Adam and Nikki Anders, together as Room for Two, are working on their debut album, entitled Roots Before Branches (Curb Records). The album’s title track was prominently featured in the television movie, Princess, which premiered on ABC Family on April 20th.
Room for Two, and the successes of Adam and Nikki Anders as songwriters, wasn't built overnight. In fact, Adam and Nikki have written Top 5 hits for the Backstreet Boys ("More Than That") and Billy Crawford ("Trackin") and tunes for such diverse artists as Sinead O'Connor, Nick Lachey, Ashley Tisdale, Jesse McCartney, Ace of Base, Tata Young, Paradiso Girls, The MyClymonts, Shannon Noll and Sheryl Crow. They've also penned a myriad of TV themes: for the Kelsey Grammar sitcom Back To You, "The Wedding Bells," "K-Ville," "Fashion House" and "Wicked Wicked Games," among them. Later this year, the duo's songwriting for other artists will be showcased in several films, including the movie musicals High School Musical 3, Camp Rock, Cheetah Girls 3 and Hannah Montana.
Roots Before Branches unites Adam's and Nikki's diverse songwriting, producing and performing talents into one compelling body of work. The album alternates between songs that look outward and inward, examining both ends of the spectrum with an honesty and soulfulness that resonates equally through Nikki's vocals and Adam's Motown-influenced bass lines and captivating melodies. The first single, "Roots Before Branches," tells a personal tale, written on New Year's Day several years ago "living in a small apartment in New York City, at our lowest point," as they struggled to break through as artists. Other songs shine, like the upbeat "My Kind of Perfect" and "That's What Love Is For," while the pop rock of "Live It Like You Mean It" offers encouragement for anyone who has a dream. "Change," which builds from a quiet guitar-and-vocal opening to its gospel-tinged culmination, spotlights the challenge of bettering the woes of the world by bettering one's self.
Adam and Nikki were born more than 4,000 miles apart; she in the small rural town of Waverly, Iowa and he in the bustling seaside municipality of Stockholm, Sweden. Nikki was a "serious gymnast" and left home at age twelve to train for the Olympics. Already an accomplished pianist, Nikki began to explore her potential as a vocalist and decided this was her true calling, moving to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams. Within two years, she was signed as a member of Avalon, a vocal harmony group which would record two albums, earn eight 1 singles and garner industry honors, including a Dove Award for New Artist of the Year. Honing her talents as a songwriter, Nikki was subsequently signed by Tommy Mottola to Columbia Records as a solo artist where she met another aspiring songwriter, Adam Anders. The team began writing and recording several songs that found their way into soundtracks for film (The Wedding Planner) and television ("Dawson's Creek").
Nikki's childhood, dynamic by any other standard, seems relatively tame compared to Adam's early years. His parents, both classically trained musicians who turned to gospel for the Swedish ministry, took to the road with their three children, traveling extensively. Adam, who slept "in motel rooms and under studio consoles," sang on his first record at age three-and-a-half and performed on tour with his family throughout the world, finally settling in the states. At thirteen, he began studying jazz bass at the University of South Florida and, three years later, joined his older brother in Nashville.
It was in Nashville, while serving as a session player and touring with the likes of Shania Twain, that Adam met his future wife, who had just signed with Columbia Records. Together they decided their shared passion was not just recording, but writing and producing their own songs and performing them in front of appreciative audiences. And with that dream, Room for Two began to grow, ultimately to branch out this spring with an album that reaches out to listeners, on whatever side of the world they may be...
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