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
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Making of 2011: Blog 3
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
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
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Making of 2011: Blog 2
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
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
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
"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
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
Monday, June 7, 2010
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
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
Monday, May 17, 2010
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
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
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