Music
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 :)
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?
Music videos and moving house – from glamour to ‘gaaahhhhh!!’
I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this yet – what is my brain doing?? Where is my head buried??
Actually, my head isn’t buried anywhere – it’s been resting on a set of old books in the basement while my disembodied legs run down the street by themselves.
Don’t believe me? – Well, we caught it on tape…
Watch the full video (which explains why my body has gone to pieces:
70,000 CD’s distributed across America
New Year, NEW SINGLE!
January came and went in a flurry of post-Christmas-get-your-ducks-in-a-row excitement! The new single arrived AT LAST (after a lot of flummoxing around with the duplication company – aka, they
lost the first batch, and crushed the second batch) and we are SO freakin happy about how it turned out!
Sales are going crazy and it has me grinning!!! :) Join the fray if you don’t have a copy yet – pick it up here in the Exitproject shop.
In other news, I spent the first Christmas back home in America for 4 years. 4 YEARS?!?! How the bo-jangles did that happen??
It… was… faaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic…
I reveled in American-ness and did American things! I sang the America version of ‘Away in a Manger’, I was surrounded by all the traditional family Christmas decorations like the Good Cheer
Blimp ornament and the hand-carved nativity that my Dad made. I drank egg-nog (I drank egg-nog lattes), I ate Hershey’s, I went to the midnight service at the church I grew up in.
I
saw
my
family
!!!!!!!
Their fantastic Jarvi-faces speaking fantastic Jarvi-phrases. The finest bunch there ever was…
AND my brother got engaged! AND I’m his best man! I get to plan the bachelor party, Yoink!
A robot is for life, not just for Christmas
Once there was a robot-girl.
She was misunderstood because she was a machine and people thought she didn’t have any feelings or emotions.
At Christmas, all her LED’s blinked red and green.
And her secure wireless connection password was ‘rudolph’.
And she spoke the words to Christmas carols – because she couldn’t sing.
But people passed her by and never wished her a Merry Christmas. She was, afterall, just a robot.
But she had love and spirit in her heart-bot. And more than anything she wanted to be able to sing Christmas carols and share goodwill with everyone she met.
Late one night, she said a prayer – a Christmas wish – to be able to sing… to finally be a part of Christmas.
She wished and wished, with her eye-lenses shut tight. And the she wished and wished some more.
As she wished, it began to snow… and a star went shooting across the sky.
She paused…
She took a deep breath…
and SHE SANG! Her Christmas wish came true! And she went rolling down the streets sharing her Christmas song with everyone she met on the way.
And it was a very Merry Christmas!!
Wanna hear the song she sang? Exitproject caught the whole thing on tape – listen to her version of Carol of the Bells on the Exitproject’s Last.fm page.
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.