Music
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 ;)
Sore throat is bad for business
So I’ve been fighting a kind of sore throat since the weekend. It’s been just bad enough that I haven’t been able to do any ‘real’ singing – but just NOT bad enough that I still went a rehearsal last night in hopes that I could… what exactly? I have no idea. Work through it? Persevere? Soldier on?
What a bad idea (although the rehearsal was fun…).
Have you ever seen a picture of what vocal chords look like? They’re about 1/4 inch long, about the size of the eraser on a pencil – they look like skinny pink slugs. And when you talk or sing they look like skinny pink slugs doing the shimmy. And when you cough they look like skinny pink slugs enduring a severe earthquake. You can see a picture of vocals chords here, but be warned, it’s kind of gross.
Well this morning my slugs made it perfectly clear that they’d had ENOUGH… and they weren’t going to shimmy any more without causing me some trouble.
So session work is pushed back probably 48 hours at least – looks like Thursday and Friday are going to get a little frisky…
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…
One song per month in 2010
Exitproject (the band I’m in with the Ninja Butler) have decided to write and record one song a month in 2010. We’ll then release the whole she-band as an album with snazzy artwork and pictures
of our smiling faces :)
We’re going to document the whole process with pics, in-the-studio videos and blogs on the newly refurbished Exitproject website
You can subscribe to get updates via Twitter, RSS, MySpace, Facebook and carrier pigeon from our website (visit www.exitproject.co.uk
now). All the songs will be stream-able for free :)
WOOP!
Folk Tales and Magic: Charity gig in Bristol
The Jist
Some of Bristol’s finest folk musicians, storytellers and magicians gather for an evening of fine entertainment, all in aid of a wonderful cause at The Folk House, Park Street, Bristol, Friday
22nd January. I’ll be playing with a friend of mine (we call ourselves Emigre when we’re at home) – we’ll be playing mostly weird (inagoodway) originals and a few covers.
Featuring:
- Rachael Dadd
- Stanton Delaplane
- Kieron The Mighty
- Martin Maudsley
- Spindrift
- Jess Lewin
- Roving Blades
-
Emigre
- HOSTED BY Martin Maudsley (Folk Tales)
When Where How Much?
Friday, January 22nd 2010
7:30pm ’til late
The Folk House, Bristol
An octave mandola, an expat and a laptop walk into a bar…
When I married the Ninja Butler in 2005, my Mom and Dad gave us a guitar and an “_blank” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_mandola”>octave mandola that they made for us. My Mom did mountains of research to source materials and my Dad worked the wood. It
goes without saying that my jaw hit the floor when I laid eyes on them – seriously, imagine me as a cartoon with my eyes yoinking outta my head with an ‘awooooogah’ sound effect to finish it
off.
I named the mandola ‘Jarvi’ after my Mom and Dad and it’s taken a prize position in our studio ever since. I pick ‘er up every once and awhile and play through some of the old songs I wrote
back when I was 18 and still a bag of hormones…
But it makes me feel ho-hum that I don’t play her more… she’s a beauty and should be strutting her stuff and making all the other acoustic instruments’ hearts flutter. So today I went online
and started an online course (after a lot of hunting – it turns out there aren’t really online courses for the octave mandola / octave mandolin. Bouzouki? Yes. Octave mandola?
No.)
But I managed to find one set of lessons that were made up of simple written instructions with some recommended exercises to develop good technique.
I’ve played the mandolin for years and years and the Octave is the same tuning. But the mandola has a stretched neck that I’m finding pretty trixie. The action is going to take some
getting used to, too – it’s higher than the mandolin and my wuss hands are jellified after practicing…
But it feels good to take Jarvi the mandola out for a real spin. She is GORGEOUS – you’d have a huge crush on her if you met her. Hopefully soon you will :)
When a chick plans a stag do…
Stag Do:
“A stag do is a party held for a bachelor shortly before he enters marriage, to make the most of his final opportunity to engage in activities a new partner might not approve of, or merely to spend
time with his male friends (who are often in his wedding party afterwards).” – Wikipedia
I’m sure you all know what a bachelor party is, but what happens when a chick plans the stag do? I’m my brother’s best man, as you may have heard, and so the privileged fell to me.
And
it
was
awesome.
Any attempt that I made to over-plan were mellowed by my dad telling me that guys tend to do stuff on the fly. We had a killer venue (a lodge-type place with a built in movie theatre/theater),
we had Beatles Rock Band, we had Jack and coke, we had cigars, we had many musical jam sessions (with real instruments, not fake Beatles ones)
No debauchery (at least not that I saw), no sloppy drunkards (again, at least not DURING the party, I can’t speak for after).
Hosting dude parties is awesome… there’s no ‘hosting’ to be done, everyone just gets their own stuff and finds food wherever and generally gets on with it – most fantastic.
You can check out some pictures that Jake’s friend Dennis took >>
Knock knock. Who’s there? A cellist…
Knock knock
Who’s there?
A cellist.
A cellist, who?
A freakin’ cellist, that’s who!!
The Ninja Butler and I (like all other humans, mammals, birds and bugs) love the sound of the cello. There was hardly a finer sound. So tomorrow we’re meeting up to jam through a couple
of Exitproject songs with a snazzy new cellist.
If it doesn’t work out, all will still be well and smiley… if it does go well, we’ll have a freakin’ CELLIST in the band!!
How can we possibly lose?
I’m the best man
Yes, that’s right. I’m the best man… in my brother’s wedding. In about 2 weeks. Oh God…
I have to write a speech…
I’m now facing the dilemma, how much to let rip? The feeling of power is intoxicating, actually, but mingled with nerves and excitement. I imagine this is what an “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_%28chocolate%29″>Aero feels like.
I have so many ideas rolling around in my head.
A full chorus line of people singing?
A movie montage of touching comments from friends and relatives?
A reenactment of This Is Your Life?
A series of humiliating posters?
A bag of tricks?
I wish I knew someone that knows how to break dance…
Oh, AND I’m planning the stag-do (bachelor party)… I’m trying not to be too much of a chick. We’ll see how it goes…
Fuzzy scarf + vintage button = Love
Sunday is a day for church, naps and crochet – so far I haven’t taken a nap, but the rest of my Sunday plan is going well!
Eliza (goddess of all things wool and knitting related) usually lets me raid her yarn stash when I head
back to Chicago. There’s always some bits and bobs that she has left over that I can happily use to crochet “http://www.flickr.com/photos/emibeth/3667335711/in/set-72157603758360883/”>owls, tortoises
or traffic cones. This super-fuzzy aubergine novelty wool was one such
stash-raid-victory.
But today isn’t a day for crocheted animals or health and safety equipment… I wanted to take one of my vintage buttons out for a stroll. (My other sis-law is also in to crochet and she and my
bro-law got me a couple of GORGEOUS vintage buttons for Chrimbo. Score!)
One size-10 crochet hook and half-an-hour of single crochet later, this fuzzy little scarf was born. WOOHOO!!