In September 2007, local star Kees Dieffenthaller, lead singer with Kes the Band, was invited to Nashville Tennessee to participate in a three-day writing camp, that was hosted by Desmond Child. Desmond Child has been a songwriter/producer for over three decades and has reigned as one of music’s most successful creative forces. His list of accolades includes Grammy awards, 70 Top 40 singles, and songs that have sold over 300 million albums worldwide. Child’s career has been highlighted by a stunning array of diversity. His collaborations include Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Ricky Martin, KISS, Kelly Clarkson, Cher and Alice Cooper.

There were 25 writers from around the world in attendance and the list included many considered to be the top names in the business. Kees was part of this elite list. The goal of the writing camp was to come up with some songs for the new Ace Young album that Desmond Child was producing. On the third and final day, Desmond selected Kees and Darrell Brown to be his writing partners. The trio wrote for almost 11 hours andt hey came up with a beautiful ballad called, ’How You Gonna Spend Your Life.’ Out of all the songs that were written over the course of those three days, this one ended up on Ace’s new album which was released on July 15.

Some of the writers that were at the camp that Kees worked include:

- GARY BURR ( credits include Kelly Clarkston, Clay Aiken, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Christina Aguilera, Tim McGraw)

- BILLY FALCON (Credits include Bon Jovi, Cher, Stevie Nicks)

- DARRELL BROWN (credits include Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes)

Kees is extremely excited about this opportunity and says ’it was an absolute honour to work with Desmond Child who is the most sought after writer in the world! To have a song I co-wrote on an album such as Ace’s is an amazing feeling.’ Ace Young is from Colorado and is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and actor. He came to national recognition upon appearing on the fifth season of the popular reality television talent show, American Idol.

Kees and his band, which includes brothers Hans and Jon, Riad Boochoon, Keithson Cruickshank, Richard Balgobin and features the talented Nadia Batson, have had a great year. They were recently in Los Angeles where they had shows in the Temple Bar (a popular launching pad for many distinguished acts), The Dragon Fly and Molly Malone’s. All the shows had huge turnouts and the band has been asked to return to do a more elaborate tour of the West Coast! Kees also released his first ever music video ’Lion’ which can be seen on all local networks as well as Tempo and on line. They are heading to Tortola, Toronto, London and New York in the next two months and are also working on their own album due out in December. You can look forward to an exciting mix of music and electrifying performances for the upcoming season.

For information on Desmond Child or Ace Young you can check out www.desmondchild.com or http://www.myspace.com/aceyoung, respectively. For information on Kes please contact Question Mark Entertainment, Carolyn Pasea at 1 868 624-2844 or 1 868 353-7000 or myspace.com/kestheband