Ed Hale
Encyclopedia
Ed Hale is a writer
, singer-songwriter
, musician
, populist blog
ger, activist, and controversial YouTube
star. He was formerly known as Eddie Darling, and is currently the lead singer of the popular American Britpop
and modern rock
musical group Transcendence
. He also performs, records and releases solo albums. He is currently signed to the Dying Van Gogh record label. Hale is often alternatively called "The Ambassador" by fans and in the press. The nickname was given to Hale by friend and video-gaming industry maven Michael Nichols
due to Hale's love of travel, exploring other cultures, and his penchant for singing and speaking in multiple languages. Along with his native English
, Hale also speaks Spanish
, Portuguese
, Italian
, French
and Persian
.
who is half English and half Italian. He was born in Paris
, France
while his father was serving in the military. Hale started playing piano on his own at age four, allegedly inspired by seeing the film Sound of Music for the first time. Music would come naturally to Hale, as he comes from a long line of world-class musicians including his great uncle, the famous Sands Hotel
bandleader
, producer
and arranger
Antonio Morelli
. However, it has been reported that Hale got his start in music after his mother spoke with renowned psychic
Micki Dahne who recommended that she buy her creative yet troubled son a guitar in order to "keep him out of trouble, out of jail, and alive long enough to see his eighteenth birthday".
at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
for 5,000 people. It was after this fertile period as a nationally recognized solo recording artist that Hale formed the band Broken Spectacles.
Broken Spectacles - formed with childhood friend Matthew Sabatella, got their name from the cover of the Yoko Ono
album Season of Glass
, which featured a photo of the shattered and blood-stained glasses of slain Beatle's
singer John Lennon
. The band's debut album was engineered and produced by famed audio engineer and producer Brendan O'Brien
. A failed attempt by legendary Peter Gabriel
drummer Jerry Marotta
to produce the band's second album produced mixed results and was never completed, though Hale has stated that working with Marotta was one of the most important and influential experiences in his musical career.
After the breakup of Broken Spectacles, Hale toured the East Coast
as a solo artist and ended up moving to New York City
. While there he recorded 12 demos for Sony Records which were never officially released by the record label. Ten of those demos were eventually remixed and digitally remastered and released on the Acoustic In New York album in 2000. It was also at this time that Hale discovered World Music
, especially the MPB
and Tropicalismo
music of Brazil
and went to live in Brazil
to study the language of Portuguese
and learn how to play Bossa Nova
, doing several live performances and appearing on Brazilian television.
The original name for Ed Hale's second group was Ed Hale and The Troubadours of Transcendence. The name was shortened to Ed Hale and Transcendence for the band's debut album Rise and Shine released in 2002, and eventually shortened to simply Transcendence by the band's second album Sleep With You. The group originally had eleven members and was meant to be performing and recording what Hale was then calling "Planet Music."
Ed Hale and Transcendence first caught national attention by combining World Music
themes with an eccentric modern rock that they called "planet music." Hale's consciousness raising lyrics and the fact that he sang in no less than five languages on the band's debut album Rise and Shine - sometimes within the same song - also added to the group's unique appeal. The song Better Luck Next Time from that album is still played often on college and rock radio in the United States and Europe
. Their second album became the group's biggest seller and shot up to #24 on the Billboard
Rock Specialty Show Charts and yielded two minor hits for the group - Superhero Girl and Girls The band is consistently played on college and commercial rock radio stations around the United States and the UK, were invited to tour Europe in 2003, and have released four albums in the last six years: including Rise and Shine, Sleep With You, and the album Nothing Is Cohesive (2004). In 2008 they released the b-sides and rarities album The City of Lost Children, in anticipation of two new albums they were meant to release in 2009—the rock opera All Your Heroes Become Villains and garage rocker The Great Mistake, which got held up by the ever increasing problems in the music industry, specifically with the group's distribution company. Dying Van Gogh Records has recently announced that the long awaited two new albums will be officially released in 2011 under the artist name Ed Hale and the Transcendence. Songs by Transcendence meanwhile are often heard on a variety of television shows on VH1
and MTV
and in many films.
In July 2010 Hale released his latest solo album Ballad On Third Avenue receiving both critical acclaim and the greatest commercial success of his musical career thus far. The album debuted on college radio's CMJ Most Added Chart at #14 in its first week, peaked at #140 on the CMJ Top 200 Chart where it stayed for six months. The album also garnered Hale further radio success, this time in two new formats for the artist, Hot AC and Triple A, with the first single from the album I Walk Alone. Hale toured both the East and West Coast of the United States in 2009 and 2010 performing at several International Pop Overthrow Festivals in various cities from Boston
to Los Angeles
to Vancouver
in Canada
. He is now said to be in the recording studio in New York recording his followup album, this time with Ex Norwegian
front-man Roger Houdaille in the producer's seat. Dying Van Gogh Records also announced plans to release two deluxe boxed archive collections of older material from Hale's early days as a recording artist in the latter half of 2011. Spectacularly Broken is a two-disc set of nearly everything Hale recorded during his tenure with the band Broken Spectacles digitally remastered; and Goodbye Eddie Darling is the tentative title of a collection of home demo recordings that were recently discovered from the same period.
, who served as the only two-term president of the National Organization for Women
in the 1980s. In 2003 Hale set up an alternative media
headquarters in Miami to house leading activists and demonstrators from all over the country to protest and give voice to opposition to the Free Trade of the Americas FTAA meetings that were being held in the city.
In 2008, Hale embarked on a Peace Delegation to the country of Iran
with The Fellowship of Reconciliation
(FOR) where he and 12 other Americans, including Rolling Stone
contributing editor Robert Dreyfuss
and writer Larry Beinhart
met with leading government officials including former President Mohammad Khatami
and leading religious clerics to discuss ways to improve US/Iranian relations and increase peace between the two countries. The film department at Siena College
in New York is currently creating a one-hour documentary about Hale and his trip to Iran.
A few months later, Hale appeared at the 2008 United Nations General Assembly
Meeting in New York City to attend a private conference with Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other leading figures of the US peace movement. Hale is also scheduled to participate in a similar two week peace delegation trip to Israel/Palestine in 2009 with the Interfaith Peace-Builders organization.
Two of his newest projects include the non-profit website www.TuneInTurnOnHelp.org which funnels attention and monies to various causes and charities, and www.PeaceWithIran.com, a website that attempts to act as a vehicle for journalists and alternative press coverage of Iran, and to expose more Westerners to the Iranian culture
. Hale made two volunteer trips to the post-Hurricane Katrina
Gulf Coast helping to rebuild homes in 2006, and in 2009 he took two more volunteer trips to a remote village outside of the city Cartagena
in the country of Colombia
to help build a church and community center there. Hale also works locally with the New York City Mission Society volunteering with underprivileged children from the Bronx and Harlem
and regularly volunteers with a local Food Bank
, Covenant House
, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
, and is a Red Cross Disaster Relief volunteer.
and anti-aging sciences Hale developed the UltramMax-HGH, eventually becoming UltraMax-Gold, line of products which were the basis of the Ageless Foundation company.
Hale was frequently interviewed in Health Industry related magazines and journals about anti-aging and business when he was active in that industry, and he also hosted The Now Age Radio Show (WWNN) for two years which featured prominent guests in the field of health and longevity sciences such as Dr. Ray Sahelian and Durk Pearson
and Sandy Shaw
. The products he developed brought the controversial nutrient HGH mass market exposure and today can be found in health food stores all over America and in seven other countries. Hale is also known to be active in real estate investment in The Hale Daniel Corporation, a Florida company. He founded and still presides over the multi-media company Transcendent Media Group Inc. - which acts as a record company that is home to artists of various musical styles from rock
to Americana
to hip hop
, a web design firm, and a television production company. Hale also owns a clothing line which specializes in t-shirts. Hale refers to his various forays into business as a hobby and another outlet to express his creativity. He is the founder of two non-profits and his newest business venture is a company called Optum Consulting, a New York based business consulting firm with team-consultants in different cities all over the world.
Ed Hale currently lives in New York City and Seattle, Washington. In 2010 he married Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, populist blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger, activist, and controversial YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
star. He was formerly known as Eddie Darling, and is currently the lead singer of the popular American Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
and modern rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
musical group Transcendence
Transcendence (band)
Transcendence is an alternative rock band formed by Ed Hale in 2000. The band is a tight-knit collective of some of the most notable musicians from the Miami and New York music scenes...
. He also performs, records and releases solo albums. He is currently signed to the Dying Van Gogh record label. Hale is often alternatively called "The Ambassador" by fans and in the press. The nickname was given to Hale by friend and video-gaming industry maven Michael Nichols
Michael Nichols
Michael or Mike Nichols may refer to:* Mike Nichols , American film and stage director* Mike J. Nichols, American film editor* Mike Nichols , American neo-Pagan leader and author...
due to Hale's love of travel, exploring other cultures, and his penchant for singing and speaking in multiple languages. Along with his native English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Hale also speaks Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
.
Personal life
Hale is a second generation AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
who is half English and half Italian. He was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
while his father was serving in the military. Hale started playing piano on his own at age four, allegedly inspired by seeing the film Sound of Music for the first time. Music would come naturally to Hale, as he comes from a long line of world-class musicians including his great uncle, the famous Sands Hotel
Sands Hotel
The Sands Hotel was a historic Las Vegas Strip hotel/casino that operated from December 15, 1952 to June 30, 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, the Sands was the seventh resort that opened on the Strip....
bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
Antonio Morelli
Antonio Morelli
Antonio Morelli was a producer, arranger, bandleader, movie producer, and conductor most well-known for serving as orchestra leader for the infamous Sands Hotel Copa Room in its Rat Pack heyday from 1954 through 1971. He was music director, band leader, and friend to some of the biggest names in...
. However, it has been reported that Hale got his start in music after his mother spoke with renowned psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
Micki Dahne who recommended that she buy her creative yet troubled son a guitar in order to "keep him out of trouble, out of jail, and alive long enough to see his eighteenth birthday".
Music career
Hale released his first album, Eddie, at the age of 17 on the Alarming Talent record label under the moniker Eddie Darling. He was discovered while still in high school by author and talent agent Murray Silver who penned the book Great Balls of Fire - The Jerry Lee Lewis Story and produced the Eddie album. Hale's first professional live concert performance was opening for the band R.E.M.R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
for 5,000 people. It was after this fertile period as a nationally recognized solo recording artist that Hale formed the band Broken Spectacles.
Broken Spectacles - formed with childhood friend Matthew Sabatella, got their name from the cover of the Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
album Season of Glass
Season of Glass
Season of Glass is a 1981 album by Yoko Ono, her first solo recording after the murder of her husband John Lennon. The album was released less than six months after Lennon's death and deals with it directly in songs such as "Goodbye Sadness" and "I Don't Know Why".The front cover features Lennon's...
, which featured a photo of the shattered and blood-stained glasses of slain Beatle's
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
singer John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
. The band's debut album was engineered and produced by famed audio engineer and producer Brendan O'Brien
Brendan O'Brien (music producer)
Brendan O’Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician.At age 14, O'Brien played guitar for the Atlanta-based cover band Pranks. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the Samurai Catfish band...
. A failed attempt by legendary Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
drummer Jerry Marotta
Jerry Marotta
Jerry Marotta is a drummer currently residing in Woodstock, New York. He is the brother of Rick Marotta, who is also a well-known drummer and composer....
to produce the band's second album produced mixed results and was never completed, though Hale has stated that working with Marotta was one of the most important and influential experiences in his musical career.
After the breakup of Broken Spectacles, Hale toured the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
as a solo artist and ended up moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. While there he recorded 12 demos for Sony Records which were never officially released by the record label. Ten of those demos were eventually remixed and digitally remastered and released on the Acoustic In New York album in 2000. It was also at this time that Hale discovered World Music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, especially the MPB
Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...
and Tropicalismo
Tropicalismo
Tropicália, also known as Tropicalismo, is a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s and encompassed theatre, poetry, and music, among other forms. Tropicália was influenced by poesia concreta , a genre of Brazilian avant-garde poetry embodied in the works of Augusto de Campos, Haroldo...
music of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and went to live in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
to study the language of Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
and learn how to play Bossa Nova
Bossa Nova
Bossa Nova may refer to:*Bossa nova, a style of music*Bossa Nova , a dance form associated with the music*Bossa Nova , a 2000 film*Bossa Nova - album by John Pizzarelli...
, doing several live performances and appearing on Brazilian television.
The original name for Ed Hale's second group was Ed Hale and The Troubadours of Transcendence. The name was shortened to Ed Hale and Transcendence for the band's debut album Rise and Shine released in 2002, and eventually shortened to simply Transcendence by the band's second album Sleep With You. The group originally had eleven members and was meant to be performing and recording what Hale was then calling "Planet Music."
Ed Hale and Transcendence first caught national attention by combining World Music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
themes with an eccentric modern rock that they called "planet music." Hale's consciousness raising lyrics and the fact that he sang in no less than five languages on the band's debut album Rise and Shine - sometimes within the same song - also added to the group's unique appeal. The song Better Luck Next Time from that album is still played often on college and rock radio in the United States and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Their second album became the group's biggest seller and shot up to #24 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Rock Specialty Show Charts and yielded two minor hits for the group - Superhero Girl and Girls The band is consistently played on college and commercial rock radio stations around the United States and the UK, were invited to tour Europe in 2003, and have released four albums in the last six years: including Rise and Shine, Sleep With You, and the album Nothing Is Cohesive (2004). In 2008 they released the b-sides and rarities album The City of Lost Children, in anticipation of two new albums they were meant to release in 2009—the rock opera All Your Heroes Become Villains and garage rocker The Great Mistake, which got held up by the ever increasing problems in the music industry, specifically with the group's distribution company. Dying Van Gogh Records has recently announced that the long awaited two new albums will be officially released in 2011 under the artist name Ed Hale and the Transcendence. Songs by Transcendence meanwhile are often heard on a variety of television shows on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and in many films.
In July 2010 Hale released his latest solo album Ballad On Third Avenue receiving both critical acclaim and the greatest commercial success of his musical career thus far. The album debuted on college radio's CMJ Most Added Chart at #14 in its first week, peaked at #140 on the CMJ Top 200 Chart where it stayed for six months. The album also garnered Hale further radio success, this time in two new formats for the artist, Hot AC and Triple A, with the first single from the album I Walk Alone. Hale toured both the East and West Coast of the United States in 2009 and 2010 performing at several International Pop Overthrow Festivals in various cities from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He is now said to be in the recording studio in New York recording his followup album, this time with Ex Norwegian
Ex Norwegian
- Origin :Ex Norwegian originated in Miami Beach, FL in the summer of 2008 and officially launched at that years CMJ Festival in New York City, NY after the success of their debut single "Something Unreal." The band was created out of Roger Houdaille's Father Bloopy project, which bassist Carolina...
front-man Roger Houdaille in the producer's seat. Dying Van Gogh Records also announced plans to release two deluxe boxed archive collections of older material from Hale's early days as a recording artist in the latter half of 2011. Spectacularly Broken is a two-disc set of nearly everything Hale recorded during his tenure with the band Broken Spectacles digitally remastered; and Goodbye Eddie Darling is the tentative title of a collection of home demo recordings that were recently discovered from the same period.
Activism
Outspoken social and political activism are also one of Hale's major occupations. Again perhaps an aspect that can be attributed to his lineage. Hale is the nephew of feminist activist, political analyst, lobbyist, and grassroots organizer Eleanor SmealEleanor Smeal
Eleanor Smeal is a feminist activist, political analyst, lobbyist, and grassroots organizer...
, who served as the only two-term president of the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
in the 1980s. In 2003 Hale set up an alternative media
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
headquarters in Miami to house leading activists and demonstrators from all over the country to protest and give voice to opposition to the Free Trade of the Americas FTAA meetings that were being held in the city.
In 2008, Hale embarked on a Peace Delegation to the country of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
with The Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries...
(FOR) where he and 12 other Americans, including Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
contributing editor Robert Dreyfuss
Robert Dreyfuss
Robert Dreyfuss is a freelance investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The Nation, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, The American Prospect, and other progressive publications. His work also appears on line at TomPaine.com....
and writer Larry Beinhart
Larry Beinhart
Larry Beinhart is an American author. He is best known as the author of the political and detective novel American Hero, which was adapted for the political-parody film Wag the Dog. Directed by Barry Levinson, it starred Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, William H...
met with leading government officials including former President Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
and leading religious clerics to discuss ways to improve US/Iranian relations and increase peace between the two countries. The film department at Siena College
Siena College
Siena College is an independent Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Loudonville, in the town of Colonie, New York, United States. Siena is a four-year, coeducational, independent college in the Franciscan tradition, founded by the Franciscan Friars in 1937. It has 3,000 full-time students and...
in New York is currently creating a one-hour documentary about Hale and his trip to Iran.
A few months later, Hale appeared at the 2008 United Nations General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
Meeting in New York City to attend a private conference with Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other leading figures of the US peace movement. Hale is also scheduled to participate in a similar two week peace delegation trip to Israel/Palestine in 2009 with the Interfaith Peace-Builders organization.
Two of his newest projects include the non-profit website www.TuneInTurnOnHelp.org which funnels attention and monies to various causes and charities, and www.PeaceWithIran.com, a website that attempts to act as a vehicle for journalists and alternative press coverage of Iran, and to expose more Westerners to the Iranian culture
Culture of Iran
To best understand Iran, Afghanistan, their related societies and their people, one must first attempt to acquire an understanding of their culture. It is in the study of this area where the Persian identity optimally expresses itself...
. Hale made two volunteer trips to the post-Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
Gulf Coast helping to rebuild homes in 2006, and in 2009 he took two more volunteer trips to a remote village outside of the city Cartagena
Cartagena
-Colombia:*Cartagena, Colombia, a city in the Bolivar Region, the largest city bearing this name*Cartagena de Chairá, Colombia-Other:*Cartagena *Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety*FC Cartagena, a football club based in Cartagena, Spain-See also:...
in the country of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
to help build a church and community center there. Hale also works locally with the New York City Mission Society volunteering with underprivileged children from the Bronx and Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
and regularly volunteers with a local Food Bank
Food bank
A food bank or foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes mostly donated food to a wide variety of agencies that in turn feed the hungry. The largest sources of food are for-profit growers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers who in the normal course of business have...
, Covenant House
Covenant House
Covenant House is the largest privately funded agency in the Americas providing shelter, food, immediate crisis care, and an array of other services to homeless, and runaway youth. In addition to basic needs, Covenant House provides a continuum of care to homeless youth aged 16–21 designed to...
, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is a 501 non-profit organization whose mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that try to have a measurable impact on youth....
, and is a Red Cross Disaster Relief volunteer.
Business, professional, and entrepreneurial career
Alongside his music career and social and political activism, Hale has also achieved success as an entrepreneur. He has founded several companies in various industries including a recording studio, The Garden of Eden health food store, and the vitamin manufacturing company Ageless Foundation Laboratories which he sold to the Naturade company in 2005. Obsessed with life extensionLife extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
and anti-aging sciences Hale developed the UltramMax-HGH, eventually becoming UltraMax-Gold, line of products which were the basis of the Ageless Foundation company.
Hale was frequently interviewed in Health Industry related magazines and journals about anti-aging and business when he was active in that industry, and he also hosted The Now Age Radio Show (WWNN) for two years which featured prominent guests in the field of health and longevity sciences such as Dr. Ray Sahelian and Durk Pearson
Durk Pearson
Durk Pearson, born in 1943 in Illinois, is best known for coauthoring a series of books on longevity, beginning with Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach.- Early life :...
and Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is an American writer on health. She is an advocate of life extension.-Education:Shaw's father was an engineer and her mother a housewife. She received her degree in chemistry from U.C.L.A...
. The products he developed brought the controversial nutrient HGH mass market exposure and today can be found in health food stores all over America and in seven other countries. Hale is also known to be active in real estate investment in The Hale Daniel Corporation, a Florida company. He founded and still presides over the multi-media company Transcendent Media Group Inc. - which acts as a record company that is home to artists of various musical styles from rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
to Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
to hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
, a web design firm, and a television production company. Hale also owns a clothing line which specializes in t-shirts. Hale refers to his various forays into business as a hobby and another outlet to express his creativity. He is the founder of two non-profits and his newest business venture is a company called Optum Consulting, a New York based business consulting firm with team-consultants in different cities all over the world.
Ed Hale currently lives in New York City and Seattle, Washington. In 2010 he married Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai.
Solo albums
- 1990 - Eddie
- 1995 - Spectacularly Broken
- 1997 - Acoustic in New York
- 2009 - Ballad on Third Avenue
Ed Hale and The Transcendence
- 2002 - The Journey: Remix EP
- 2002 - Rise and Shine
- 2011 - All Your Heroes Become Villains
- 2011 - The Great Mistake
Transcendence
- 2003 - The Girls EP
- 2003 - Veronica: Single
- 2003 - Sleep With You
- 2005 - Nothing is Cohesive
- 2008 - The City of Lost Children: Rarities