Tween Metal Band Unlocking The Truth Inks Book Deal With Penguin
New York, NY – Unlocking the Truth, the Brooklyn-bred, tween heavy metal band, will publish a book with Putnam Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. Written by the band’s three African American members – Malcolm Brickhouse (13), Jarad Dawkins (12) and Alec Atkins (13) – the book (part memoir and part inspiration) will chronicle the artists’ path to success, from a basement in Brooklyn to opening for the likes of Guns-N-Roses and a recent album deal with SONY. Charisse Jones who co-wrote the New York Times-bestselling Life in Motion, ABT dancer Misty Copeland’s memoir, has signed on as writer. The deal was brokered by Jane Startz, Jane Startz Productions and Stacey Barney, Senior Editor, Putnam Books for Young Readers. Penguin has world rights.
A group on the cusp of stardom, Unlocking the Truth’s book will focus on essential truths or guiding principles (like determination and friendship) that have brought them this far and continue to guide them. The book will also be a resource for children who want to know how to recognize their dreams and what it takes to achieve them; and also for parents who want to know what they can do to support their child’s dreams and how to separate the whims from the real deal aspirations. While working on their first book, the boys are simultaneously laying the tracks for their first album this summer, putting together a documentary with the goal of appearing at Sundance, and developing a Talk Show where the boys interview their favorite artists.
“I’m so excited to be working with these amazingly talented young men. They put their heart and soul into everything they do and I know their story will serve as an inspiration to many,” said Stacey Barney, Sr. Editor, Putnam Books for Young Readers.
“The book is important to us because we will get to share our journey with the world and inspire both kids and adults, and show that if you work hard your dream just might come true,” said Unlocking the Truth. “And it is an amazing opportunity to tell the world what friendship is about. We are more than just a band; we are the best of friends proving that the whole is bigger than the individual.”
About Unlocking the Truth:
Unlocking the Truth is an American metal band based in Brooklyn, NY. Comprised of three friends, aged 12 and 13 years old, they began attracting attention with their street performances in Times Square and Washington Square Park.
Founding members Malcolm Brickhouse and Jarad Dawkins met each other at a birthday party. Sharing similar tastes in music, they formed their band in 2007. As the metal duo’s street performances started gaining attention, Brickhouse and Dawkins felt their band needed a bassist but none of their friends were musicians…so they taught their pre-school friend, Alec Atkins, how to play the bass guitar from scratch.
The band was recently noted as the youngest group to perform at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. LA Times writer, Randall Roberts, declared of their Coachella performance, “a hard, distorted blend of metal, speed punk and alternative rock on the main stage, they were as well-practiced as units three times their age.” They’ve performed at the Afropunk Fest, SXSW and will be playing on this summer’s Vans 2014 Warped Tour, opening for Queens of the Stone Age and appearing on the bill of the Heavy Montreal Festival headlined by Metallica and Slayer. They have also supported such legendary bands as Guns N’ Roses, Motorhead and more. Unlocking The Truth recently signed a record deal with SONY and will head into the studio shortly to record their debut EP, tentatively scheduled for release this fall.
Penguin Young Readers Group is one of the leading children’s book publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Philomel, Puffin, Speak, Firebird, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking, Razorbill, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York Times- bestselling authors as, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher, Judy Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Ally Condie, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola, Sarah Dessen, Anna Dewdney, John Flanagan, John Green, Anthony Horowitz, Oliver Jeffers, Mike Lupica, Richelle Mead, Richard Peck, Patricia Polacco, and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises such as The Little Engine That Could, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the Classic Winnie the Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Strega Nona, Madeline, Mad Libs, Alex Rider, the Rangers Apprentice, Skippyjon Jones, Flower Fairies, and Pippi Longstocking, among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of Penguin Group LLC, a Penguin Random House company.
Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
