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Pump up the volume OMC's back and teaming up
with a warrior princess
Pauly Fuemana and his OMC partner Alan Jansson
are back in the recording studio and getting some help from an
old friend - Lucy Lawless. The former Xena: Warrior Princess
star has been enjoying developing her singing career since
performing in the US TV show Celebrity Duets where she sang with
Smokey Robinson and Dionne Warwick.
Her great voice might have been news to Americans, but Kiwi fans
remember her for her 2003 summer tour with Dave Dobbyn. While
back home last year, Lucy's OMC mates told her they were making
a new album. Lucy offered to help and happily agreed to provide
back up vocals on a couple of tracks when
she was back for Christmas.
With the material down on track Lucy and Pauly took time out of
the studio to make the video clip for the first single, due for
release in February.
Pauly took Lucy back to his roots in Otara. New Idea was there
to witness the pair's chemistry - a friendship that
gives edge to the song's soulful sound. Then it was on to a new
location - a special place that's provided Pauly with the
inspiration to write material for several albums.
The magic that took How Bizarre to the top of charts around the
world is in the new music, but its obvious the boy from Otara -
who wanted to be a millionaire, made it then lost it - has grown
up. 'I went round the world 24 times and it was cool,' Pauly
says.
During the past 10 years Pauly has written material for Drew
Barrymore, who has used the songs in three of her films, worked
with Wesley Snipes, and performed duets with the late Frank
Sinatra. Some of the funniest and saddest moments came when he
played a Mexican bandit in a movie If ...Dog... Rabbit with
Mathew Modine.
'I couldn't get comfortable with all the poverty around me,'
Pauly says.
It brought Pauly back to earth and it's added a new dimension to
his music. A second single will be followed by a new album in
the first half of this year and OMC has also been invited to
take part in a still secret project later in the year.
Lucy just might be back to help Pauly and Alan with that too -
if she's not booked up overseas following her own show at the
Roxy Theatre in Hollywood this month.
