Tagged: ‘The Sweet Tea …’

posted by on February 14, 2013 4:15 PM

Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project win ESPN’s NBA theme cover contest

Eight recording artists across a variety of musical genres recently reimagined ESPN’s NBA theme music.

Thousands of fans voted for their favorite rendition on the SportsNation section of ESPN.com. Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project produced the winning rendition, which will be featured during ESPN’s exclusive telecast of the Sprint NBA Celebrity All-Star Game tomorrow night at 7 p.m. ET. Front Row spoke to Roland about the honor, the band’s debut album coming in 2013 and life on the road:

How did the Sweet Tea Project come to be?
It started about a little over a year ago. Collective Soul [another Roland band] had about a month off. These guys I’ve been friends with for a while and I reconnected. They all ended up at my house and I showed them some songs that I was working on. We thought it would be kind of fun to see what we could do with this. Because it’s my voice, we wanted to make it separate and different from Collective Soul. We had a lot of fun with it.

Sweet Tea

How’d you come up with the name?
It’s a very Southern thing. We wanted to have an Americana flavor. There’s nothing more American or Southern than sweet tea. That’s what we grew up drinking.

What were you hoping to capture with your ESPN NBA theme rendition? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, NBAOnESPN

posted by on February 1, 2013 8:00 AM

Robert Cray, Ozomatli and a Jay-Z producer among recording artists re-imagining ESPN NBA theme music

Fans of ESPN’s NBA programming, including Coast to Coast and NBA Tonight, might have noticed some unique twists on the standard theme music throughout the season. Those versions were developed for ESPN by popular recording artists across a variety of different music genres.

Among them are three Grammy-winning artists: Ozomatli, a Latin rock band that fuses many different music genres; Humble Monsta/Mr. Bink, a Jay-Z producer; and the blues-inspired Robert Cray Band. Other participants include the California indie rock band The Mowgli’s, jazz artist John Pizzarelli and The Sweet Tea Project, a group led by Ed Roland of Collective Soul. Two British artists — electro-pop sensation Jacob Plant and rock band The Heavy — also joined the diverse lineup.

Beginning today and continuing through Friday, Feb. 8, fans can vote for their favorite version on the SportsNation section of ESPN.com. The winning version will be featured on ESPN’s telecast of the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday, Feb. 15.

Front Row caught up with ESPN music director Kevin Wilson to learn a little more about the contest.

How did you select the artists?
Basically, we decided the types of genres that we wanted to feature and then we just started identifying artists that fit into those genres. We came up with a list of really talented, unique artists and started to make our requests.

Why is it important to bring fans into the creative process? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes