NEW YORK (Billboard Publicity Wire via Business Wire EON) August 13, 2008 -- Universal Motown Records Group is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Grammy Award-winning producer Dallas Austin and his imprint Rowdy Records and Toronto-based management company, Marked Music, to sign emerging artist and producer Colin Munroe to a worldwide, ex-Canada recording agreement.

Don't Think Less of Me

Colin Munroe caught the industry's attention earlier this year when his unauthorized remix of Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" exploded online, at one point becoming the 2nd most watched video on the internet in it's 2nd week of release. The remix earned widespread critical acclaim with everyone from MTV to Pitchfork Media, Billboard Magazine to Perez Hilton voicing their approval. Kanye himself gave a nod to Munroe's moxy, featuring the clip on his personal blog. The video ultimately scored more than 500k views on YouTube, earning features in more than 1500 blogs and spawned countless mash-ups and re-remixes all on word of mouth buzz alone.

Dallas Austin’s decision to partner with Universal Motown was a simple one. Says Austin: “I have had the pleasure of working with Sylvia Rhone since I was 16 years old and she is undoubtedly one of the most passionate and innovative minds working in music today. From the minute I introduced Colin and his music to Sylvia and her team at Universal Motown, it was clear that they got it and were excited to share it with the world!”

Adds Sylvia Rhone, President of Universal Motown Records Group: "Colin is a truly modern artist, not bound by any one style or approach, but using his imagination and creativity to build music that cuts across sounds and genres. He is a brilliant multi-tasker – a true one-man band, singer, songwriter, producer, and performer. From his urban-based production work to his breakthrough Kanye and U2 re-mixes to his fantastic pop/rock-driven debut album, he is an original and compelling artist. I am thrilled to welcome Colin into the Universal Motown family.”

Munroe's forthcoming debut album, "Don't Think Less of Me", is a departure from his urban production background, owing more to Munroe's love of Tin Pan Alley, The Beatles and early Van Morrison than Dr. Dre. In true D-I-Y fashion (Munroe's a completely self-taught musician and engineer), Don't Think Less of Me was written, performed and produced by Colin Munroe, first in his attic studio before being completed at Dallas Austin's Atlanta-based recording space. Austin contributed co-writing and co-production to Scissors & Baggage and co-production to Writing (Take It or Leave It) and Divine. Munroe describes the project as an album of songs about trying to figure things out: live, love, leaving home...there's even a song about writing songs!" Mixed by Grammy nominee Rick Sheppard (Pink, Gwen Stefani) and Mark Needham (The Killers, My Chemical Romance), the disc is scheduled for its North American release in early 2009.

Next up for Munroe is a cover and accompanying video of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday, which debuts on iTunes on Tuesday August 12th. The cover, along with a Munroe original, Will I Stay (and remix, featuring a guest verse from Mark Ronson protege Wale, slated for release in late August) will be the first releases off a forthcoming Colin Munroe mixtape due early fall.

To preview Sunday Bloody Sunday visit www.myspace.com/colinmunroe or www.youtube.com/colinmunroemovies. Also on deck is "World of Pain", the first official release from "Don't Think Less of Me" impacting radio in Fall 2008.

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