The Making of: 2011 Blog 1

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!

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

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

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.....

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

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

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