Recording Studio
Some years ago, a group of musicians came together to form harmonies that was called Sovereign. Today they are famous for their live on strong Australian Country Music Vibe. The Band was lucky enough that the A&R rep from Stallion Records caught the boy’s performance at a festival and immediately offered a deal.
Later they debut album ‘Too Hot To Handle’ was released, the first single ‘Oh Boy’, blasted its way into the Australian Country Music lovers ears and hearts.
What followed has been a string of chart successes, hits like ‘Too Hot to Handle’ and ‘Blue Eyed Hideaway’ made the country industry stand up and take notice, while ‘See Them Ride’ made the APRA Top Twenty Songs of the Year and ‘King of the Murray’ earned the trio the Victorian Country Music Awards ‘Band of the Year 2001.
Sovereign teamed up with Australia’s leading country producer, Garth Porter, to write and record their second album ‘Wild One’. Garth’s production finesse brought the vocal harmonies to the fore and shone the light on Sovereign’s Aussie-ness.
The first single off the new album was ‘Company Man’ followed by ‘Tooraweenah Cowgirl’, which earned two Golden Guitar final five nominations, went to #3 on the national charts and picked up three awards at the Victorian Country Music Awards.
More chart success was earned with ‘It’s My Town’, ‘Wild One’ and the latest Top 30 single ‘Stomp’.
A vocal collaboration with Travis Sinclair on the classic ‘All I Have to do is Dream’ also pushed the band into the charts, going all the way to #2.
That’s a total of TEN charting hits in just five years. The boys also featured heavily in the 2004 Top 50 Songs of the Year, with a total of three chart hits listed.
Sovereign has now picked up a total of SEVEN awards for the album ‘WILD ONE’ including:
2004 Best Australian Country Band (Vic. Awards)
2004 Best Victorian Country Band (Vic. Awards)
2004 Male Vocalist of the Year for Steve Eales (Vic. Awards)
2005 Peoples Choice Award for best band. 2005
2005 T.I.A.R.A for best band.
2005 Album of the Year (Vic. Awards)
2005 Traditional Song of the Year (Vic. Awards)
‘Crossing the Tracks’, an ABC Music project gave Sovereign the opportunity to record a country version of the Australian pop classic ‘Eagle Rock’ and feature on an album with stars such as Lee Kernaghan, James Blundell, Beccy Cole and Felicity (to name a few), this led to performances with Daddy Cool’s, Ross Wilson in early 2005.
Dubbed by media as ‘the men in black’, the trio is as distinguishable in their black hats, clothes and boots, as they are by their unique vocal blend and original Aussie country songs.
Front man and main songwriter for the band is Steve Eales.
Known in the industry as Ealesy, he grew up in South Australia in a coastal town surrounded by sheep farms.
Moving to the high country of Victoria as a teenager he developed a passion for horse riding in
the mountains.
Most of the inspiration for his songs is drawn from real experiences.
Steve plays acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, and harmonica on the recordings and is
endorsed by Maton Guitars.
Andy Hartley is drummer and backing vocalist in the band. (Sometimes acoustic guitar)
Drawing from his experience of riding the high plains and time spent on the family farm at Tooraweenah in NSW, Andy has co-written many of Sovereigns original songs.
Andy has played the drums for some of Australia’s finest talent including Adam Harvey, Sara Storer and Travis Sinclair.
Steve Hartley (Andy’s older brother) is bass guitarist and backing vocalist, he has also contributed in co-writing a few of Sovereigns tracks, including the title track for debut album, ‘Too Hot to Handle’.
Steve is known as ‘Stiffy’ in the industry but wont comment on the origin of his nickname.
A bass guitarist of some renown Steve has played for many top country artists both as a session player and live performances, including Travis Sinclair, Adam Harvey and Sara Storer.