Leave Me Alone

I want you to go away and leave me alone.

How can you not love a song that starts with a line like that?

I haven’t heard any new lounge music in a while so it was a pleasant surprise to find Leave Me Alone from Yan Terrien in the Sirenstories SoundCloud.

If you know anything about me and my other Sirenstories project, you know I’m a huge fan of young adult literature. I read a ton of it.  I love the constantly conflicting emotions, all the ‘touch me don’t touch me’ stuff that goes on, and the ‘I’m no good for you, we can’t see each other’ theme. The ‘I’m no good for you’ theme is especially fun, because while in the past it was, ‘I’m no good for you because I’m

a.) from another class

b.) a tortured artist

c.) an underdog of some sort

d.) going off to war

these days we have so much more to choose from! Today, it’s ‘I’m not good for you’ because I’m

a.) a Vampire, Werewolf, Angel, Fallen Angel, part Devil, or of course my personal favorite, a Siren

b.) from another planet

c.) the son of a man who is trying to destroy the world, or has already

d.) sitting on the opposite side of the cafeteria, i.e., I’m a jock and you’re a band geek, nerd, etc. and our friends hate each other.

My favorite song that does what Yan Terrien‘s song does is Missing you, by John Waite. Over and over Waite insists he’s not missing a certain someone, but meanwhile he writes one of the best kick ass love songs filled with yearning that you’ve ever heard and sings the hell out of. Yan Terrien‘s approach is a bit more laid back, but the idea is the same. On Leave Me Alone, Terrien mirrors Waite’s technique of repeating certain lines over and over. Terrien‘s spoken vocal is percussive and his French accent adds a measure of sophistication that makes lines like, “Get the hell out of my life” sound that much better.

Leave Me Alone made me think of just how many great songs and books and movies are devoted to the art of breaking up and making up. I’d love to know your favorite, it’s Valentine’s Day after all.

If you’ve read my blog before, you may know that if an artist doesn’t include a bio or lyrics or links when he uploads his song to the Sirenstories SoundCloud, I go snooping. It’s one of the reasons these posts can take such a long time for me to write, (which is my excuse for posting less than I promised) but it’s also fun.

To me, the most interesting piece of information I found about Yan Terrien, self-employed software developer, was this:

Software creation : Neengers, Laser Harp (for Jean Michel Jarre), PIGI for ETC (giant slide projectors).

Whoa. Laser Harp!?! For Jean Michel Jarre?! That’s so cool. Like Yan Terrien‘s music.

So there you go Valentines, I hope you have a kissy day.

Sirene

I was very excited to find a song entitled Sirene in the Sirenstories SoundCloud recently!

I hope you enjoy this atmospheric soundscape from French digital art-folk duo Les Reves.

The opening of Sirene is dramatic, orchestral, but after a moment I am plunged beneath the soundwaves into an unknown world. The cries of gulls reach me where I float, perhaps towards or away from a dream, and soon the sound of voices carries down to me as well, a man, a woman . . . Sirens.

Halfway through the piece a rhythm track gives me something to hold onto, or so I think, until between the percussion and Hannah Hardy‘s lovely mysterious vocals, I become hypnotized . . ..

Regretfully I return  from my journey when a gong sounds and Sirene comes to an end.

Hannah Hardy is not only a Siren but an eclectic artist.

Untitled

‘Praline’s discovery’ 2011 Acrylic and glitter paint on vintage linen

Please visit her gallery, http://www.hannahhardyart.com

Me and my big monster 2011

Ovenbird

The best titles, whether they are created for books, or chapters within books, movies, or songs, are often miniature works of art. Tiny poems that are thought provoking or evocative. Eye catching and quirky, Ovenbird is exactly that. It’s also great to say: Ovenbird Ovenbird Ovenbird. When I first read the word, it was new to me, and I found it both  familiar and strange, which is exactly what makes it a wonderful title for this understated love song by Patrick McCormack.

Back in ’08, when I moved away

Settled in well, but I was afraid

I mistook every slightest noise for knocks on my door

Good morning, again.

Soon found a job, but it had my time

Forgot my friends, had I lost my mind

I jumped the turnstiles just to get home, and I hadn’t a phone

Good morning, again.

I sang alone to you from stage

I’d do it all again today

I meant every word that I ever sang

And every chord I played

So leave me all wrinkled and lost in the sheets

Dreadful is the morning that takes you from me

Still got the same old mattress today, but you wont complain

Good morning, again.

 

As you can hear, Ovenbird is a sweet celebration of love written in triple meter and reminiscent of the late Elliott Smith. After Patrick McCormack uploaded the song to the Sirenstories SooundCloud I asked him to please share his inspiration for the tune. (Secretly I just wanted to know what the title meant — KIDDING. I love the song and wanted to know everything about it.)

“The lyrical inspiration for Ovenbird drew from the beginnings of my independent life.  I was broke, jobless, and living in a new city (Chicago.)  So there was quite a lot of stress, but rarely was I angry or miserable about it.  I had a great partner every step of the way, and she’s the real meaning behind those lyrics.  She was always at my side with a great positive energy; I think that’s what comes through on the instrumental bridge.  Something as simple as waking up together really lessened the blow of my day-to-day.

“The title comes from a side project that my girlfriend (Katherine) and I were working on during that time period.  She would illustrate a national bird, and I would make a corresponding instrumental song.  Argentina’s national bird is The Red Ovenbird, and I had an instrumental track that later became the bridge of Ovenbird.”

Confession: Before Patrick McCormack joined the Sirenstories group and uploaded Ovenbird, I had heard the song before. Filmmaker Edward Burns who, in his words, “makes those small talky New York movies about the Irish guys from Long Island” ran a contest on SoundCloud to find a song for his work in progress, Newlyweds. 

Usually singer songwriter PT Walkley writes the music for Ed Burns’ films, and he wrote the majority of the songs for Newlyweds. However Patrick McCormack‘s Ovenbird fits right in, as if he wrote it specifically for the movie. If I told you why Ovenbird works so perfectly in Newlyweds, I’d be dropping a spoiler, so watch the film for yourself and listen for Ovenbird. It’s perfectly placed.

I’m sure many more of Patrick McCormack‘s songs will be well placed. A multi instrumentalist and composer from Vermont, McCormack’s diverse, poppy songs, and instrumental pieces that are sometimes spare, sometimes spacious, make his music a great choice for film — indie and commercial. I urge you to explore his recordings by clicking on the covers below.

PS I also encourage you to check out Newlyweds. In Newlyweds, as in all of his movies,  Edward Burns shows us familiar people with familiar traits in familiar relationships, and yet somehow, he gives us something completely fresh, funny, and profound. We know Burns’ characters, but they surprise us.

I watched Newlyweds by myself, but I didn’t feel alone. Maybe that’s because I saw my friends in the movie, or maybe because I saw myself. Ed Burns’ movies might be small, but they express universal truths, which is also a good description of Patrick McCormack‘s songs.

Please support original music and add to the buzz about Patrick McCormack‘s music by ‘liking’ his fb page. Thank you.

Last Hour Battle’s White Bear

From what I understand, white bear syndrome is a branch of the OCD tree.  A therapist I once shared office space with when I was a music teacher at a high school for at risk teens, told me that all musicians have OCD. Um.

I hear a bit of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in some of Last Battle‘s angular instrumental lines and their vocals have a slightly raw sound; imagine a younger, poppier Eddie Vedder. Imagine if Pearl Jam was a boy band whose members hooked up with a progressive rock guitarist then rubbed sandpaper on their sound—rubbed it the right way and scraped it up just right.

The Philadelphia based band says, “The white bear syndrome is when unwanted thoughts pop into your head and it’s extremely difficult to stop the never-ending cycle of thinking these negative thoughts.”

Not that I’ve ever had that. Happen. Ah, ever. You? Didn’t think so.

White Bear

How was I supposed to know that everything you said 
Were all the lies you breathed in 
How was I supposed to know 
that everyone is dead 
As the dream we lived in

it’s no surprise 
We’re running out of time 
All I had I offered 
Just so you would 
it’s no surprise 
We’re running out of time 
All I had I offered 
Just so you would break me

How was I supposed to know that everyone is dead 
From the lies they bath in 
How was I supposed to show 
To a closed down skeptic who’s sinking into the night 
That it’s all the same 
That it’s all the same 
Your mind’s playing games 
Your mind’s playing games

it’s no surprise 
We’re running out of time 
All I had I offered 
Just so you would 
it’s no surprise 
We’re running out of time 
All I had I offered 
Just so you would break me

If these walls surrounding 
Are the thoughts of new life 
Then without a creak 
without a whisper 
I will not speak 
Would only listen

It’s no surprise 
We’re running out of time 
All I had I offered 
Just so you would break 
It’s no surprise 
We’re running out of time 
All I had I offered 
Just so you would break me

Love the sparse beginning of White Bear and the semi whispered vocal. The chorus is a real hook, and profound.

It’s no surprise we’re running out of time . . .

I look forward to listening to more of Last Hour Battle. Click on the link and you can do just that.

Oh and feel to leave a comment. Are all musicians OCD? How about writers?

What Sells Books?

Every good novel needs a character with a compelling voice. Someone to sing a Siren song of love or loss, a Siren song of suspense or mystery, a Siren song of snarky cynicism, coming of age, middle school antics, musicians, or murder. There are a million stories (or a mere handful told a million different ways depending on who you’re talking to) and these stories must be told in a voice that matters. Authors, agents, editors, readers — everyone agrees. A strong voice is the most essential element of any story.

But something that not everyone agrees on, especially since the publishing industry is changing so rapidly, is the best way to sell books, although by now everyone has heard the word ‘platform’.

Platform is just another word for voice. Not the voice of the story, but the voice of the author. These days everyone seems to be saying that it takes more than a book to captivate and keep a reader’s attention. It takes a vibrant personality, someone who has A Story Behind Their Story, or at least, someone who is skillful enough to draw a crowd on facebook and twitter.

So do these things work? Does social networking sell books?

I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the YA books I read in 2011 and tell you how I came to buy them.

Shift is a YA dystopian by author/artist Charlotte Agell. I fell in love with Agell’s picture books, which she illustrates with gorgeous watercolors, so decided to read just about everything she wrote. I wrote about her here and here and after she told me about The Crosswalk Kings, her son’s band, I wrote about them here.

I read about the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins first in The New Yorker.

I connected with Tara Kelly on twitter. At the time she was posting music recommendations and I liked the music she suggested. I checked out her site and saw that she offered editing services. I liked her site and thought well, if I’m going to hire her, I need to check out her writing. I’d already learned that she was a musician and her book Harmonic Feedback was about musicians so of course, I was interested. I bought the book and hired Tara to do a Big Picture Evaluation of the manuscript I was working on. I liked Harmonic Feedback so much I ordered her latest book, Amplified from my local bookstore. I couldn’t put it down. If you’re a musician you MUST read Amplified.

Joëlle Anthony is another author I connected with on twitter. I’m not sure how I started following her, I think I may have found her link in an article about twitter in the SCBWI bulletin. In any case, when Kidlit4Japan was auctioning off baskets of books to help raise money to benefit the victims of the earthquake and devastating tsunami, I bid on Joëlle’s basket because I knew the main character of her book Restoring Harmony was a musician, and at the time, everyone on twitter was talking about Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Joëlle’s basket had both, as well as an arc of Where She Went by Gayle Forman. Where She Went is the follow-up to If I Stay, so I ran out and bought If I Stay from my local bookstore. I wrote about Restoring Harmony here.

More tweets! Although my twitter account seemed to have a problem with me following Jay Asher (I swear I had to follow him three times before he remained permanently on my follow list!) no one else seemed to have that problem and his name and face seemed to pop up everywhere. Everyone I was talking to on twitter was talking about Thirteen Reasons Why and finally, after I connected with Jay on facebook and saw a gazillion copies of his book in Barnes and Noble, I bought a copy. And couldn’t put it down. Although I’d like to talk about it with him over a cup of coffee. There’s probably a club I can join.

Divergent by Veronica Roth was another book that everyone I chatted with on twitter was talking about. Another unputdownable book.

Twitter. Again. If you don’t follow @thunderchikin on twitter you must, if only to see his laughably gorgeous avatar show up in your twitter stream. But laugh is the key word here and it was David Macinnis Gill‘s sense of humor that made me go out and buy his book Black Hole Sun. He was kind enough to send me an ARC of Invisible Sun (Could it be because one of his characters is named Mimi?) and I will buy book III in this sci-fi grunge series as soon as it’s available. In this case, the author’s personality is what made me interested in his writing. That plus his hot avatar.

One of the local bookstore owners (who by this time, as you might imagine, has become a close friend) recommended Shiver and it still surprises me that I did not originally hear about Maggie Stiefvater online from #YAlitchat since that’s where I’ve learned about so many fantastic YA authors and their books and Stiefvater is actually a member of the group. I must have missed the chat that night!

I think Maggie Stiefvater is one of the best YA writers out there and if I could . . . I would eat her books.

I learned about Sarah Dessen at Ye Olde Local Bookstore, which, by the way is River Road Books in Fair Haven, NJ.

A whole rack of books by a YA writer? Yes please, I’ll take one. And go back for more.

Thank you SCBWI! For all you do for me, including introducing me to authors and people who work with authors. I met the author Natalie Zaman in a crit group at an NJ SCBWI conference and after reading 30 pages of one of her WIP became a fan.

Ally Condie‘s book, Matched was recommended by an editor I met at the same conference. Love.

And from Natalie Zaman, author of Sirenz, I learned about Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Good old fashioned word of mouth via NJ SCBWI. Love, love, love this book. Gorgeous writing, killer cover.

Jo Treggiari and I have friends in common, so again, word of mouth. I couldn’t put this book down, it made me think of the summers I spent in the Canadian wilderness as a teen. More on that in another post. I was surprised at the amount of time spent in the main character’s head at the beginning of Ashes, Ashes, as well as the many descriptions at the start of the story. I loved the way this writing technique enabled me to get to know the mc and her surroundings so very well.

I know, I know, I can’t believe I didn’t read this book sooner. The brevity in the writing, in the voice, made me think of a song. Beautiful, dark, perfect, I loved Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

And so I end my first annual blog post on books. I hope you enjoyed my totally unscientific fan-girl based conclusions. Maybe by next year at this time I’ll have something completely different to say about what sells books. Until then, I hope you continue to tune in to Sirenstories for new music.

Happy New Year!

More Music from the UK

On the fourth chord of I Sign I broke out in goosebumps. I don’t mean a couple sprang up along my arms, I mean shivering skin, all over my body. And that was before  Zara Kershaw started singing, her voice all breathy and bluesy.

I Sign is definitely part blues, but it’s a lot more. I Sign is pop, it’s alternative, and there’s something about it that makes me think of Broadway at it’s best.

Maybe that’s singer songwriter Zara Kershaw’s musical training showing, or maybe the lush piano and string parts that come in around minute two are responsible for the big sound that says, concert hall.

Then the music starts to swing, to skip towards a section that serves as a bridge but also as the triumphant sounding climax of what is essentially a love story. Although I confess, I can’t figure out if this love is beginning or ending, I absolutely love the concept, “I Sign”, whether to begin, or end, a relationship portrayed in a three-minute song. Brilliant.

Zara Kershaw describes her songs as having “contrapuntal streams of enriched vocal harmony” and towards the end of I Sign I found myself choosing my favorite vocal line and singing along. After a while I created my own harmony and layered it on top.

When the song ended at just over three and a half minutes, I was surprised. It didn’t feel long enough. I wished for a second chorus before the swinging section, or repeated choruses at the end. But really, there’s no problem with I Sign, you must simply play it over and over.

Zara Kershaw is from the UK and I thought I might have heard the influences of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel in her music, as well as a bit of raw energy that I consider more . . . American. That bit of edgy blues made me think of Melissa Etheridge, but just for a second. Singer songwriter Zara Kershaw is her own artist. If we’re lucky she’ll come over and play a few shows. If she does, you’ll hear about it on Sirenstories. Stay tuned.

The Visual Music of Kamil Vojnar

Sirenstories usually features music, but after I came across several pieces online by visual artist Kamil Vojnar, I really wanted to write about his gorgeous work. I say wanted to because I did want to, and I tried, but I’m so enamored by his images, I’m  finger-tied. It seems I care too much.

This is the first piece by Kamil Vojnar that I fell in love with. In. Love.

I was searching for an image to represent Sirenstories, not this blog, but the YA trilogy of the same name that I’m writing. This spring I’ll be working with an editor who will help me shape and polish the first book, and someone suggested I use kickstarter to fund the work. But I needed an image to attract people to my project.

When I found Kamil’s Siren standing above the beach, I gasped in recognition. He is one of the characters from my trilogy.

But I don’t think  that would please Kamil Vojnar. Even if I created the most memorable character in literary history, even if I made him heroic, and brilliant, clever, and magical, Kamil would not be happy because that would mean the pinning down of one of his images, something that is not meant to be. The essence of Vojnar’s work is light and movement.

I’ve rewritten this post a dozen times, and I’ve cut nearly all that I thought I wanted to say. I’ve spent hours online pouring over  websites that feature Vojnar’s stunning pieces as well as information about him and his exhibits, but I couldn’t find the words I needed. They all sound stiff compared to his ethereal images. Music would describe his work best I think, or a poem might be able to, if it were read by someone with a complicated, beautiful voice, and it was endless.

Kamil and I have exchanged a series of emails, and he was kind enough to allow me to use the above image for my project, but now that I’ve learned so much about him, that almost seems wrong. It is all too easy to commercialize Kamil’s work, because it is instantly enjoyable, but that doesn’t mean that his art is easy. His work has darkness in its depths, and its light creates haunting shadows. Kamil Vojnar is a fine artist, and although his work has a fleeting quality—or perhaps that quality belongs to the moments portrayed—it is not meant for fleeting purposes. His pieces are full of unanswered questions, restlessness hidden inside stillness, and sorrow that will not be resolved. We’ve all heard music that makes us ache. There is something here we cannot obtain, something unknowable, perhaps unthinkable, possibly unbearable.

Obviously Kamil can’t upload his pieces to the Sirenstories Soundcloud, but he knew that I would be writing this post, or trying to. I think he will appreciate my frustration in trying to find the right words.

Kamil Vojnar‘s website is a beautiful, evocative place to visit. No matter what kind of artist you are, you will find inspiration there starting with an ephemeral series of images that seem to melt into one another. Each image vanishes into the next and there is no ‘button’ on his site to click back to this series of pictures. I think that perfectly represents the art of Kamil Vojnar. Each piece is a moment from a dream, captured but not contained. Each image murmurs, possibility . . . and the viewer wonders, what has just happened? What will happen next?

Please click on the image above to give yourself the gift of a journey into Kamil Vojnar‘s sensual and sorrowful world.

Tanguy Dairaine used Kamil’s images to create this video for French pop star Patricia Kaas, which she used on her 2009 tour. The video was projected on a giant screen behind her while she sang her intimate song, Une Derniere Fois.

Another NaNoWriMo Comes to a Close

My third NaNoWriMo was a tough one. To reach my word count I used EVERY word I wrote!

(Dear Publishing Industry, have no fear. You won’t see my novel for at least another year. Feel better?)

I used the NaNoWriMo site more than ever. I read every pep talk sent to me and watched every video. I even reached out to my writing buddies in my hour of need.

Huh? What was that all about?

Oh, nothing. I just, ah, needed a few answers. I had a couple of questions, like, was I allowed to count the words that made up my timeline? How about my list of characters? My chapter titles? That kind of thing. Ahem.

Okay I admit it, I was reaching. Not because I didn’t have an idea, I had a good one, and after a month of wild writing, I still love it. Mostly, my problem was time. Even as I write this my five-year-old is calling and last night? He called me in to his room half a dozen times. It seemed like, the deeper I got into my story, the more someone or something needed my attention. But that’s just how it goes sometimes.

(BTW my Wrimo friends said yes, if you were wondering, or if you’re still writing your butt off and are wondering, count every single word.)

Hey, I don’t feel bad. For the last two NaNoWriMos my 50,000 words were pure story. This year I had to do things a little  differently. We all know how important it is to Think Different. RIP Steve Jobs, all my NaNo manuscripts, in fact all my manuscripts, and many of my songs, were written on a Mac. Thank you Apple.

And another thank you to Martha Alderson. Martha’s blog Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers is a great resource for writers and this year Martha’s posts about energy markers helped me create my story arc.

To all of you Wrimos still writing, you have TONS of time, no worries. If you need inspiration in the form of music, take a break and check out this site, there are lots of good songs from artists who are probably new to you.

I love writing with music on, and this year more than one of my NaNoWriMo writing soundtrack songs came from Sirenstories.

If you’ve finished your November novel (let’s agree for now that finished means having a beginning, middle, and end) congratulations! If you’re still writing, good luck, you’ll be printing out that nifty certificate any minute ;)

Ghost Trails

“Ghostly folks from Chicago . . . “.

That’s about all I know about Chief Ghoul.

The song Ghost Trails was recently submitted to the Sirenstories SoundCloud and although it’s labeled folk and definitely is, the music has a grunge edge to it that makes me think of Eddie Vedder. Eddie Vedder on some old car radio, and the vehicle is driving nearly out of range of the station. The reception is iffy, but I keep listening.

Blues guitar, low-fi production, and a whistled countermelody that serves as a chorus and is almost cheery, all work together with the dark vocals to create an intriguing sound that makes me want to hear more from Chief Ghoul.

If you feel the same way, click on the Chief. You’ll wind up on last.fm where you can listen to nine more Chief Ghoul tunes.

R.M. Isaiah’s San Francisco Sound is Magically Tragic

Exploring the music of R.M. Isaiah this morning has been a rich experience full of serendipity for me. I’d like to write a bit more about this, but I’m still reeling, and there’s too much I need to tell you about this great artist.

As you listen, you may find yourself comparing R.M. Isaiah‘s voice to the voice of legendary singer songwriter Tom Waits, and there are similarities. The amount of gravel in their throats for instance, is nearly the same. But there’s something softer about R.M. Isaiah and somehow more accessible. Less complicated, but no less poetic.

Your body I know is a wise man

A pawn in my collection of friends

There are books about Tom Waits, and I’m not going to try to sum up his style or his work here in a few sentences, but although truth lurks and snakes inside his songs, they are often performances, performance pieces. Tom Waits is a master at creating a cast of characters that strut and crawl across the stage of his songs.

But R.M. Isaiah is doing what Tom Waits was so floored by Dylan doing. He’s sitting down with the guitar and telling a story. There’s no circus. Isaiah is not a caricature of himself. Meanwhile High Witness, the band that Isaiah is a part of and who he recorded Master and Margarita with, creates the perfect bed for Isaiah’s voice to lie in. There’s no distraction. The first chord is so lush, for a second I thought I was going to be listening to a jazz tune, and even the shimmering cymbal crashes support Isaiah’s voice. Nothing gets in the way. There is one personality here, making music that’s earthy, mysterious, and immediate.

If you click through on the cover of the evocatively titled Numbers Have Their Way and visit R.M. Isaiah‘s bandcamp page, you’ll be able to listen to and download the digital album. I urge you to do this.

The song Master and Margarita intrigued me before I even heard it, because just as I was about to read the title my gaze slid across the screen and landed on the song’s label. It had been marked True Fiction.

You ask my about my trip to the labyrinth

But I can’t think of nothing to say

And that’s the only lie I heard. R.M. Isaiah has plenty to say, and I plan on listening.