Burning Flag (Viper Hamato Album)

Burning Flag Is the second Studio album by American-Japanese recording artist and producer Viper Hamato, released on June 22, 2004 by a joint venture of Sony Music America and a newly formed record company by Viper called Hamato Records. The album, is often stated as the beginning of Hamato's "Five Album Test" which incorporated the blueprint which Hamato would begin using for later records which included 80's/90's Sound. The album also incorporated R&B, Pop and even various amounts of New Jack Swing Elements, the album is the only one of two albums with more than one feature on Hamato's records to which was often stated by Hamato that 'a full album of collaborations often shows a weakness in either the art or the artist'. Hamato spent over a year crafting what was considered the perfect follow up album after Dreams which consisted of two configurations (see Kings Blues (album) and below for earlier configuration). It was initially thought to be that Hamato would not get the record done until late 2004, early 2005 but had surprised representatives at Sony when he'd stated he had the album done within a year. It is believed that Hamato had written well over 180 songs for the album, and is known to be one of his biggest pieces of work that would later go onto influence his later albums of the 2000's.

Burning Flag, unlike Hamato's previous works, was given breathing space in what Viper was able to do musically compared to his previous album Dreams where the recording sessions had taken a little over 6 months. Burning Flag was planned over a year and eight months in order to get any possible imperfections smoothed out and refinements done before the first single was dropped. Hamato would go on to later re-record some vocal takes in September and October of 2003 to later fix any possible issue he had heard in the sound at his newly built Melbourne Studio Forest Way before the first single I Want You was released. Much like Hamato's previous album however, many songs on the track list go for upwards of 4 to 5 Minutes, the only exception being Gotta Have You featuring Michael Jackson which goes for 6:26.

## Background

In Late 2002, after the immense success in terms of album sales, Viper Hamato was given a new contract after the trail of his first album from a $750,000 contract to $2,500,000. This not only allowed more studio time for Hamato to begin working on whatever sound would come next for his sophomore album. But also allowed his marketing budget to increase to upwards of $750,000 per single release and $1,250,000 for album marketing.

During this period, Hamato had begun experimenting further with a heavier R&B dominating sound that steered away from Dream's more Pop-oriented sound and one that expanded on the later tracks of Dreams from tracks 7-10. Upon doing this, Hamato began using and experimenting with the method of making sounds and instrumentation that sounded similar towards his previous tracks, but nothing alike. Many had noticed this with his songs "Let's Groove" and "I Want You" sounding a lot like previous tracks, but not enough to make them similar in forms of which the songs sound alike.

## Writing and Recording

During studio sessions, Hamato would often stay from the hours of 7am to 7pm, usually staying in the studio recording and producing new ideas until such time as another artists required the space for recording. It was stated that at this time in Mid-2002 under Sony's request that Hamato try and find a backup studio or possibly make his own with his contract allowance, which wasn't taken up until late 2003 with the announcement of Forest Way Studios.

While recording and finding inspiration in writing for new tracks, Hamato had often stated that he would turn to many albums in order to try and find a sound that would lead him in the right direction of where he wanted to go with his R&B heavy album. Upon reflection, when talking about the production of Burning Flag, Hamato has often stated that Sandra Akwa's Charmbracelet and Aaliyah's two albums One In A Million and her Self-Titled often gave way to heavy sounding 80's and 90's sound that Hamato had placed on his album at the time. Hamato had often stated he'd found magic in a Rolling Stone interview when he'd begin the drum loop for "I Want You":

> The second I heard the looping drum track playing back to me, I knew it was going somewhere. And everyone just started packing up and saying that they were going home and I let them know that was cool, because I usually packed up a majority of the stuff either way, but I just started playing around with that drum loop and found nothing that fit it. Until I played a single chord on a keyboard and realized I had a call and response sort of ordeal going on with the keyboard.
>
>

During the albums first configuration, Sony executives had unanimously agreed to keep the song from Kings Blues as well as the song Burning Flag, so long as some parts of the song was changed to try and fit the theme of any album it might later be on. During a meeting with executives, it was later presented on the later configurated August, 2003 version and was decided, along with Hamato that this would serve as the first single. Stating that it would be, one of the better, and more radio oriented R&B songs that could be oriented towards Pop Radio at the the time.

## Composition

*Burning Flag* proved to be, at the time, one of Hamato's most daring albums lyrically. It showed off Hamato's lyrical ability to cross between simple lyricism of hooks about love, having fun times before moving it's way into political anthems. Though very subtly hidden behind metaphors and double entendre, the album encapsulates what was, to be further down the line, expected with Hamato's lyrical ability. While the likes of the songs are between romance and political. The only song that related to a sexual nature was We Can, featuring Sandra Akwa. Many of the songs drew heavy inspiration from the 80's and 90's sound with some elements of New Jack Swing. Hamato would later go on to make the 80's and 90's sound a mainstream genre to which drum loops, claps, hits and various other instrumentation would be used in a main pop hit.

## Release And Promotion

### Singles

"I Want You" was released as the albums lead single on December 23rd, 2003. Many had stated that the sound had improved between both his first and second album and that Hamato's vocals had become darker and deeper, stating that the once pitchy teenage voice of Hamato had now matured into something that was a force to be reckoned with on the pop scene. Many had stated his work being influenced by the Jackson's where the background vocals and ad-libs would carry the mainframe of the song.

### Tour

Main article: The Burning Flag Tour

Just a month before the launch of the album, Hamato was stated to go on his first headlining tour, named after the album. The Burning Flag Tour, stated tour began on May 27th, 2004. Three months after the launch of his second single "Let's Groove". The tour spanned twenty shows, 10 in New York, and 10 equally shared in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The tour had Viper as the musical director, this would however, be the only time he would be the Musical Director.

## Track Listing

***Burning Flag*** - Standard edition

All songs written and produced by Hamato, unless stated otherwise with a asterisk beside the song

**Burning Flag** - Deluxe Edition

## Alternate configurations

### November 2003 configuration

1. Introduction
2. I Want You
3. Cheater
4. Monkey Business
5. Gotta Have You (solo version)
6. We Can (solo version)
7. Mad
8. Sneakin' Sally thru the Alley (Officially Unreleased)
9. Let's Groove
10. The Long Way Home (Officially Unreleased)
11. Pop (Officially Unreleased)
12. Long Way To Go (Officially Unreleased)

## Personnel

### Musicians

* Viper Hamato - Producer (tracks 1-6, 9-18), co-producer (track 7), executive producer, vocals (all tracks), background vocals (tracks 1-2, 5-9, 11-18), Intro (track 7), Drums (Tracks 1-2, 4-5, 9, 11-18) Co-Engineering, Music Video Producer and Director (tracks 1,2,5,7,8)
* Michael Jackson - Producer (track 7), background vocals (tracks 1, 7), co-writer (track 7)
* Sandra Akwa - Producer (track 8), background vocals (track 8), co-writer (Track 8)
* Raphael Daniels - Bass (Tracks 1-5, 7-8, 11-12), Guitar (Track 8), Rap Verse (Track 8)
* James Haytefield - Drums (Tracks 1,3,6,10)
* Andrew Green - Co-Engineer, Mastering

### Design

* Nathan Jordan - Photography
* Viper Hamato - Cover Design, single designs