days 56-63 "the making of....."

wow, can't believe i haven't blogged in about 8 days! what happened? well for one, I had to take some time out to celebrate a monumental wedding anniversary. we had a great time, got away for a few days.
things have still been happening regarding the songs. last night i received the four songs with my vocals on them. they are sounding very good. today, he also sent me one of the songs with a new guitar solo on it. he plays guitar very well. we will figure out how and when we are going to do everything else in the next few days.
i'm off to dreamland in a minute.

later gators.

love always;

marcy xooxoxoxox

days 53, 54 & 55 "the making of......."

forgot to blog again for a few days. my mind has been elsewhere. but today I had a very nice surprise. jp called me yesterday and said, "can you make it to the studio to do your lead vocals tomorrow?" the studio had an unexpected opening so he took the initiative and we got in!! went there today at about 2p.m. lunch in hand, and parked there for about 9 hours. I did the lead vocals on all four songs, it went very well. the tracks are sounding very good. while i was standing in the studio waiting for jp to play me one of the tracks to sing to i was thinking, "wow, here I am, standing here in this studio, doing what I've been dreaming about for a very long time". I'm so grateful for it!!!!!!
jp is going to have a look at all the vocals over the weekend and we'll get together early next week to have a listen and decide which were the best ones. he also said we could possibly get in to do the guitars this coming week if the guitarist we want is available. he'll be checking into that. so, all is moving forward.

and i should say, "happy new year" as it's the jewish new year!! may it be a very healthy happy and prosperous one for everyone on the planet!

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxoxox

day 52 "the making of...................."

so, today i went over to jp's. we listened to the basic tracks and both agreed they are sounding really good. just a few tweaks here and there. we discussed everything we want to add to the songs: some more guitars,[some played by me, or by john] or this other unbelievable guitarist named dean parks; got to add some backing vocals, some percussion, some strings, maybe some horns on one of the songs. that was an exciting meeting. we are going to go back into the proper studio to do my lead vocals. some of them were good, but there's just a little problem with my guitar bleeding through. it's not as bad as I thought it would be, but I'd like to do them properly. they have some fantastic mic's and outboard gear there. we're going to try and do that next week if the studio is available. if not, we'll just have to wait till it is.
jp is so great to work with! i'm so thankful for this, I can't even begin to express my appreciation. wow. anyway, all moving forward.

more tomorrow.

love always;

marcy xoxoox

days 49, 50 n' 51

woah, got so caught up in the weekend i forgot to blog! luckily there was not much to report until today. good news: jp sent me the rough basic tracks that we did in the studio about 2 weeks ago. it was nice to hear that it sounded as good as i remembered it to be. yes, we both agreed, we've got a good start. very exciting. i'm going over to his place tomorrow to have a listen and we will make notes as to what needs to be done. i thought of quite a few things; got some backing vocals to do, and also, some more guitars, maybe some other little bits here and there. and i may want to redo some of the vocals because i am a perfectionist! not always a good thing. jp really liked some of the vocals which was nice to hear. i used to sing a song at least 10 times and do a compilation because of my perfectionism. but in the past 2 years, I stopped doing that. as long as i've got the emotion down, a not so perfect note here or there is fine.

so, off to get some rest. it's been a weird time, poor patrick swayze passed away today, that is very sad. may he rest in peace.

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

day 48, "the making of......."

er, ever wonder why I don't complete the sentence for "the making of....." and just go dot, dot dot dot? well, probably because i'm not sure what it will end up being in the end. and that's good. I am leaving my options open. at this point, i'm thinking just finish these four songs and release one single, put one of the other songs on the b side, etc. we shall see. i've been reading about many established artists who have recently gone independent, doing the same thing. i will work very hard, once the single is decided on to get the single(s) licensed into a film or television show. [btw, i think i'm pretty sure which song it will be. the minute we started working on it, i knew it was gonna be good. i told the band to just be as funky as you wanna be with it. my demo is funky, but since it was programmed with a "machine" [they can never be as funky as real people who can really play and feed off each other] it could never be quite the same as real players. i do like modern sounding records/music though, and that will be the challenge. the other option which is a natural evolution to the first will be to do the single, and maybe another, and then depending on how it all goes, go ahead and finish a whole collection, i.e., album, cd, whatever you call it now. so, that's the plan.
haven't talked to jp yet. yesterday in my blog i said, i hadn't talked to jp since he had to spend some time with a dear friend of his that was very ill. then i said, i can't believe it's been a week since i last talked to jp. today i thought, that could be taken the wrong way and oh, people love to take me the wrong way for some reason. what i meant was, I can't believe a week has gone by since we did the recording [as in "how time flies], not that i haven't talked to jp or i was upset about that or anything. I know his friend who happens to be ill; he is a very talented, known and well-respected musician. i do hope he will be ok.
so, other than that, i felt things shifting for me last night and today i was right about that. things are starting to open up business wise and i'm very happy about that. i know this is vague but that's the way it is for now. it's just good that this is happening and i'm extremely grateful for that.

and on that note, i will say good night. got some ridiculous business [non-music] to deal with tomorrow. hope the stars will be with me on that!!! we may even film the experience and put it up for the world to see, hmmmmmmmmmm, good idea.

love always;

marcy xoxoxo

days 45, 46 n' 47! "the making of........"

it's three blogs in one! i can't believe i missed two blogs! but i have been so far up my own behind [sorry for the graphics!] and believe me it was starting to get very dark up there! unfortunately not been doing a lot regarding music the past few days. business has taken precedence and i think since mercury is in retrograde [or so they say, and it brings new meaning to the word: stagnant], things are moving like molasses as in, NOT! oooooooooo, been having some very frustrating, hair pulling days. however, this evening i went out to a club and sang, got out of my own head a bit and it seemed to clear the air, especially the air between my ears. i can feel it all starting to shift now. just had some success with one business dealing, so that's good.
i haven't heard from jp since last wednesday. i can't believe it's been a week. he had to go help a friend of his who is not well at all and wasn't due to be back till sometime this week. i'll give him a ring tomorrow. tonight a really great singer who i've recently befriended said she'd love to work on my record. that could be really good. i could use some bv's on some of the songs other than me doing all the parts. it's good to bring someone else in who blends well with you to give it another texture. so yes, that will be very good. i also saw a friend of mine i haven't seen for years which was great, initials kp....looking good!

tomorrow, having lunch with another singer/artist/friend of mine over here from the uk and will also try to talk to jp as well as conquer some other business stuff.

off to dreamland. thanks for tuning in!

love always;

marcy x

day 44 "the making of".........

sunday evening, day 44. my cat is rubbing against my feet, purring away and now she's taken to cleaning herself. she's very sweet.

as far as news, since it's the holiday weekend, i don't have much news as the whole country is off for the holiday. i'll hit it hard on tuesday, got lots of important stuff to deal with then. strange noise outside just then, it almost sounded like an owl, not too uncommon around here.

so, going to bed now, to rest.

later amigos!

love always;

marcy xoxxoxoxo

day 43 "the making of.........."

it's been mostly about relaxation today, much needed relaxation and escapism to put it bluntly! not that going into a studio, a time capsule, if you will, is not escape in itself; but it takes a lot of time, energy, focus, planning, to make a studio venture come to fruition. so, this weekend, and as it just so happens to be labor day here in the u.s. of a., i've decided to take the whole weekend off and think of nothing more than watching movies, hanging with family and just taking it easy.

jp is away till sometime next week. once he returns, we can start getting a handle on what needs to be done. for the next two days, i'm not gonna worry about it.


so, till tomorrow, i say good night.

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

days 41 and 42 "the making of......"

sorry, i was too tired to blog last night, so will put yesterday and today's blog together. well, yesterday being the 2nd and last day in the studio was so inspirational. i got chills hearing reggie and gadson playing their hearts out especially on this one song of mine, a song that not many people have heard before; it's very funky, and made me feel so alive and excited as we were recording it, wow. reggie's bass playing on it was sick!!! he was really into it, i could tell the way he was kicking his leg out and his eyes were virtually rolling back in his head, woahhhhhhhhh!! so amazing. his whole body becaume his bass. it was so incredible it was bringing tears to my eyes and is now just thinking about it again. everyone did a great job. mike thompson was also fantastic. he did some variations on some of my chords for this one new song of mine that really made it complete and took it somewhere i could not have taken it even though he complimented me on my piano playing on the demo. that was very kind of him! he is amazing. and so was jon cleary. i was happy he was able to come back yesterday and play again. but he could only do one song as he had a gig with john schofield at the hollywood bowl here in los angeles last night.
it's always so much fun recording, being in a proper studio; i feel like i'm in a safe little time capsule, created solely for my musical pleasure and excitement and it's a real escape. the yucky part is after the excitement, the next day. i always feel a little down; although this time, there wasn't really enough time to make me feel so let down as it was only 2 days of escape!! it's a similar feeling when i've been on the road for a month. you're all filled with adrenaline for four weeks, you come home and you don't really know what to do with yourself. then, one can find themselves feeling a bit depressed. such is life, the highs and the lows; and for two days this week, i was on an incredible high!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
john had to take a friend of his up to canada today and he'll be back early next week. when he returns, we will continue working on the tracks. we may keep some of my vocals, but i personally would like to do them properly. i already recorded all my acoustic guitar parts yesterday evening after the band left for the day.

today, i just chilled out and took care of some business stuff. feeling very tired, so i'm gonna go to bed.

thanks for tuning in!

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxox

day 40..."the making of......"

woah, today was so much fun. i just adore being in the studio especially with real people playing and interacting with each other. it's quite different from doing everything on your own or just exclusively with machines. wow, we did two songs today. i think they will turn out great. very excited about the prospect. will try to do two more tomorrow, who knows, maybe we'll get another one in. been playing guitar all day since about 1pm till around 10pm, my hands are tired! and been singing for 9 hours as well. voice held up really well. we'll see what happens tomorrow. just going to rest my voice till then and chill out.

getting an earlier start tomorrow. really looking forward to it. an old friend of mine named tony braunagle dropped by. he's a great drummer, i haven't seen him for years. he's played with lots of great people including bonnie raitt and is currently touring with robert cray, blues guitarist. tony was kind enough to join us on a song, playing percussion, sounding great. tomorrow hubby is gonna come down and do some filming. i took the camera in today and got a few shots, a few little video clips. hubby is much better than me at that, he's got a great eye. so, he'll be down and possibly another surprise friend or two.

gadson, reggie, mike thompson and jon cleary were great today. very inspired playing even after playing the same song 10 times!! but they always found the inspiration in there, which is great.

and now, i will say good night!
till manana....


love always;

marcy xo

day 39 "the making of....."

wow, can't believe it, but this is the night before my recording. i spent a few hours today working on the charts. it was kind of hard figuring it out, but that's probably because i'm such a perfectionist. good news is, i'm dealing with some great musicians who will completely get it, so no more need to even think about it.
got most of my gear sorted out in the studio, got a few more things to get together in the morning including having to go to a market to get some food for us all.
going to bring hubby's very cool camera to take some shots and some video although it will be limited since i will be busy singing and playing. this camera he has is really amazing, made by casio. it can take 2 hours of film and stills as well. very good. we've posted many things we've done on it, on youtube. hubby will come down on wednesday and take some footage for me. i want to keep track of it all and video blogs are the best way to do it.

so, on this eve of recordingdom, i say goodnight!!! i'm so grateful for all the good wishes everyone is sending me. thank you!!!!

until tomorrow..

love always;

marcy xoxoxo