The direct red eye flight Seattle-Heathrow would have been quite pleasant were it not for the 3 year old who had a 6 hour tirade kicking the back of my seat and screaming at the top of her lungs. You'll be happy to know that she was sleeping angelically when we landed. Last night in Chadford around the dinner table of 7 people, 2 cats and a dog, I was quite loopy after a few glasses of wine and being up for a full 33 hours! I did manage to have a great conversation with Todd about the difference between community and tribe, and we disagreed about a few things and eagerly suggested a to-be-continued disputation. I slept with a snake last night. Off for a walk and playing my first show tonight!!
Deep in the lungs live a kind of heavy gunk that grew this week while not getting enough sleep. I am trying to sleep this weekend, but there is so much to ready for before hopping on a plane for 3 weeks - tomorrow! The trip is shaping up nicely. A few more gigs have come up and one fell through. I Skyped this morning with my friends Todd and Carol in Exeter. We are all very excited to spend a few days together. Turns out that Todd's cousin, Hilary Tann is going to be staying at their home at the same time as I am. She is a Welsh-born accomplished concert composer living and teaching college in upstate NY. I have heard of her, but have not yet heard the music. I am looking forward to discussing academics, women in music, the article I serendipitously posted on Facebook yesterday. Todd and Carol have two young adult kids who play music. I think there will be a lot of music making this week out in the 'ole countryside of England! Talking with them after so many years is wonderful. I had seen Todd in Portland in November at the filming of a movie he was doing. Carol and I have Facebook corresponded, but seeing her today on the ole Skype so many years later was lovely. They were drinking beer. It was 10 in the morning over here and I hadn't even had my coffee yet. I lived with Todd and Carol in London back in the 80s. Time is a strange chameleon.
My friend Erin came over Wednesday night (Thank you Erin!) to help me finish the busy list over a few glasses of wine. The final bookings of the train tickets, the itinerary plan, the travel insurance- all of those last minute things that can feel overwhelming and drive one cray cray. Today is laundry, packing plan day (off the list and into the tangible), and nursing the stupid cold that my system has decided to battle at this moment. It's the last day of getting up at a ridiculous hour to teach a summer music program, and I have a few bags of papers to sort through before leaving. I am glad for Top Chef. It is a good accompaniment for such late night tasks. Everything is "delicious", "fantastic," "stunning"...it cracks me up.
The Kate Bush concert that I am going to is 2 weeks from today. Her record, "The Dreaming" I am reading was considered an industry flop. As a teenager I worked part-time in a small local record store on Long Island. Murray, who named the store after his two kids, was a middle aged guy whose pants' legs dragged on the floor and smoked a pipe all day, was extremely knowledgable about music. This was the 80s. And we are talking RECORD store. No CDs. I was handed a check for $90 each Friday at 5pm. I was still in school and living with my dad and brothers. Not paying rent yet, I endorsed the check each week and handed it right back to Murray and shopped. My record collection grew and grew that year. I became obsessed with records. I color coded my records with little stickers to match my 3 styluses for the different conditions of the records: new; limited edition collector items and Japanese pressings; and used records. I would not ruin a good stylus with a scratched up garage store used record any more than I would put a worn out stylus on a mint condition records. One copy of "The Dreaming" came in to the store. I was not aware of Kate Bush. I was intrigued by the cover. I took it home, placed it on my turntable and my head exploded. The record opens with instruments and sounds I had never heard, and this strange voice grunting and gasping shocked and excited me. Classic Kate Bush style of shameless expression. The Dreaming. Enjoy! AND The entire record can be heard HERE. But I prefer to listen to my Japanese vinyl pressing. There is so much to do still! I leave on Monday. I will begin writing everyday as I want to share the upcoming adventure. I just noticed that my website is acting strangely. I have placed a request for assistance to find out what happened to my page. There are a lot of learning curves in this techy age, and it's fun but that kind of thing baffles me. Not for the faint of heart. ;-P
I hope to meet some new folks on this adventure. I'll be in these cities during the dates below. Please let me know if you live, are traveling , or you have friends in these places so we can meet up! I am heading over to Europe myself and hope to meet new peeps, play music with, and invite folks to my shows. Exeter, England 26-30 Aug SW Ireland (specifically Kinvara, Ballyvaughn, Doolin) 30 Aug-2 Sept Dublin-2-4 Sept London 4-7 Sept Amsterdam 7-9 Sept Berlin 9-12 Sept. Please share this post too! xog Welcome. This is my first foray into the blogosphere. I have a glass of white wine in front of me and I'm listening to Charlie Parker. The dog is sleeping in his makeshift den under my feet, well fed and tired. It's very late, but I am a night owl. I try- to no avail, to get to bed earlier especially during these long Seattle days with the early sunrises because when the morning light pours into my windows I am up. Yes I've heard of eye masks and blackout window shades. I love being up late. I love the energy of the quiet street when home, and the busyness when out.
I made a joke to my producer the other day, "I am going to start a blog: How to stay alive whilst trying to make a record." And then I thought, "OK, why the hell not?" Maybe the subtitle is How 2014 tried to kill me. It's been a tough year. There has been illness, death, injury, financial challenges, but still I feel fortunate. I have a fully recorded, mixed, mastered, ready to go piece of art that I am proud of. It's my first solo record. It's an accomplishment. Now the challenge is to find my audience. To share the music. I have been making music most of my life. Things have changed so much but especially in the last decade. People don't buy music anymore. And so many people are making music. That is great! But musicians have to be very creative in order to get their music heard. And with the freedom we have without being reliant on corporate labels comes a lot of work we didn't used to have to think about. And new technology offers vehicles for distribution, but the learning curve is big for me. Most musicians I know work a full time job, and then stay up late listening to Charlie Parker and write a blog at 2am after releasing their first newsletter that they had to teach themselves how to make through reading articles, watching YouTube videos, trial and error, on a day they ordered promo CDs from a manufacturing plant after trouble shooting the graphics, and learned about DDL codes and ISRC codes and filed all the music on ASCAP. There is so much to do and so much to learn. The artist has much freedom now. I just learned this week how to make this website. I am learning every day. But that time is not spent playing music. So it's a balance I continue to search for. It is sometimes very overwhelming. I bought a travel guitar. It's been a hard decision because part of me doesn't want to bring a guitar to Europe next month due to extra fees with airlines, and wanting to travel light, but the other (and louder) part of me can't imagine not having one with me at all times. After much research and playing various travel-size guitars I decided on the 2lb. electric with an acoustic pickup called the Traveler Ultra Light. So far so good. Since I wrote most of the songs on piano, I am re-learning the songs on guitar (a piano will not be available to me). This entails re-harmonizing them, figuring out how to play the songs with open chords and a capo. It's a math puzzle, and a lesson to the muscles to accurately play the songs on a different instrument. The new timbres are creating new arrangement ideas. The first single will be "Kaleidoscope Eyes." I am trying to find the best way/right time to introduce y'all to the new song cycle, "Element 115 (Uup)." I am so thankful to so many friends' support; and Jesi Hill, my rockin intern who is keeping me on task. There's much to do. Fin Records is on hold so I am busting a move to try to keep my momentum high. I'm planning a pizza party first week of August to stuff the promo CD sleeves for the fundraiser on August 10th, and the mailing out of CDs to European radio. (I could have ordered the promos to be delivered already in a sleeve, but that was more expensive). CDs are on their way out apparently, but radio still uses that format I am told. This upcoming trip to Europe is my sew the seeds, learn a lot, learn what not to do, meet some great people pre-tour tour. AND I am seeing Kate Bush perform in London. Now it's close to 3am. There are probably typos. That's forgivable in blog posts right? Good night. |
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