Fresh Air and Announcements

By tomorrow night I'll be sitting on a wrap-around porch enjoying this view with good friends and fresh air.  

So glad to be getting away for a much needed vacation.  When I get back, here's what will be going on in case you want to keep tabs on me ;)

June 26th - CD Release Show with Naked Blue @ Jammin' Java's VA.  7:30pm, all ages.  

June 28th - CD Release Show with Naked Blue @ 8x10 MD.  8pm.

July 6th - CD Release Show with Ruut @ Rams Head in Annapolis MD.  1pm, all ages.

July 28th - My Debut Show! :) Songwriter's Showcase @ Frederick Coffee Co., MD 4pm 

I'd like to officially announce that I will be recording my first EP beginning July 26th!  I'll be working with some incredibly talented musicians on it: Brian Mirsch, Rob Holthause, and Dan Vogel.  CANNOT WAIT!  :)  

That's all for now!  xoxo

Behind: Alibi

 

Alibi.  I started working on this song with my friend, Steve Scher about a month or two ago.  He gave me the beginning chords and riff, and I took it from there and tried to develop it further.  

As far as the song meaning goes, it's essentially about a girl, or people in general, who trick the world and trick themselves into thinking they have it all together.  That feeling of false normalcy and convention, but realizing there's more to life than following the rule book.   It's not meant to negate convention, but it is meant to question it.  It's meant to urge people not to use convention as an alibi.   

I should have a post about exciting events within the next few days.  Stay tuned!

xo.

 

Alibi - Lyrics

She's wearing the powder blue dress again

The one she first learned to pretend in

And she knows all of her lines

Perfected the art of a fake smile

Time for the curtain call

Takes a bow for it all

She cried, "All will be forgotten

There is something more on the other side."

She tried staying inside the lines

But all she did was hide

What an alibi

Feeling like a stranger in her own skin

Realizing what it really means to live

But she knows all of the lies

She's told herself in holding out for the prize.

Time for the curtain call

Takes a bow for it all

She cried, "All will be forgotten

There is something more on the other side."

She tried staying inside the lines

But all she did was hide

What an alibi

Lose your inclination to be 

Another copy of a story we've seen

Rid your guilt and feel

The liberation of a nation finally free

Behind: Your House, The Haunting

 

So in case you missed my last post, this new song is my "Ten minute song".  Just a brief little post to introduce you to it :)

The lyrical content is pretty straightforward.  Without getting too in depth, if you're curious about what the song means...just know that it's supposed to capture the feeling of moving on.  If ever I make a music video for this tune, it'll probably start with a house full of treasures and belongings, and one by one they'll begin to disappear (I'm really not this depressing in real life, am I?!).  But quite honestly, moving on in any sense is difficult and bittersweet, no matter how long it may take.

Lyrics are below!  

 

Your House, The Haunting

These walls have seen the best of me

The doors have closed their eyes

Your house is built on memories

That are no longer mine.

But I don't want you anymore.

I don't love you anymore.

Your love was what I wanted

But now that's not true

I know I'm better off now

Without you

Cause I don't want you anymore.

I don't love you anymore.

Please don't haunt me.

No I don't want you anymore.

No I don't love you anymore.

No I don't want you anymore.

No I don't love you anymore.

My 10-minute Song and Did You See Timshel?

I think my best songs are the ones I'm able to write in ten minutes.  That probably sounds strange or paints me as lazy or uncommitted, but here's my logic:

Often times I have intentions of writing a song about a certain feeling or concept, but can't actually make it happen aka writer's block.  (Duh.) And then months later, BAM.  (Yes, BAM)  It just happens.  I've found the right key to play it in, right chord progressions, right lyrics.

This has happened once before with my song, Don't Say.  Granted, I started writing the melody and lyrics in my car before I sat down at the piano, but once I had an instrument in front of me, ten minutes later my basic song structure and lyrics were complete.

I've been struggling with a song idea for about 2-3 years.  And then yesterday, out of nowhere...it came to me.  In about ten minutes I had a basic chord progression and lyrics down.  In pink highlighter, no less.  That's all I could find in my quick scramble.  Recorded a rough cut on my phone and now a new song exists that I can begin developing.

Needless to say, I will be posting this song soon and I'm really excited to share it with you.  Not just because it's a new song, but because this is a song I've been trying to write for so long and never could.  Songwriting is sometimes the only way I'm able to verbalize what I'm feeling (I know, I know...fluffy cliche fluff), but it's always exciting when this happens for me.  And on the flip side, it's always reassuring to hear a song that portrays exactly how you're feeling.  So hopefully some of you will feel that way when you hear my new tune.  Maybe :)

So be on the lookout for a new original posted this week. 




And for the last time - in case you missed it...here's my latest cover:

I'm Alive!

Yes, I am alive.   Just a quick post to update you guys.

Put down some violin tracks for Ruut a few days ago.  If you're not familiar with her or her music, be sure to check it out.  Absolutely beautiful songs!  Also be sure to check out Naked Blue.  Talented and wonderful people (They own The Wood and Stone Room where we recorded).

Bought some new gear so that might be why you haven't seen much activity as of late.  Waiting for it to arrive so I can put it to use :)

I plan to have a video cover up by the end of this week so make sure you check back soon.  New originals are also on their way, thanks to some collaborations with Steve Scher down in Miami. 


Tis all!  Enjoy the beautiful weather!

xoxo

How I Created My Stop-Motion Animation

 If you haven't seen it already, I released a video featuring a new song (now available to buy -here-) as well as a stop-motion animation to go along with it. 


Patience.  This project was a good test of patience.  Patience and planning.  802 total photos (which probably isn't that many for a stop-motion project, but that's what my final tally was).   Here's a basic breakdown on how I created the animation for this specific video:

• Sketches and planning: characters and scenes.  I knew I wanted to create actual characters for this video to initiate some sort of emotional relationship with the viewers.  Based on the lyrics, I decided to create a cartoon version of me (side braid and all!) along with an owl meant to personify "innocence".  Took me about an hour to really design what I wanted the characters to look like.  Don't believe me?  I have a sketchbook of probably seven pages with multiple owls on each page.  Sketching was the hardest part for me, honestly.

• Drawing, coloring, cutting: NOT my favorite stage.  Everything you see in my video was made by yours truly.  The worst part was cutting out everything, especially the letters and the raindrops.  Many times I felt tempted to use my scissors as a weapon in place of a tool.  But alas...  It also took me a really long time to figure out a color combination for my owl - I'm not really sure why; I probably colored twelve of them until I found a suitable color match.  I should have colored them in a bit darker, though, because trying to saturate them later on became a problem.
 

 
• Understanding movement.  I had to make sure I left out/separated certain things I knew were going to be moving, such as the owl's wings or the girl's mouth.

• Landscape : The main landscape I chose was a lot of fun to put together.  In order to make the clouds and sun rays move, I had to make sure they weren't taped down.  Same thing with the swing.  Everything else, however, was taped down so there wouldn't be any accidental nudges giving the illusion of movement.

• Trial run:  I set up my tri-pod and started clicking away.  I highly recommend getting a remote shutter release to eliminate any accidental bumping.  It also makes it go by so much faster :)  I took about 150 photos of the opening scene to get an idea of what it would look like. Originally, I had all the lyrics written out as dialogue, but later decided to nix it because it seemed unnecessary and spoon-fed.  I realized that the range of motion had to be less wide.  Small movements made for better animation.  I also had to think about what the owl's wings would look like if it was landing or taking off.  It only took me about 50 photos to realize how awkward my owl looked flailing its arms in random directions that defied gravity.  It looked like it was drowning in the middle of the sky.  Whoops!
• For the opening scene, I had to move about ten things: the sun rays, clouds, both of the owl's wings, and the girl.  EACH TIME.  Luckily, when I did the final shoot...I decided to only use the sun rays and clouds as supplement movement.  
• Letter scenes: These were fairly easy.  I essentially added a letter for each photo.  When the whole phrase was complete, I began to move all the letters in between pictures.  This helped create a scattering effect.
• Raindrops.  LEAST FAVORITE TO SHOOT.  Every photo I added 1-2 raindrops and had to move all the existing drops.  It became difficult remembering which ones I already moved.  It was also difficult to move the raindrops without moving the umbrella or owl (which I should have taped down before I started shooting the rain).  

• Shooting time.  I spent about two hours on a trial run and three/four hours on the first half of the video.  I tried to make sure there wasn't any uncontrolled light that would affect the brightness of my photos (still managed to get my own shadow, though.  Ha!)  By the time I created everything for the second half and took the photos, a good 18 hours had passed since the first picture.  For the record, a lot of sleep was lost on account of this project not only by me, but by Brian Mirsch as well.  All for the sake of creation!

• Editing.  I didn't do much editing aside from saturation and contrast changes.  Most of the editing was contributed to adjusting the frame times in iMovie to show (somewhat) normal motion and to coincide with the lyrics.  The speeds vary from .1-10 seconds.   

• Export, upload, share!  <--- my favorite step ;)

 It is now your turn to create a stop-motion animation :) If you do, be sure to send it my way!  I'd love to see other projects.

That's all for now!
xo

Sneak Peek!!

 

Afternoon, friends.  

Just letting you know that I'm working on a special project to be released on the world wide web next Thursday.   I'm so excited about it I was literally up until 7am this morning planning/working on it.  Also, since I always decide things last-minute, I have a lot to do before then!  Cannot wait to share it with you guys.  A special thanks in advance goes out to Brian Mirsch, one of the most talented and creative people I've been lucky to work with.  Check out his page, Brian Mirsch Designs , and show your support!

...get excited :)  

COMING SOON!

xo.