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May 16.2009
Okeedokes, so that was a long bit of time before the next blog post! Sorry about that. I have been working so hard on new videos.
First off, just to let you know, me, Autopilot and Scalde have prepared another international cluster video. Come and take a look on either theturn.tv, youtube link or vimeo link.
Anyway, ok, so where were we? I’d performed without having more than an hour of really restless sleep on a tv show in Manchester. I started to feel extremely run down and felt perhaps that a cold was coming on, tried to get to sleep very early, but never-the-less, woke up early the next morning with a very bad cold, and it was clutching at my throat! This was the day that me and Ben were set to travel to Paris and perform on Manu Katché‘s show One Shot Not.
So off we went. I hadn’t tried singing yet and was actually not speaking as much as possible. Ben, who is one of the most level-headed and sensitive persons I have ever met, was being very calming and affirmative. The plane landing was incredibly painful though. I felt that my head would explode.
Once we arrived at the studio a couple dapper French men met the car and explained that cameras would be following us around everywhere, that we should just follow them to the green room. Ugh, I so wanted some privacy to see where my voice was. We followed them off to the room, played with some percussion instruments for them, mugging a bit for the camera, and finally had a moment of privacy.
With the door shut I tried to sing and made the horrible discovery that I really had no voice. My falsetto was completely gone and my regular singing voice was wildly inaccurate. I just had very little control over pitch or intonation.
Suddenly who would knock and enter the room: David Byrne. That’s right, David Byrne. He was playing on the show tonight as well. He said, “Hi, I’m David.” Both Ben and I were bowled over. At this point, my head was really throbbing and I felt quite feverish. Soon one of the nice gentlemen from the show came and said it was time to meet Manu Katché and Avishai Cohen and see the studio. Manu and Avishai would be accompanying us tonight and hadn’t heard the songs yet. They are both totally brilliant musicians - it was an honor to have the opportunity to play with them.
We stepped out into the studio and it was an absolute dream come true. Lights everywhere, about six oriental rugs with a separate drumset on each. Amazing mixing console. Just dreamy. The cameras followed us out and I had to open my mouth and perform and it sounded like absolute CRAP! I mean truly. I kept looking over at Ben, who would respond with the kindest look of encouragement, but I could see in his eyes that it was a bit pathetic! I sounded like I couldn’t sing a note in key! I started to cough, partially just to prove I was really sick, and explained to Manu and Avishai that I had awoken really really sick. Manu was very kind and said I should just relax and try to heal the throat as best as possible before the show.
At this point I just felt so desperate and sad. I called my singing teacher, William Riley, in NY. He gave me the number of a great doc in France, Dr. Abitbol, and told him to mention that he sent me and use the words “career emergency”. So off I went to the doc, who confirmed there was no damage. I could sing without fear of causing damage. But it may not sound good. Period. He gave me some meds that would help, but basically I would be singing with a bit of a crippled voice.
OK, to make a very long story a tiny bit shorter, Matthias Labarbe, the marketing director based in France, gave me a kind of Rocky Balboa speech before the show that was very very important. He said the songs were good. The voice, maybe not so good tonight, but there’s also the heart and the love that is put into the music. He promised me that if I gave enough of that the audience would respond favorably.
Somehow this freed me up completely. Even as I listened to the totally amazing Avashai Cohen who performed just before me, I didn’t feel bitter, frustrated or even scared. I just felt lucky. Very grateful to have this opportunity. Truly. It was a wonderful audience, a fantastic group of musicians. I had Ben Evans playing with me. I’ll just do the best I can. And I did. And it sounded pretty crap! But during The Turn I got a really nice response from the audience, so learned a big lesson there!
Anyway, I think it might have been two days later that Ben and I met with Scalde for a single day of practice. Scalde is another one of my favorite musicians who I met on myspace a year or so ago. He has a very angelic voice and plays so many eclectic instruments, so it was just really really fun practicing with him, although he too arrived sick!
We played a live TV show called Ce Soir Ou Jamais, which I felt went horribly. Not so much the musicians, but me… I froze up. Got so nervous. It’s just an odd situation when the audience doesn’t know you or know what to make of you. It’s even stranger to have to stand silently behind a curtain, waiting for the silent cue from the stage manager to start playing. That was the absolute emotional low point of the whole trip, although I have since seen the show and it actually sounded pretty good.
But a couple days later we played a Blogotheque Soiree de poche! This was actually a show that from the start I very worried about, because they required 30 minutes and we had only had 3 days between us to prepare. But once we got to the apartment where it was being held and met the kind owner and all the folks involved, the excitement and warmth just helped us to have a really fun show. Plus, I had the idea of staging a little circular video with the audience, and with that fun goal in mind it just set a really creative tone.
I have promised to upload this video since a week after the performance, and obviously it has been much longer than that! To all you folks who were there at the show and waiting, so sorry! The video portion has been complete for some time. I am just awaiting a final mix from the show’s producers and it will be uploaded to my website.
Which reminds me… another fun afternoon was spent at the fabulous apartment of Isabelle Chelley. It’s sort of a strange mix of dark, magic theatre antiques and some very colorful kitch! I love it. She has a really bizarre collection of dolls which I took some photographs of. Also I shot a circular video here, and I will be uploading that even sooner than the Blogotheque one, as it’s nearly done.
OK, so I guess the Blogotheque show went really well. We had such a good time, and played for about 45 minutes. I had no problems communicating with the audience. In fact, I quite surprised myself and really enjoyed it. So now we had just a whole bunch of internet performances scheduled and our first big show, opening for Peter von Poehl at La Cigale!
The internet performances went pretty well. My favorite is one we shot in the stairwell at the Because office. I learned a big lesson about singing when mic’d with a lapelle mic - do NOT over pronunciate! And make sure to sing in pitch!!!!! hahah.
But finally the night of La Cigale arrived. What an incredibly gorgeous theatre.
Me and the Pilots were so happy walking around there. We did our sound check and it really sounded amazing to hear so much sound bouncing back at us. Off we went to the green room to await the show.
Jane from the UK office arrived and said hello. I did an interview for AFP. All this was good because it kept me distracted. And I had learned, over the course of the trip, that it’s best just to pretend nothing new is happening, stay connected to the music, to the songs, to the vocal technique. Ignore all the scary thoughts. Finally our time came and we were led out to a packed crowd of nearly 1000 people. Folks started to applaud, and thus began a really really fun night! Again, I surprised myself fully by really enjoying speaking with the audience. The Pilots all played so well. We looked at each other throughout the performance and I could tell everyone was very happy.
So ended quite a rigorous trip. I have to thank first I Am Your Autopilot and Scalde. Ben, Graeme, Jasper and Sylvain are all great musicians and working with them has been and continues to be a real pleasure. Also, Matthias Labarbe was especially wonderful. He brought such a warmth and kept everything moving forward at breakneck speed.
Anyway, really there are so many details (for instance, one of the Pilots was a horrible SNORER and that caused lots of trouble for the Pilot who had to share a room with him!!!) I have left out these details because already this blog is TOO LONG!!!
Anyway, if you have a chance, do check out the Robinson Crusoe cluster. I’m returning to France on June 22nd to play at Café de la Dance, so hopefully I will see some of you there!
UK release!May 05.2009
I just got word from my label that my album has finally been released in the UK! Hooray! So anyone who likes my music and lives anywhere in the UK, I hope you will consider buying it! It’s a double disc set: one with the album’s music, the other a dvd with eight of my videos.
next chapter, coming right up…May 04.2009
Hello there,
So just wanted to let you all know the next little chapter of my trip will be written about very soon. I’m just trying to finish a circular video shot while I was in France and I want the blog to coincide with that. In the meantime… I can announce my next live performance! It’s June 22nd, 7:30PM at Café de la Dance in Paris! Hooray! So please, if you are around Paris at that time, come and hear us! It’s going to be me singing with the instrumental/vocal support of I Am Your Autopilot and Scalde.
If you are interested in seeing what we sound like live, there’s a clip from a performance we did in a hallway in France you can see here:
Wood Smoke - the third circular video
Apr 28.2009
I just uploaded my third circular video, which I made to play against the edited voice improvisation entitled Wood Smoke. The imagery was inspired by the arrival of summer. There’s a smell of heated wood from the forest and all the trees are in bloom.
Anyway, It’s the large dark green circle found at theturn.tv. I hope you enjoy it!
the wonderful writings of my momApr 27.2009
My mother, Diana Serbe, has just started a little website devoted to her fiction writing. This makes me so happy, as she’s really talented! I invite you all to do some good reading!