Adri Music & Blog, Canadian Female Indie Electronica. - Adri's Music

Going Out on a Limb

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:09:10 -0700

This Thursday June 7th at The Annex I'll be performing at a show presented by the Music Waste festival! The show starts at 9PM and The Annex is located at 307 West Cordova. I'll be performing a set of my original electronica vocal and instrumental compositions from my upcoming album. I am scheduled to go around 9:50ish. I am really looking forward to it!

The lineup also includes Eryn Holbrook and The Creaking Planks. Eryn will be doing "melodic frenetic electropop" and The Creaking Planks will be doing "modern cover songs on Old Timey instruments." Should be a really fun show...

I look forward to seeing you there!

Way Obsessed With Photography

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:25:03 -0700

Lately I've been way obsessed with photography. I keep going out on little photo expeditions to try to catch a shot. I should really try to keep my focus 100% on finishing my album, but it seems like creativity breeds more creativity. As long as I'm being creative I think I'm basically satisfied in life. It's like my default state making stuff, any kind of stuff. When I was little I used to spend hours cheating my bedtime by sewing little dolls and their tiny clothes. I don't know if my parents knew how late I stayed up...

But I digress. I think the reason I like photography so much lately is that it's the polar opposite of music. It's totally instant, especially with a digital camera. Snap. That's how long it takes to suddenly make something wonderful. No hours toiling in front of the piano, no retake after retake, no slow methodical editing of parts... It's just BOOM and you're done. You might do a few tweaks later, but the satisfaction is basically instant. Also, you take in the whole thing in an instant. A song is something that has an arc that develops over time, usually about 5 minutes, which makes it harder to assess. With a photo you get that immediate yes feeling.

Of course, some shots take longer - anything involving a tripod or night-time. For example:

Wouldn't it be nice if I could wave a wand and a song suddenly appeared?

My Entry in MusicBrainz

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 19:49:46 -0700

OMG, apparently there is an entry for me at MusicBrainz.org! I had no idea. Here it the link to the Adri entry.

There's a Fire Under my Ass!

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:08:01 -0700

Oh my god I have so much to do!

I. Have. So. Much. To. Do.

It's kind of overwhelming and exciting at the same time. I am trying not to get project paralysis and I have to remind myself to just take a bite off and chew it really hard. I am getting so close to the end -- yet my task list just seems to swell and balloon more and more! I wonder if am really as close to completion as I think?

It's really a very ambitious project, undertaking the entire writing, performance, production and engineering of an album on my own. I will use a mastering engineer, and have asked some people to play a few instruments -- but aside from that it's entirely my work from start to finish. It's a bit crazy. Most people have a band. Or an engineer. Or just generally ask for more help. I did do it once before on "Adrift" but that album was arranged on the fly without much studio trickery and no real song structure.

This upcoming album is full of structure. It takes all the neat weirdness and textures of "Adrift" and builds on it with some great song-writing and composition that is all very very deliberate. In going that route I pretty much generated enormous amounts of work for myself, so this is a whole new experience. I think it's going to be worth it, but I wont be able to tell until the album is done. I have no idea how it's going to land emotionally with the general public -- but initial reaction from my musical colleagues has been excellent.

Let's hope for the best!

Even More Collaboration

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:17:00 -0700

To branch out some more, I did a songwriting co-writing workshop recently with two amazing teachers: Pat Pattison and Steve Seskin. They both come from a country music background which is really profoundly alien to my electronic music background. They are both really skilled songwriters and lyricists however, and I really respect the work they do. Country music is actually a genre that is really heavy on the lyrical quality so I think there is a lot I can learn from Country music songs. It's also one of the most popular genres of music in North America, far outselling electronic music (which I hear is selling very little here. Argh!!!)

Fear not, I'm not about to learn the pedal steel guitar or start wailing about my broken down pickup and how my girlfriend left me. But I did experience doing some practice co-writing with various different people of various musical backgrounds during the workshop, which was really cool. I really enjoyed sharing ideas and the synergy that happens when you write with someone else. The feeling of "I would never have made that on my own" is really compelling, and it makes me want to do it again.

The Joy of Collaboration

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:54:00 -0700

I have sort of been missing out on a whole area of music creation until recently. I pretty much managed to last this long without doing much collaboration at all. When your main partner in crime is a computer it is actually surprisingly easy to get away with that... Cause I did do some remixes, which is a form of collaboration, but only recently have I really interested in branching out.

Mainly I was a hair too neurotic in the past, and I didn't feel I had much to offer (ridiculous!) When you collaborate (especially in co-writing) sometimes you have to be willing to look completely idiotic. Putting forward all your ideas you might have some really profoundly stupid ones. But it's your responsibility as a creator to share as much as possible, so looking silly is really par for the course.

For the next album I sort of tentatively asked some friends if they'd play some parts on it. Much to my surprise they were really into it and it's been great so far. The parts have been turning out really well. It's a small step, but I am happy to involve other people in the process. I could maybe stand to do that even more in the future!

The Home Stretch

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 14:41:02 -0700

I am getting so close to being done I can taste it! I still have a massive amount of work to do, mostly all in the details (recording / production / mixing tweaks)... The current versions of tracks are at a state where I can start to see the album really emerge. I feel like I am really close to achieving my vision. It was a far more ambitious vision that might have been advisable. On my first album I did a very on-the-fly approach to arranging different ambiences -- but on this next album I'm taking a more compositional and melodic approach. The ended up being harder than I thought because I had to teach myself a lot of techniques I didn't know -- mainly in arranging and songwriting.

I was also hell-bent on performing lyrical material, which means that I also had to learn to sing. I had no idea how to sing when I completed my last album. That was a massive obstacle, as learning to sing later in life (ie: not a child) is potentially harder. It can bring up a lot of emotional junk and it takes a long time to build new better singing habits. I still have some bad habits but I had no good ones before I started any training. I was basically all closed up, both emotionally and physically. I am by no means done learning how to sing, but I have come a really long way and I hope it's starting to show.

Finishing is always the worst, and I have seen so many musicians get stuck in a perpetual loop at the end. These last bits could be the hardest. Hopefully I'll be able to overcome that natural urge and finally share what I've devoted my last years to.

Busy Busy Bee

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:52:45 -0700

Oh my Goodness, so I've passed the 2/3rd mark on the album recently! That may not sound like very different than the halfway mark, but each % point of progress on my chart actually requires countless hours of work. This album vision that I've been trying to accomplish is just absolutely mammoth work. It's hard not to get a bit discouraged sometimes, but a good antidote is to break it down into smaller (more digestible) chunks.

I've been a pretty busy bee lately... Pollinating my ideas trying to bring them to fruition. Some of the songs are actually coming close enough to completion that I'm feeling comfortable sharing them with people. That's been very encouraging as the feedback I've been getting is overwhelmingly positive (in a I-actually-like-this-and-I'm-not-just-being-polite sort of way. )

My big kick in life right now has been doing the right thing -- being responsible. It feels very adult. I am so totally not perfect in this regard but sometimes I get kind of high from finishing something great. Like last night I stayed up really late to organize my kitchen pantry, and that really got me off. How cool is that?

Naturally all this busymaking isn't leaving blogging at a very high priority level, as is evidenced by my atrocious lack of entries lately... But hopefully I will have more to share very soon!

Halfway There!

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 22:13:51 -0700

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!! I just crossed the 50% threshold on my album completion meter!!! This is really cause for celebration!

I have been keeping track of the progress of all the album tracks in a spreadsheet for a while now. I fill out the progress of each aspect of a track as I work along (such as for the progress of lyrics, arrangement or mixing.) It helps to keep me motivated. Sometimes when you work on a project as large as an album (especially by yourself) you can easily lose sight of what progress you are making. It can seem like endless tasks stretching out in front of you with no end in sight. A spreadsheet like this can really help you feel a sense of accomplishment. My thanks to Keith from Fidgital for sharing this trick with me.

A while back I thought I was about halfway, but in reality I wasn't anywhere close. I realized this when I made the spreadsheet. Now I know for a fact that I am. I feel like it's both going to be 'downhill from here' and the hardest work to come. All the nit-picking really flares up at the end, but on the other hand the album is really taking shape. The songwriting / composition aspect is mostly done which is really the bulk of the work. A lot of what is left is hours and hours of mixing / edits / performing / etc...

I am celebrating by listening to my favourite Stevie Wonder tracks. Bliss!!!

Invited to the Butchershop

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 13:43:27 -0700

I've been asked to play at the awesome Vancouver venue called the Butchershop for part of their invitational "Strings and Things" series. (I would be part of the "and Things.") I think I am sharing the stage with 7-8 other artists of an enormous variety. Aside from my quirky electronic songs, I'm expecting at least a cellist, a Jug band and a slam poet. It's all going down Saturday October 22, 2005 at 195 East 26th (West of Main Street).

I should be going on around 10:30PM for about a half hour set, though as with any live show the time doesn't always go the way you expect.

Field Recording in the Urban Jungle

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 14:10:38 -0700

Yesterday I went field recording in the urban jungle. It was Canada day so people were out en masse being goofy. I was surprised at how nobody seemed to mind me walking around, pointing my stereo field mic that's oddly shaped like a gun. Some people raised their eyebrows, and I think some people thought I was some flavour of press. Some of the best material I got was walking around and catching random bits of conversation.

I absolutely love field recording. You catch all sorts of sounds you might not normally have available. I actually have a pretty big collection of field recording sounds that I haven't really harvested. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but I'm pretty sure that when I hear them I am going to find a use for them.