Sunday, September 1, 2013

Lots of Time Has Passed!!

I cannot believe how long it's been since I checked in here on blogger.com! Woah. Reading my last blog, so much has happened. Yes I created that "album in 3 weeks" and produced it myself. It's called "The Vehicle". I was planning on releasing it independently but a record label came along through an old friend in the UK named Laurie Jay and I signed the deal to release "The Vehicle" worldwide on Right Recordings distributed through Nova/Universal, excluding the States, back in February of this year. It was officially released on April 22nd and the first single called "Good Girl Down" was simultaneously released on that date as well. I can tell you, it's better to have a team behind me. I'm more of a creative type and even though I o participate in social marketing, I wouldn't exactly call myself tenacious about it. I do Facebook mostly, and a little bit of twitter. I'm still not resting on my laurels though, I will continue to do my due diligence when it comes to promo. It's just nice to have a team behind me that has connections to radio and press in the UK and worldwide. I went over to the UK at the end of April after a songwriting week in Santorini, Greece, hosted by a writer and entrepreneur, Leonidas Chantzaras. It was a good writing trip in most ways, especially that I met and worked with some people that I'm still in touch with, one named Paul Drew who is a great writer and sound designer. We wrote two songs in one day with another great writer from Denmark named Marcus Winther-John. I went on to London to do several shows around the country and lots of interviews. I did a popular tv show called "Loose Women" which is very much like "The View" over here in the States and they requested an exclusive on the video for "Good Girl Down"which was good. Then I did the shows with a group of musicians from the Allstars Collective who are all FANTASTIC and I got lots of help from the guy who manages them and even plays a little harmonica, Paul Pacifico. I had a great time. When we all got back home, Paul Drew worked on the demos and really made them sound like records. When it came time to have my newest [about to be released] single mixed, I contacted Paul and asked if he would mix it. He agreed and helped me prepare the files for him to mix which was a bit of a process only because I don't really work in the program that everything was recorded on, Protools. I work in a software program called "Logic", but Paul walked me through it and was able to receive all the necessary files and I have to say, he really did a great job. It needed to be edited down as it was pretty long and now it's much more "radio friendly". Plus I had to add a few more things, some background parts as you know a "painting" is never done and I wanted to add some more colors to the song. What else can I tell you? Our house is like a factory today, here on the Sunday, the day before Labor Day. We've been working on mixing a b-side for the new single and I decided it would be a song I've had around for a while called "I Adore You" which I've always loved. I just never got the demo sounding great. FINALLY, it sounds like I wanted it to sound in my mind. I'm sending it to the label tomorrow or Tuesday to see what they think. Also, speaking of Factory, upstairs my hubby Lance is working on the video for the single which he got a good grip on today, concept wise. Additionally, my APP is finally finished! It's taken about 8 months to complete it, but it's worth it and was created by a friend of ours named Roberto Montesinos who has the mind to do it, lots of minutia to cover, but we are finally there. He's just sent it in to Apple for approval. It used to take 3 weeks for them to get back and approve it but now, apparently, it's only 5-10 days which is great. And my son and his girl friend are working on some animation for the video. Alls' good, b-side playing in the background and I'm leaving for London in about 6 days to do some writing and more gigs around the launch of "The Vehicle". Phew, lots going on, no wonder I'm tired!! But I adore it and the opportunity to continue to do what I love today. As my fortune said in the cookie tonight: You lead a useful life no matter what riches are coming to you. I feel very wealthy and fortunate in SO many ways. Amen!! Peace Out.....xoxoxo