Marcella Detroit's Blog

The Making of 2011 Blog 14

2011-06-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's been a while. About a month actually. I have no idea how that happened. But it's not because nothing's been going on. And by the looks of it I'm gonna need a clone this summer.

New and noteworthy: things are about to get very exciting indeed. My "album" is now turning into a double album, haha! yes, here's how: I'm going into a studio with some of my favorite musicians at the end of this month to do 10 songs which I am producing myself. I wrote some new songs recently, played them to a few people and the report: "this is gonna be funky!". indeed it is. I've got my old fave rhythm section lined up: James Gadson on drums [Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Paul McCartney] Reggie McBride on bass [Keb Mo', Ricki Lee Jones, Taj Mahal], Johnny Lee Schell on guitar [Bonnie Raitt and my old pal, aussie, Renee Geyer and others] Luke Miller on Keyboards, [soulful young LA player around town with the best of the LA musicians, namely saxophonist Paulie Cerra] and additional guitars by the very talented and tasteful Sam Meek, also a member of Paulie Cerra's band. The goal: let's do a 10 song album in 3 weeks, like they used to do it in the old days. YEAH.

I'll resume working with Larry Klein after my production is finished. I'll do 5 more songs with Larry. Release date for the entire collection TBD but I'm thinking this fall for sure!!

We'll be filming both adventures and will place footage on youtube as we go as well as making a documentary about it all. So, please stay tuned. Check me out on youtube as well under "Marcella Detroit".

I'm very excited about it all!! And grateful. Thanks for reading. xoxoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 13, lucky?

2011-05-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

Yes i am!! very lucky girl, woman, of the human species.

what's new you might ask? well, I'm off to Chicago tomorrow to join Corky Siegel and his group called Chamber Blues. An eclectic mix of his harmonica playing [ps. he know that thing so well, it's really like a mini piano in his mouth, haha!] and a string quartet, plus a percussionist. they are all lovely people and dear friends. it will be a year since the last gig i did with them nearly. always fun to see them and i have to say corky has enough enthusiasm for a million people. what a showman!!

then what? i'm back here in cali to figure out what's gonna happen next with my "record". i'm also planning some very exciting music stuff/rehearsals/possible gigs when i get back.

been doing some writing with a very cool new guy I met named klaus derendorf. v talented. we're writing for some very big artists right now. names will be disclosed later. don't wanna jinx it, hehe!! i know i know, not very evolutionarily evolved to b superstitious; i ain't perfect...:-)

i did a vocal on a "dance" record, co-wrote it with a cool dj who is american via the uk named gina star. that will be out sometime this summer. you know me, I love all kinds of music.

my heart is in my eternal love for "soul". found a cool station on satellite radio called 'soultown" love it.

oh, and sporting a new haircut by a gr8 stylist i just got turned onto named krystal @ guy matthew salon, she roxxxxx!!

all in all, things are good and i am very fortunate. wishing much love and happiness for all our brothers and sisters here in the us in overseas in recent killer storms and quakes.

BIG love, peace and out xoxoxoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 12

2011-05-07T01:33:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm up to my usual antics: it's 1:32 am and I'm wide awake...what's new??

i haven't blogged recently cuz there wasn't much new to tell. but just a little update: last week I went to my publishers and we had a "listening" session to the 5 tracks that larry produced. everyone seemed to really enjoy them. there's talk about doing another 5 which will be determined a few weeks from now.

meanwhile, i'm writing some new songs for myself and working on some demos on some of my songs in my home studio which is just great fun and easily transports me to a fantastic mood.

i'm also writing some songs with other writers for other artists which is going well. i'm getting antsy to do some gigs in the LA area very soon, over the summer. I have already been invited to do a gig at a very cool venue which i'll divulge soon....

that's it for now, until i get the next urge to do a new blog..

much love, always xoxoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 11

2011-04-08T01:30:00.001-07:00

They call me the night owl; and for good reason. It's 1:31 am, Friday morning. I've just gotten in from going to a jam to hang with some good friends of mine and got up and sang and played some cool old tunes by Denise LaSalle ["I didn't take your man" which was also recorded by the great Ann Peebles] and a woman named Yvonne Fair [ A song called, "It shoulda been me", very cool, very gospel. And no, it's not the same song Ray Charles did. But Gladys Knight recorded it and her version is very good, what a voice. But Yvonne's Fair's is less slick and I like that, yeah]. The latter I haven't sung for many years but thought of it today and how much fun it would be. And it was....Why is it that I feel so awake right now when I have to be like a normal person and get up at a reasonable hour? I was born at night, some things will never change...

So, tomorrow I'm going to the studio, where mixing is taking place. In fact, tomorrow we will be finished with mixing all 5 songs. I heard a few mixes today that sounded really good, just got to do a little tweaking on one or two of them. And that will be that. Then we shall play them for my publishers.

Wish me luck people, if you're reading this. Send me a comment if you like, let me know what you think, how is your world, what kind of music really inspires you; really makes you think, what makes you feel good, excited, what makes you forget what you wanna forget and remember the times you've treasured? Talk to me!!

Much love;

Marcy xoxox

The Making of 2011 Blog 10

2011-04-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

My tenth blog about this, well, happy 10th blog anniversary!

This coming week: All overdubs are finished. Two mixes have been done, we will go back and review those. Now this coming week I think the last 3 songs will be mixed and done. There may be a few tweaks here and there, but for the most part, finished.

I'll report on the results in a few days.

Thanks for tuning in.

Peace, love and all that good stuff

Marcy xoxoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 9

2011-03-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

About to start what will most likely be the last week of recording for these 5 songs. I only have a few things left to add, some acoustic guitar on one of the songs and a few backing vocals on some of the others.

Then it's on to mixing. In fact, they will be starting a mix tomorrow, the last of the overdubs, I will add on wednesday. I'm looking forward to hearing what EL does with the mixes, ie, what he leaves out, leaves in, turns up or down.

In the famous words of Arnold Schwarznegger, "I'll be baaaaaaaaack!" in a few days with an update. Feel free to follow me on twitter @marcelladetroit. I've been tweeting from the stuuuudio.

Much love;
Marcy xoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 8

2011-03-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

Ah, Saturday, not a second too soon. It was a good day to catch up on the real world. I did have a great week in the studio doing overdubs and look forward to next week when I'll be doing vocals and a few other things. Then it's time to mix these new babies!!

I've been given permission to officially announce the name of my publishers who are funding my recordings. They are called: Music Sales Corporation. As I mentioned before, this is unprecedented for them and they are all very behind this which is great. So far, I mentioned we've done 5 songs. There's been more talk lately of doing another 5 to complete the album. We shall see..But I'm feeling confident about it all. You can find them online at: www.musicsales.com if you want to learn more about them.

Many people have asked if there will be more filming of the whole process. YES!
I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Lots of love;

Marcy xo

The Making of 2011 Blog7

2011-03-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

Friday will be here in less than an hour and I'm pretty tired so I'll keep it short and sweet.

It's been a very good week. We've been cruising through all the overdubs and things are really starting to take shape. Did some more percussion today, some backing vocals that I did and tomorrow, the amazing organ stylings of the incredible Larry Goldings. His list of credits is very long and very impressive so feel free to google him and find out.

looks like next week will be about getting my lead vocals down. oh, and there will be more filming!!

thanks for staying tuned. gotta go, my eyes are crossing!

xoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 6

2011-03-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday. I hope it's getting off to a good start although it's difficult to be completely cheery due to the tragedy that's going on in Japan right now. I cannot imagine; my heart goes out to all those people.

I got word from EL yesterday that we are beginning the overdub process tomorrow, Tuesday. We'll be in his studio all this week adding my vocals and backing vocals, some of my guitars, other guitars by Dean Parks, keyboards with Patrick Warren, more percussion with Jay Bellerose. And more next week and beyond if necessary till the "painting" is finished :-).

In the next few weeks I will have 5 finished tracks. I'm also working on some more new songs and got a few upcoming surprises or two.

Mediajag created the first clip of my recording experience for this record. Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTxVHQYcO38

Off into my studio now, got a busy day singing and compiling vocal files...

Much love;
Marcy xoxo

The Making of 2011 Blog 5

2011-03-12T15:03:00.001-08:00

Saturday afternoon in southern California happens to be a lovely spring day. How dare nature serve up such a beautiful concoction here after the devastation a few thousand miles away in Japan. My heart goes out to all those people.

This weekend was meant to be my time off; but if anyone knows me, it's hard to do that. last night I was working in my studio till about 1 am on a few songs of mine that I've been wanting to finish. I am desperate to become a better engineer and am determined to be able to make my demos sound like records. I'm also looking to connect with a good studio partner, someone who can help me with that, perhaps write with me and be at the helm of the technical aspect of gaining good quality sound.

re: my record, it's supposed to all start happening on Monday. According to EL we are going to start overdubbing then and "not stop till it's done"; ok, ok, well maybe we'll take some food, bathroom and sleep breaks, but I don't really know what his work ethic is like at this point, so it's anybody's guess.. We've got keyboard overdubs, percussion stuff and I would imagine some guitars and other goodies, and of course, I will do my vocals and backing vocals.

oh, sorry I never told you this, you can't expect me to give everything away, but here are the names of the musicians that have played on the recent tracks:
dean parks: guitar
patrick warren: keyboards
jay bellerose: drums and percussion
brian mcleod: drums and percussion
larry klein: bass and production

if you google all of the above players you will find a wealth of incredible credits. I am honored to be working with all of them.

Will report more on Monday.

Much love xo

The Making of 2011 Blog 4

2011-03-09T10:35:00.001-08:00

Back from my trip into studio world where time flies by marked by rehearsals, retakes, trying this and that till it's right and before you know it, it's 10 pm again. Last night ended with food being delivered. El had to leave the session early due to family issues.

I think all in all it went very well yesterday although I had a problem with one of the keys of one of my songs. I'd been so used to singing it higher and El suggested I do it a whole 4th lower so I ended up feeling like I was singing in my boots! but after all that I understand the suggestion; he thought it would sound more personal to sing it in my chest voice and in fact, after trying it back up in E where I used to sing it and all points in between A below E and up to E, we went back to B!!

Tracks are all sounding v cool, laid back memphis soul. One went really well yesterday, better than I'd even imagined it would.

We r due to start overdubs either this Friday or next Monday. I wait with bated breath. But in the meantime, gonna put a vocal on a track for someone in the uk in my home studio....

Till next time.

Much love xo

The Making of 2011: Blog 3

2011-03-06T12:51:00.001-08:00

Countdown to recording tomorrow, yee haa! I have a feeling this is going to be something completely different for me. I enjoyed my meet with EL the other day. He emailed me today and all is moving forward.

Bringing my lovely acoustic guitar for tracking tomorrow. It's the one Eric Clapton picked up for me while we were on tour many years ago. We were on the road in the San Francisco area. Eric said, "I'm going guitar shopping, do you want anything?" kind of like you do when you're going to the market or something, ha ha!. I said, "sure, please pick me up a nice warm acoustic guitar". So, he brings me back this amazing Martin 0018, made in 1949! I covet that guitar. It's very warm and fuzzy and it's been my musical friend and inspiration for so long.

Off to run some errands and prepare, rehearse. I'll try to do some tweeting from the studio. check it out at:
www.twitter.com/marcelladetroit

Much love;
Marcy xo

The Making of 2011: Blog 2

2011-03-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

Just a few days before we actually start the recording process. I had a meet with EL [larry klein] yesterday about the songs and we discussed the keys. I sang them all in the original keys for him and we lowered a few of them. I have to say they do sound a little more conversational and personal. Whether they stay in the new keys, we shall see on monday!!

Got some great musicians playing on them; and it's going to be a slightly different approach to my music production wise. I don't want to give away too much right now, but this will be a very fresh approach.

Sorry to b so brief, but it's a summer day today in the LA area. gotta get out there and n joy it!

Much love;

Marcy xo

The Making of: 2011 Blog 1

2011-03-01T16:51:00.000-08:00

Welllll, dare I say, I'm about to start a new series of blogs about my upcoming recordings. I suppose I'm afraid of saying anything in case it doesn't come to fruition, [this is known as jewish "superstition" and that's an "oy and a vay"] but as my husby pointed out, it's all part of the story, all of it, the good bad and the ugly. And so it is.
It really hadn't sunken in till today while we were in the midst of having to replace our 36 year old air conditioning and heating unit, ouch!! but luckily for us, we have a very good friend in that industry who quickly came to our aid to help. we are very fortunate.
now, you may ask, so, what didn't sink in? Well, the fact that plans have been made for the start of new recordings for me. At the end of 2009 I signed with a very good publisher that specializes in tv and film licensing; in other words, for those of you who are not familiar with what that means, they are experts at getting music into films and television for shows or advertising. When I signed with them I told them, "I'm an artist and during my term with you, I may want to do a record or two". They immediately said, "we are not a label". understood. However, last year, they funded one song for me and now they want to do a block of 5 songs to be produced by a very well known producer named Larry Klein. Larry was married to Joni Mitchell and actually produced several of her records from the mid 1980's through to the early 2000's. [a quick stop to make a cup o tea to warm up my hands and body; it's cold in here! i know, southern cali, boo hoo, but it's quite cool today. we won't have heat till thursday.] So, Larry is at the helm. He's reviewing my songs again now whilst he's in New York for the week. When he returns, we'll discuss which songs we want to do. I love all of my songs, some more than others and I already have an idea of what needs to be done.Today, I got confirmation that the studio is booked and sessions set up for next Monday and Tuesday at a very cool studio in LA that I've worked at many times before back in the Clapton days. I am very excited about this. Larry has some great musicians lined up which I'll talk about soon. Of course, I'll be playing my geetar along as well. We're going to put down 2 tracks on Monday and 3 on Tuesday. After that, we'll start working on adding vocals and whatever else needs to go on the songs. Those, my friends, are called "overdubs". Fun.
We're going to film the whole process and the plan is to have a little "rockumentary" at the end of it that will be part of the release with possible interviews from some of my coworkers from the past. As I said, at this point Larry is going to do 5 songs; I have a really talented producer in New York that will do an additional 5 songs to make it a complete album.
I'm also in the middle of writing my autobiography. OOOO, it's hard to know what to put in there; I mean, do I really want to give myself completely away??? I'm up to 22 chapters now and that takes me up to around 1994. Got a lot more writing to do!
Today, I've been in my studio finishing up some songs that could also possibly be included on the album. BUT, I already have lots of songs for it; these new ones could be B sides or part of another or additional release. We are going to give the world my MUSIC, very soon, and LOTS of it. It's time.

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think...
Lots of love;
Marcy xo

"STay" topping the UK Charts Now!

2010-11-03T16:51:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that "Stay" is now officially in the UK BBC Radio 1 charts at #9! It's obviously thanks to a young girl named Cher Lloyd who did a cover of it on X Factor this past weekend. I first heard it was topping the UK itunes charts but was quite surprised that it's actually the Radio One charts! We worked very hard many years ago to get it into the top 40 and now it's got legs of it's own thanks to Cher. Who would've thunk???!
All I can say is, God Bless the UK! I hope to get back there very soon, who knows maybe sooner than I think!

Much love;

Marcella xoxoxoxo

MuSIC BIZ TODAY

2010-06-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

I received something from the Huffington post today @ www.huffingtonpost.com. it was something posted by Macy Gray, the great singer/artist talking about the problem of being a woman over 40 and putting out music. record labels have said, on record, "we don't know what to do with a record by a woman over 40, we can't get it played". ridiculous!! i responded to her post, please feel free to check it out. I also wanted to divulge this bit of info:
Earlier this year, while I was in the uK show, "Pop Star to Opera Star", someone representing me went to see someone at a very big record label in the UK to talk about getting me a record deal. They said they were only interested in signing artists who were "younger, that didn't know much about the music biz". They said that now, they are only signing artists that would be willing to give up some of their publishing and also an additional 10% to the label for management [the latter, i've never heard of and should be against the law, fact both of these things should be].. I would not qualify because, I'm older and "I know too much". This is simply OUTRAGEOUS! Artists should unite against this sort of thing. It's like the early days, back in the 50's and 60's where artists, lots of blues and soul artists, gave away all claims to royalties and songs they'd written. I frankly this it HEINOUS! but the only reason the labels get away with it is because artist's are desperate and they LET THEM! Every artist young and old should seriously consider this when signing any kind of contract: Be Aware, be informed and take control! After all, it's a big wide web world out there and we can do this independently. You can get distribution, hire good pr people at reasonable costs, get art work done, etc much easier than you could say 10 years ago, AND, you don't have to be NAKED in a video either to get attention-unless you want to of course.
Time to Stop the madness!!
Said with LOVE xo

Marcella xo

london may 2010

2010-05-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

what a week! accomplished so much. just to think, at the end of february of this year i had finished "pop to opera star", went back to l.a. and took about a week off [after all, what's a careeraholic to do??]. then, i looked at the irish prayer that dear michael bradley sent me some time ago and suddenly, the melody came to me. I had been wanting to write music to that prayer for the longest time. i also had a title for a song called, "all is forgiven" and put the two together, and the song was born. i then asked my friend ed shearmur [who co-wrote one of the shakespear's sister songs with us, "i don't care"] if he would help me with it, doing an arrangement and if he could help me record it to which he replied yes. he did a fantastic job; i wanted the production to be more on the classical side which he did very well, though it still has a sort of pop sensibility. i wanted to do this as an "homage" to the pop to opera experience which rekindled my love and appreciation for classical music. ed recreated some of the song and i wanted to give him some writers credit. so, here we are, may 17th, i came to england on the 8th of may, and I've been doing loads of promo for "all is forgiven"; a fantastic radio day last week that my pr person set up. bbc breakfast last monday and they actually showed a good snippet of the video. i think I was on for about 15 minutes which was much more time than i thought I'd be on. it was great, is great, and I'm grate-full! so, then I did the moonwalk event for the walk the walk charity and played "all is forgiven" just after the moment of silence. I decided to officially release it on the day of the gig, may 15th. i also decided to give walk the walk 25% of the proceeds for their cause, raising funds for breast cancer causes. such a great and humbling experience.
now, in my hotel/apt. contemplating this week; i did "smooth radio" network interview today. this goes out all across the midlands of the uk. on friday I'll be doing "magic" radio network with the amazing dave lee travis. more stuff coming this weekend which i'll talk about once it's confirmed.
now it's time to rest my careeraholic brain. attending an event tomorrow, having a meet with a good friend to talk about my doing a surprise gig in london before i leave on may 31st!

more to follow

love, peace, gratitude;

marcy xo

long time, no bloggy.....

2010-04-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

ah, what happened???? i haven't blogged since february, since the pop to opera star experience. i guess i've just needed some time to wind down, or is it, to continue getting wound up??? i tried to relax and in fact, i've really started a relaxation regime and it's really helping. now, as of today, i was supposed to be going to england tomorrow to do lots of things, songwriting, gigs, photo shoots, etc but it's all come to a grinding halt due to the massive volcanic ash cloud over the uk and europe! it's unknown when i'll be able to depart now. incidentally, the last time that volcano erupted [200 years ago] the eruption lasted for a whole year! thousands of people are now stranded, unable to get home due to this catastrophe. this is the first time in my life I can say that a volcanic eruption prohibited my air travel. wow, pretty freaky. but, it's better to be in the safety in my own home with my loving family than up in a steel tube in the sky with the chance of dropping out of it! so, here i remain until they announce my "tour of duty" so to speak.
this past week was very exciting and exhausting. what i did was work on my upcoming single called, "all is forgiven" with a great film composer and songwriter, ed shearmur. ed actually cowrote one of the shakespear's sister songs with us, "i don't care". i wanted to do a classical/crossover song for the single so i wrote this song. what i did was, took part of the irish prayer and wrote a melody to it and came up with a chorus for it. we added all the instrumentation and vocals this week, now it just needs to be mixed. the good news is, now that i'm staying, I will be able to attend the mix with ed which will be good fun. then i can take it over to the mastering house down the street from ed's studio. once it's all mixed and mastered i can put it up on 101 d distribution, an online only distribution company. after they receive it, it will be up on itunes within 2 weeks and some other media downloading sites. my goal was to have the single ready by may 15th to coincide with my performance in London at the "moonwalk, walk the walk" event that happens annually, bringing awareness to breast cancer. following performances, there's a huge marathon that begins at midnight going through the streets of london for 24 miles. in case i don't make it to london due to mother nature, i'm still aiming for the release date of may 15th.
i thought i was leaving so had to cram in lots of activities. now i realize how exhausted i am. i need to take it easy, so, tomorrow, i am taking the day off!!!!! not sure what i'll do with myself!
before i go, in case you didn't know, i have my own webisodic called "careeraholic". the second webisode was just uploaded this evening. check it out at: www.youtube.com/marcelladetroit.

i hope you'll enjoy it. nitey nite!! xx

week 4, pop to op star

2010-02-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

ok, wtf! can't believe i made it thru, what a blessing! it was pretty scary being in the bottom two last night. i thought, well, if this is the way it has to be, i'll just have to accept it. i was hoping i would go thru and thank goodness i did. katherine and meat saved me, the judges were split,then it was down to the audience vote. i have to say, I was pretty worried about my performance yesterday; it was so stripped back,[just me and the harp, which was beautifully played by the way, and my first instrument choice as a kid which parents squelched due to heaviness and expense, so i took up violin instead]. i had trouble connecting with it at first but in the end i felt it. very hard watching everyone else with their huge productions, but that's showbiz. the good news:i made it thru! and now, I made it to the initial goal i set: the semifinals, wow! who would've thunk??????! so, this week, i'm gonna dig VERY deep and do this and get into the finals! i welcome the challenge and am enjoying every little bit of this!

much love;
marcy xoxoxoxoxox

week 4, pop to opera star

2010-01-31T08:56:00.001-08:00

well, here i am, week 4. so happy i've made it this far. it's a definite challenge to sing opera; i feel like i've been running a marathon! we only have saturdays off, then back at it on sunday for the next song. not sure what's going to happen if i make it into the semifinals or finals? i would imagine we'd be singing a few songs in a nite if there are only 2 or three of us. we shall see, it will be a surprise. but then, it's all a pleasant surprise as it is. i wasn't sure i'd make it past week one since i've not been in the public eye over here in the uk for quite a long time except for a few small [but great!] gigs that i've done since my jewel album. but i'm so grateful that people like what i'm doing and are supporting me, fantastic!
v. sad about jimmy osmond going last week though. i have to say, he is one of the coolest, most down the earth, genuine people i've ever met in show business or just in general actually! we shared a car a few times on the way to itv studios on the days of the show the past 3 weeks. always sweet, always supportive, humble, kind, you name it. i think he's very talented too. i know he's fine with going home now, he hasn't seen his little children for about 4 weeks now, that's a very long time. but, he will be sorely missed here.
well, could be time for a nap, guests are coming over in a little while.

love and gratitude, always;

marcy xo

eve of show 2, pop to opera

2010-01-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

i want to know how thursday came around so quickly??? had a lot to learn this week, a whole new song and again, in italian, thank goodness. next week is german, yikes! very difficult, i don't know the language very well at all; that alone will be a challenge. anyway, re: this week, really looking forward to it, the orchestra sounded amazing today at the rehearsal playing my song. this is so incredible. i wish my father was alive to see this; he loved classical music so much. he used to take me to see orchestras, took me to see the great viloinist, isaac stern, it was just beautiful.
today was a very long day: a fitting for my dress, vocal training session, meeting with the mentors to run through my song and talk about the acting/drama aspect of it as well. rolando had both katherine and i in tears talking about the character singing my song and what she is singing about. phew. i'm looking forward to tomorrow. i felt so much better today at the orchestra rehearsal today; i felt like i was present, which was a nice change from last week. everything seemed to be so frenetic, including me, and, my nerves. i've had so much great feedback from friends, family and supporters, it's wonderful and i so appreciate it. i'm really enjoying myself. don't want to go home yet!! so, i shall do me best.

now, i need to rest...

ciao for now.

love always;

marcy

on itv1 2morro nite, 9pm, yeah, oh and alan titsmarsh sometime before that. think i spelled his name wrong in my last blog, sorry alan!! he is truly a lovely man!!

gearing up for show 2, pop to op

2010-01-20T10:50:00.001-08:00

been a busy week. i can't believe it's already wednesday. i've been training every day since sunday for the next show this friday. it's another challenging song. did some drama rehearsal today, and then some vocal work. just going to rest my voice for the rest of the night, not a lot of talking. i hope my friends are not upset with me by my not calling them; talking is harder on the voice then singing so i'm trying to remain silent and save it for friday except for rehearsals tomorrow. oh, tomorrow will be v. busy: fitting for my dress around 2; vocalising, meeting with the mentors and then rehearsal with the orchestra.

so, going to go have some dinner now, feeling hungry and a bit tired.

love always;

marcy xo

week 2, pop to opera

2010-01-18T13:44:00.001-08:00

well, had my 2nd rehearsal for week 2 today. a beautiful puccini piece from madame butterfly, i adore it. can't believe how physically demanding singing opera is. every time i leave a session i feel like i've done a hundred sit ups! but it's just great, fantastic experience, heavenly music to sing, interesting people to meet, it's all good.
got to get my beauty sleep. tomorrow is a busy day, more training, etc. i'll be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

love always;

marcy xo

snowing in london town

2010-01-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

well, was just gonna go out for a bit and it's snowing like crazy-a very wet, annoyinng snow, so came back in to do some emailing. today is my first day off since i've been here. had a much needed rest, got to sleep in, glorious, thank you thank you. trying to rest the vocal chords today; talking is harder on the voice than singing in some cases ie. talking above loud music in clubs etc. so, just chillin. did a few vocal exercises to keep it oiled up. all's good. everyone is keeping to themselves; that being said, most of the contestants live here in the uk so they are all going about their respective lives. i do have some friends and family here. i will meet everyone [i think] at the press launch on monday. gonna be a loooooong day, but good. getting the word out there.
one thing about these competitions: it's very much based on fan base. half of the contenders have quite viable fanbases; it's been many years since i was in the public eye in the uk so it's going to take some work to make people aware that i'm here. so, if you're reading, please help spread the word. i've got a marcella detroit fan page for my "pop star to opera star" experience. feel free to go to my facebook page: www.facebook.com/marcelladetroit and look for the link to my fan page and please tell anyone you might think is interested. thanks!!!!!!!
love always;
marcy xoxoxoxoxoo

day 2 in london

2010-01-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

wow, today the jet lag got me good. early morning start, snow falling, the city and suburbs grinding to a halt. i feel bad for people who were stuck in the cold with no power, terrible.
had a great session with rolando and katherine today; i met katherine jenkins today for the first time, very beautiful. they gave me some great tips. i'm chanting these tips, i'm eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next x days! all good. quite an adventure. i'm a very lucky and grateful bugger!

more to come..

love always;

marcy xo

the making of....

2010-01-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

well, didn't forget! just got things on hold right now. jp did the mixes all is sounding great and moving forward in that department. my manager is coming over to the uk next week to join me and have some meetings on my behalf regarding my record and all things music. all is good; i'm on the tv show on itv, "from pop star to opera star", just got here yesterday, hitting it already today in a vocal session. tomorrow i'm meeting the amazing katherine jenkins for the first time. i'll see her and roland villazon so they can see how i'm doing with my song; it's "casta diva" from the bellini opera "norma" an amazingly beautiful song. just heard it in a scene on the way over in the plane in the movie "all about steve" with sandra bullock. very coincidental, n'cest pas?? been online for an hour now, gotta get my beauty rest. watch this space. big day tomorrow.
love always;
marcy x

days 125-149..the making of....

2009-12-23T00:21:00.000-08:00

wow, what in the world happened to the time? what happened to me doing my blogs??? i guess i got pretty busy. I had to suddenly go to london to work on something that i can't really talk about. all i can say is, it's good. once i get the go ahead, i will let you know what it is.
meanwhile, re: the recordings with jp, well, while i was in the uk he sent me over some mixes of the 4 songs and they are really sounding good. so, now that i'm over my jet lag, I'll have another listen and see what might need doing, then we can move on and start planning to get this music out there.
now we're on the final ramp up to christmas. going to join the holiday madness for the next week or so, so i wouldn't expect to hear much from me. i hope everyone had a great hanukah. heaven knows i do have so much to be thankful for.

more news soon. n joy your holiday and all the very best for the coming year.

with love, always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

Days 115-124 "the making of......"

2009-11-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

oops, forgot about me blog!! sorry, whoever is reading them. things got a little crazy with the lead up to the holiday.
so, the last time I blogged, it was to say I had prepared the files for jp of my bv's and took them to his house which was good fun. he loaded everything in and it was sounding great. we ended up putting string parts on 2 of the songs which were sounding v.good as well.
the next night, wednesday the 19th, i joined jp and some friends that i haven't seen in quite some time, for dinner, good fun. i did'n't make it to cozy's to sing cuz it was too late. but i went this past wednesday and helped them end their 8 month residency. that was FUN! jimmy played his butt off on every instrument he could: guitar, b3, drums. you name it. I got up and sang a few songs with them and really let loose at the end which was very freeing for me, a good positive experience.
now, this past week, on tuesday, I had the most fantastic meeting with my new publishers, "music sales corporation". I finished a new christmas song and brought it into the meeting. they all really loved the song which was great and even gave me props for the mix which is unusual for me to receive; my hubby helped me with it. he's a better engineer than I am, but we are both growing as far as that's concerned, learning new things about it all the time. btw, that song will be up for purchase online very soon. I'll let you know when I've got it up on a site to be downloaded. it will be sometime this coming week. i'll also post that info on my site and facebook. one of the guys at the company was really chomping at the bit to get my christmas song licensed this year, but as it's already upon us, it may be too late. but next year is good. one guy at the company is someone I used to work with back when I first moved to L.A. doing lots of recording sessions, many years ago. he's incredibly talented at writing, producing, and is just one of the coolest people you'd ever want to meet.
well, may have some more news very soon too. we'll see.
meanwhile, the countdown to hanukah and christmas begins: you better be good!!

love always;

marcy xoxox

days 113 &114... "the making of".........

2009-11-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

it's so late, my eyes are nearly closed, but the beams of light shooting off of my trusty imac are keeping them from snapping shut!
yesterday i did a few more background vocals for one of the songs i'm working on with jp. then, I had to prepare all the files and put them neatly on my portable little hard drive and took them to his house today. he loaded them into his computer, all seemed to be working well which is good. we worked on a few of the songs today; we put my harmonica solo on one of them and also some strings on that song and another one. that all took a few hours, but we got a lot accomplished and it was great fun.
now, all we have left to do is strings on one of the other songs, maybe, if we feel it needs it. there might be a guitar or two left to put on. we are getting close to having all the elements there, very exciting. it's sounding very good in my opinion right now. what i like about this new creation: there's nothing "gimmicky" about it. kind of scary, like doing it "without a net" so to speak. but i think, at last, that's a very, very good thing. for the longest time, I feel like i've been trying to be something that i'm not. i made the decision, that had to stop.
tomorrow, will see jp in the evening along with some other friends i haven't seen in a while. after dinner i might even go down to this club called cozy's to sit in with vivino and the gang. they're only playing there 2 more times, including tomorrow. a week from tomorrow will mark the end of their 8 month residency there. i've had a great time jamming with them and look forward to more in the future.

off to bed before i start snoring....

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

days 97-112 "the making of......."

2009-11-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

woahhhhhhhhhh, i can't believe it's been so long since i blogged. i put it down to my being ill for most of this time with a nasty flu like bug that found a nice resting place in my sinuses. very, very annoying. i'm just now starting to feel better.
so, wassup, you may ask? well, just before the lurgy really set in, I decided to do a vocal on one of the jp songs here in my home studio. I wasn't completely happy with my performance on the version we did at the hob studio, so i asked john to send me the backing track, sans lead vocal for me to re-do, which he did. oh, i should say also, during this little 2 week break, jp had to go to new orleans, so all was a bit on hold, except for my redoing my vocal. i really liked how it came out and jp came over on friday to have a listen. he liked it and said that he immediately understood why i wanted to redo it. we shall call it "bedroom studios"!! ha; these days, it doesn't really matter. you can have state of the art equipment set up anywhere-except maybe on the street, for the noise factor-and you're good to go as long as you at least know the basics of engineering whatever it is you're trying to record.
so, he took the vocal back to his studio and will be putting it into the track that he has back on his computer at home. i decided to do another vocal for the other track that I felt my performance was a bit lackluster on and redid that friday afternoon after he left. i really like the way it sounds too. today, I'll put some lush background vocals on it. this was the one song i was gonna get a bunch of my singer friends to sing on, but due to everyone's schedule being very different from mine, i decided to just do them on my own, which is totally fine. i've done all the background vocals on all the other tracks and i do love doing the bv's.
i'm meeting with jp on tuesday to put some more stuff on the tracks, mostly the string lines that i did in the demos, we are going to redo. I may do my harmonica for one of the tracks here and bring it to john on my little portable hard drive. it's about the size of half of a nail file, amazing what you can do these days.
i forgot one important thing that I didn't mention and never announced till it was final: for nearly 3 months i was in negotiations with a company called music sales who are experts at getting music into film and television. we finally reached an agreement and i signed the documents on november 6th which i'm very happy about. i'll be meeting with them very soon, things are already happening, all's good.

so, on that note, I'll say adieu till next time. i won't wait so long till the next blog, more to report in the coming days!!

love always;

marcy xoxoxo

days 93-96 "the making of....."

2009-10-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

well, this week was not what i completely expected it would be. for one, i didn't make it to the club on monday, too tired. also, didn't meet with jp, but that was cool. he actually sent me mixes of all the tracks with percussion on them, they are all sounding really good. now, he's going off to new orleans to see jon cleary, amazing guitarist/keyboard player who played on my songs. he's back on tuesday next week. we will convene then and figure out what needs doing.

on wednesday, i went to sit in with some friends, jimmy vivino on guitar [conan o'brien, tonite show], rick reed on bass, barry goldberg on keys and also scott healey, also from the conan show band. i had big fun sitting in with them, doing my clapton co-writes. jimmy is so sweet to have gotten them all to learn my tunes. he is a great musician; he works every day taping the tonight show and still wants to play a little gig at a small club, just for the love of it. i do believe he is the hardest working man in show business and i could even venture to say he probably loves music and performing more than me-that's A LOT!! he is one of the finest guitarists i've ever played with-I've played with some pretty good ones too!- and it's always a pleasure and honor to work with him.
so, had communication from someone today with more release options. still, "nothin's final till it's vinyl" as they used to say in the old days, meaning, until it's a "record" you can't count on it happening.

and that my friends is the end of this week nearly. if there's anything new to report, i'll put it out there, if not, i'll wait till monday. oh, one other thing, albeit vague; had a cool idea tonight for some kind of interactive thing with my fans on my site. early days but i will talk about it with more specificity very soon.

ah, bed,,mmmmm...zzzzzzzzz

love;

always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxox

days 90-92 "the making of......"

2009-10-26T01:01:00.001-07:00

well, weekend over, onto another week of fun and not so frivolous. tomorrow, i'm going over to jp's to discuss what else needs to be done on the songs. oh, forgot to say, yesterday i met jp at the studio and we had this great percussionist, lenny castro, who has played percussion on nearly every record known to man, play on the songs. sounded great! he played shaker, congas, and some tambourine. one of the shakers was actually about 8 beer cans joined together with some kind of gaffer tape with some kind of beans or something inside! yeah, i got a picture. it sounded very cool, smooth, but fuller than an ordinary shaker.

so, we shall see tomorrow what more needs to be done. I think I'll bring my Dflat harmonica to put on one of the songs, i can probably just put it on tomorrow.

should be an interesting week. i think i'm going to see a friend of mine play tomorrow night at this interesting club on sunset called "the libertine". the band is very funky with a great rhythm section, horns, you name it. look forward to hearing that. last time I was there it was a great night; the place was heaving, people were dancing, just having a great time which is pretty unusual at a club here in l.a...what a concept!

nite 4 now.

love always;

marcy xoxoxox

day 89 "the making of...."

2009-10-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

woah, so thrilled, I played tonight and did 4 of my new songs at a songwriters showcase. they seemed to go over very well!
talked to jp today, we are going into the studio on saturday to have someone put some percussion on the tracks. very happy about that, moving along. also, i'm going to meet with jp on monday to discuss what else needs to be done.

now....i am tired.

so i say, good night!!! more news tomorrow.

love always;

marcy xo

days 86-88 "the making of...."

2009-10-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

well, not much to report. jp sent me an edit of one of the songs with a guitar he put on a few days ago. it sounded very good. but i've not heard from him since monday. tried calling today but he wasn't there. something must have come up. we are very close to being done, only a few more things to add. it's all sounding great, i'm very happy with it all.

i'm sure i'll have some more news tomorrow. been practicing my new songs. i've been invited to do a little songwriter's gig which I'm doing tomorrow, thursday october 22 at a place called arnie's cafe in tujunga. always a good crowd. it will be interesting to see how the new songs are received.

nite for now. as john lennon once said, "I've got blisters on my fingers!!!!"

but, really, I've got callouses and their getting even bigger now!

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

days 82-85 "the making of....."

2009-10-18T00:35:00.000-07:00

woah, where is the time going???? mid october already. been kind of hectic since i returned on tuesday. i was exhausted in every way, so didn't keep up with the blog again. but, hey, i'm here right now.
not much has happened this week, since i was not really able to do anything till wednesday. but i've been in communication with jp. he took it upon himself to do some technical stuff with one of the tracks, he's still working on it. once that's done, we're gonna get together and listen to the guitar he put on it; i may play some guitar on it too. it also is the last song to need background vocals. i did the background vocals for the other 3 songs on my own; but this last one feels like it needs other voices than mine, so we will organize that very soon.
meanwhile, i picked up a Dflat harmonica to play for one of the songs. it's actually a Hohner, "blues harp"; i haven't played one of those in a while, but it sounds good. i usually play a hohner, "marine band" or a "lee oskar" [harmonica player from the band "war" who developed his own line of harmonicas which I really like too]. so, we'll put that on this coming week too.
i have been rehearsing for a little giggy-poo that i have this coming thursday in the l.a. area. just me, accompanying myself; gonna play some of my new songs that night, should be a fun night. i'll post some info on it in the next day or two here in case anyone wants to attend show me some love baby!!!!!
gotta make some calls this week, see some friends that have come in from outta town, should be a fun week.

hasta luego!

love always;

marcy xoxxoxoxoxox

days 73-81

2009-10-14T23:58:00.001-07:00

where have I been??? wish i could have kept up with the blog, but i had to leave town for a few days to tend to a family emergency, sorted thank goodness.
well, where was I..... got back yesterday, and pleasantly surprised to see that jp had sent me some mp3's of some ruff mixes of the background vocals we did just before I left. everything is sounding really good; he added guitar to a track too. i may be seeing him on friday to put my harmonica on one of the songs. we are going to have someone put some percussion on the tracks too. that will happen v. soon.
back tomorrow for more news. going to have to pick up a harmonica in the key of Dflat [Csharp] for the song. they're holding one for me @ guitar center, yahoo!!

love always;

marcy xo

days 69-72 "the making of"....

2009-10-06T01:04:00.000-07:00

well, been busy the last few days, parties, guest appearances at my friends' benefit. not getting enough sleep! such is life, mine, anyway.
saw jp today. we listened to the work he's done on the songs, all sounding good. he put a great guitar solo on one of the songs. he's coming over tomorrow to help me put some backing vocals on the songs. that will be fun, I always love doing that. once that's done, we'll see what we should do next. most likely, it will be some more guitars, some percussion.

got to go, later than I thought!!

love always;

marcy xoxoxo

day 68 "the making of...."

2009-10-02T01:38:00.000-07:00

interesting; today someone contacted me on facebook and asked, "if i had never heard of you or your music before, how would you describe yourself as an artist?" good question. my response was, i think what i am doing now describes me better than anything i've ever done: earthy, soulful music with a message. i also said i've always been part of someone else's dream, which is very true; doesn't mean i didn't or don't have dreams of my own. of course, I've done some amazing things in my life and i'm so grateful for that, and i've had lots of success which is truly incredible! i am truly blessed to be able to do what I love to do and sustain myself after all this time. weird, but, i just never felt i achieved the kind of success i've always dreamt of, the kind on my terms. that is the clincher. when i first started out, i was lead singer in a few bands, then got into doing backing vocals for many notables and that was great. in a way, i think doing that for a major part of your career puts you in a niche so to speak and it's hard to break out of not only for yourself, but for other people who are very eager to judge and compartmentalize; in saying that though, i obviously realize, it's not been so terrible for me, i've been lucky as hell on one hand and on the other, music is what i've devoted my life to! but, my advice to anyone beginning their life in music: follow YOUR dream. if you don't, it can have a tendency to slip away from you. be true to who you are, follow your heart and all that good stuff. it's so so easy to get sidetracked. once you do, it's very hard to see which way to go; you can lose yourself if you're not careful.
sometimes you just gotta pontificate! anyway, on another note, i spoke to jp today. we made a plan to get together tomorrow to talk about what to do next. unfortunately, he called me back tonite to say that he forgot he already had something to do tomorrow, so we pushed it to monday which is fine for me. tomorrow, i have some work to do here. i am going to start rehearsing and practicing for some live shows i will be doing soon. so, time to build up those already 1/2 inch thick calluses on the fingers of my left hand. i used to have a little night club set up in my living room complete with p.a..[well, actually, i was just singing through one of my guitar amps!] and it worked fine. but then we decided to remodel/recycle our furniture in our living room and voila, we now have a much more aesthetically pleasing room to hang out in. my baby grand takes up a lot of the space, but we managed to cleverly move things around and make the room appear as though it is not dominated by the piano, so that's a good thing.
so, tomorrow, aside from some writing, i will set up all my gear in my studio and start rehearsing songs i will be doing for the next onslaught. should be fun.

got a fun gig to do with a good, old friend of mine, shaun murphy. she is a powerhouse! we sang together with bob seger and clapton doing bv's. shaun is coming to l.a. to perform at a benefit for the great drummer of little feat, richie hayward. he's been diagnosed with serious liver problems, i.e, tumor, cirrhosis, you name it and he now needs a liver transplant AND hes' got no health insurance!!! oh dear, dear dear, poor richie. does anybody know how much it costs to have a liver transplant? feel free to have a guess! the person who gets it right first will be declared the winner and will be mentioned in my next blog! exciting eh??!
back to the benefit. it's at a place called the canyon club in the san fernando valley this sunday october 4th. I'll be doing some vox for shaun, she starts at 9pm. I may also be jamming with jimmy vivino who is heading the major jam with the amazing steve lukather at midnight. i think the whole event starts at 5pm.

so, that's it for now. got to get some sleep. i am such a nite owl...

love always;

marcy xoxooxoxo

days 64-67 "the making of...."

2009-10-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

well, again, a bit of a break between blogs. i was away for a few days taking a break from it all. not much to report except that jp called today, i missed his call unfortunately, so will try to connect tomorrow. things are about to get hectic: parties, gig, another gig or 3, who knows. n e way, it's all good. just want to get these 4 songs done. i listened to them tonight. i'm really liking them a lot, can't wait to hear how everything sounds when it's all done. sounds very earthy because it is earthy!! nothing too artificial about it; it's almost like being a trapeze artist and performing without a net... but i think that's a good thing.

sleep is calling.

more news tomorrow.

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

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

2009-09-27T00:06:00.001-07:00

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......."

2009-09-19T01:46:00.001-07:00

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...................."

2009-09-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

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......."

2009-09-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

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........"

2009-09-10T01:51:00.000-07:00

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".........

2009-09-07T01:07:00.001-07:00

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.........."

2009-09-06T01:44:00.000-07:00

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......"

2009-09-04T00:27:00.000-07:00

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......"

2009-09-02T00:08:00.001-07:00

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....."

2009-09-01T01:28:00.000-07:00

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

day 38, "the making of....."

2009-08-31T00:31:00.000-07:00

trying to remember rule number 6: "don't take yourself too seriously"! ha, that's a hard one. but a good one nevertheless.
feeling tired but had a very good meet with jp today. we decided on the 4 songs, plus one extra that i will do on my own with a wall of lush guitar: no, not heavy metal geetars!! that's all i'm gonna tell ya. but it's gonna be warm and luscious. can't wait.
we also have a backup song in case we move through the others and have time to spare. truth is, I have about 20 some odd songs i could record. most of them are songs written in the past few years up until the present. and some are a bit older, but they're standing the test of time so far. a little tweak here or there. sometimes it's good to step back and reassess an old song. you can see better what was missing, maybe change a word or two or add a new musical section if it warrants such. that's happened with one of the songs we'll be doing this week.

sometimes when i'm writing, i make up guitar chords, going by the sound i hear in my head. move a finger here, another one there till it's the chord i want. so, tomorrow, i have to create charts for the musicians, kind of like "musical road maps" the simplest way to put it, instead of actual written out music. mainly, it's chords and what bars they fit in. so, my work will be cut out for me on one song especially, but it will be worth it.

and now, without further adieu, i say goodnight. 2 more days till we're in the studio...yes.

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxo

day 37 "the making of......"

2009-08-30T01:14:00.000-07:00

phew, ok, about to go to sleep but it's blog o'clock!
so, i spoke to jp today and we are meeting tomorrow afternoon to discuss the songs. hubby and i were talking about them today and i agree with him, i love all of them. it's nice to have a producer this time around to collaborate with; also the onus is not completely on me, but I am happy with that responsibility anyway. just nice to have some help with someone like-minded who is a great lover of real, live music, who has a long history in the world of music that i completely respect and admire.

so, we shall meet tomorrow and discuss. been practicing me songs.

ah, to sleep, and yes to continue to dream...oh, i'm so freakin' dramatic!!! haha!

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxo

days 35 and 36, "the making of...."

2009-08-28T01:17:00.000-07:00

alright, guess i'm getting into doing 2 days at a time, but anyway, i'm doing it so that's good.
well today i spoke to jp. we were going to meet tomorrow to discuss the songs but he can't, so we'll either talk at length over the weekend or i'll meet with him sometime on sunday. either way, it's all fine.
some things are moving albeit, slowly, but still in the right direction. so, we shall see what the next few days bring. 5 more days till i'm in the studio. wow, can't believe it's here already.

nothing else to report. tomorrow will be a busy day and hopefully will have some more news at the end of it.

till then..

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxoxo

days 33 and 34 "the making of......"

2009-08-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

well, i was so tired last night i forgot to do me blog!! so, again, i'm doing two days in one. actually, yesterday jp was trying to contact me a few times and i returned his calls, leaving messages. we finally got to speak. it was about a song of mine that i sent him a little while ago. i just did it with an acoustic/electric and vocal on the demo. he loved it and suggested we do that one in addition to the other 4 songs, and keep it simple. i love that idea!! very excited about that. just me and my geetar! so, i've been practicing a lot and due to all the typing i'm doing online etc. and the piano playing i'm also doing,and my game-playing on my iphone [i am addicted to scrabble!!!!] my hands and arms are getting a real workout! but it's all good. i'm always learning, trying to push myself a bit and experiment. still got the nightclub set up in my living room. tonight i was singing some of my new songs but also some old ones i haven't sung in a while. it was fun and at times a bit of a struggle remembering words i hadn't sung in a while. but when i relaxed even more, most of it came to me. all right here in my own little "mental" computer otherwise known as my brain.
oh, yeah, and i booked a little gig at a songwriters thingy for october here in la.. wow, can't believe how this year is rocketing by....whooooooooosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

today, well, still in the middle of some bizness stuff, but i will have more definite things to report in the next few days for certain. full steam ahead, chip chip cheerio and all that stuff!!

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

days 31 and 32 "the making of...."

2009-08-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

oops, got it wrong on friday when i said it was 10 days till recording, sorry! it's actually a week from this coming tuesday so that makes it 9 days from now. still exciting. not much to report over the weekend except that i heard from reggie, the bass player and he is good for studio dates, so that's great.
this week is gonna be pretty monumental. so much is going on, so much will be determined by what happens this week, lots of business stuff happening. i'm meetin with jp on friday to go over the songs. i think it's going to be hard to decide on which songs to do! for me, well, I pretty much like all of them although i can see how some might be more immediate than others. we also want to pick 4 songs that give a good well-rounded view of me. we'll do it, it will be great.
i need to get some sleep so i will sign off now. gonna fasten my seat belt...

love always;

marcy xoxoxoxoxoxo

day 30, "the making of....."

2009-08-22T00:25:00.000-07:00

so, here we are at day 30, really, is it day 30 already??? wow, time is racing by. not a huge amount to report today, just business as usual but all is good, moving in the exact right direction. once i know things for certain, i will talk about them more. i haven't heard from reggie, the bass player for a while, even though i've sent him a few emails. but he's probably on the road.
oh, it was great when i talked to gat [james gadson, the drummer] the other day. he said, a lot of his friends and fans watched our rehearsal on youtube that we did last year and loved it, so that's good. i'm getting pretty excited. it's only ten days till recording. i'm glad i got being ill out of the way. man, i was ill for about 8 days, one of those where you wonder, "waaah, will I ever get better?" thank goodness, yes, i did and I am. amazing how the immune system works. i don't know what i had but it was a flu of some type. anyway, enuf of that, it's had enough air time.
in case anyone wanted to see that rehearsal, it's here: www.youtube.com/marcelladetroit. it's gadson, reggie, semmi [on guitar] and luke miller on keys. unfortunately semmi and luke won't be joining me on recording, semmi is in new york and not sure where luke is at the moment. but the vibe will pretty much be the same, very funky, i can't wait. i think i'll have to take a chill pill before i go to the studio that day to contain my excitement-not really! maybe some mantras,maybe some meditation, maybe some exercise, a massage, i'll be so relaxed i might just sleep through it! ok, maybe no massage! but seriously, this feels like a new beginning-ok, ok, don't mean to get all mushy on ya, but it does. and now it feels like it's going to be on different terms: mine!! glory hallelujah, i say, glory hallelujah!! can i get an amen???

and on that note, i will say, good nite.

similar time, same station tomorrow.

love, always;

marcy xxoxoxo
10 days till recording!!!!

day 29 "the making of......"

2009-08-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, here we are at day 30. got some great ideas from some people on raising funds etc. so grateful for the thoughts from everyone. will address that very soon. meanwhile, it's full steam ahead.
I talked to jp today and got the drummer, gadson possibly taking his drums in the night before so we can start early enough the day of. the drums usually require the most amount of time to set up and mic properly, very important. gadson called me today to confirm he talked to the engineer at the studio about arriving the night before. it was great to talk to him, I haven't spoken to him for about a year! can't believe it's been that long. he sounded real good. he's so incredibly funky, i can't believe it, so exciting. him and reggie together are like my dream rhythm section team! ok, gotta calm down, getting too excited thinking about it. gotta relax, it is near bedtime after all, just the other side of midnight....

so, other than that, other interesting things are developing. but i can't divulge anything until it's final. sorry for the mystery, but, call me superstitious, i don't wanna jinx anything. very superstitious, writing's on the wall, very superstitious, ladder's bout to fall...[thank you stevie!]. .i know, not a great show of intelligence necessarily being superstitious; but the other side of it is, as we say in the music biz, "it ain't final till it's vinyl" meaning, until you have the physical record, or in this case, "thing" in your hand, you can't count on it.
so i leave you with that little dangling carrot. i know you won't lose sleep over it.......

love, always;

marcy xoxoxo

day 28 "the making of....."

2009-08-20T01:12:00.001-07:00

well, here we are day 28, four weeks since i got this bee in my bonnet about doing these recordings. got a little feedback from my post last night, and i thank everyone reading for your input and clever ideas.
meanwhile, still moving forward, got some confirmation today on start times at the studio and got the players all informed of where and when so we're all good. i'm finally feeling like myself again, yahoo! phew, that was a nasty bug, no fun at all. now that my head is a bit clearer i've been doing more practicing and playing. my voice has come back now and i'm happy about that.
more practicing to do, i can feel the effects of it. i'll meet with jp next week to discuss the songs, got to make out some charts for the musicians. we're not going to rehearse before the big day, going to keep it fresh. sometimes when you give people too much time to think, including me, it takes the spontaneity out of things. last year with the one rehearsal, i was so pleased with it. so, i'm sure this will be just as good, if not better.

off to dream land.

love always;

marcy x

day 27..."the making of......"

2009-08-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

wow, can't believe it's nearly 4 weeks since i started this! well, unfortunately, this little bug took me down a bit longer than i wanted it to. but such is life on planet earth. slowly feeling better. prepared some song files for someone who has a label today that wants his artists to do some of my songs. that seemed like hard work cuz i wasn't feeling up to par. so, have been assuming the position of: "gee, I feel great!" with a huge plastered on over the top smile on my face :-),,,ha ha. so, onward and upward, since for now that is the only place to be.
tomorrow, i will contact jp and then the band to give a start time for the recording. it's getting closer. in fact, as soon as i've done this little "bloggett" i'll email john with a request for a start time.
and now, i'm going to divulge a little secret :
originally, my plan was to do this recording with the help of my fans, or rather supporters. I was going to ask for donations and in return, offer some sort of reward, like i'd put your name on my cd, give away free songs, merchandise. i was going to do that if i was doing an entire album, following the example of my friend janet robin-who, by the way, was able to raise over 14k dollars to do a whole album, pretty good. but as i'm not doing an album, let alone, no physical release as of yet, it would be hard to put anyone's name on a digital download! maybe there's a clever way of doing that, who knows???? do you??? but now, since i'm just going to do an ep, taking it one step at a time, i'm looking into other options. i do already have a company lined up to do an online release. this could possibly turn into physical sales depending on numbers sold. all in all, i think i will keep going in this direction. i also have been approached by someone else, could also be very interesting and promising.
of course, if anyone is actually reading this, I'd like to hear your feedback on the idea of taking donations, i.e., raising money to record and also any suggestions for what I could offer in return for donations: free mp3's of unheard or unpublished material, a sliding scale of merchandise, or rewards, depending on the amount of the donation? [oh, no sexual favors, in any way shape or form!!!]
I'd love to hear any feedback. cuz, the internet is potentially full of many onlookers, but right now, for all i know, I could really be in this alone!! :-)

love always;

marcy x

day 26, "the making of...."

2009-08-18T00:56:00.001-07:00

well, due to my illness I didn't get much done today except for some business things, but I am feeling much better. so, tomorrow I will check with jp about getting together and discussing songs that we'll be recording. it's hard for me to choose just 4 songs! there are so many that I love at this point and that I'd like to do, but I still think it's a good idea to just do a few. so, will make it a point to meet and discuss.

also, got to get the word to gadson and reggie aboutt the start time. have to confirm that with jp too. all this and more....tomorrow.

love always;

marcy xo

days 24 and 25

2009-08-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

well, waaaaah! have been in bed with nasty bug all day today, so not going to write too much now. hitting the bed again in a minute. as it's the weekend, not much to report but, once monday kix in again, the games will begin again. all going as planned.

except for the way i'm feeling right now, although better than when i woke up.

love always;

marcy x

day 23 "the making of...."

2009-08-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here we are, day 23. I do have a little more progress to report. I talked to JP today and we sorted out the band now. I'm happy I'll be playing guitar too, and that JP agrees that since I'm the artist, it will set the mood. Another producer I worked with last year wouldn't let me play one lick of guitar on any of the songs we did. most likely because he was a guitarist and wanted to do it all himself. oh, i just thought he let me play on one thing, but no, come to think of it he didn't. not good. it's not about my ego. it's about the music, my artistry, what it's all about. v. important, and i'm so tired of that kind of attitude anyway, "you're a chick, you can't really play" and have had some of da boyz laugh and say, oh isn't it cute, look at her play. hmm. well, yes, i do play, alright i ain't no jimi hendrix or eric clapton, but i do ok, so it's all good. i'll be playing all the rhythm guitar on all songs where it's needed and we'll be having this great musician named jon cleary play some lead and more keyboards on stuff which is great and maybe another guest here and there.

going to get an early night to beat this little bug that's trying to get me. up early and outta here to see an old friend.

love always;

marcy xo

Day 22 "the making of....."

2009-08-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

well, today has been very interesting indeed. some crazy stuff going on, and without getting too specific, i can say, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....in a good way. but again, not counting any pint sized chix until they hatch. it's all beginning to take shape.

no word from jp today, he's got lots of projects going on as one would expect. I'll give him a ring tomorrow.
right now, I feel exhausted and will have an early night and dream of the reality of what tomorrow might bring.

love always;

marcy xo

Day 21 "the making of....."

2009-08-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

Oops, I missed a day! well there was some important news to report yesterday. i got home late last night from singing with some mates down at a local club here and checked my email before going to bed. someone has expressed some interest in helping me get my music out there. I can't divulge too much except to say, that now makes two possibilities for a release with some viable companies. but, i will not go counting my chickens until they hatch, as the saying goes. if everything that was ever said would happen, happened, well, wouldn't it be a lively world???
I will use that as yesterday's blog and will now do another one for today.....

love always;

marcy

Day 20, "the making of....."

2009-08-12T01:22:00.000-07:00

well as someone said to me today [in an email] "you are getting there slowly but surely and yes, it's true. i don't think i've made one thing clear: i am not doing an entire album. at this point, I am doing 4 songs. that was my initial decision and right now that's all i'm doing for many reasons. I am funding this on my own. i'm funding everything on my own at this point. what the h*ll, if we go under, well at least i've done something good for my soul. i've been waiting so long for other people to come along and help mostly financially, and guess what? ain't nobody nowhere. but you never know. i'm starting to meet some people who might want to do that kind of thing. I say, 'never say never' cuz ya never know.

today, well, not heard much from jp. i've pretty much made up my mind on the four songs i want to do. i wish we could do 5, i wish we could do an entire album, i wish there was healthcare for everyone in america, i wish there was world peace....ah, one thing at a time. and at this point, one, or rather, four, songs at a time. well, if i can sneak another one in there, it would be very good.
i went and picked up my two acoustic guitars today. they were in repair, one bridge was coming off, the other, the action was messed up due to the neck being a bit wonky. all's fixed, sounding great. can't wait to use them to record and to do some live gigs.

will follow up with jp tomorrow on things. got lots of other stuff to do, mp3's to send, meetings to arrange. things have never been so unsure, yet things have also never offered so many different possibilities. i suppose it all depends on how you look at it.

love always;

marcy xo

Day 19, "the making of....."

2009-08-11T02:53:00.001-07:00

well, just got home from a night into l.a.. i went to hear some bands, some people i know were playing. the first band was a rock vibe, very loud, but all great musicians and singers at a club called the joint on pico. then i was in the mood for something funky so i went to see a friend of mine who's hosting monday nights at a place called the libertine on sunset. walked in and everybody, including the audience, was singing and dancing. i haven't seen people having so much fun in a club in a long time, it was very encouraging. and inspiring.
re: my record, today, i exchanged several emails with JP regarding guitarists. we both have our favorites and will hold out for the person we want. it's all moving in the right direction, that's for sure. we should have that straightened out by the end of the week. site's almost ready, just ironing out a few more things and making some decisions on content.
meanwhile, i've got a nightclub set up in my living room and i'm enjoying singing and playing. now, maybe it would be a good idea to play outside of my house??? i think i'll do that, very soon.

until tomorrow.

love always;

marcy x

Day 18, "the making of......"

2009-08-10T00:32:00.001-07:00

well, the weekend's over, time to get busy again. hopefully not everything that happens this coming week will be bad! i was a little surprised by some information regarding some of the publishing on a few of my songs this past week. i'll more specific later, and most likely somewhere else, like on twitter, since this is really the place to keep track of my progress with the recording of my new songs.
so, as i said, yesterday, the new site will be ready very soon. this is quite important as we'll be using it as proactively as possible as a promotional and marketing tool. once it's ready, sometime this week, i will divulge all the details, a few surprises too.
just fyi, the site that's up now, www.marcelladetroit.com will still be up, for a little while anyway. i have to say, I was so fortunate to have this wonderful person in germany volunteer to create that site for me as a favor! he has been truly wonderful and i so appreciate all his hard work, posting everything up there for me when i needed it done, it was so kind and he didn't want anything in return. wow. there are good people out there; i'm lucky to have some of them in my life. now, we're in the process of creating this new site that I can alter, add to, modify, whenever i feel the need. v.important for what i'm about to do.

so, i must get to bed to prepare for the onslaught of the next few days. gonna be crazy...

love always;

marcy x

Day 17...."the making of...."

2009-08-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was about to write, "it's the weekend and there's not much new to report". but then I remembered, my number one man worked his behind off today, adding things to the new site. we should be ready for everyone to visit it sometime next week. very exciting. it's fresh, it's simple, it's to the point. can't wait to unveil it.

still full steam ahead on the recording front. had a great time tonight at a party for a friend of mine named robb lawrence who's written a very cool biography on the one and only les paul. he was fortunate enough to meet with him and get it all from his mouth. very cool. i'll try to put a link up here for robb and his book. i think some might find it very interesting. i also met with some very interesting people tonight, diane, maria and kacey, all singers, great women. i miss singing with other women especially, doing some fun chorale stuff. so we're making it a point to get together and do just that. very soon.

tomorrow will be a real day off. looking forward to that. but, i will definitely do a blog, it's in my blood now.

our friend alex had a sudden heart attack, way too young for that sort of thing! i know anyone reading this doesn't know him but if you can spare a prayer, please say one for him.

love always;

marcy x

Day 16, "the making of....."

2009-08-08T00:54:00.000-07:00

Well after a very stressful week, I took the day off! well, almost completely anyway. I had a song I was working on for a while and did a quick mix of it and sent it off to JP. waiting to hear back from him about the possible guitarists we're looking at getting on the session. there are tons of guitarists here in la.. I have not been working with anyone specifically, jamming with a few. picking the right guy is tricky. but it will happen, i'm not worried about it.
even though it was a stressful week, there was lots of good news as well. so, i'm going with that for now. i did go sing at my friend janet robins gig tonight, it was fun, good to get out of the house and out of my head! i met up with a v. cool person i worked with around 9 years ago or so. she said she'd like to help out if I need any help with pr once the music is done, she's good at getting the word out. also, gonna hook up with someone else involved in independent releases, so all's good and moving forward.

and now for that wonderful state of bliss: sleep!! ah, yes...

love always;

Marcy x

Day 15, "the making of....."

2009-08-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long week and it's Thursday night. I had some very good news today. A fantastic keyboard player has agreed to be part of my recording. I saw him play a few years ago with Gadson at a club here in L.A, and I never knew how great he really was until this particular night. He's more well known for a different kind of music, I never knew he was so soulful. So, I'm very excited about this. Unfortunately, the guitarist I was hoping to get is not available. But we will find the right person.
John Porter told me of that news earlier today. We also talked about which 4 songs I should do and wanted to do. We seem to be on the same page with 3 or them, we are just working on deciding about the last one. We'll get there. I've got so many songs that I really love and believe in and that I'm so close to and that makes it hard to make a decision. I'd love to do them all, make a triple album! but.....that ain't gonna happen this time......
I had news from a publisher I had a meeting with last week that they aren't interested in my catalogue, but I've got two others that are. And, the ones that are, are very enthusiastic and respect what I've done, whether I've done it in the US, or, the UK. I need positive people around me and those are the ones who are coming into my life and wanting to be there. So, it's all good and I'm thankful for it.

And that's that. Gonna have an early night. I'm doing a guest vocal spot for my friend Janet Robin tomorrow night in LA at the hotel cafe. She starts at 9pm and asked me to sing a song with her, so that will be fun.
Ah, almost forgot; we are still working on the new site, we put more information up on it this evening. I really like it, lots of new things my other site didn't have like a FAQ's page. Also a page where you can do social networking, i.e., links to youtube, this page, flicker for photos, facebook. We'll have some other cool stuff up there too. it will be simple, modern and easy to use. Not sure when it will be complete, but it will be very soon.

Eyes at quarter mast..

Love Always;

Marcy x

Day 14, "the making of....."

2009-08-06T02:18:00.000-07:00

So, here we are at the two week mark. I suppose I've accomplished quite a lot. We are in the process of setting up a new site for me and are adding things to it every day. There are some technical things we are dealing with, learning curves and all that, but it's getting there.
We have also set up a new youtube page for me and have uploaded a few fun things for your viewing pleasure. I just want to wait until we've uploaded a few other things before I make it known. More info will be coming to you soon, by Monday we hope to have things actually working so get ready, we're comin' atcha, yeah!!

Had kind of a depressing day today due to some business issues, ah you gotta love the music business; it's so full of wonderful little surprises. Anyway, I went out tonight and sang with some friends of mine and it helped quite a bit.

off to dreamland, see you tomorrow, same channel, similar time..

love always;

Marcy x

Day 13, "the making of...."

2009-08-05T01:22:00.001-07:00

Hmm, not much news today except that the drummer, Gadson confirmed with me that he is definitely on for the 1st and 2nd of September which is great. I also talked to JP today and he is waiting to hear back from the guitarist we want on the record. The keyboard player he suggested may not be available, we may have to find someone else, but there are a few that I feel would be great for the record.
Other than that. business as usual. I'm creating a new website which will be up and running soon. They sure don't make it easy to do these websites, got me/us scratchin' our heads goin', "huh"???????

But we will get there, we always do.

More to report tomorrow.

Love always;

Marcy x

Day 12, "the making of....."

2009-08-04T01:56:00.000-07:00

Wellll, got a lot to report today. Very happy to say I heard back from the drummer Gadson and he is on for the studio. John [Porter] called me today and said he's going to call the guitarist and keyboard players to confirm their availability and will let me know as soon as possible.
As soon as I woke up today, I got online and took care of a lot of things, emailing people. had a meeting with my number one man, we're setting up a new website for me which will have some cool stuff on it. I won't say until I know for sure, and I don't want to give it all away right now!! but it's a-comin'. Also, still gathering information and doing research on my game plan. It's all coming together very nicely I'm happy to say. I may be doing some gigs in the l.a. area later this month too, we'll see, as long as it doesn't interfere with my rehearsing and recording plans.
Incidentally, I've got a nightclub-ish, set up in my living room. It's fun; I have a p.a. set up (well, it's actually my fender bassman amp with an echo unit hooked up to it) that I'm singing through and playing my cute black baby grand piano. i just love my piano. got it a few years ago and have always wanted one. I am a very lucky girl!!!!!! and I'm very grateful. I will get the guitar out and start playing that more. Lately, I've just been piano crazy! I'm trying to rehearse an hour a day.

More work to do this week but of course will blog every day as the journey unfolds.

love always;

Marcy x

Day 11, "the making of...."

2009-08-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

Well, today being Sunday, I didn't think I'd have much to report, but.....I went over to visit John [Porter] today, just a social visit, really. We sat out on his porch overlooking the Pacific. it was a gorgeous afternoon, wispy clouds off in the distance had finally cleared away, making it quite glorious. We just talked and listened to some music and he brought up the fact that yes, we are indeed booked in the studio for the beginning of September and he confirmed it. I'm not going to cancel the other studio that's on hold, just in case. So, this was very good news. I will email the band tomorrow and let them know we are on. Very exciting. I've got lots of emailing and communicating to do tomorrow, plus i'll be figuring out the game plan. It's gonna be a very busy week.

Off to dreamland.

love always;

Marcy x

Day 10, "the making of...."

2009-08-02T00:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, so here we are on a Saturday. As it's the weekend, there's not really much happening. I had a day off which I feel I needed!! Been a long week and I'm proud to say I gathered lots of information all week which is integral to my mission.
We may head out to meet with John Porter tomorrow, depending on whether or not he is available. We'll see. Other than that, I've been contacted by the potential publishers with questions which is good according to my lawyer! I suppose any form of communication, especially the kind that they are displaying, is positive.

I'm feeling optimistic. I am going to join my friend, Janet Robin here in L.A. on Friday at her gig at the Hotel Cafe. She asked me if I wanted to sing a song with her on her set so she'll come out to my place to run over the song with me. And I will talk to her more about her dealings with her independent release and how she managed to raise the money to do it.

All good. All's well. And with that I will say: goodnight LA!

love always;

Marcy x

Day 9 "the making of...."

2009-08-01T01:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I said I should be doing this blogging earlier but i guess there's something I just need to accept about myself: I am a night owl. ok, so now i understand and i will no longer chastise myself for being what i am. well, i'll try anyway.
so. let's see,what can I impart today? I had a few meetings, one in regard to my publishing which went very well. I like this company I went to see. They seem to be very proactive and seem to be interested in future music, not just back catalogue. in fact, they are helping one of their signings get a record deal which I liked hearing about; hopefully that was gratuitous hype. so, we'll see what they come up with.
the second meeting turned out not to be a "meeting" per se, but more of a dinner. we chatted a little bit about the possible funding of my record but again, it was vague as usual which just makes me think I shall keep on pursuing doing this without a label's help for now. I just can't keep waiting for someone else to pull their finger out, no matter how well-intentioned they might be. I have to do this for my soul and that's that. so, come monday, once I have done some research, I will begin to seriously map out my plan and will be making some announcements shortly after that, sometime next week. if someone happens to come along and wants to be a part of it, fine, that's cool, but for now, and from here on out, the ship will be steered by me.

i'll get on to john again on monday and see how the studio plans are looking and also contact the band again.

i will enjoy the rest of the summer in the process. and this weekend, i shall enjoy doing one of the things i find difficult to do: relaxing!

love always;

marcy x

Day 8, "the making of....."

2009-07-31T01:01:00.001-07:00

One thing I just realized: I gotta start doing these blogs a little earlier. 1 am and I am getting kind of tired. It's been quite a day. I feel like I've been on a rollercoaster of emotion from very low to extremely high. well, not terribly "low" but more worried about some personal matters. but I actually got a lot done today. spent much of my time making cd's for some publishers. I've been having meetings for a few weeks now and I've got some more meetings tomorrow, all day and into the night, about music and music, what else?!
everything is still moving forward with recording. today I did a video blog which we are going to start adding to the process. I'm employing a company called media-jag to do the job. we've been filming stuff for a while now and will start putting some things up on current tv and youtube very soon.
here's something fun: today I was going to the market, [as you do], around 7pm and i noticed there was a call on my cell phone. it was a missed call from a guy named stevie salas. who is that? well, if anyone remembers the shakespear's sister song, "you're history", he is the one who put that amazing lead guitar on it in the solo. he and i got back in touch with each other after several years. he is a very busy man! he's the musical director for some big time bands and is also a record producer. anyway, i called him back, standing outside my local trader joe's and he says, "hey marcy, i'm up in canada doing a record for someone and i thought of you. they need a female vocal on something, here talk to the record company president"...next thing i know I'm talking to this record exec in canada telling me she'd love me to sing on a song for one of her artists. it was a great chat, and i'll be getting the mp3 soon. looking forward to that.

busy tomorrow as i said with meetings to make this thing happen. next week, lots of stuff to do as well and i'll be posting blogs here again, naturally, as well as myspace and facebook.

so, stay tuned as the journey unfolds...

love always;

marcy

Day 7, "the making of...."

2009-07-30T01:19:00.001-07:00

Ok, here we are at day 7. I should have done this earlier, it's nearly 1:30 am and my eyes are closing so i'll keep this brief.
things are still moving forward.I had dinner tonight with an old friend. He's working at a very cool online distribution company and he told me all about it. it sounds like something i'd be very much into doing once my songs are finished. even though the music industry has changed so much, there are still some great opportunities out there. i've experienced the old school ways and know that for all but a chosen few, those options don't really exist anymore. i.e. having a big label sign you and give you huge amounts of money. now, even the little guy, the medium guy and the big guy can get their music out there and make some kind of profit. of course, where the big record companies came in handy was having enough money to raise awareness thru advertising and that is very expensive. but there are also other ways to do things now and i'm learning about them every day.

stay tuned.

love always;

marcy

Day 6 of "the making of"....

2009-07-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

Or we could call this: 10,000 reasons NOT to do it! I had a meeting with someone at a big company who proceeded to list many reasons why not to work on and release an independent project. and boy, they had me going for a while. yes, it's true, there is a lot of competition out there with very well known bands now doing the same thing and it's hard to get an agent to book you; the big fish are getting the attention. but oh, i just remembered, i have a few booking agents right now who are chomping at the bit for me to get some product out there so they can book me some gigs. ah, let's see what else, they said, it's hard to make money on music these days which is very true. even record companies and publishing companies are having to think of creative ways to monetize their artists records and catalogues since the event of "downloading" things for free began. that's a whole other blog. but yes, i understand that and I have people again waiting for me to hand them some new music so they can get to work with placing it in tv and or film. and yes, people seem to be making money on their cd sales mostly at gigs and do I really want to do that? yes, I do! so, thanks for all the information, I am aware, you are right, but, i'm now on a mission and will follow through. but they also gave me a few other very cool ideas on how to make money with my music that i hadn't really thought of before, so thank you very much for that.
so, I had some very good news today: we have one studio that we wanted on hold and another great place also a very strong possibility if the first one falls through. i'll have confirmation very soon. band is standing by, all is moving forward. having a meeting tomorrow night with a cool company that I may be able to work with for my distribution.
so, you see, big wheels are in motion and all that.

i'm on it. and now it's off to dreamland.

peace always;

marcy x

Day 5, "the making of"....

2009-07-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well, more news to report. this train is inching slowly but surely up that big ole hill. today i did some research on lots of things including how to set up a paypal account for my website and other related issues once the cd/ep is ready to put out there. it's pretty easy, really, when you put your technophobia aside.
I sent out an email to a old friend of mine who is married to someone who manages one of the top studios in los angeles. I did many demos with this guy many years ago, he's a sweetheart. he contacted me on facebook earlier this year and we had lunch together at the studio and made a plan for me to come in and record one song acoustically. it was a lot of fun. what a great studio. it's called glenwood studios and lots of big name acts have worked there and continue to work there including the black eyed peas, gnarls barkley, dave stewart, joss stone, our dear ms. britney spears and many more. there's one room in there that could easily house a complete band to record everyone at once which is really what i want to do. I love the sound of real musicians playing together and playing off each other. then we can take everything away to another studio, maybe chop stuff up, make it sound beefy, in your face, punchy, modern and sprinkle some fairy dust on it all. so, i told john [porter] about my friend and the studio,[he's worked in the studio before and loved it] so we'll see what happens with it all. he's also got connections with a few other studios and i know one or two others as well.
aside from that i'm having a meeting at the end of the week with someone who might be able to help with the finances. but i'm not holding my breath. he said he would help back in march and said i would be in england this summer, like now, "making the record i always wanted to make" but here it is july and it's not happened yet. that being the case, that's why i'm pursuing other means so as not to be dependent on this particular party/person. we'll see what happens on friday. if i see he's not got anything to offer it's back to plan b, which will then become plan a. confused? good thing i'm not!! either way, the diy plan will be a good one. the diy plan will have me seeking sponsorship from fans, friends, business associates, anyone who wants to be a "patron of the arts" the way they did it in the old days.hey, just think of it as, the old days are here again.
I'm also working on another possible song for the record with a very cool, summery, feelgood kind of motown vibe, my favorite thing.
so, that's it, over and out, 10-4, etc.... I will have more to report tomorrow night after I get home from being out all day and night down in LA having some meetings and going to see a very talented young lady named billy the kid at the troubadour with one of the coolest new people i've met in a while named randy cooke who is a great drummer; he's played with loads of people, lately, with dave stewart, ringo starr and now billy the kid. very talented and just plain nice!!! and billy, well she is a treasure, and cute as a button.

hasta manana;

marcy xoxo

ps ah, you may notice, i've not mentioned some names and instead have said, "he" a lot. this is done to protect the innocent!!

Day 4 of "the making of...

2009-07-26T23:07:00.001-07:00

well, you gotta be quick around here! i just tried typing into the blog, my finger hit the wrong button and it went up, unfinished!
so, let me try this again.
here it is, day 4 into the making of my new cd. well, actually, the plan is to do 4 songs. maybe 5, we'll see. it's sunday night, so i am going to wait till tomorrow to contact the producer john porter to confirm with him that the drummer and bass player are on for it at the beginning of september. first thing tomorrow i will be emailing and calling him. hopefully then, we can decide on two days between september 1st and 4th. but i suppose that will be up to the availability at the studio that we're trying to get into. i hope to have that sorted out by the end of this coming week. time is hurtling by and the plan must be made.
also, tomorrow, i'll decide exactly how this will be financially done and how to proceed as well as marketing and getting the word out there. i will do my best to make it known. a friend of mine has a company called, "artist's first" online, which is a licensing company. it helps the artist get their music placed in television and film. he's already asked me for some music for that purpose. i'll give him a few songs i've done, like my whole "dancing madly sideways" album and my "feeler" album. those will be best to give him at first since i own the masters and the rights for those two albums. i also have all the demos i've done over the past few years. some of them sound pretty good; but i want to make sure they are broadcast quality before i give them to him. yet more administrative work that i need to do, but it must be done.
had a weird nite tonight; went to see an old friend of mine. we met in acting class. he had a party and invited me to come sing. so, there i was 7 pm in the blazing l.a. summer heat and picked up my guitar and sang about 4 of my songs. it went over well, but if someone could tell me how i could be more nervous playing on someone's porch to 40 people than i am in front of 10,000 people in an arena, i'd like to know! maybe it's because i'm close enough to see their dental work-or maybe i'm worried that i'm close enough for them to see mine! i don't know. but either way, it's not fun when i'm not having fun. the past several years, i've been battling with this, which i wrote in my first blog. you know, some nights, i have the most incredible time and others, well, not so much. but, i am in it for the long haul and i'm either brave or a masochist and i will not let it stop me. i remember reading about hugh jackman doing the oscars. he said, "i am determined not to let my nerves stop me from enjoying this" and i can completely relate to that. tonight my husband said something interesting: "stop pretending like you're not good!" i don't know, maybe he's right. after all, being "good" has always gotten me in trouble and that's what i relate it to. then again, they say nerves are natural and just part of it.

so, that's the story, morning glories....off to have a snack and watch some mindless, maybe play a few games on me iphone b4 dreamland.

with love;

marcy

Day 3, The Making Of....

2009-07-26T01:08:00.000-07:00

Right, so it's saturday night, kinda late, i'm a little tired, but i said i would do this every day so here it goes.
today, i had a mini brain storm meeting with number one man. we're thinking of great ways to proceed with the making of my record: marketing ideas, exclusive perks for those interested in helping out. there's a lot to think about. I figure, everyone else is doing this, why can't i?! believe me I could think of a thousand excuses not to do this!! the minute I realized, wow, this could happen, the fear started to set in. as in, what if this, what if that, the usual self doubt and all that nonsense that goes on in my head. but this time, i'm gonna "feel the fear and do it anyway".
i've been getting some great responses and support from people reading these blogs and I thank you for the encouragement. as i mentioned last night, the rhythm section has responded positively and they are available the beginning of september. as it's sunday tomorrow, i will wait till monday morning to contact john porter about them and about locking in some studio time.

off to zzzzz-land very soon. doing about 40 minutes of P90x and 30 laps in the pool, made me pretty tired today which is a good thing.

more tomorrow.

love;
marcy x

Day 2, the making of....

2009-07-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

so, here it is, two days into the dream, the plan. i put emails out to the rhythm section, james gadson [drums] and reggie mcbride [bass]. as of a minute ago, I've heard back from both of them and they are free at the beginning of september. I've just emailed john porter who will be producing and let him know their availability. I think i'll give john a call as well, just to make sure he got my email. I know he's busy and may not always have time to check.
so, now i'm getting excited. the next plan is to get a studio lined up. we do have options: shangri-la, out in malibu. this is a great studio, although it's a little out of the way for james and reggie. i worked there with clapton a long time ago and went to revisit it a few weeks ago. it's been remodeled, but the basic bones are still there. this guy beej is now managing it and he's restored it very nicely. got lots of cool vintage amps and mics, though i'm told some of the equipment may not be working properly. but the vibe is very, very cool, quiet, secluded, inspirational. walk out the back door and your about 2 blocks from the pacific, you can see it in the backyard. oooooo. there are a few other options too; the "house of blues" studio in encino and two other possibilities, all fantastic with cool vintage gear to make my record sound as warm and fuzzy as i want it to. oh, i learned something interesting about shangri-la yesterday: it used to be a whorehouse back in the 50's! wow. it was also the location where they shot a well known tv series here in the U.S. called, "mr ed" about a talking horse. the little guest house where they filmed it is right near the entrance and you can see the door that opened in the middle where mr. ed used to hang out, yahoo. very cool.
ah, one last thing. I should mention, I do not have a label behind me. I am just doing this all on a shoestring, favors, whatever I can. these days, lots of well known artists are doing things themselves since the record industry has changed so much. labels are not as quick to sign acts so many are just taking it upon themselves to produce and fund their own music. right now, for me it's going to involve some funding. I am going to do what a fellow artist friend of mine named janet robin did. get some sponsorship. I'm gonna put it out there and ask fans, friends, business associates if they would like to become a financial sponsor to my project. that will start formally in a few weeks.

I'm feeling very positive about it all. I'll be doing this blogging every day and i will add new elements like little videos and some music periodically. sounds like fun to me....!

i'll report back tomorrow.

with love;

marcy x

Day 1, The Making Of...

2009-07-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here it is, Day 1 of, "the making of"! Of what you may ask? The making of my new record, cd, whatever you want to call it. Okay, so it's been taking forever to do this! But it's not like I haven't been trying. In the last 5 years, I've actually been writing, recording, meeting with people, doing gigs, working with producers, working with managers, agents, etc., trying to bring my dream to fruition. My problem: once I meet someone who says they are going to help, I believe them. I know, what a concept, right? The problem is I give them too much time to come through. I've given 5 people, in the last 5 years, a year each which was waaaaay too long to do what they said they would do which amounted to not much. So, I made a conscious decision to stop WAITING AND GET THE JOB DONE. sorry, I don't mean to yell; I'm just pointing out how adamant I am about taking things into my own hands. It's not that all of the people had bad intentions; some of them meant well but were just not capable of doing what they said they would do. Others were, well, not so well-intentioned. I have a tendency to give my power away too easily. So, now that I realized that, guess what? I'm stopping that behaviour and taking control of the situation.
The first thing I've done is obviously made the decision to do something. I decided I needed a producer to help me achieve this goal. If you're not familiar with what a producer does, he/she helps you arrange the songs, can put a band together for you, uses all their connections to find the best studio for the way you want your music to sound. A good producer will bring out the best in the artist, not just massage their own ego. they will enhance the artist and make it better than you could have imagined or just as great as it sounds in your wildest dreams. Last year, I put a very cool band together. I was doing my best to get us into a studio with this great producer named John Porter. John has worked with some of the best bands around including producing, in my opinion, the best songs the Smith's had ever done AND produced the breakout album for Los Lonely Boys last year, plus tons of other acclaimed records. John and I go way back to my days with Eric Clapton. John plays guitar and at that time he was in Ronnie Lane's band [of the Small Faces]. We did a fun little tour in the South of France with Ronnie Lane and his band and went on to Majorca, Minorca, Barcelona, and then finally went on to St. Tropez. It lasted 2 weeks, we sailed around on the Meditteranean and did 2 gigs. I remember busking with John and a few other of his bandmates on the beach in St. Tropez. We made a few bucks too which was good fun. I've crossed paths with John through the years and last year he called me to do some backing vocals on a project he was working on. I could go on and on but I'll stop there.
As I was saying, I was trying to get the band I put together in a studio last December with John producing. But he got a call to do some production for one of the Eagles, Joe Walsh, and I had to put our plans on hold. It was disappointing, but I understood. So, I hadn't talked to him for quite some time and decided to try contacting him again a few weeks ago and brought up again, that I'd love to work with him on my own recording. He said he'd love to so we made a plan to get together.
He came over to my house today and I played him several new songs I'd just written to add to the other songs I had sent him copies of late last year. He really liked the songs and requested that I send him some mp3's of them which I did this afternoon. We also discussed my getting hold of the same rhythm section I used in that rehearsal last year. I put the rehearsal up on youtube: www.youtube.com/marcelladetroit. There are several songs with "the gadson band", with the great, legendary James Gadson on drums and Reggie McBride on Bass. James has played with so many great artists like Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Paul McCartney, and Reggie has also played on a host of great records with Keb Mo' and Taj Mahal. They are both incredibly funky, yet they understand modern music as well. So, I contacted James and Reggie today and already heard back from Reggie who is available in early September. Just waiting to hear back from Gadson now. Once I hear back and check their avails, I will let John know. He knows of some great studios in the Los Angeles area. We're looking to do the recording in September sometime. The plan now is for me to only do 4 songs. That was my idea. It makes things a bit easier to concentrate on a smaller number of songs rather than a whole album. I want to focus on that, and then put it out there. It seems most artists these days are doing singles or smaller amounts of songs for many reasons. The music biz has changed a lot, in some ways, for the better.
I'll be writing about this every day now until it happens and then while it's happening, and after it's happened too. The recording is the fun part. After that, the work begins. But the good news is, there are options and there is interest.

Until tomorrow.

With Love;

Marcy

Caring too much.....

2009-07-21T23:11:00.001-07:00

hmmm. so, i went to youtube today, having been invited by some cute fans of mine who created a tribute video to my song and video "flower", it was very sweet! they did the same for "stay" last year. the new one is called "tribute to flower" by a girl named torrie smith and her friends.
meanwhile, while I was there, I thought I'd take a little look at some youtube stuff of my days with shakespear's sister. there was one tv show in the UK we did back in 1992 at the peak of "stay" being a hit. It was a live television show which are always more frightening to do than taped shows because you can't say, "hey, can we do that over again?" and you usually can, just in case there are some hideously blatant mistakes. well, someone made a comment about me on there saying, "ooo, she's really struggling with her guitar on this". Of course, I read something like that and I get upset, stupid me. So, I listened and sure enough, I was struggling with the simplest chord progression of all time on the song ["stay"]! I remember doing the show and that day, I also remember being incredibly nervous for some reason. It upset me that someone noticed, but hey, they were right!!! so, big deal. here's a little bit of info: when I toured with God, I mean, Eric Clapton, there was this one night we were on stage in some huge arena playing to 20,000 people and he was playing this blazing solo. Well, right in the middle of it, he made this obvious mistake, playing a completely wrong note, so much so that you couldn't say, "hey, man that was jazz!" he kind of laughed at himself and played the same wrong notes again on purpose. Now, I thought, he's got a good sense of humor! Even a rock God can make mistakes now that I think about it, so why can't I?
Trouble is people seem to like it when you make mistakes and they want to make sure they let you know when you do. You just can't please everyone, that's for sure. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much except to say that I've always been a people pleaser and I want people to like me, which sucks!!!! I'm dealing with that issue of mine now.
I've always gotten nervous when I perform. I've always looked for some kind of assurance that it was normal and found it often in remarks by the great acting teacher Stella Adler saying "nerves are your talent" and came to my own conclusions that without nerves I'd be dead or less than human so I found comfort in that. But the nerves started getting really bad, almost paralyzing when I was working with Shakespear's Sister. I started having panic attacks on stage, yes, it is not fun, believe me. Something can trigger it and I would just go. And I couldn't just run off stage and say, "hang on, I'll be right back after I take this here little blue pill" so I had to deal with it, fight my demons right there on stage in front of whoever was there. They probably could sense that I wasn't completely there although they may not have been able to tell you exactly what was wrong with that picture. But I knew, boy did I know. I think the reason that my fear and anxiety increased during that time was my partner Siobhan and I were not getting along. There were fights, there was insecurity on both sides; I was encouraged to be good, but not too good. so, it was an outward struggle that became inward. I didn't want her to hate me for being good or trying to steal the show or the band away, which I was accused of quite often believe it or not. So, my deep fear of wanting to be liked, was quite obviously internalized and morphed into this anxiety on stage. it was a feeling of, I feel all this emotion inside of me wanting to get out through my singing, but I better not cuz I'll be a bad girl for doing it. So, many times, I was "frozen" and up until a few years ago, it was really messing with my live performances. I still even struggle with it now and have these showdowns with myself to this day.
some of you may be surprised to hear this from me. I've been told I come off as "arrogant" or "in control". HA! If you only knew what was going on inside me. I just care too much [about what people think of me] is what it boils down to. I can tell you that I've recently performed and convinced myself not to care too much, to not try too hard and not try to be perfect and I had the best time I've had in years. and the bonus was, so did everyone in the audience, much to my surprise. so, that's what I'm working on, not caring so much and not tryintg too hard. And am now trying to adopt the same attitude as the late great Judy Garland: " F*ck 'em!!!"

amazed, and thankful!!

2008-09-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to those who are actually reading my posts and showing support. and here i was thinking i was completely alone.
today, i am feeling very despondent, especially after watching cnn for a while, they're reporting on obama/mcsame. it seems people are seeming to lean more towards mcsame. WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN!! I think 4 more years of the same policy, and even worse [regarding women's possible loss of right to choose,especially in the case of rape/incest] would be a real leap backwards for women. What about teaching young teens and preteens the importance of using condoms; not only to protect against pregnancy but actual life threatening diseases? sure, teach abstinence as well. but where there are hormones running wild between young nubile teens, there will be sex!!! to pretend it does not or will not happen is worse than being naive, it's being in DENIAL!! case in point, our one and only, republican vice presidential candidate, sarah palin, aka, ted nugent in a skirt. if she had taught her daughter about sex education, she wouldn't be in the situation she's in and would not have been forced to marry her boyfriend who clearly states on his myspace page: "i just want to f*** as many girls as possible" and "i don't want kids". wow, it's so irresponsible to me to not educate them. and to want to teach creationism in school? what happened to separation of church and state? also, what if you are not "christian"???? i don't want anyone's religion shoved down my throat. i know i said this before, but now I'm getting really angry. Our forefather's came here to escape religious persecution. I now feel like I am being forced to listen to someone else's claims about their God, and it, to me, is a form of persecution and force.
I do hope that we as Americans will not be so misinformed and ignorant yet again, as to elect the same kind of administration we've been dealing with for the last 8 years. I'm so ashamed also of some of my countrymen who have said they will note vote for a good man, an intelligent man, a man of honor and dignity, eloquence and knowledge, simply because of the color of his skin.

I pray everyone will realize the error of their ways......

tearfully;

marcy

racism

2008-09-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

wow, had an interesting chat today with a sweet guy named alex dixon. alex is the grandson of the incredibly prolific blues man willie dixon. we starting talking politics [which can be a dangerous thing, depending on who you're talking to!], but he brought it up!! lucky for both of us, we're both Obama supporters. He was telling me that he's helping the Obama campaign by volunteering to enlist new potential voters. On more than a few occasions he's had people, point blank, say to him that they won't be voting for obama because he's black! phewwwwwwwwwwww....i could not believe my ears. now i feel like i'm tearing up, you know the kind of tearing that almost burns your eyes. i think it's so sad that people are still thinking this way. no matter what obama does he can't really win, in a sense. he's been criticized for being too smart and a bit uppity. then, if he were uneducated, he would be condemned for that. meanwhile, it's ok for sarah palin to have a 17 year old daughter who is unmarried and pregnant but if would have been obama's daughter, consider what the repercussions might have been. sure, it's best to leave personal issues out of this election; my firm and sad belief is that racism is still alive and well in our culture today even though bill o'reilly et all were so terribly shocked about reverend wright's comments. c'mon, are you really going to pretend racism does not exist in any camp??? that's very naive. i personally don't condone it; but there are many others who are using it as an excuse to continue to hate... that's my story. and i'm stickin' to it.....

love, love, peace and love..

marcy xoxoxo

OPR-Other People's Religions

2008-09-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am getting very, very annoyed with the Republican nominee for Vice President, Sarah Palin. I've seen this same clip from youtube, several times, where she says, "the iraq war is from God, it's his plan..." excuse me, but HOW DOES SHE KNOW THAT??? Has she personally heard from God himself? Did he come down to her or G.W. and say, "now listen, I want you to go over to Iraq and get them evil doers!"?? If so, can they prove this???? Hah, I bet they cannot. I find it extremely ARROGANT that she even says the Iraq war is "God's Plan". Wow, very, very arrogant. It is/was MAN'S Plan, and a bad one at that. I do not want her or anyone else's religion shoved down my throat, it has no business in politics. Also her stance on teaching "creationism" in schools is just insane!! Sarah, keep your religion to yourself, in your own home, or in your church, or with your family and friends but leave me and everyone else out of it!! I find it extremely offensive and I want no part of it.

Blog 2 addendum

2008-08-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

After reading my first blog about scary phone calls, I wanted to add that, after sending the ceo [who I was nervous about contacting] an email with my song, he personally got back to me which was amazing. so cool that he was familiar with me and my work and said he would pass my info and song onto to person who could actually help: the creative director of the company I want to get my music to. Funny how as we get a bit older, we become more afraid of doing things. At least for me I've found if I don't get an immediate or good reaction, I retreat, go back in the shell and come out again when it seems safe or I get rehyped up on whatever it is I want to achieve-typical cancer the crab behavior and probably normal for anyone who's feeling rejected. When I was in my teens, I had pictures of an interesting recording artist named Leon Russell, keyboardist from Oklahoma that I adored plastered all over my bedroom walls. I told my mother in no uncertain terms: "One day I'm going to sing with him". She just said, "yeah, ok, right" and darned if i didn't end up in his band a few years later. I think the lesson is, you can get what you really want if you just focus on it and set your mind to it, PERIOD!!!! I'm living proof, and that's also happened to me with some other things which I'll talk about in a later blog. I think the most important thing is to KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IT IS YOU WANT!! Without that, you can flounder around for eternity. It's all about FOCUS, something that I am becoming very conscious of. So, excuse me while I get my "focus on"....

mwah!! xoxoxo

Marcella Detroit's Blog #2

2008-08-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

So, tired and wasted and I don't even drink! But I am a night owl and can stay up longer than most without medication. That's a good and a bad thing really. Made a few more scary phone calls and am getting some results which is good. It's not as scary as I thought and what the heck, you're a long time dead so you might as well freakin' go for it. Got a big week ahead of me, photos to be done, music to be made and things to learn, learn, learn! So, that's it for now, I'm off to seize the day.

Love, always;

Marcy xoxo

Scary Phone Calls

2008-08-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

IT's today. yesterday, I created a whole plan with goals and what I wanted to achieve. One of my main goals was to contact an adverstising agency to listen to a song of mine that I think could be great for a certain product. So, this morning, I found myself dreading making the "phone call". I thought up every excuse not to, "waaah, I can't do it, why would they want to talk to me, I need someone to help me" and I realized what a big baby voice that is inside of me. So, I pulled up my bootstraps so tight they gave me a huge wedgie and made the first call, just trying to find the ceo of the company. The girl on the end of the phone in nyc was very nice and when I asked if he had an office there, she said, "he certainly does!" with enthusiasm. Wow, so then I asked if I could be connected to his office and she said, "Of course!" with equal enthusiasm. Then, his office secretary answered the phone and I was petrified, I froze for a second and really, truly, honestly just wanted to hang up!!! but, i didn't......I explained who I was briefly and said I had a wonderful creative idea for one of his clients and she gave me his freakin' email address. I was shocked and at the same time very proud of myself that I had the nerve or ["noive" as the lion in the wizard of oz would have said] to do it. Ok, you might say, "oh, chances are, he won't get back to you anyway" [you're saying this to me in a really nasal, know-it-all voice; i have one of those voices in my head too, so i know how it sounds, thank you very much!]. That may be true. But at least, I did it. And I've been wanting to do it for quite some time, since April, this has been my idea and as we all know, the only way to get a job done is to do it yourself.
So, it's a "feel the fear and do it anyway" kind of day, i mean, year, i mean life. hopefully it will get easier. at least i tried and i won't have died thinking, "if only i would have, blah, blah blah".....
oh, gotta go and make some more phone calls...ciao for now...
lots of love;

m xo