The return of the Cali Ambassador.
Since seeing Elliott Niezel perform live, we’ve been a fan of whatever he does. After giving us New Age Desperado Visual Album a couple of weeks ago, the California native comes through with another full length LP, Hope Ranch Beach. With production from DJ Burn One, Hank Iving, Zeus Beats, Heartbeatz, 1988 and others, this one is shaping up to be a solid follow up.
Check out the full stream along with words from Elliott Niezel himself explaining the meaning behind the album below.
Today I decided to sit down & write this. Today I chose to let you all into my world a bit deeper. Today I chose to share a story with you, not the whole story – but a piece, a meaningful peace. I often find myself day dreaming of my past, almost reliving certain memories & wondering how I made it out alive. Not reliving them in the way of being stuck in the past or fantasying about the moments – more in astonishment & wonder of how I was able to be in those places & still be where I am today writing about them. I am not anywhere near the fully recovered street addict, as I’ll put it for now, that I strive to be although I am getting closer & closer with each passing day. I sometimes wonder why I was chosen to live & uplift & some were not. I used to strongly believe that I wasn’t worthy of the title. That belief has yet wavered & broken ever so slightly. I have faith in myself nowadays, not all days, but most days – more days than I used to. I have faith that I will succeed in bringing my dreams to life, in making them my life. This is a fairly new feeling. I grew up with the belief that I would be nothing & amount to nothing but a bum on the streets of Santa Barbara. During a handful of years, I truly believed this to be my fate. During my mid-late teenage years I often slept on the streets, in a tube of a playground, & during most days/evenings, I partied with friends & people who lived in large houses & had money to fund most activities they saw fit for the day. You see, even though we all came from different backgrounds & were raised in different ways, we still connected. We were all in the same place – sharing the aspects of hurt, personal pain, partying & the struggle to find ourselves. That place was Hope Ranch.
Hope Ranch is my Mecca of Santa Barbara.
Hope Ranch literally become a “hope” for me, a hope that one day I could live as a permanent resident. Not a vagrant. A hope that one day I could be in a nice big house with the nice dogs & the manicured lawns. A hope that I could be better, live better than I was. I love the name Hope Ranch exactly for that matter. It meant holding the faith, holding the vision, holding the dream and never letting go. Get to the positive place in your head, spread positivity, and find your Hope Ranch. That’s what Hope Ranch means to me. That’s why I started the whole Hope Ranch series. To give hope, to show that you can achieve any & all your dreams. While at the same time giving you a personal account of me & what part of my home town means to me. Listen.
I’ve spent thousands upon thousands of hours inside the gates of Hope Ranch & have had numerous friends & family who are residents of this beautiful community. Thank you all for everything – you know who you are. “Hope Ranch Beach” LP – my next major solo release is my best work yet. I will release it to the world on June 19th, 2015 although if you know me personally or see me around I already have physical copies printed & available for purchase. I chose this date specifically because it is the birthday of my fiancé & better half, which mind you, I met 8 years ago in Hope Ranch – at one of the big houses which belonged one of our close friends – during one of these many parties myself & said close friends were involved in. HR has never let me down. This date is the most important date in my life so why not release my most important & personal album to date on June 19th.
Head over here to grab a copy also.
