New Song: In a HeartBeat

Hellooooooo! Well, I have some good news and some better news. Good news is, I finally picked which song I’d share this week and it happens to not be any of the ones I wrote about in the last post. I actually just wrote it and so since it was fresh on my mind today, I thought I’d choose this one for today. It is called “In a HeartBeat” and was written from the perspective of a friend of mine. She’s had some pretty rough experiences lately with love and it seems she could go down the route of some people in her position and just close herself off to the idea. But, if the right guy came along, I know that all the walls she built to protect herself would just crumble to pieces and she would be ready “in a heartbeat.” I love you my dear amiga, and hope when love comes, it will find you happy and secure about who you are – because you are awesome:)!

The lyrics to the song:
Been slow on this road called love
Haven’t had a reason to trust
Till you caught my eye and now I
feel like its time to run
But I won’t run
until you ask me

chorus: I could be ready in a heartbeat///
If you’d just ask me

Girls in white dresses and lace
flowers all over the place
I never did care till you came
And I imagined a change in my name
but it won’t change
unless you ask me

Chorus

If you’d ask me
I would leave it all
If you’d ask me
I would trust you to catch me if I fall
If you’d ask me
I would give you everything
If you’d ask me
I’d give it to you in a heart….beat

Chorus

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

In a HeartBeat

I almost forgot the better news!!

The better news is I am in the middle of another collaboration…this time with someone from Canada who I will tell you more about soon. I REALLY like the song we’re doing, the track is sooo smooth. So, I hope to get that on here soon:)

The SoundCloud Collaboration with Alfie J — yay!

So, today I woke up and checked my soundcloud account and found a lovely surprise from this guy…

This is Alfie J (Hilton) all the way from Bristol, UK. He was the soundclouder that I had been emailing back and forth about a collaboration that I wasn’t sure would go through. Well, he finally had the time to work on the production of the song and sent it to me! I am very happy with it. He did change it just a bit here and there, but I actually like it better this way and that is what collaborating is about – a give and take. I am so thankful that there is a way to work with people from all over the world and share ideas and music. So great! Anyway, here it is…the finished version of “No Place for the Poet” which has now become “They come and they go” because I made a mistake on posting the title, but I thought I’d leave the new title since it is a bit more enigmatic. Again, I’ll post it in two versions — regular (click on the red label below) and on the soundcloud player to ensure access to people who may or may not have compatible devices.

they come and they go…

Also, please stop by Alfie J’s SoundCloud page! He is a drummer/producer and his tracks are bananas!!!! (that’s a good thing, by the way). I particularly like the “Nasty Nine” …since I love dancing and it’s perfect for that. Also, leave a comment on his or my page or both for this collaborated effort so that we can both get feedback on what we did. It is much appreciated. I, too, am hoping to do another collaboration again…not sure with whom yet, but it is good exercise for trying new sounds and playing with different genres. Anyway, cheers to you all! Have a great Monday…as great as Mondays can be:).

Earth Day 2012 and Midnight Musings.

Part I – Earth Day

Today was Earth Day! …in case you forgot. We never really “celebrated” this day before because it made more sense to just be conscious of how our decisions leave their mark on our planet and to appreciate/respect it on a daily basis. But, this year, my son was old enough to understand things a little bit more and he was excited about going to experience the local Earth Day fairs around here. So, out and about we went. We spent the first half of the day at Newport Bay (near Newport Beach, CA) at the fair and did art with recycled materials and learned about the animals and plants in the surrounding wetlands and how to protect their habitats. We did a mini-hike around the wetlands and then headed to Crystal Cove beach nearby. My son really wanted to do a beach clean-up and I’m glad he suggested it. I had always thought about it before, but never did until today. Though we made only a small contribution, and it felt like there was just way too much trash around to ever be able to REALLY clean up the beach, I am glad we did it for two reasons. 1) Doing something to help is usually better than doing nothing. 2) My son felt proud and important and I know that he will remember that feeling and that it was connected to doing something good.

Part II – Midnight Musings

I would like to do more beach/park clean-ups from now on. Besides the fact that we are taking the time to care for the places we like to visit, it also is just a good opportunity to be OUT…out in the world that I love so much. I can’t tell you how many times nature has brought inspiration to me in one way or another. I just love things that are beautiful. They move me in a way that is indescribable and where can we find more perfect and imperfect beauty than in the world that surrounds us? I see a gray sky, a yellow poppy, I hear the ocean, I feel the sand under my feet….and I am ALIVE! I’m here. I’m here and what will I do with my time? What will I say? What can I share? Why am I here? All of these things run through my head and as I sit and think about it all….words&music come. So many many songs on the brain lately.

There are three that I’ve been working on recently and they are all WORLDS APART! The first is acoustic. I have the rhythm down – the timing (well, almost), but there are a few holes in the lyrics that I am trying to patch up. The second is another acoustic song. I wrote it over a year ago, but couldn’t get the music for it because I didn’t know how to play the guitar yet. I’m so glad that I can finally do it now and that I can do it on my own. I have been working on the right chords and getting the timing down. I really like how it sounds so far, I just need a little bit more practice with it before I record it. I think this will be the one I share this week coming…maybe. It is called “Think Too Much”. The last is…well…I guess you can say it is a departure of sorts. I wanted to try writing something from the perspective of an alter ego. Kind of like Beyonce’s “Sasha Fierce” or Cee-lo’s “Gnarles Barkley” characters. Sometimes you get a song that comes from another place…outside of your normal self. Even the music is different from most of what I do (although the song “Over” is along the same lines in some ways). Most of my songs come out of my fondness for minimalism. But, this newest song “Look, Look” is overdone…but it is overdone on purpose. And the lyrics seem to be about something very superficial, but the point of the song is not.

So there you have it…my teasers for what’s coming. I’m hoping to make up my mind on which one to put down first and to get a quiet enough house to record it soon!!! Until then…feel free to review some of the previous posts or to share your stuff with me:).

Two in One – New Song and Charity Spotlight

PART I – New Song

I was going to do two separate posts this week, but decided to put both the new song and the spotlight on the charity of my choice all in one instead. Recently, I have been in contact with another “soundclouder” from Britain (honest, young, really talented at what he does) who makes tracks and I found one of his tracks to be especially appealing to me. I liked it so much I decide to write a song for it and sent it to him. I was going to do the vocal track and send it to him and he was going to do the layering with his musical track, but so far progress on it has not been made. So, I’m a little bummed that it may be a failed first attempt at collaborating. To be fair, I wrote a song that strayed from his original intent for the track. I know he intended it to be more of a love song with a dubstep feel to it. I heard something else entirely in the track. I think it is so interesting how two people can get two different pictures in their mind from the same piece of music. Anyway, we shall see if the collab goes through or not but I thought I would post the vocal track at least. This song follows a poetic form more strictly than some other songs I’ve written because it is a song about the plight of a poet in a corporately-driven society. Here is the vocal-only track.

No Place for the Poet

PART II – ABC YOUTH

Since I live in Cali, I thought my first Charity Spotlight should be something close to home. ABC Youth is based out in San Diego, CA. It is a program that was started in 1957 by “boxing legend Archie Moore and carried on by his son Billy.” The goal of the program is to use boxing to teach life lessons and character to young boys and girls who may need help with social skill development and self-identity. They offer educational tutoring to students in their after school program (led by someone with a Master’s in Education) as well as boxing classes that focus on the building of self-defense skills and self-esteem. Lastly, they have a summer program aimed at exposing kids to new things like art, chess, community service projects, fieldtrips, and also address areas of need in writing, reading, and math.

All three of these programs are offered FREE of cost to ANYONE who is between 7 and 17 and who has a form filled out by their parent/guardian. There are some limits as to how many kids can be accommodated per session due to the fact that the program is entirely funded by donors. There are ways you can support this program that is making a difference in the lives of kids. You can become a donor or there are also some volunteer opportunities. You can get more information about,both, becoming a donor or volunteering as well as more detailed information about the programs by visiting their website at www.abcyouthfoundation.org.

Messin’ Around – Instrumental tracks

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter/Spring Break! This whole week it was just me and my son and I was running around town with him keeping busy. We went to the La Brea Tar Pits in LA, as he is hoping to be a paleontologist in the future (of course, he’s four and who knows if it will stick, but just in case it does we are doing the necessary training:) ). We also went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). We had a great time! There was so much to see and the best part was both were free that day:). That was nice. My little niece and nephew came along too (age 5 and 6). It was a loooong day, but so worth it to see their faces light up with excitement at seeing what treasures awaited them behind the big doors that were at each section of the museum. I even heard my nephew say, “Wow, this is the coolest place I’ve ever been too!” I just love that. I’m so glad they came and that we got to experience all the art from around the world and to see the different perspectives outlined in each of the works. I hope it inspires them to find their own way of expressing their own unique take on life. Good times!

Anyway, I thought I’d share something a little different this week. I have several tracks that are purely instrumental. Usually, I’ll just start messin’ around with different sounds. Try something here, try something there. I really have no idea about the technical part of making a good track, I just see what happens and if I like it, I keep it. The first one is called “I dunno” because I didn’t know what to call it. I thought it would be cool to see a live show with four grand pianos and a person on the drum machine in the middle of them, each playing their part. Then, their parts would start crossing over and get more and more complex and intense as the song went on, but what I have on this track is just what I think the beginning of something like that might sound like. Here it is.
I dunno

This second was something I did one evening before bed. I thought I’d call it “Scat-Rat Chase” because I pictured a cat chasing a rat around an old house and because there is some scatting on it (for those of you who may not know, scatting is what is used in a lot of jazz songs where sounds and syllables are put together that don’t really mean anything — Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong were and are Queen and King of this style). It was just fun to do. Here you go….
Scat-Rat Chase

Again, thanks for checking in every now and then. Next week–sometime– there will be two postings, one is a new song and the other a spotlight on a charity of my choice that I’d like to share with you. Happy Easter!

–Monica