After a five-year proper-album break since 2004’s The Handler, Har Mar Superstar, sexy as ever, is ready to unleash Dark Touches on the masses. On Dark Touches, Sean Tillmann – the singer, songwriter, and producer behind the Har Mar moniker – delivers his most club-friendly collection of jams yet. Tillmann’s silky smooth croon and tongue-in-cheek lyrics lead a nonstop dance party that blends everything from synth-pop to R&B, with ample hooks around every corner.

Dark Touches builds a bridge between the worlds of indie and Top 40 dance music, thanks in part to an eclectic group of collaborators. The album’s many guests include John Fields (Andrew WK, The Jonas Brothers, Rooney), The Faint’s beatmakers Clark Baechle and Jacob Thiele, singer-songwriter Adam Green, P.O.S. of the Rhymesayers collective, Neon Neon’s Boom Bip, Flowers of Doom, and Samaire Armstrong. The Bird and The Bee’s Greg Kurstin, who has also produced tracks for Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, and Lily Allen, co-wrote and lent his studio wizardry to “Tall Boy.” The track was originally intended for Spears and, with the unchanged lyrics, takes on a vibrant new life in the hands of Har Mar.

Of course no Har Mar song is complete without Tillmann’s signature lyrics, which are both outrageously absurd and witty. “I Got Next,” which features The Bird and The Bee’s Inara George, details Tillmann’s practice of asking women to sign contracts that put him next in line to date if they ever leave their current boyfriend. He has also penned an anthem for the ladies with “Girls Night,” a track that was once intended for The Cheetah Girls, and like “Tall Boy,” maintains the original lyrics, written from a female perspective.

Tillmann is also getting ready to dip his toes into the world of Hollywood with the release of Whip It, a film directed by Drew Barrymore. As if he isn’t wearing enough hats already, Tillmann is actively developing his own movie scripts and sitcom pilots. Along with his golden pipes, the ability to juggle multiple creative outlets is sure to win him entry into both the hearts and undergarments of women and men everywhere.

Get ready, everyone. Dark Touches is coming!

In the summer of 2002 things started to change. After I completed my first UK tour, supporting the Pattern, I found myself feeling right at home in the British rock scene. Even better though, I found an audience who really understood me, or at least was ready to recognize the hard work I put into my songs. I began to focus all of my attention overseas which lead me on a string of sold-out tours, TV and film appearances, a four month residency in Ibiza , and festivals due to the overwhelming response to my second album, You Can Feel Me. After spending nine months of 2003 in London I started to feel unproductive because, like many before me, I suffer from a form of writer’s block that is brought on by a hectic travel and promotion schedule. The time to sit down at the piano or with a guitar never came.

In November 2003 I moved back across the pond to Los Angeles to undergo the writing and recording of the Handler. Two of my best friends from Minnesota and I moved into the famed Dirt-era Motley Crue apartment on the Sunset Strip, and I tried my best to summon the lost spirit of my scuzzy neighborhood by making the most rock and roll R+B album ever. Early in January this year I met my good friend and producer, John Fields, and the songs you are now listening to poured out almost magically. John just happens to be a fellow Minnepolitan with a passion for the Purple One who couldn’t wait to get his mics on my voice, and I was already a huge fan of his production on Andrew WK and Pink to name a couple. Back and forth we spat out guitar, synth, piano and bass lines to each other’s delight, and the album came together like an effortless puzzle. The first day we got together we left with the musical outlines and most of the vocals recorded for Body Request, DUI, and Bird in the Hand. Every day for the next two months we got together and poured everything we had into making a perfect pop record, and soon enough Karen O, Nick Zinner, Pete Thomas, Michael Bland, Northern State , and a host of other gifted performers started popping their heads into the studio to lend a hand.

This is the album I’ve been attempting to make my whole life. The Handler chronicles all of the high highs and low lows of the last two years of growing up more or less publicly. Every detail is there for a reason, and I’ve never laid so much out bare. My goal was to make a more human record that hits everywhere from the joys of being on top to the harrowing loneliness of the same place. Just as importantly, I think the album is a whole lot of fun which is something a lot of musicians seem to be having a lot of trouble with lately. Some people wait their whole lives to feel this good about something. I’m lucky it happened by the age of 26. I hope you enjoy the Handler. It’s gonna be huge.

-Har Mar Superstar
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