A few of my friends have been listening in the back door for a little while to a new project I've been working on. Most have shared their honest feelings about it, and overwhelmingly it's been positive.., but there's a few who have yet to fully express themselves and I don't pretend to know what they're thinking.., or feeling, for that matter. I suspect, like with anything that's a little different from what's in the marketplace, you can have that initial reaction, "yeah, it's nice, but can it play at drive time?" That would matter to me, if that mattered to me, and since it obviously doesn't, that's all I will say about that statement.
"I don't know who your audience is", usually appears around the second or third listen.., and once again, my instinct is to ignore that comment as well.., but this one deserves a response. My audience for these new tunes is, in fact, the audience I've been attempting to reach from the very first song I ever recorded... heck, that I ever sang! I just want to help people get from Monday to Tuesday without slitting their wrists. But, if I'm honest, I don't think I've been terribly successful, however. I listen back to my old tunes and I hear an attempt to reach this audience lyrically, but musically, the tunes have always been sub par to me.
Enter KEMO and GOERSCH and BEN HUMAN and FRANZ of www.BeansandBacon.com, evocators and angels with electronic wings.
Back at the beginning of the year, I was approach by KEMO of Germany who wrote an email asking about collaborations.., to which I was willingly about to pass on to Jeremiah Alexis, the other half of the entity TaoBrothers, to whom I just knew he was referring to. But, surprise!!, he had listened to "How Can I Tell You" and felt that I could bring something fresh to the snippets of beats he was offering. At first, I must admit, I was flattered, but quickly that turned into, ..."what can I do with these rhythms?" and I put the email aside.., for nearly three months!! When I finally decided to listen, again.., something incredible happened. I found myself humming along, singing old hymns and other lost treasures from my childhood over these sample beats. I would go on to choose three and would later get the full tunes, but alas.., intimidated by the daunting task.., I put the project aside. Once again, I was spurred into action by another twist of fate.., KEMO was passing through New York City to visit his mother enroute to a Hawaii where his father lives and he's asking, via email, if we might finally meet and get together in the studio and work on a tune, or two. "Yeah, ...sure", I confidently said, while screaming inside my head, "oh my God!!".
We would go on to meet.., and an hour later, take up residence in Jay Deasel's studio (www.DeaselMusic.com) on Roosevelt Island (where I had created DaRk LoVE and my vocal technique of mulitple track singing).., and when the beat dropped for what now we know as RISE.., I felt that I had finally gotten to say, what I'd been trying to say to an audience that would not only listen to these wicked beat.., but would certainly find solace in the lyrics that the Spirit gave me that day.
I was on a high for weeks to come.., but once again.., the tune set on a shelf for another month as schedules conflicted and all the other producers involved had things to work out concerning their feelings about this new direction to their music that seemingly came out of nowhere, but was 'here' now and I felt in my spirit that there might be questions like, "now, what" lurking in the background, too. In the end, the first upload happened over this past weekend and SAVE ME, Tonight is well on it's way to becoming a favorite amongst some of my most cherished arists friends who I respect dearly. I wrote this lyric in honor of my brother, who passed away from Aids in the early 90's. But, recently MERCIES MAY reviewed SAVE ME and I must admit, he touched more than a few nerves with his dead on observations. It's posted on 23 June, in this blog, so that you can also experience this talented muse at work.
Soon you'll get to hear JOY from the Goersch beatbook. That lyric is honor is our grandmothers, now deceased, 'tho we never shared our respective stories 'till I had already conceived of and sang my lyric to the music that I would later learn had a commonality with his grandmother.. and eventually you'll hear RISE featuring KEMO on spoken word, the one that started it all. That lyric is going to become our anthem..., I just have a feeling. It's a tune of empowerment and a reminder that we have a serious job to do, as creative souls, and we must renew our minds and efforts to accomplish our goals with determination to be our best selves, in the process.
Where do I go from here? As E D E N, I pray I'll just get to sing more and more of this music that heals and reveals and allows the listener to work out their own salvation, as they dance themselves into a sacred place. I know that I'm having the time of my life.., and I pray that you'll experience this jubilation, too.
I am, now and forever, E D E N ... the name is often used as a reference to paradise, or the first home of mankind.., but for me, it's unused reference is my reason for this moniker: A state of innocence, bliss, or ultimate happiness. I'm challenged, daily, to live up to my new name..., and you know what, "it's finally happening".
justBELIEVE
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