Here's our amazing 2023 reviewed
in all it's colour, drama & pride!

JANUARY

As another year dawned Mark was busy in-studio working on 2 projects - recording
Sydney Student Dani's super acoustic vocal demo of "Titanium", and Katie's 3-song fully sponsored Original EP.

KT's project also saw us conducting on-location drum recording with our Mobile Recording Studio.

Meanwhile we were busy dispatching Advance CD orders for "Out Into The Blue" across Australia & the world -
what a joy it was to be reconnecting with so many fans - many of whom we hadn't heard from in 15+ years!

January also saw us putting in 16 hour days compiling Contact Lists & negotiating media & PR coverage for the "official" launch of our new album,
with a commencement date in mid-May eventually settled. Only an Independent Recording Artist knows the rollercoaster of challenges that
never ceases when you Commercially release your own music (but we wouldn't have it any other way)!

The month ended with us providing a day's face-to-face Piano Lessons to Port Augusta School Of The Air as their music programme
recommenced - we were already loving it, and had twice as many students as we'd finished the SOTA 2022 year with!

SOTA 2023 would also see us attending lessons for 2 days in Woomera in late March -
so we completed bookings & arrangements for this expedition.

Seeing as we were heading to the Outback we adapted our schedules to allow us to also shoot some music video footage while in Woomera -
it really would be a year of juggling our burgeoning album needs with our students to make sure everything fitted into each week.

As we finalised our other student rosters across our Private venue, Online students, Samaritan College's 3 campuses, our sixth year of
the Samaritan College Band Programme and Sunrise Christian School a "busiest ever" year was already underway.

FEBRUARY

February began with us being locked in to headline the re-established SA Country Music Festival to be held in Barmera in June 2024.
It's so important to keep these once-major events happening as the training ground they provide for young talent is irreplaceable -
we hoped this event could hold firm and start to steadily grow back into a bright future.

Valentines Day slipped by as we returned with lessons across 4 school campuses, Samaritan College Band Programme,
at The Centre + Online - we were absolutely FULL and many students had to accept a rotating fortnightly lesson slot to grab a spot.

Our expanded Online lesson roster included students on the Yorke Peninsula, in Melbourne, Sydney
and Port Lincoln in addition to our SOTA kids across remote SA.

Already there was even more excitement to consider as Samaritan College announced they were planning to stage another
College Musical - "Annie". Usually this enormous all-College production would have been due in 2024, but the decision to move it to
2023 provided a fitting farewell to the legendary Mrs Fitzgerald (who was retiring at the end of the year).
We were already "IN" and preparations towards the staging dates in November began!

On a brief but excellent night off we enjoyed The 60 Four at their fabulous Middleback Theatre concert.

In between we made our formal wear and travel bookings to attend Ali's AMEB Graduation Ceremony in Adelaide in April.

MARCH

Dani's "Titanium" YouTube launched as she began work on a new Original song project Online from Sydney -
CHECK OUT Dani's latest masterpiece here!

Our Album's Lead Single launch was locked in for 22nd May with International Distributor Checked Label Services (Sydney/Nashville/London) -
and following on from that our "at least a year long" PR trail started as we booked National & International advertising, Editorial and Interviews.

"Lullaby" was ready to take our music back into the world and our countdown-to-launch saw fullpage exposure in "The Transcontinental" (Port Augusta)
and "Whyalla News", plus a phone interview with Australia's flagship National Country Music publication "Capital News" in Tamworth.

Annual Songwriting Contest entries were compiled and submitted - and every spare moment saw us continuing to build a
2023 National and International Media Contact List across thousands of media outlets.

After 20 years we had A LOT of catching up to do!

As our SOTA lessons continued we made a 2-day journey to Woomera to conduct our next round of SOTA Face-To-Face lessons -
with just enough spare time to mount a good reconnaisance across the region for an album music video shoot to come in April.

We also commenced discussions with International Cinematographer Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film & Television with a view to negotiating use of
some of his superb drone footage of the Australian landscape for our "Out Into The Blue" music video to come at the end of the year.

In-studio saw Katie's EP project laying down final Bass (Alison) and Piano (Katie) parts -
rounding out the recording stage as Mark began Mixing the 3 super Original tracks.

Our annual full sponsorship of sound production for the Whyalla Swimming Carnival saw Mark on-deck at
Whyalla Leisure Centre for a 10 hour day - it was great to see such a bumper attendance from all over SA!

APRIL

Katie's 3 song EP was Mixed, Mastered and Delivered right on-time - what an amazing result for a young person making their studio debut!
Katie's knocked it out of the park on her first go - the sky's the limit for this young lady!

As school holidays arrived we found ourselves in the historic and prestigious climes of the University Of Adelaide's Elder Hall attending Alison's
Graduation to accept her LRSL Licentiate (Creative Enterprise) Professional Diploma - what an effort from Ali to complete this qualification
(with a Distinction!) whilst continuing her enormous workload with everything else we do, and for all those who benefit on a daily basis from it.

The Adelaide trip also enabled us to drop some Woodwind instruments into our friend Joel at Size Music as part of our
routine & on-going maintenance for our Samaritan College Band Programme.

Our Album preparations just kept on accelerating and we did a "Preview" Interview 21st April with our friend
Eli Blackman's Arvo Drive show on Townsville's (QLD) 4K1G Radio.

Our next school holiday adventure was back to Woomera to shoot footage for our Title Track's music video -
luckily we were able at extremely short notice to bring the shoot forward 2 days to avoid rough weather due to arrive
during our originally planned schedule. What a superb few days, what a stunning landscape the Woomera plateau provides -
thanks in particular to the Eldo Hotel staff for making our stay so comfy and productive!

April 30th rounded out a hectic month as Mark celebrated another birthday -
he says the years don't count anymore and anyway "isn't more better than less?!"!

MAY

May 1st saw our National Album publicity hit top gear as foundational and masthead Australian Country Music publication
Capital News published a 2-page Feature article on Mark & Alison for their MAY/JUNE Edition.

Our Capital News exposure was the best there is - and would then be followed with a year of full-page advertising as our
album campaign continued and new songs & music videos were released.

THANK YOU Cheryl and the CN team for your decades-long support of our careers!

"Out Into The Blue" also appeared in-print as a fullpage advert in the Adelaide Country Music Club's bi-monthly newsletter -
and our "advance sale" CD's and Digital Albums continued to sell across Australia and with incoming orders from the UK and USA.

In the office our early approaches to Australian radio were bearing much fruit as we continued a ceaseless process of recording Program Voiceovers
and posting away promotional CD's as our interview calendar continued to fill fast.

11th May saw us reintroduce ourselves to Australia Country Music with a 45 minute live podcast with Danni Shaw's "Country Kickback" show -
what a blast to chat with Danni and answer the myriad questions firing at us from watchers (and many old fans!) from all over the world!

Monday 22nd May saw the huge moment we'd waited 20 years for as our Lead Single "LULLABY" launched to the world via Australia's
leading Radio Distribution company - Checked Label Services! The single also released via the world's leading radio play service Play MPE,
and Australia's Community Radio service AMRAP.

Visit "OUT INTO THE BLUE" HERE!

BUY "OUT INTO THE BLUE" HERE!

By 31st May we'd conducted 36 radio interviews around Australia and heard "LULLABY" and our "OUT INTO THE BLUE" story
broadcast across National and Regional ABC Radios.

There was an Album Feature with Mike Crozier syndicated across Australia, a week-long album Feature with old friend Kevin Walsh on
National Community Radio's "Good Morning Country" with an audited listenership of nearly one million people -
and we spent a great 2 hours co-hosting at Radio Adelaide for their outstanding "Songcatcher" and "Mixtape" programmes.

Even more amazingly given our 20 year hiatus from recording - "LULLABY" peaked at #12 on the major Play MPE Australian "All Genres"
radio chart, at #5 on the National AMRAP Radio Chart, and peaked at #3 on the Play MPE Australian Country Chart!

As our longtime industry colleague and Australian Country Music royalty John Nutting had told us -
"You'll need to remember that - after 20 years - to most media you're both a new act.
But it's a great track so it's all going to come down to your marketing!"

Excitingly we started what would prove to be a stellar and long-term media relationship with COUNTRYTOWN -
Australian Country Music's premier Online Publication. Before May closed we'd featured across Countrytown's
network including 2 Feature editorial pieces and saturation advertising support.

THANK YOU Twistie, Stephen, Mallory & David for your amazing support and easy professionalism!

As "OUT INTO THE BLUE" launched to the world everything else "Stormfront" was also powering ahead -
we completed preliminary Soundtrack edits for Samaritan College's Musical Production of "Annie" coming up in November -
and student KT Stott was busy in-studio with us finalising her artwork in order to send her EP CD to manufacture in Melbourne.

Our Samaritan College Band Programme was now in full swing with weekly rehearsals and lessons across 3 campuses for
a record number of students - and our free school band project at Sunrise Christian School was running smoothly.

JUNE

With "LULLABY" airplay continuing to spread we conducted 10 more interviews across Australia and saw our new Lead Single
charting to #17 in Tassie, #4 on Country Thunder - and bringing home a #1 on
legendary Australian Country Music broadcaster Alan Gilmour's Australian Country Songwriters Show chart!

Our Countrytown media blitz continued, and we caught up with Sydney's leading
Country Music radio show host (and decades long friend) Barbara Morison at 2SER.

Stormfront staged & hosted a drop-in performance by students of Adelaide's Tabor Institute Of Music at Samaritan College,
with our Sunrise Christian School Music students also attending to enjoy the performance.

We joined most of Australia in watching "Finding The Voice" and both related to,
and immensely respected the astonishing career John Farnham has had in the Music Industry.

Many of our Sunrise Christian School students performed as part of their school's "Performing Arts Showcase" -
and most of Australia waited Online (often during lessons and rehearsals!) to secure Taylor Swift tickets!

Our involvement with Port Augusta School Of The Air brought final confirmation of our coordination & production of a generational project -
the total re-writing & recording of PASOTA's School Song! Every SOTA day starts with all students and their teachers singing the School Song,
and each SOTA service across Australia has their own unique theme song.

PASOTA asked us if we could bring their existing 1958 choir song into the 21st Century and we proudly jumped at the chance to
create something that would now endure for generations, and be so loved by these kids and their
teachers as they work across such vast distances and isolation.

By month's end we had a Demo of the new song uploaded, with resources, for everyone to practise towards us recording
the kids singing at the end of September when next we'd all meet face-to-face!

JULY

Another fullpage Capital News exposure and an amazing review of "OUT INTO THE BLUE" by the
online Cowgirlup Blog kept our album project rolling at full speed.

We also interviewed across Australia with Julie Reynolds' Saturday Breakfast - and began pushing out "LULLABY" to overseas media.
Early successes saw airplay across Europe and the UK, and across the USA.

The first week of July saw our superstar Melbourne student Angus attending the CMAA Junior College Of Country Music in Tamworth -
and from all accounts he had a great time, and made every post a winner. We know Angus's music will grow even faster and further
now based on this fantastic National support!

Equally proud - we said "farewell for now" to decade-long Senior student Logan as he took the next exciting step in his musical future -
heading to Adelaide to study Music at university level. You have all the tools, all the ability, and all our best wishes to nail it superstar!

July 17th saw a HUGE announcement with Alison being named as one of three Finalists for the Australian Women In Music Awards' HUMANITARIAN AWARD.

The AWMA's are Australia's premier music awards, and platform, for women in the Australian Music Industry. Ali's nomination as a Finalist was
her second in 3 years - and the big news would now see us walking the black carpet at the AWMA's in Brisbane at the end of September
alongside Jessica Mauboy, Judy Stone, Vika & Linda, Vanessa Amorossi, Dami Im and Beccy Cole!

The AWMA news also saw Alison on the front cover of Whyalla News, and interviewing across Regional SA on ABC Radio!

Meanwhile student KT Stott received and started marketing her fabulous new EP CD - proudly sponsored by Stormfront Productions.
What a brilliant job you've done KT - and we're sure this is only the start!

The 2 weeks of school holidays had us submitting and uploading arrangements & registration for the 2023 round of Whyalla's
Australian Music Examination Board Exam Day - fully sponsored by Stormfront Productions.

AUGUST

August began with Alison having a Nationwide chat with Country Music legend Beccy Cole on ABC Radio's "Saturday Night Country".

Beccy was also a 2023 AWMA Finalist (for Artistic Excellence) - so along with some airplay for "LULLABY" Bec and Ali spoke
about the importance of recognising women in music, about our album progress - and concluded with the promise to
catchup in-person in Brisbane next month at the AWMA Awards Ceremony.

Monday 21st saw our first new Music Video from "OUT INTO THE BLUE" released to the world - Alison's Single "BROKEN GROUND"

Through a World Premiere Feature on Australia's leading online Country Music publication COUNTRYTOWN everyone finally
got to see the magnificently cinematic clip filmed by us on remote Edeowie Station in the Flinders Ranges of Outback SA.

CHECK OUT "BROKEN GROUND" HERE!

Tuesday 22nd had "BROKEN GROUND" released to Australian radio via Checked Label Services, Play MPE and AMRAP -
and our album PR machine saw the new Single registering a #16 on the Play MPE Australian All Genres Chart,
and a #13 on the Play MPE Australian Country Chart! Interviews continued to come through from stations Australia-wide -
and some overseas press started taking a liking to the "BROKEN GROUND" music video and it's stunning Outback scenery.

CHECK OUR "OUT INTO THE BLUE" BLOG HERE!

Our PASOTA School Song moved forward with drum sessions completed by our friend & colleague Pete Drummond in Melbourne,
and guitar tracks from Adam Brice underway via Pete's studio. Pete is simply one of the best drummers there is - we were lucky to
catch him this time around in between him recording in Tokyo & holding down gigs as Drummer for Southern Sons (Jack Jones) & Dragon.

Friday 25th brought our 2023 Australasian Music Board Examination Day in Whyalla - a vital opportunity fully sponsored by Stormfront
for kids to sit their annual Music Exams without having to travel to Adelaide, or other Regional venues. This year we reacquainted with
Examiner Linda Pirie who made an always stressful day for all the Candidates a whole lot easier by being so kind and supportive.

We're extremely proud of continuing to provide support for this event - and it's troubling in 2023 to see so many other Regional Exam venues
struggling or failing to be able to stage with a marked decline in student numbers elsewhere. Stormfront's 15 exam candidates made the
day more than worthwhile so we will continue to work hard to provide students in the years ahead.

By the end of August we had all our AMEB results back with stellar results -
ready to talk through with each Candidate at their next lesson!

SEPTEMBER

September launched with a new fullpage album advert revolving around "BROKEN GROUND" in
Australia's premier Country Music publication Capital News.

Singer Songwriter student extraordinaire KT Stott spent a fully sponsored day in the studio recording live tracks for a major
songwriting competition, and Mark began pre-production of his music video for "Buttercups In Springtime" from our "Out Into The Blue" album.

"Buttercups" is Mark's narrative telling the lifestory of his late parents Fred & Joyce - and the video
would introduce (for our video suite) a new dimension utilising "green screen" technology to roll historic imagery behind his performance.

As mentioned in our previous "Year In Reviews" - September always sees our compulsory renewal of our Music Insurance - without which
we are legally unable to operate. In 2023 our broker worked hard to finally find an insurer prepared to take on our cover - it's becoming
almost impossible as a Professional Musician to gain any insurance since the Covid pandemic - and our 2023 cover would set us back over $4200!

12th September saw us spend the day at Port Augusta School Of The Air workshopping with students and Govies across remote SA on
pre-production of their new School Song, proudly produced by Stormfront Productions. It was brilliant to meet up online with everyone wanting "in"
on being Soloists and featured singers, and a great chance to answer questions & check progress towards recording everyone in Port Augusta in 2 weeks time!

At Samaritan College a number of Stormfront students performed in the College's Talent Show -
and congratulations go to (our) eventual Winner KT Stott!

Meanwhile Ali decided to skip another birthday - there just wasn't enough time! -
and as our normal "90 hours a week" roster ploughed on we entered our 2023 "vortex"....

Each year - even beyond our "always busy" schedule - we find at least one "vortex" moment occurs -
where everything and anything that can happen does, in a remarkably short period of time. In 2023 the vortex
was to be the end of September - bringing nearly 4900km of travel over 9 days!

Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st found us supporting student KT Stott for her Guest Performance at the annual
Whyalla Schools Choir at Middleback Theatre - KT did an awesome job and what a talent she already is!

Sunday 24th saw us commuting to SOTA in Port Augusta to build our mobile recording studio, and then record
SOTA kids singing their new School Song as written and produced by us through to 6.00pm.

Monday 25th saw us repeating this journey and recording SOTA kids, staff and families non-stop from 8.00am to 5.00pm.

7.00am Tuesday 26th saw us flying to beautiful Brisbane to attend the Australian Women in Music Awards on Wednesday 27th and
what an incredible honour it was to see Alison WIN the 2023 HUMANITARIAN AWARD as judged by many of the
most powerful people in the Australian Music Industry.

And what a show AWMA put on again - stunning performances at The Tivoli included Dami Im, Vanessa Amorosi, Beccy Cole
and Vika & Linda - all of whom we caught up with at the After Party along with Honour Roll Inductee Judy Stone
(and Little Pattie who accompanied her to Brisbane).

We also had a brief opportunity to catch up with some of Mark's family before heading back to Brisbane Airport on Thursday 28th
where some bad memories of our 2019 AWMA (mis)adventure (when QANTAS lost our luggage!) briefly returned.

This time around all was well until boarding - then we were stuck for 1.5 hours on the plane as it taxied from runway to runway trying
to find a take-off opportunity as a huge (dare we say!!) stormfront swept across South East Queensland.

Eventually we were airborne only to then detour to Adelaide over the Gold Coast to avoid the lightning strikes - after a bumpy 2.5 hours
we landed in Adelaide at take-off time for our connecting flight, which we and 4 other Whyalla-bound passengers made by running across
the tarmac as the QANTASLINK plane started to close its door without us!

We landed back in Whyalla at 5.30pm - amazing work by Qantas to also get our luggage home with us (despite tracking showing it had been left in Adelaide)!

After an early night's sleep 8.00am Friday 29th saw us back at SOTA in Port Augusta providing Piano Lessons before the kids all headed back
towards their hugely distant stations and farms across Regional and Remote SA.

Phew that was a ride - and Mark does not wish to comment on the subsequent weekend's 2 football Grand Final losses by
the narrowest of margins for his beloved Lions (by 4 points in AFL) and Broncos (by 2 points in NRL)!
Both teams were leading with less than 5 minutes to go in the season?!

The massive travel week brought us to School Holidays - which are always a prompt for us to really get busy....

OCTOBER

As the school holidays arrived we began ploughing through a huge workload before Term 4 was upon us.

Ali dove straight into trying to wrap her hand-charted arrangements for Samaritan College's "Annie" production -
a task taking hundreds of hours as the staging date now was only 3 weeks away.

We held a consultancy morning with KT Stott preparing to take her music online safely and properly -
and began producing a debut Original song project with a student parent.

Also relentlessly in-studio Mark was working with Mrs Fitz on compiling Samaritan College's 2023 "Annie" school musical soundtrack -
with every spare moment in between spent editing and eventually mixing over 150 tracks of SOTA kids singing their new School Song.

Unless you've done it yourself you have NO idea how tiring & eye-fatiguing this precise work is & since 2020 our little studio on the edge of The Outback
has seen Mr T. locked into incredibly diverse audio & video editing sessions totalling well over 4000 hours tied to a mouse and screen!

We enjoyed a second 2023 Podcast interview with Danni at "Country Kickback" - updating the Country Music world on our
significant "OUT INTO THE BLUE" album progress since it launched at the end of May.
It's always great catching up with Australian Country Music's premier podcast!

Meanwhile Ali's AWMA win was just hitting the media with Feature interviews and news stories
across the Region including Whyalla News and ABC SA Regional Radio.

Symptomatic of a Music Industry growing still further in crisis post-Covid our headline booking for next year's planned reinstatement of
the SA Country Music Festival in Barmera was cancelled - the hard-working and genuine SACMF team had failed to attract enough sponsorship
and support even at their Local Riverland level to go ahead as planned. We wish them every success despite the daunting task they have
ahead to ever bring this event back - the music world really has changed and not in any good way.

Mid month our Singer Songwriter extraordinaire KT Stott got the call to say
she had WON an ASME Young Composers Award for her song He is Worthy -
from her new CD recorded and sponsored by Stormfront Recording.

KT's win would see her travel to Adelaide next month to collect her prize - part of which
would include performing her winning song on the hallowed stage of Elder Hall!

In between putting the finishing touches on PASOTA's School Song - in the studio Mark continued
on the Original song project with a student parent who was debuting as a talented songwriter.

As October drew to a close we enjoyed taking in the work of many of our students at
Sunrise Christian School's musical production of "Happily Forever After" -
and completed final pre-Theatre Rehearsals for Samaritan College's musical "Annie".

The closing week of October also saw Mark spending the weekend Test Tagging facilities for
our Private lessons venue landlord, St James Lutheran Church.

Our last job of the month was a 2-day bump-in and set-up at Middleback Theatre as "Annie" began!

NOVEMBER

November found us in-Theatre with Samaritan College's "Annie" staging three
packed shows to Whyalla at Middleback Arts Centre.

And WHAT A SHOW it was!

There was something special in this production, and the heart & soul poured in by
everyone into all 3 performances was inspiring and amazingly Professional!

In particular we highlight our astonishing students Nyasha (Annie) & Katie (Grace) who
really did prove they're good enough to already be on Broadway or in London's West End.

Our myriad other Stormfront crew on, and off-stage were brilliant - as was
the entire "Annie 2023" crew who produced the College's best-ever, to a standing ovation!

Special mention goes to our team of Ali, Kym & Issy who once again provided
the Annie Ensemble to embellish the soundtrack with live components!

And as for everybody's favourite - Charlie the dog - what an
incredible and perfect part of our Cast you were!

From "Annie" yet another vortex moment hit us as November turned super busy.

In between our hectic teaching schedule Mark was in-studio and churning out project after project.

Our Port Augusta School Of The Air SCHOOL SONG Project was building to an amazing finish,
and our student parent was busy finishing her beautiful, and first-ever Original song.

Our long-standing annual full sponsorship of entertainment for Whyalla's McHappy Day continued
and saw a bumper crew & audience raising money for Ronald McDonald House on 18th November.

STAY TUNED for some really exciting news stemming from McHappy Day 2023,
and the significant opportunities it may generate in our community in 2024!

The next afternoon we travelled to Adelaide to support & enjoy KT Stott's prestigious win at the
ASME Young Composers Awards - including her sensational live performance of her winning song
"He is Worthy" in the huge and historic Elder Hall.

3 days later on 22nd November we staged Samaritan College's third annual Samaritan Shines at
the school's Saint Johns campus - what a beautiful if windy evening under the purple Jacarandas was had by all!

Friday 24th saw us making our annual donation to, and performance at Whyalla's Asbestos Victims Association's
rememberance ceremony held at the fittingly peaceful Mount Laura Homestead.

That weekend then saw us in-studio with KT Stott setting up and submitting her Original EP
to Online Digital Music Platforms with a launch planned for 10th December!

We submitted the last of our 2023 Con Brio Video Exams - how exciting for
our students to receive High Distinctions all round!

November closed with a welcome surprise call up to interview and sing a few songs LIVE across SA
on ABC Regional Radio's Breakfast with Tom Mann - thanks heaps Tom & team for thinking of us!

November also saw yet another fullpage "Out Into The Blue" advert in Country Music masthead publication Capital News.

DECEMBER

As Christmas began to loom we were busy aligning arrangements for our 2024.

This time each year sees us having to assess our likely enrolments, settle & set another year's fee structure,
and clarify, confirm & juggle the jigsaw that is our year ahead at Samaritan College,
Sunrise Christian School, Port Augusta School Of The Air, and our Private Student Rosters.

Plus our impending seventh year running the Samaritan College Band Programme and
everything "Mark & Alison" AND our studio will do throughout the impending year!

Thankfully in 2023 we had our Sunrise Christian School room & day locked in early -
& ahead lay room changes at Samaritan College's 2 Primary campuses to complete before Christmas!

Tuesday 5th December marked a very special moment as we shared for the first time our brand new
2023 School Song with the kids & crew of Port Augusta School Of The Air!

We began re-writing & demo'ing the new song back in June, with production taking in 3 solid days & nights
recording students, govies, staff and families in Port Augusta at the end of September, then
the months since editing and mixing their 155 tracks together into a finished product.

It really was a special moment that brought many tears as everyone listened in at Online Assembly across remote SA!

The School Song starts every day at SOTA - and until this moment it's always been a roughly recorded
1958 vintage "choir" version which has been a memorable & central part of generations of SOTA kids.

Many of the current group of parents, grandparents (and even great grandparents!) of these students
were also listening in from all over the State!

We are SO proud to have been entrusted with bringing 65 years of heart and soul into the 21st century -
it's such an honour that our song will provide the start of every SOTA school day for many decades to come!

In perfect synchronicity December 9th saw us day & night at Port Augusta School Of The Air staging
our end-of-year face-to-face lessons, and Annual Piano Recital as PASOTA wrapped for 2023.

How cool it was to see & hear everyone at PASOTA singing their brand new School Song,
straight from the Stormfront Studio, in-person & with passion!!
CHECK IT OUT here!

10th December saw our singer songwriter superstar KT Stott fulfil her dream as her 3-song EP
launched Internationally across Digital Streaming platforms - congratulations KT!

11th December saw us with a bulging commitment to Samaritan College's Prize Night at Middleback Theatre -
in 2023 we'd cash-sponsor & present 2x Stormfront Awards For Musical Excellence, choose the Winner of the
Middleback Arts Award, present our 7 Excellence In Band awards, assist KT Stott with her
Feature Performance at the Ceremony, and conduct & play with our Samaritan Band Ensemble
as they once again provided wonderful arrival music in the Middleback Theatre Foyer!

We are SO proud to see the Middleback Arts Award go to KT Stott after her
astonishing year of achievements - and for our Stormfront Awards For Musical Excellence go to
Nyasha Mativenga for her Broadway-ready role as "Annie" (and her steamrolling musical progress in 2023) -
and Isabella Garde for her incredibly consistent musical excellence over so many years.

Issy showcases everything we hope a Stormfront student can be - she started lessons as a Year One at OLHC campus,
and has continued through to her (now impending) Year 12 Graduation. Issy is the only student to have participated in EVERY year
of the Samaritan Band Programme - and beyond her musical record has proven to be an outstanding person over that huge journey.

Nyasha also shows this trait.

In addition to her cash prize Nyasha also received a Stormfront Studio Voucher to allow her to
start gaining Professional recording experience working with us on her new collection of Original songs in 2024!

December 11th also marked our 18th wedding anniversary - not that we've ever managed to
find ourselves NOT on-stage or able to celebrate it properly in all that time!

Over the next week we'd conduct a studio introduction session for Nyasha as she
prepared towards recording in 2024 - and KT Stott & her dad called through twice to
get some specialist advice towards KT beginning to home record more of her amazing songs!

These 2 kids embody what we love to support however we can -
extreme talent, extreme dedication & extremely good human beings!

KT & Nyasha - we can't wait to keep working with you in 2024!

Our traditionally "final gig" of the year took us to the Iron Knob Golf Club on 16th December for the township's
2023 Christmas Dinner - we continue to enjoy the support and friendship of all the "Knobbies" who quite
rightly are proud of the fact THEY got "Mark & Alison" together "against all odds" way back in December 2003!

WOW what an honour for the Iron Knob Progress Association to surprise us with a
Certificate Of Appreciation for our commitment to entertaining this community every Christmas -
we are forever grateful to Iron Knob and everyone in it who continues to support us so whole-heartedly!

Our first week of January was taking shape with KT Stott booked to be at the studio starting to learn the
ins & outs of recording herself after Santa had left some home recording surprises under her tree!

Our New Year was set as we headed to 2024 with our 3 Samaritan College campuses & Band Programme,
Sunrise Christian School and PASOTA rosters already locked in!

And with that our "official" year was done!

THE WRAP

2023 has been a year 20-years-in-the-making as we've returned to the
Commercial Music Industry with our "OUT INTO THE BLUE" album -
and it's certainly been an eye-opener both good and bad.

All is not well with Original Music, nor the Music Industry in general because of
the gross theft Digital & Streaming platforms continue to inflict upon it.

As a perspective - during our album release year - one Independent Australian Country Music artist became the first ever
Independent Country artist to be certified with a "Gold" album by ARIA (once the ultimate achievement for a Recording Artist in Australia).

Before digital and streaming came along a Gold Record in Australia equalled 75,000 CD sales -
so that generated around 1.9 million dollars for that Artist, their management, record company and anyone else
who'd invested their lives in that music.

And 1.9 million dollars never went far -
it's barely enough to fund a little more push to have that new music "out there".

Now in 2023 that Artist - who will have
instead gained 180,000 streams and digital downloads
to go Gold - will have earned about $12.

Says it all really!

The current model for music is not sustainable, not even workable.

Any Artist - even the simplest Independent producer -
will spend upwards of several thousand dollars to make a song.
If you want to make an album do the maths!

25 years back a recording musician would put all their savings, all their credit, and a lot more out there to achieve this goal.

Then they'd spend many HARD years working gigs and PR trails to slowly eke back what they'd invested,
and then if you were good at it and worked long and hard enough you could start to turn a modest profit -
or at least enough to then start spending it all again on your next album!!

Fundamentally Artists need to start taking responsibility for the
theft of their property and removing it from these Digital & Streaming platforms -
as we have done.

AND the general public need a reality check to re-learn that music is not theirs to steal either -
it's not a "swipe it away and use it up for free" commodity that you're owed. We've all allowed music to
be so de-valued that it's now commonplace for many well established (and yes - even "famous"!) musicians to
not even be able to sell enough concert tickets to tour.

When we can sell one $25 CD and make twice as much as an ARIA-certified Gold Record holder, something's terribly wrong.

Pretty (extra)ordinary when we're continuing to fill orders from fans from all over Australia, and in the UK and USA
who've remembered and supported us even though our last music to their ears was released over 20 years ago!

More than one of these families have benefited A LOT through our long-term sponsorship of their kids' musical progress too!

And it's actually who we are "just sayin'!"?!

MUSIC was mankind's first primal, and most honest outpouring of emotion.

When we first looked into the endless night sky & felt inspired and intimidated -
MUSIC was our very first way of expressing it, and dealing with it.

Roll on 2024 #OITB - the best is yet to come!

Strap yourselves in everyone -
Here's 2024.......!!

Peace, Love & Care,
Mark, Alison & Studio Cat Gypsy!