Music
Volcanic ash and international travel don’t mix
It’s official, I’m going nowhere fast! I visited the States to see family, play a couple of shows and record a session. The cloud of volcanic ash spewing out of Iceland means I’m going to hang out in Chicago until at least Wednesday (instead of this past Thursday)… WOOHOO!
It’s a trixie one because there are sessions that are on hold until I get back, but everyone is being understanding (volcanoes take advice from no man…). Our flight was pushed back to Wednesday which puts me back in the studio by Friday. If our flight gets pushed back further, I have a close friend with a studio that will hopefully help me out in exchange for free vocals on whatever he throws at me :)
I won’t lie, I’m loving the extra time in my home land, surrounded by my fantastic family. It’s been an outstanding trip home – the best one yet and I’m happy for it to continue! It’s been music left right and centre, with the Ninja Butler and immediate family involved with most of the shows, too – playing to packed rooms and laughing and chatting like we were in a big living room. Let me tell you, there is NOTHING like making music with family – it’s unbelievably fantastic. Here’s some evidence… pay close attention and see if you can catch a wiff of the joy steaming off these pictures…
(left to right) Emi Jarvi, J Carmichael, Jake Jarvi, Donna Jarvi, Mike Jarvi
(left to right) Emi Jarvi, J Carmichael, Jake Jarvi, Donna Jarvi, Mike Jarvi
That’s enough glowing for now – wish me luck in getting back to Bristol. I definitely can’t swim that far – anyone have a big boat I could borrow?
New Exitproject track – First Breath
Exitproject is writing and recording one song per month in 2010. The March song was unleashed a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve neglected to blog about it! Have a gander:
New Exitproject track – Daylight
Exitproject (the band I regularly work with) is writing and recording one song per month in 2010. The February song has just been let out of the pen – check it out if you get the chance.
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.
Back into the studio – at last! Happiness!
Having a sore throat when session vocal work is lined up is bad news. But all cash-earning aside, it’s just down-right bad for morale. I’m lucky that I don’t get sore throats often, I’m more a sinus infection kind of girl (aren’t you glad you know that now?). But it makes it obvious that I sing or talk pretty much constantly (my poor poor man-friend…). Having a sore throat completely throws me and my usual steady stream of sound.
Anyway, I had my first night of singing (carefully) tonight and all seems well. This means that tomorrow I’m back in the studio and back in business!
And THAT means one thing – JOY :)
There’s 7 projects that need sorting out, starting with some killer dance tracks for a producer in San Francisco. I don’t know when they’re due for release other than sometime in 2010 – but I’m psyched about them so I’ll post updates here.
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 :)
Crochet cup of tea
Here’s the newest addition to the crochet family. I decided to crochet James a cup of tea so he’d never be without a cuppa again.
I improved the design, although the tea bag was inspired by a cup and saucer I saw crochet on Ravelry. You can quite see in this pic, but there’s a light brown circle crocheted on the inside to make it look like it’s full of tea.
It’s crochet continuously in the round with the base being 24 stitches around. The handle is just a strip of 3 single crochet’s wide and about 10 stitches tall. I then folded it in half the long way and joined together with a quilting needle, tightening the stitches on one side to create the curve in the handle.
It stands about 2 inches tall – the Ninja Butler seems very pleased with it, so I am too :)
(Thanks to the NB for taking the pic <3 )
PS – there’s an update on the upcoming Exitproject track on our website if you’re interested It’s called ‘It was too slow, we had to start over‘
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…