all future releases.
Nine years into his career, The Rose Phantom’s body of work attracted the attention of a filmmaker, and he was approached to create the soundtrack for an independent documentary film, Picking Up the Pieces. Shown at many film festivals, including Sundance in 2013, Picking Up the Pieces is about child prostitution in Cambodia, and required music that would set a very dark tone. The two tracks, over thirty minutes total, are very experimental and range from ambient, darkwave, to psychedelic rock. Released as a digital download only in June 2012, this project is both tense, and haunting.
Abandon, his first full-length release under his nom de musique, is an album over two years in the making. Produced by The Rose Phantom and the up and coming "Danegerous" Dane Morrow, the sound is a mix of pop rock and gothic darkwave, with hints of industrial. It’s very close to being a concept album about personal struggle and self-doubt . . . with moments of hope and love.
The Rose Phantom has never before worked on a project this intensely, recording and mixing the sound with an exceptional producer, and he feels that this is the first proper album of his career. His songwriting and singing have evolved a lot since Sleep Slid iN, and when you listen to Abandon (released on the Mayan doomsday, December 21, 2012), it’s obvious The Rose Phantom has found his voice, and put it in a prominent and proper place within his first language, a unique and varied brand of dark electronic music.
His fans and friends know the ride is far from over and look forward to his next project, which will undoubtedly appear in the dark of the night, like a rose left on their doorstep.
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