Music
Good feedback = happy
Got some great feedback – WOOHOO!
“Thanks for this – it sounds great!” Just got this feedback from SpaceCity, the UK’s No. 1 producer of TV commercials. YAY! #fb
Emi Jarvi
EmiliaBeth
Gig: Queen’s Square, Bristol UK
I’m singing with a handful of jazzers on Sunday – we’ll be playing for around 45 minutes in Queen’s Square, Bristol – should be good! If you’re into jazzy stuff like this - http://www.sm-supperclub.com/free-music/ – you’ll probably like this show, too.
Here are the details if you fancy stopping by:
Sunday, 9th May 2010
10:45-11:45 am
Queen’s Square, Bristol (view map)
Free Entry (outdoor show)
The show is in aid of the Love Running / Bristol 10k Race. We’re performing to help support the amazing runners who are raising thousands for charity.
It’s going to be an awesome day, hope to see you there!
The most productive day of all time. Now I’m hyper.
Yesterday was the most Productive. Day. Ever. I was in the studio and ready to go by just after 9. So began the sessions!
Session 1 – rock
I started with a epic-rock type track (that’ll wake you up). Usually people send across a scratch vocal track that I learn by ear, then I arrange the harmonies by ear, too. But I was provided with sheet music which was cool. I don’t have much cause to read music anymore – felt good to stretch the sight-reading muscles…
Session 2 – dance
Then on to the third of a three song dance project. I’m writing and singing the lyrics and melody for three singles due to be released in 2010. I’m really enjoying this project, actually – getting great feedback from the guy I’m working with. It’s always a pleasure to work with someone with good attention to detail. It usually results in a shiny finished product – bring it on!
Admin :)
Half way through the dance session, I knew I needed to warm up my chest voice to do the chorus justice. So I started warming up. And doing some admin.
While I was warming up I did some hunting for some alternate vocal takes that a Bristol-based song-writer emailed me about. We worked on a HUGE track a couple of weeks ago (vocal tracks everywhere! Double tracking! Scat solos! Harmonies! Computers struggle to cope! But it did cope…). He had asked for some alternate takes, so I did some hunting and found them.
Session 2 – resumed
Then back to the mic and back to the chorus. It’s not like the vocals are HUGE, y’know? They needed to be kind of flirty and come-hither. But it was just high enough in my chest voice that it sounded more heavy-lifting than come-hither, so I made sure to warm up to a major-third above the highest chorus note and it sorted it right out. Worked a treat…
Session 3 – pop
Pop-tastic! Session 3 was all about pop vocals and F.A.T. vocal harmonies (one of my true loves in this world). Another freakin’ FUN session because it was all about playing with different vocal textures and adding little riffs. Another wailing chorus, too – always feels good to rip it open.
Double tracking (triple tracking, actually), 6 layers of double-tracked harmony for the chorus, some ‘yeah’s in there somewhere. Good stuff…
Session 4 – charity project
By the end of these three session I felt completely on fire and I didn’t want to stop singing. So I opened up a project for the charity album I’m working on for Kids Uganda. It’s an improvised version of the song ‘Be Thou My Vision’ and it was cool to play around with such a traditional and well-know song.
I only did two takes before I sent it across to get feedback – this is one of those tracks that can’t be hammered or it will SOUND hammered. Au naturale, all the way.
I’m still fired up from yesterday’s insane productivity. I also heard back from two fellow vocalists that I’m outsourcing some work to – both of them are ridiculously talented, so I’m glad things are moving forward.
GOOD day… goodgoodgood.
Holy crazy, I’m on a Ministry of Sound release
I tweeted about this awhile ago, but I thought I’d write a mini blog about the details. I don’t know HOW I missed this while it was happening, but I’m still pretty fired up about it…
One of the dance tracks I wrote and recorded the vocals for has landed a spot on a Minstry of Sound compilation. ’The Mash Up Mix (2009)‘ sports names like Groove Armada, Fat Boy Slim and… uh… me.
The excitement emanating from my face when I found out could have powered a small city for a week.
I want to say a big ‘thanks’ to Marcos for asking me to collaborate with him on this track.
Check it out if you’re into the dance scene :)
The joys of non-disclosure agreements
There’s some good news on the horizon! One of the tracks I did many many moons ago might be released soon… it’s most exciting, if I may say so. I wrote and recorded all the vocals for a track by an Irish DJ who’s rapidly making his merry way in the dance world.
It’s one of the tracks I’m particularly proud of, but it’s been delayed because of random industry scheduling issues. I’d all but forgotten about it until I got an email saying it was still in the pipeline.
The joys of non-disclosure agreements mean I can’t show it to anyone without getting my butt legally whooped. But I’m psyched for it to turn up! There’s been murmurs of Judge Jules and Radio One, although I’ve learned not to get excited about anything ever until it happened a week ago…. (although I remain ever-hopeful, like I’m waiting for the music industry to ask me to the prom…)
In other news, a producer I’ve worked with before called about a new project today. He’s a great guy to work with – really knows what he wants and gives great feedback. He’s looking for vocals for a heavy electronic track that I’m REALLY excited about. I’m still out of action because of my sore throat, but he was cool about it. So that’s something on the cards for next week – WOOP!
Next week is going to get a little hairy, actually, but I can take it. I’ve gotta finish up 3 dance singles for a guy in San Francisco, 2 Evanecese-y tracks for a London-dude and and one track for a lovely local Bristolian. Plus three rehearsals for various live projects (one of which is Exitproject with the new cellist – I LOVE IT!)
Pile it on, I say – the more time spent caterwauling the better.
One of the things that I’ve learned since I’ve started doing more vocal work is that getting music out there takes T.I.M.E. I’ll write and record the vocals for a track and it might get released a year later – maybe longer. So this time next year maybe you’ll be inundated with new tracks to listen to – apologies in advance ;)
More musical flavour, fewer calories
2010 is the year of the musician! Well, for me, at least – and I’m freakin’ LOVING every minute of it…
It occurred to me that I don’t usually blog about what I’m involved in, so I thought I’d take up the habit of blogging about all my musical shenanigans. That way my ‘thousands of fans’ (aka – my Mom) can keep up :)
The Ninja Butler and I moved to Bristol in March 2009 to bust open our own businesses. James owns and runs Siteclick, a web development company and I own and run Vox in a Box, a session vocals company.
Bristol has proved to be an AMAZINGLY positive place to be. There’s creativity positive smiley people EVERYWHERE and it makes me feel right at home (seriously, there’s so many smiley people here… it’s clearly where I belong…)
Exitproject
My top musical project of the moment is Exitproject – my electro-folk band with James. We’ve decided to write and record one song a month in 2010 and put them online for free. January is already available at www.exitproject.co.uk – I have a big girly crush on it.
Exitproject are also currently practising with a cellist and it’s going really well – psyched!
Emigre
I also met the nicest guy ever on earth named Graham and we’re writing music like crazy under the name Emigre. We get together about once a week and average one new song per practice. It’s a fantastic opportunity to flex my writing muscles a little more. One of my goals is concentrate more on the quality of lyrics… only time will tell, eh?
Session Work
It’s been a fantastic couple of months in the session world. I’ve done my first national commercial in the UK (WOOP!) and also had one of my tracks released on a Ministry of Sound compilation. I’ve written and recorded music for producers in Bristol, York, London, Manchester, Sheffield, San Francisco, Chicago and Spain (I don’t want to give names – there’s fierce competition in this business ;) ). But, it’s all been referral work which makes me grin in a very big way – woohoo!
Volunteer Projects
I’m involved in a project for Kid’s Uganda – I’m recording some lead and some backing vocals for a charity album due to be released later this year. It’s a project for Kids Uganda – all proceeds will go to support this amazing cause.
I’m also volunteering at my church as a part of the band every now and again. It’s a great to meet people, with added benefit that I love ‘caterwauling for Christ’.
And that’s is for what’s up right now! There’s probably too much to do, but I love it…
Exciting news? Maybe :)
So I was contacted by a guy today that was looking for ‘a voice’, I did some research and found out he’s won all these awards and written music for national ad campaigns and stuff… Sweet!
Nothings happened yet, but it’s nice to get the email, y’know? It put a smile on my face :) We’ll see where it goes… you never know!!
On an entirely personal level, I’ve discovered Spotify and all of its wonders! Free music without breaking the law (and essentially stealing from
myself)… finally! I’ve had an AWESOME time coming up with random playlists to suit whatever mood I’m in. Tom Waits, Fountains of Wayne, John Williams, Regina Spektor, Reel Big Fish, Bat
For Lashes. Schmorgasboard! Plethora! A feast of tunes!!!
Alas, only available in the UK, but you guys have Pandora and we had it banned over here, so we’re even…
The other news is that you can subscribe to my blog now! There’s a link at the top of the page that will let you RSS this action :)
Climbing the Bristol ladder
Exitproject have landed! In Bristol… With ALL their stuff… That they had to cart up 3 flights of stairs… And now they’re tired.
Seriously, though, (all uppity-third-person-narration aside) two weeks ago we moved to Bristol in England! It’s been a hurricane of cardboard, packing tape, broken glass, dust, lack-o-sleep,
vats-o-coffee and muscle strain. It didn’t kill us, so I think that means we’re strong. At least we freakin’ BETTER BE stronger cos my leg and stomach muscles feel like they’ve been
beaten with a meat tenderizer…
Why Bristol you ask? (or if not, skip this part – just like ‘Choose your own adventure’)
Well, it’s closer to the Ninja Butler’s family, it’s a technology city (which is good for the “http://www.siteclick.co.uk”>NB’s web-shenanigans , it’s got a killer music scene (which is clearly pretty crucial) and it’s also just bigger. It reminds me a lot of Boston expect without
the Red Sox fans… and the ‘Mike’s Pastry’…
The next step is to start getting in touch with venues and trying to book some shows. I’m also going to hunt a few open mics and ‘see what I can see’ – if anyone has any contacts or tips about
living in Brizzle, send ‘em across, my people!! Bring it on!
In music news, Activa, the producer I’m currently working with on a dance track, has been named the number one producer of 2009 by Paul Van Dyk. Paul Van Dyk is basically the
grammy-nominated-top-dance DJ in the world – so that’s good news!! Activa has asked me to collaborate on a track for his upcoming album (maybe more than one, we’ll see!) due for release in the
autumn of 2009. I’m really psyched about the project and it’s going really well so far – I don’t how Activa finds the time inbetween flying all over the world playing his DJ sets, I think he’s
in Moscow this Saturday… madness…
OH! And don’t forget that you can still buy ‘Healing Slow’ from the Exitproject website. It makes a great
birthday present, Easter present, Bar/Bat Mitzvah present, Christmas present, ‘New home’ present, ‘Old home’ present, ‘First time you’ve seen Star Wars or the Matrix’ present or just ‘Think of you’
present (but in a non-stalker way).
Music released world wide
On 12th July, 2008 two of some of my trance tracks will be released by a top Trance Record Label all over the world – WOOP!
In 2007, I was approached by UK trance label, Conspiracy Recordings to co-write and record vocals for two tracks with Jon O’Bir (UK), a rising star on the Trance scene. The relationship proved successful when Vandit Records, a German label run by Grammy-nominated DJ, Paul Van Dyk, picked up Jon’s Album, “From Within” for world wide release. The album includes both of the two tracks co-written and performed by Emi, one of which is also being released as a single.
I can honestly say that I’m shocked and really freakin’ pleased about it all. :D
‘From Within’ will be available on vinyl on 11th June and on CD on 12th of July 2008.