Find out more about Waves on the Shore and Emily's music over at http://bardicsong.wordpress.com/
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
How this began
About a week ago I met my good friend Heather Dale for lunch. Heather is a phenomenal independent musician and truly lovely person, and I don't get many opportunities to connect with her due to her very busy touring schedule. I was expecting Vietnamese pho soup and good conversation; I received much more!
Sometime around 2004 I had been coming in to Toronto to spend weekends with Heather, exploring the big city and occasionally recording some of the songs I had written. Both of us shared the hobby of doing medieval recreation in the SCA and a love of Celtic myths and music; I wrote songs to share around the campfire, and for Heather it had launched a full career as an indie artist. I'd had a lot of fun learning about the process of recording music (so very different from a capella live singing!), but never planned on pursuing my music professionally, so when her touring dramatically picked up I wasn't too worried about my recordings not making it to CD. But I'd always remembered they were there, waiting in the wings as it were. Occasionally friends would ask, "Is your music every going to be on CD?" and I'd reply with a vague "maybe..."
Fast forward to a month or two ago, when Heather asked if she could cover a few of my songs on her latest album (The Green Knight, for release summer 2009). I was honoured, so of course agreed! It also brought those old recordings back to mind, and I asked her if she thought we'd be able to do anything with them. She was encouraging, but also said it might take a while. (Now I know she's just got a good "poker face"!)
So there I was at lunch, a tiny cup of green tea in hand, when Heather presented me with a CD case, which had a mock-up of an album cover with my name on it and a 14 track listing on the back! Inside were 2 master audio disks: my very own album was complete!!
This is a really interesting snapshot of my songwriting and my voice at that period in time: since then I've written new things and my singing has changed over time. It's been great to revisit that time for me, and I think it's an album to be proud of. Now I have it in my hand, I have to take the next steps to get it duplicated and distributed!
Sometime around 2004 I had been coming in to Toronto to spend weekends with Heather, exploring the big city and occasionally recording some of the songs I had written. Both of us shared the hobby of doing medieval recreation in the SCA and a love of Celtic myths and music; I wrote songs to share around the campfire, and for Heather it had launched a full career as an indie artist. I'd had a lot of fun learning about the process of recording music (so very different from a capella live singing!), but never planned on pursuing my music professionally, so when her touring dramatically picked up I wasn't too worried about my recordings not making it to CD. But I'd always remembered they were there, waiting in the wings as it were. Occasionally friends would ask, "Is your music every going to be on CD?" and I'd reply with a vague "maybe..."
Fast forward to a month or two ago, when Heather asked if she could cover a few of my songs on her latest album (The Green Knight, for release summer 2009). I was honoured, so of course agreed! It also brought those old recordings back to mind, and I asked her if she thought we'd be able to do anything with them. She was encouraging, but also said it might take a while. (Now I know she's just got a good "poker face"!)
So there I was at lunch, a tiny cup of green tea in hand, when Heather presented me with a CD case, which had a mock-up of an album cover with my name on it and a 14 track listing on the back! Inside were 2 master audio disks: my very own album was complete!!
This is a really interesting snapshot of my songwriting and my voice at that period in time: since then I've written new things and my singing has changed over time. It's been great to revisit that time for me, and I think it's an album to be proud of. Now I have it in my hand, I have to take the next steps to get it duplicated and distributed!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Getting started
The album that never was, now is!
I'm going to chronicle how the CD project Waves on the Shore goes from a surprise presentation of finished tracks to full album release. (And beyond...?)
Since these recordings have in some sense sprung fully-formed, I'm not as prepared for production as most indie artists would be at this stage. It's going to be quite an adventure to get it ready to go before the beginning of August (Pennsic War). Getting a web presence up is my first step, but since I'm not ready for a full web domain, let's begin with a blog!
I'm going to chronicle how the CD project Waves on the Shore goes from a surprise presentation of finished tracks to full album release. (And beyond...?)
Since these recordings have in some sense sprung fully-formed, I'm not as prepared for production as most indie artists would be at this stage. It's going to be quite an adventure to get it ready to go before the beginning of August (Pennsic War). Getting a web presence up is my first step, but since I'm not ready for a full web domain, let's begin with a blog!
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