I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last blogged! Well yes I can because I know I have grown so much as a musician and indeed a person in that time that it has taken all my energy just to get through it a difficult phase in my life. My new album 'Bed' is scheduled for release on May 25th, and for the first time since I started out on my career in October 2012, I feel as if I've found my sound and style and to me it is the perfect collection I always wanted to make.
I played my earlier tracks recently and I can see that it was more in an Indie and guitar rock style than Pop and I was veering into 80's and 90's 'Blondie' type territory with songs like 'Scratch, 'Brag' and 'Reputation Points', which isn't a bad thing but I always felt there was something missing in my own interpretation and I was never that angry or looking to stand on a pop punk soapbox anyway. The missing ingredient was a beat I couldn't put my finger on until now. I've also had piano lessons and always felt my songs needed more piano, synth and strings to help them flow and also have width, and although I'm still learning I'm able to hear the finished product before I've played a note. It was only when I tried things on the track 'Crave' that I started to be drawn back to my roots, which are more pure bubblegum pop with, a sometimes dance rhythm. I love(d) acts like The Sundays , Paramore, Pink, Regina Spector, Vanessa Carlton and tracks like 'Kiss Me' by Sixpence None the Richer and 'Primadonna' (Marina and the Diamonds), and of course Madonna, Gaga, and Britney. Melodies are the single most important thing that make me do any of this and when a tune comes to me out of nowhere it's as if somebody up there wants me to use it because I never sit down with a guitar and set out to write songs, they just come to me and I work backwards from there and then add the chords.
I've listened to music since I was born and I grew up on US artists so my sound will always tend towards an occasional tendency to go to the country and I have a track on 'Bed' called 'Your Cake' that, to me, adds variation and gives me a chance to strum again :) I was at a friend's house the other day and found myself singing a John Martyn song 'May you Never' which has a very country feel to it but I immediately changed a few chords to make it fit how I felt the song should be coming from me. I feel fortunate in that when I attempt or choose to do a cover of a well-known song I'm not thinking of the original so I don't find myself trying to impersonate the singer and use the same nuances and ad libs they did. A song is a song, melody and lyrics, and that's the beauty and freedom of being able to interpret it how I feel it. If I can't feel a song then my heart won’t be in it and if that's the case then it will show. I doubt I could become a manufactured artist told to sing something I honestly can't engage with, unless I was given freedom to strip it back and make it mine even if it meant changing a few words here and there without detracting from the message.
Phew, I'm getting all philosophical and preachy to myself which is not my style OMG, but anyway I hope you will give 'Bed' a good listen and let me know if you get what I was trying to put across. Most of all, I hope you're humming the tunes and want to download them and share them with your friends :) I've spent four months recording and making 10 music videos (one for each track on 'Bed') so this time around you will get to see me interpreting the songs as they seem to me, and I guess somewhere in there you will also see an actress who chose music just because she doesn't have the hours in a day to do both...but in her heart the love of acting will stay and come around again I hope.
I played my earlier tracks recently and I can see that it was more in an Indie and guitar rock style than Pop and I was veering into 80's and 90's 'Blondie' type territory with songs like 'Scratch, 'Brag' and 'Reputation Points', which isn't a bad thing but I always felt there was something missing in my own interpretation and I was never that angry or looking to stand on a pop punk soapbox anyway. The missing ingredient was a beat I couldn't put my finger on until now. I've also had piano lessons and always felt my songs needed more piano, synth and strings to help them flow and also have width, and although I'm still learning I'm able to hear the finished product before I've played a note. It was only when I tried things on the track 'Crave' that I started to be drawn back to my roots, which are more pure bubblegum pop with, a sometimes dance rhythm. I love(d) acts like The Sundays , Paramore, Pink, Regina Spector, Vanessa Carlton and tracks like 'Kiss Me' by Sixpence None the Richer and 'Primadonna' (Marina and the Diamonds), and of course Madonna, Gaga, and Britney. Melodies are the single most important thing that make me do any of this and when a tune comes to me out of nowhere it's as if somebody up there wants me to use it because I never sit down with a guitar and set out to write songs, they just come to me and I work backwards from there and then add the chords.
I've listened to music since I was born and I grew up on US artists so my sound will always tend towards an occasional tendency to go to the country and I have a track on 'Bed' called 'Your Cake' that, to me, adds variation and gives me a chance to strum again :) I was at a friend's house the other day and found myself singing a John Martyn song 'May you Never' which has a very country feel to it but I immediately changed a few chords to make it fit how I felt the song should be coming from me. I feel fortunate in that when I attempt or choose to do a cover of a well-known song I'm not thinking of the original so I don't find myself trying to impersonate the singer and use the same nuances and ad libs they did. A song is a song, melody and lyrics, and that's the beauty and freedom of being able to interpret it how I feel it. If I can't feel a song then my heart won’t be in it and if that's the case then it will show. I doubt I could become a manufactured artist told to sing something I honestly can't engage with, unless I was given freedom to strip it back and make it mine even if it meant changing a few words here and there without detracting from the message.
Phew, I'm getting all philosophical and preachy to myself which is not my style OMG, but anyway I hope you will give 'Bed' a good listen and let me know if you get what I was trying to put across. Most of all, I hope you're humming the tunes and want to download them and share them with your friends :) I've spent four months recording and making 10 music videos (one for each track on 'Bed') so this time around you will get to see me interpreting the songs as they seem to me, and I guess somewhere in there you will also see an actress who chose music just because she doesn't have the hours in a day to do both...but in her heart the love of acting will stay and come around again I hope.