• ABOUT
  • BAND
  • EVENTS
  • MEDIA
    • MUSIC
    • VIDEOS
  • LESSONS
  • BLOG
  • BOOKING

indie music blog

Action is Power: Why Your Vote Matters (Part 3)

July 4, 2018 by admin
Category 1
behind the music, blog, blogger, female musician, independent artist, independent music, indie artist, indie music, indie music blog, music, music blog, music journalism, Musician, musician life, political blog, political commentary, politics

Welcome to the third and final blog about the importance of voting. With this one, I’d like to discuss the importance of local politics and why “down-ballot” issues and policies are so important to all of our daily lives. According to fairvote.org only about 60% of eligible voters in America vote in national elections, which is substantially lower than most developed western democratic countries. What may be more disappointing is that a mere 40% of eligible American voters actually turnout in midterm elections and even fewer show up for off-year elections that only pertain to local issues.

There is so much hype and media coverage when it comes to national elections, which makes sense given that those elections and potential leaders will represent all of us, not merely regions or communities. However, we often overlook how much local laws and community-related topics affect us and those closest to us.

Most people I’ve interviewed get riled up about the presidency and maybe occasionally a Senate race, but don’t even know who their Representative is in the US House of Representatives. One point that’s important to understand is that not only do locally-elected officials and local policies often have a more direct impact on our lives, but we also generally have a more direct impact on local officials and policies, compared to national elections. In local elections, we are dealing with smaller numbers of voters; therefore, one vote really can have a substantial difference on the outcomes, not to mention our sphere of influence being an even bigger contributing factor to election outcomes.

One tangible example of this can be taken from Virginia. A state delegate seat was won and lost by one single vote in one district. The Virginia House of Delegates faced a 50/50 split in their State House so this one district solely decided who would have the majority, and, in turn, would have control of statewide legislation and policy. In this case, it truly was one vote that mattered. There are also countless other cases of tight races that we saw up and down the ballot of both national elections and special elections. Every vote counts!

Whether it’s local or at the national level, the first step to understanding how you can vote to affect change in your communities and regions is knowing who represents your interest in government; their decisions affect your day-to-day-life. Don’t just blame or shame; GET INVOLVED!!! We have no right to complain about the state of the world if we are not doing anything about it. The idea of “writing your congress person” is not just an adage; it’s your right and responsibility as a free voter. In this political climate, it’s more important than ever to get involved. Our representatives not only want our input, but they need it. These Representatives may not necessarily care whether or not you voted for them in the past, but they absolutely care if you will vote for them in the future; therefore, our opinions absolutely sway their votes in legislation, so DO NOT be silent. Both parties have their share of guilt for partisan gridlock and inability to work together to solve problems… how can we get their attention? Vote! Make sure the people who represent you are actually listening to you and have a true willingness and ability to fight on your behalf.

(If you’re not sure who represents you in DC or your Statehouse, click HERE to get more info)

In short, this is the basic idea I’ve been trying to drive home through these blogs about voting:

If you’re worried about the quality of your children’s education, vote.

If you’re worried about you and your family having access to and resources for higher education, vote.

If you’re worried about how to pay for and obtain health insurance, vote.

If you’re worried about who you’ll be allowed to marry, vote.

If you’re worried about the limitations imposed on who you’re allowed to be in our society, vote.

If you’re even simply worried about the amount of potholes in your city, vote.

Many people seem to view politics as a zero-sum game: as more people are given representation and a political voice, those who traditionally have power will lose their standing. But this is a narrow way to look at the democratic process. We should always be looking to expand representation; this is democracy at its very core. If we are worried about what happens when we bring more people to the table and how we will get everyone to fit in a seat, then maybe it’s time to build a bigger table. This starts with simply showing up. Vote.

(Check out Part 1 and 2 of this blog series here: Part 1, Part 2)

Storytime: Late Nights and Weekends (Part 3)

April 16, 2018 by admin
Category 1
behind the music, DIY, female artist, female entrepreneur, female musician, indie artist, indie music, indie music blog, local artist, local music, music blog, music journalism, Philadelphia, philly, singer songwriter

We are finally beginning the third and final installment of the Late Nights and Weekends Storytime series. There will be plenty more “Storytimes” to come, but this week, we are looking at the final two tracks of Late Nights and Weekends: “Piece of the Puzzle” and “Ocean Dove.” These two tracks both delve into more introspective content that I’m sharing publicly for the first time. Please keep an open mind and… buckle up!

When I wrote “Piece of the Puzzle,” I was actually still living in California but in the process of planning a move to the East Coast to attend a music school in Massachusetts. A few weeks earlier, I met someone with whom I began a romantic relationship. However, after learning of my planned move east, this person decided to break things off out of a desire to avoid a long-distance relationship. In hindsight, I can certainly respect that sentiment, but as a heartbroken twenty-year-old, I was devastated by a potential love abandoned so suddenly. I embarked on my East Coast adventure a couple of weeks later, still rattled by the experience, but before I left, I managed to capture my grieving process in a song that became “Piece of the Puzzle.” There are many lines within the song that are very literal and not dressed up with the metaphors of a sophisticated writer; I was raw and so are the lyrics: “When I, with my heart, step on that plane, my eyes I cannot let see you again. I dread that if they can, once more they’ll want a new start to all this torture which is bound to repeat soon” and “We can chance a happy ending, but won’t allow that in. Sometimes, the wisest voice makes the least amount of sense.” I also expose my need to hide what I’m really feeling (referenced in other songs as well) so as not to appear weak: “It’s time to break my silence on this: my heart agrees not with what leaves my lips. Not one to show a weakness or where it is I’m frail, I act the part of strongest. Beneath, I feel I’ve failed.” The chorus introduces more of the universal feeling of a break up: “We tore us, we tore us, we tore us apart. ‘Cause we’ve kept ourselves from what we both wanted most. Just like a great story never to be told, so we break another piece of the puzzle.” It took me some time to fully recover (and several more songs about feeling heartbroken!), but I obviously picked up the pieces and became a stronger person for having gone through the experience. And, to this day, this is my favorite ballade to play at shows.

The last song on Late Nights and Weekends is “Ocean Dove.” This track is more of a confession song about a flaw within myself. I have always been a very independent person and often to the point of being stubborn and unwavering in my need for that autonomy. While musing about this distinctive feature of my personality, I began to see that while personal independence (especially as a female) can be a wonderfully positive asset and an understandable need, my occasional indignation for this was sometimes more limiting than helpful. I will never say that an independent person (and again, especially if female) is a negative thing, as I genuinely view that quality as an incredibly powerful attribute; I simply want to be honest about the times in which my inability to leave room for others has led to me missing out on some truly great interpersonal connections. I think the line at the end of the chorus best sums up the overall commentary I was aiming for: “Sometimes freedom can trap you more than boundaries built by man.” As a side note to that line, I generally promote the use of “humans” or “humankind” when referring to the universal use of “man” or “mankind,” since I vehemently support the use of Fair Language. However, as a young woman wrestling with the balance of being an independent female while also leaving room for those that seek to enrich my life, I wanted to be intentional with using the word “man.” I wanted to do this because it is often dynamics with men that lead to feeling that tug-of-war within myself (it’s a constant battle to determine what is “assertive” and what is “closed off”), AND because we live in a patriarchal structure that is typically defined by the rules of gender norms and the men who occupy “the top.”

There is one last story I’d like to share with this song that musicians will probably appreciate. When I wrote this song, I was finishing one of my final semesters of college. I had just moved to Philadelphia, so I didn’t have a car and didn’t know many people. My immensely sweet friend and roommate, Talain Rayne, would drop me off every morning before class, around 8am, and he would pick me up every night when he was done with work around 9pm, until I secured a vehicle a couple of months later. I can’t say how grateful I was for him being so accommodating and helpful, but the circumstances meant I was stuck on my school’s campus for over 12 hours every day. Whenever I would get burnt out on my ever-increasing stack of homework assignments, I would wander around campus looking for ways to take a break from academics. One day, I happened across a prayer chapel that seemed rarely used by staff or students, but was equipped with an old piano. I started sneaking into the chapel at night, when everyone else had left, in order to play that aged, but beautiful-sounding, piano. Soon after that, I began composing “Ocean Dove.” Because the piano was quite old, it had some slightly out of tune keys and possessed a very specific timbre. I made multiple recordings while experimenting with different versions of “Ocean Dove,” and I loved the way the character of that aged piano sounded with the song. To this day, I still wish I could somehow bottle up or otherwise recapture that very specific vibe of the old piano. It’s funny how these types of imperfect objects, people, or experiences (but so beautiful in their own unique way), can stick with us far after they leave our lives. I will always have fond memories of my late nights spent at that piano.

With that, I say “it’s a wrap!” to my Late Nights and Weekends Storytime series. Stay tuned for more of both a fresh Storytime series and more blogs about the ups and down of the musician life. Talk to you soon!

Storytime: Late Nights and Weekends (Part 1)

April 3, 2018 by admin
Category 1
indie artist, indie music blog, indiemusic, music, music blog, music journalism, musical journey, Musician, Philadelphia, philly, singer songwriter

Every song reflects a unique experience, thought, concern, or question. As a writer, I take great care in how I craft the pieces of music I share with the world. It’s important to me that they not only reflect quality, but also truth and honesty. In my personal life, I do not always wear my heart on my sleeve, and I do not enjoy feeling as though my deepest worries and vulnerabilities are laid bare. However, there is something about sharing a song that creates a safe space for this type of confession and openness.

In the spirit of exploring that safe space, I would like to take the next few weeks of the blog to share the stories, and at times, struggles, that inspired the music I’ve released to-date. Today, I will be discussing “Scratch” and “Eighth Sea,” the first two tracks from my EP Late Nights and Weekends. First of all, the title of the EP reflects the first chapter of my professional career doing music full time, and it is an ode to my musician lifestyle, for which my working hours are mostly late nights and weekends. I like the idea of each album marking a chapter in my musical journey (my first EP was titled Songs for the Sidewalk since I started as a busker/street musician).

Let’s start with the story behind “Scratch.” Not only is “Scratch” the first track on this record, but it was also the first single and first video released from this record. I wrote this song at a time when I felt as though I had a reverse-Midas effect; everything I touched or cared about seemed to end badly. I kept thinking that the only explanation for these outcomes was the common denominator: me. When things fall apart around us, it’s difficult to not feel at fault. My writing process began with a line that later became the 2nd verse: “I said I’d worked through this curse within me, but I must have lied to you. I swear that I did not mean to scratch you. But I’ve been known to leave a mark on those who dare to draw me close.” Throughout the song, I make a plea to the person I’m addressing to run away while they still can, because my bad fortune was contagious and rooted deep inside me. Writing this song was a great way to cope with and heal from a number of disappointments that seemed to plague me. Many of those disappointments have since resolved or just become a distant memory from my past. But this song remains a reminder of what that helplessness can feel like and a reminder that it eventually will pass.

The second track on Late Nights and Weekends is “Eighth Sea.” This song has a very random origin story… the chorus melody came to me while visiting Boston. I was there with other musician friends. We were riding the subway one day when, all of a sudden, a melody came to me! I didn’t have a way to record it in the loud and crowded subway so I had to keep singing it in my head so I wouldn’t forget how it sounded, and while doing that, some lyrics started filling in. I obviously didn’t have access to a pen and paper either, so I did my best to repeat the melody and lyrics over and over in my head until we finally arrived at our stop. As soon as I got off the subway, I found as quiet a corner as possible under the circumstances, whipped out my flip phone (yes, a few years ago, I was still rocking a flip phone, but that’s a whole other conversation), and began singing into the voice recorder on my phone. I walked around with that song idea literally in my pocket all day. The second we got back to our hotel, I sat with my guitar and started scribing everything from my phone recording and added additional parts I had thought of throughout the day.

At the time, I was getting over a fairly recent break up, so the concept of writing an angry break up song felt natural. This song is about feeling like a relationship was one-sided. The pre-chorus sets up the context of the chorus imagery: “I cried an eighth sea, just to sail away from you.” In this relationship being referenced, I felt like I had been the “giver” and the other individual had been the “taker,” hence the chorus lyrics: “So come with me to my new eighth sea, where I’ll drown the wreck you’ve made. There I can force you to turn the tables, so you’ll just give and I’ll just take… You’re my great mistake.” This song reflects many feelings of anger I was wrestling with following this break up. Interestingly though, this song has simultaneously become a fond memory since it was written during an extremely positive traveling experience with good friends. I suppose we can consider that one more example of how music has a remarkable way of reaching us beyond what even we can understand.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks. There will be more stories behind the songs!

Action is Power: Why Your Vote Matters (Part 3)

Welcome to the third and final blog about the importance of ...

Action is Power: Why Your Vote Matters (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of my series on the importance of voting. ...

Action is Power: Why Your Vote Matters (Part 1)

For those of you who don’t know me personally, I need to c...
  • HELLO
  • VICTORIA
  • WE ARE AMAZONS
  • A MODERN DAY TROUBADOR
  • LATE NIGHTS + WEEKENDS
  • SONGS FROM THE SIDEWALK
  • MUSIC IS MY LOVER
  • CHASE THE IMPOSSIBLE
Learn how to place music on itunes at ReverbNation.com
Free Electronic Press Kits from ReverbNation.com

For all booking and inquires, please contact Shore Bets Entertainment

Copyright © 2018 The AUX Collective
All rights reserved