Haven Yates

Haven’s ReverbNation Top Seven

havenyates — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:11:28 +0000

Out of the top 150 of the way too broad category of Christian music on ReverbNation, I have selected my favorite seven songs that fit into the more specific genre I like to play and listen to. I hope you enjoy as much as I did, and if you do, consider sharing the widgets as I have and give these great bands a little more exposure!

	“Fail Us Not” – 1000 Generations Nice upbeat worship tune. It would be great to play at church sometime.
	“MAYDAY” – Sonicflood I like the power in this mix. It’s a great “big” worship song.
	“Even When I’m Not” – Calling Glory Big clean electric guitars overpower the track, which I really love – they are pretty. The vocals are nice for rockin’ contemporary worship music. This band has a lot of potential, and the lyrics are right on.
	“Someday” – Ryan Morgan Band This is a pretty and powerful ballad. I like the 6/8 beat, the harmonies, the powerful drums, the melodic tone, and the dynamics in volume and instrumentation.
	“This Simple Song” – Mike Callan This is a nice mellow but strong and dynamic track to have in your mix. The vocals are strong with a nice natural sounding reverb, and guitar is very full. This song pulls off simplicity very well.
	“Living Room Praise” – Jason Sweet Band More people should know about this band, especially if you like Big Daddy Weave, Shane and Shane, or Matthew West.
	“The Hope That Lies In You” – The Glorious Unseen A solid, typical contemporary power worship song with a twist – haunting ambient undertones. The strings in the beginning and throughout are great, as well as the clean reverby electric guitars, with a choir finish. Strong song, beautiful production.

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The Old Days

havenyates — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 22:06:25 +0000

Once upon a time, I was in a band with a couple of the coolest guys. Our band name was ‘Last of Three.’ We did a lot of fun shows. I hope someday we are able to play another one. Our drummer, Jon Hendrix is in the army, and the electric guitarist / bass player – Matt Nickel still writes his own songs and plays locally. Matt and I lead worship together sometimes. But for the most part, the three of us just take care of our families, who will always be number one! Here’s a gallery of memories:

Next Page ›

Haven and Maisey (3 photos)

Haven and his beautiful wife, Maisey.

Old Band Pics (11 photos)

Photos from the old Pnuema and Last of Three days.

Next Page ›

And here is where you can find Matt’s music: http://www.myspace.com/mattnickel

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Haven Yates on TheSixtyOne

havenyates — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:46:27 +0000

Is anybody here a listener on TheSixtyOne? I’ve found some really great music there, and I hope to add some really great music as well. You can click my picture below to listen to my music on thesixtyone, and if you do, please give me a heart – those are really good!

http://www.thesixtyone.com/#/s/RLtSvTfNhr1/

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Quickstar Productions – Scamming, or Grossly Under-delivering?

havenyates — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:41:37 +0000

This post goes out to all the unknown indie musicians like me who are willing to consider any avenue that may provide even a little boost in exposure.

I rarely spend money on any music service for unknowns, but after undergoing what I considered extensive research, I was willing to give Quickstar Productions a try.

Here is what they promise for the compilation project I signed on for entitled ‘A Call For Healing’:

You pay $165, for which you will receive 50 CD’s you may sell for whatever you like
Each CD will contain 15 to 20 good songs from other bands
Every CD will be professionally glass mastered
Every song will be digitally remastered by their talented staff
The compilation will be available at 300+ digital retailers
The project will be finished within 3 to 5 months once all artists are on board
You may contact Quickstar Productions at any time with questions or comments and they will do their best to get back with you ASAP.
You will receive 50 percent of royalties after 10 dollars of sales which will receive a statement and check semiannually.
Your project will be well promoted by Quickstar Productions, who has a strong presence in Baltimore, and on Myspace

This is what I expected:

I pay $165 for a glass mastered CD containing 15 to 20 okay songs from random bands contacted by bots on myspace
Once all artists are on board, this CD will ship in 5 to 6 months
These CD’s will hopefully be just good enough to sell for enough to recoup my investment and gain a little exposure
My song will sound a little better on the CD and digital download due to re-mastering
I may contact Quickstar Productions by phone or email at any time, and I will be contacted at some point, even if it takes a week or so.

This is what my experience has been so far:

I sent my CD toward the end of November. I was really excited. I made this blog post which you can see dated Nov. 23rd 2009.
I waited and waited for a confirmation that they had received my CD. I finally sent a couple of emails and left a voice mail for my project manager. I eventually received a two-liner that stated ’Yes, your submission was received. Thank you for being a part of this project. Phillip’ That’s part my bad on that one, I had a confirmation from admin@quickstar.com in my junk mail folder. It just took days to hear back from Philip.
Dec …
Jan …
Months down the road, I had heard nothing from Quickstar Productions. It was February, and I had really hoped I could at least meet some of the other bands on the compilation. I emailed my so called project manager again twice, and left him voice mail and heard nothing, ever. Not even a little two liner 5 days later, like last time. So I emailed an owner, Brendan Bosmans. It seems he spends most of his time searching the internet for conversations about Quickstar Productions so he can register for the forum or comment on the blog post to interject the Quickstar is not a scam, and the service they provide bands is amazing, they don’t myspace spam with bots, they aren’t a song mill, etc. He had left his email and number on one of these forums saying anyone could contact him directly anytime. So, I did, and surprisingly, he returned my email quickly with a list of bands. Some of my info that would appear on the CD was wrong, but no problem, I sent corrections and he passed them on. Then I excitedly wrote this blog on Feb. 12th, 2010.
By mid March I received graphics proofs with my info still wrong, so I carefully sent my edits again. I didn’t hear anything back, so I hoped that they applied the changes, though they didn’t when I clearly sent them through Brendan, and directly to the admin@quickstar.com address. So here’s hoping…
April …
May …

Now I’m getting restless again. I sent and email to admin@quickstar.com on June 8th, 2010. They had not responded by June 10th, so I called Brendan’s line at Quickstar Productions where I had to leave a voice mail. I also followed up with an email which included a forward of my earlier email. He or the first person I emailed had not responded by June 12th, so I sent this forward to everyone on June 12th:

FW: A Call for Healing‏

From: Haven Yates (hav@***)

Sent: Sat 6/12/10 11:25 AM

To: admin@quickstarproductions.com; joe@quickstarproductions.com; brenden@quickstarproductions.com; bryan@quickstarproductions.com; danny@quickstarproductions.com; Phillip Petty (phillip@quickstarproductions.com); amanda@quickstarproductions.com

I am inquiring for the musician Haven Yates on the project A Call for Healing. Could you please respond with some sort of estimate on when this project may be completed? I’m getting the impression 95% of this company’s efforts are on acquisitions, because once you had my money, I didn’t hear anything for months. I have called on many different occasions, and no one ever answers the phone, nor has anyone ever returned my voicemail. Up to this point, I was able to count on 1/3 or less of my emails being answered. That stat is falling sadly lower. I had very low expectations for this project when I signed up, and your company is still not meeting them. Please respond, I have not yet gone very far to publicly communicate my distaste for this whole process.

Sincerely,
Haven Yates

From: haven@***
To: brenden@quickstarproductions.com
Subject: FW: A Call for Healing
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:36:19 -0600

Hey Brendan, I left you a voicemail, but I wanted to follow up with email as well. I’m curious as to the ETA on shipping for the project, A Call For Healing. It’s the one with Haven Yates on it. I’m doing my best to update and excite my “fan base,” but I’m a little in the dark at this point. Thanks in advance for the update.

-Haven Yates

haven@***

http://www.havenyates.com/

From: haven@***
To: admin@quickstarproductions.com
Subject: RE: A Call for Healing
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 21:07:04 -0600

Hi, I’m just checking to get an ETA on the CD project ‘A Call For Healing.’ I’m not sure what volume mine is, but I sent the song ‘The Cost’ by Haven Yates. I received an update in March with proofs on the CD art. Is the project running a little behind? We’re a little past 3 to 5 months now; I’m hoping my shipment isn’t lost in the mail.

Thank you in advance for the update; I’m looking forward to seeing the CD in person. Have a great day!

-Haven Yates

haven@***

http://www.havenyates.com/

This email is still unanswered as of this blog post on June 14th. My compilation is called ‘A Call For Healing’ which has at least 11 volumes so far, I’m assuming I am on volume 12 or later. I’ve been contacting artists on volume ONE, and none I’ve contacted so far have received their CD’s, and Quickstar Productions will not respond to their inquiries via voice mail or email.

Are YOU considering responding to a Quickstar Productions spam bot invitation? I wouldn’t recommend it.

Please comment if you’ve worked with Quickstar Productions before, and share your experiences with the readers here. I would appreciate hearing from you. I hate seeing good musicians who are working hard enough already receiving terrible service from companies who wish to exploit them.

While there are many discussions as to whether they are a scam or not, I believe Quickstar Productions is just a bad company.

UPDATE: AUG 13th 2010 – Still no product, and the complaints keep rolling in. I’ve included a couple more pages of additional information about the Quickstar Productions situation.

About Quickstar – Includes more updates on my experience, and links to Quickstar’s current BBB rating, other resources for info on music scams, etc.

Quickstar Productions Presents: – A forum topic for up to date interaction beyond this comment thread.

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A Call For Healing

havenyates — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:59:56 +0000

We are getting closer to the release of a compilation project I will be on called ‘A Call For Healing,’ put out by Quickstar Productions. I’m really excited about the bands I get to join on the project! Here’s a list of who’s on the roster:

Pierced Holy – http://www.piercedholy.com/

Sue Yeomans – http://www.myspace.com/sueyeomans

Evaburn – http://www.myspace.com/evaburning

This is going to be my first CD, and this project with Quickstar Productions has made it possible. I hope and pray this CD blesses you; I will be distributing 50 physical copies in a few more months now so stay tuned. Lord willing, this will lead to more and bigger projects for me. As you may know, I have over 40 songs ready to go, so this is only a start. Please visit, pray for, and support all these great bands; it is an investment of time and money for all of us in hopes that this will open some doors. Also, if you don’t get one of the physical copies before they run out, the compilation will be available for digital download on iTunes.

I’ll let you know when I know more…

UPDATE: I know a little more now. See here: http://www.havenyates.com/blog/?p=166

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Bring Haven to Heaven Fest

havenyates — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:41:22 +0000

I would love to see you at this event, but first, we’ve got to get there! You can use the link above to help get me there (put my name in the top ‘Local Band’ spot), and use the link on their homepage to enter for free tickets for you.

Here’s a little more info about the event:

Heaven Fest is a Christian Music Festival happening in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 with 70+ Artists, 7 Stages and 7 Interactive areas. Tens of thousands of people from all over Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, Utah and Kansas will be coming to Denver to see over 80 bands and artists perform on 8 stages with 8 interactive areas!
In 2008 Heaven Fest became the largest Christian music festival ever to happen in Colorado. In 2009 Heaven Fest nearly doubled in size to over 23,000 people.

Heaven Fest features an array of different musical genres from Rock, Hip-Hop, Hardcore, Gospel, Worship, Acoustic, Folk, Metal, Rap, Electronica, and Experimental. Over 70 artists will play on 7 stages all throughout the day so there will always e something to do!

At the end of the night, Heaven Fest will make Jesus Christ the headliner of the festival by having a nameless, faceless worship band with tons of pastors, prayer-ers, intercessors and worshippers. For the rest of the night, we will worship Jesus Christ and make him the headliner of Heaven Fest and the only name worth mentioning.

Heaven Fest also features a massive 111 Piece art gallery, a 100ft. long interactive art wall and several professional artists to display live their artistic skills through different mediums.

Heaven Fest also features professional skateboarders and will have a full Skate Park for attendees to come and display their skills during the day.

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My Baby Daughter!

havenyates — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:38:48 +0000

Maisey and I just had our first daughter! Right now, she is at the hospital with the baby, and I have come home to tend to my handsome boys. I’m excited to bring her home!

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DJ with me on Blip.fm

havenyates — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:07:19 +0000

Here’s a new discovery. You can DJ your favorite songs and do a short post like a tweet about them, and find other “DJ’s” with similar taste. To play ‘The Cost’, sign up, then simply copy this link and place it into your music search bar:

http://www.havenyates.com/music/The%20Cost.mp3

I look forward to seeing you there! Make sure you add me; I’d love to hear some great tunes from all of you!

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New Compilation CD

havenyates — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:00:51 +0000

UPDATE Aug. 20th, 2010 : I still have not received the CD’s Quickstar Productions agreed to send me within 3 to 5 months. If you are considering working with Quickstar or Distrophonix, please read this more recent blog first http://www.havenyates.com/blog/?p=166

I have just sent out my song ‘The Cost’ to be included in a Compilation Project called ‘A Call for Healing,’ which will benefit the fight against malaria in Uganda, Africa. The digital download will be distributed by Quickstar Productions. Here’s what they have to say about it.

“A Call for Healing” is a compilation CD and marketing project brought to you by Quickstar Productions. It is designed to bring together some of America’s best Christian musicians for a common cause, fighting malaria in Uganda, Africa and most importantly spreading the message of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. To learn about the work being done in Uganda please check out www.sttimscatonsville.org We hope you enjoy this project as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you. “I will give praise to you with instruments of music, O my God, for you are true; I will make songs to you with music, O holy one of Israel.” Psalm 71:22 (BBE)

Every band on the project will be selling a limited number of physical CD’s, so keep an eye out for those. I’ll be sure to schedule a short local tour as soon as I have a batch.

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Who He Is

havenyates — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Jhn 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

1Jo 1:5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

I would like to encourage you in the fact that God not only has, but IS all that you need. Jesus doesn’t simple know the way, tell the truth, and show you how to live; He IS the way, He is the Truth, and He is the Life. And God doesn’t just give us light, He IS the light.

Phl 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

If you want to know these things: honesty, justice, purity, loveliness, the admirable, virtue, the praiseworthy – get to know Jesus. Jesus not only does, but IS all these things – He is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

Who He Is by havenyates