new year

Since our Christmas season is always so crazy (11 shows in less than three weeks qualifies as fairly crazy when everyone in the band also has day jobs ), I usually don’t get to even start planning the first few months of the new years until after our “after-Christmas-Christmas-party (again, December is way too busy for a band Christmas party, so we have it the first weekend in January). Which means I usually am scrambling the first few weeks in January. And since our regular keyboard player just moved on, I have also been trying to locate keyboard players to play with us in addition to the whole January-craziness. But I can honestly say that it is starting to come together, and it’s only January 11! PHEW. Now I can start planning for the rest of the year…….

I’m baaaaaaaaack…..

Summer has flown by in a flurry of travel, work, music, and it has been way too long since I posted last. So…. fall is here and now that I have settled into somewhat of a routine again I will work on posting regularly. I just had a wonderful coffee-meeting with a new friend, Christy Short – who is a fellow worship leader at a local church here in Central VA. We dreamed and brainstormed about music and arts and things we can do together, and it was both refreshing and productive. More to follow!

about a song

I don’t often double-post – post the same post in two blogs – but this next one fits as much in my blog as in our band blog….. so here it goes:

I am not a very prolific writer – I usually co-write, and enjoy that very much, but it kind of has to be the right time and place and environment. This past week I have been recuperating from eye surgery – nothing serious, but annoying at best and painful at worst. Plus, I look like I went five rounds with Muhammad Ali . So, I have been hesitant to go out in public without big, prescription sunglasses. And that made me think – I feel self-conscious about my face bruising….. but on the inside of me, my soul, my heart – there’s all kinds of bruises. Some self-inflicted by sin, some through others, life, experiences.

What that all means? I have some ideas, No answers though. But I am hoping to start writing a song about it. I’ll let you know…..

relieved

Wow. What an incredible experience. Working with Tom Jackson, while scary and unnerving, was one of the most amazing, and probably one of the most helpful experiences we have ever had. I was a nervous wreck (see my previous post), but by the time we got up on stage sort of had the – oh well, just have to go through it now-attitude. He started by having us sing two songs – we sang Grown up Lullaby and Breathing – and you just know at that point that he is evaluating you. And so is the room. You don’t have a great sound system (ok but not great), and you have not slept much the night before. Voila: butterflies in stomach! He worked with Kim for a while first, getting her to step to the edge of the stage for the intro of Breathing, and play around with the progressions for a bit. The difference was amazing! That, in the meantime, was “my” time to get some water, retreat to the back of the stage, so all focus would be on her (instead of me standing, like I usually do, like an awkward log (hmm. what do I do now? Where do I look?). Then, at a pre-decided signal, I would walk up to the mic and start singing – having the freedom of when to do that since Kim was holding in A by then.

It made the start of the song more interesting, but still real, and I felt like we were controlling it instead of it controlling us like a runaway train. I sing my first chorus. Tom has already taken away our music stand (the horror! what if I forget the words!) and now…. he takes away my mic stand. I have the hold the mic. And move on the stage. This is the point where I am terrified it will look hokey and contrived. But you know what – it doesn’t. It feels natural, and like there is finally no barrier between me and the audience. Tom tells me to linger at a verse, find someone in the audience to focus on, and sing to them. Oh wait. Not sing. Squeak. His term for whisper. Huh? How on earth do I do that while I sing????? But when I do the atmosphere in the room electrifies, a well-known songwriter and producer later comes up to me and says she started crying it was so emotional. And you know what? Again, instead of it feeling contrived, it started feeling real. Like finally, instead of singing songs, I could communicate emotions. He challenged us to change the song structure when we play live – lengthen intros, create pauses – so you draw out your listeners. After all “If they want to listen to the way you recorded the song, they may as well just listen to your CD”.

Last night, the songwriter cafe was also amazing. Intimidating, too . Here I am – having co-written a grand total of 9 songs in MY ENTIRE LIFE, sitting next to a hit writer for Gavin DeGraw, George Straitt, and so on. These people have Billboard Number 1 hits. Or their songs have. And I quickly see why – the songs are witty, moving, touching, prodding. All are excellent singers/guitar players, and entertainers. And then there’s me. Who has never played her own songs on guitar (but now has to because that’s a strict rule – you have to accompany yourself). I am nervous again. I have to sing and play these from memory. The first song, Falling, goes OK – not great, but I survive. The second song, Cry for Freedom, finds me getting more comfortable and I start feeling at ease among these giants. The song has huge emotional draw for me (we wrote it after the tsunami in South Asia), and I decide that I want to communicate with it – and I think I did.

Oops, the next session is about to start……. one more day left in this amazing bootcamp. More later. I feel refreshed and tired all at once, and challenged in the best way I have in years.

nervous

Kim ( one of my good friends and bandmates) and I are attending a independent music conference this weekend. And we were asked to be the guinea pigs for a session with a well-known performance coach, Tom Jackson. Basically – from what I understand – we will play a few of our songs and he will coach us how to make it better. How? No idea. And suddenly I am very, very nervous. I know it’s weird to say, but I do NOT like being in the spotlights. Yeah I know. I’m a singer….. but I really, really don’t. I am nervous that I will not be able to follow Tom’s directions, that I will look like an idiot, that I will have a bad pain attack right at that moment……

 

Oh. And then (yes. I am a glutton for punishment.) I was asked to present three original songs tonight during songwriting showcase. No problem, right? Except for this one, I have to play solo. Kim cannot accompany me. And I have never – NEVER – played my own music in public. I barely have ever played it in private. So the question is: why do I do this to myself? Groan.

stuck in a moment :)

I am sitting downtown at Cafe Gutenberg, one of my favorite hangouts/meeting places/work spaces in Richmond. Just had a good lunch meeting, and was planning to go back home but my car got blocked in by two other cars and for the life of me….. I cannot get it out of its tight spot. What’s a girl to do? This girl decided to go back to Cafe G and enjoy a pot of wonderful pomegranate oolong tea and free wireless, and work from there. So I am stuck….. but in a good place, and I get some good work time in. Not bad. Not bad at all.

benefits

I love playing benefits, because it is a simple way for us as a band to contribute to good causes and use our music to do so. We played a great one earlier today – for Watering Malawi. We take having clean water to drink for granted. Having water and rain to water our crops. When there is no water, a society falls apart. We played 45 minutes of music this morning and hopefully we drew some people to this benefit that are now making a contribution that will make a small but significant change. Lots of small changes make a real difference.

numb

Tonight, during the American Idol Results Show, they continued some of the clips for Idol Gives Back. Forest Whitaker and his wife went to Angola and documented a heartbreaking story: a father who is blind (because he stepped on a landmine), and whose three kids help him beg during the day. Forest and his wife came to the family’s house (basically one room), and asked the little boys where they slept. They pulled out a single dirty foam pad – and all piled onto that. It is making me cry again as I type this. If you would like to contribute to Idol Gives Back, you can do so by clicking here, or calling 1-877-IDOL-AID.

hard

I love working in the studio, I love recording music, and I love the entire creative process that goes with it. But if you, like we do at this point, have to produce your own recordings, it can be really, really hard as well. I think I am a decent producer, and I think I could learn – with more experience – to be a good one. But it is so hard to produce your own music. To make hard calls, and to try to think of solutions when budget is a really big issue. 

U2 & Live Nation

U2 just signed a deal with Live Nation for 12 years (yes, you read that right: until 2020) which includes worldwide touring, merchandising, and the band’s U2.com website. It’s not a true 360-deal since it does not include publishing (smart move, U2) and the band retains its relationship with Universal Music to release music.