The Voice, Game On.

Ahh, Mondays.  Magical Mondays.

They are always a bit tricky I find, more so for creative types.  The pressure!  The pressure to come up with something special and make something of the week!  Well, friends, I am up to the challenge this very Monday.  And my challenge, should I choose to accept it, is to write something fantabulous for that very popular show The Voice (have you seen it?).  I like it.  I like it as a punter and I like it because it is my industry.  It reads like a who’s who of people I have worked with over the years (judges included) so it’s close to home.  And it’s a hit. People are watching it which means people will be buying the music when it’s all over.

So I have been asked for songs.  Sarah, do you have any songs?   Hit songs!  These “Voices” are going to need something to sing!   Cue songwriters from here and indeed very far away even trying their very best to come up with something so spectacular that it shall not be denied and end up as first single for the winner.  We are all drawn in by the possibilities.  Myself included.

Working as a writer is such a hard racket to crack, as the ‘vehicles’ for ones songs (otherwise known as successful recording artists that can’t write their own material) are VERY few and far between.  So getting a song put on a short list (let alone having it recorded and released) is a near impossible obstacle course fettered with the usual publishing, A&R and management ‘experts’ that dissect, pick apart and deflect even the worthiest of magical hit song contenders.  And yet we still go for it!  We put ourselves and our little song babies out there more often than not to be torn down (or, even worse, usually completely ignored) in the hope that one of them might tick a box or tickle a fancy of someone who gets to make all the decisions.

It’s crazy, but hey!  I am up for it!  And this Voice Juggernaut will not be an exception.  So here I go, inspiration churning, into the flame!

I have my allocated tracks, I have my guitar, I have some ideas and a couple of hours.  Here goes!

Cheers, til next time..
Sarah

x

Things-are-a-happening dum dee dum…

Yes, okay, I am writing a song lyric with the title of this post (just be glad it doesn’t also have an “ooh baby” in there somewhere) which I think is kind of fitting as a first post back after what I am excusing as a really  really long summer break.  Til May.  Wow, you must be thinking, that songwriting business pays really really well!  Who can afford to have a 5 month holiday?  Well, let’s just move on from here cause I am back and I have HEAPS of cool things happening in this lovely year of the dragon 2012.  And with a blog that is named after none other than mwah, where else am I able to wax on and on about it at length without anyone to pull me up?  Exactly!

So the single I was working on under my new moniker HeLovesHer (mentioned briefly here) has finally been released and it’s all a go!  How lovely to work on something and see it through to a really cool and satisfying end, I suppose it helps that the act and producers involved are all VERY DAPPER INDEED and I am a lucky girl to have come out of it sounding like, the best I ever shall.  Not only that, this awesome remix of it is something that I would totally get my boogie on to if I was ever out in the real world somewhere with a group of similarly inclined peoples.

So check it out!  We only have a video for the remix, ahem, that’s me in the pink leggings (not really).  I expressed hesitation (that’s putting it mildly) at being involved in any kind of live action clip that could involve my likeness or actual, you know, having to mime to my own wailing whilst simultaneously looking sexy at a camera whilst holding my tummy in.  So I am thrilled with this of course!

Get your 80′s groove on with Mr Jigga featuring HeLovesHer, ‘Won’t You Be Mine’ (Gloves Remix).

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE!

Over and out!

B-B-B-Beyonce

Change of pace for this Wednesday morning.  I had already heard this track on the radio a bit and whilst I liked it, it still hasn’t persuaded me to buy the whole album (if they all sounded like this I just might!  But I can’t do the dramatic ballads. Not since the horror that was ‘If I Were A Boy’).  But back to this awesome track –  I do love the slick punchiness of the production – the ever perfect and punctuated vocals (of course) and the real horns take me back to some of the early Quincy Jone’s produced magic.

And hey, whatever your musical inclination, you just can’t deny how fabulous the Lady B is.  Seriously.  Yeah sure, sometimes she over sings a bit on some tracks and she has a habit of not wearing that many clothes in her clips (not sure that many people would complain about that!) but that is all I got.  Nothing else bad to say. She’s kind of so cool it almost hurts. Anyone who can sing like that, move like that and look like that all at the same time deserves all the glittering gold in the world (and I am pretty sure she must be coming close to having it all too).   But wait there’s more!  She is also credited as co-writer AND co-producer. So today I am just highlighting this Beyonce awesomeness by showing you her super cool, kind of retro (80′s choreography, the kind I know well from my days as an 8 year old jumping about with too much rouge in one shouldered sparkly costumes to ‘I’m Living in A Box’ and ‘We Built This City’) and of course very PG -Sexy clip (did I just invent a new classification?) for my pick from her latest album,  ’Love On Top’.

A bit of Beyonce to brighten the day you might say!

And now I am off to hold myself back from strutting down the street in military hat, leotard and high tops.  Surely it can work for all of us?

Enjoy!

Sarah

xx

P.S  Thanks lovely friend for alerting me to this!

Reminiscing with Boom Crash Opera

The only problem with having a blog is that I want to write in it every day.  I want to be one of those bloggers about whom one gets excited to check in in the morning to see what goodies there are!  But I find that being limited to stuff that is going on here at the studio, new music inspiration or general ramblings (which, let’s face it, there is always going to be an avalanche of) means that I am having trouble coming up with a good amount of content for you lovely people.  But ha! I think I have a solution.  And it might be time to be worried.  I am going to delve deep down into the recesses of my musical soul, you know, back where dancing to this at age 4 with tinsel around my wrist and listening to my Mum listening to this lies (speaking of Australian classics, you have to check this out!).  Kind of like revisiting all the musical moments in life that made me who I am today.  However daggy or forgotten about they may be.  We all have them. The posts shall be called ‘Reminiscing’.  What do you think?

Today’s maiden post begins somewhat obscurely, with an Australian band from  the late eighties, early nineties (pay attention now if you are under 25).  Boom Crash Opera.  Great name for a band by the way.

I shall set the scene.  Summer holidays, I am 14, I am down at Lorne holidaying with my new best friend, totally on a high for a few reasons,

a) I now know someone with a holiday house
b) I am without my parents and she has a cousin staying here too who is a BOY (!),
c) the weather is amazing and we are allowed to go to the beach ON OUR OWN and get ice cream and fish and chips whenever we like!  and
d) luckily I really don’t care too much about boys yet so I can just enjoy being a kid/teenager and the simpler things a summer holiday in Victoria entails

Every day we are going to the beach and on this one particularly warm (but not too hot in the sun, back in 1992 the ozone layer was much more intact) we find that spot out in the waves before the break, you know where they just roll over you and you can bob up and down for hours like a seagull, feet still on the ground if you need them to be which is very important for me because I’m not very adventurous and not a very good swimmer.

So we are looking back onto the beach and foreshore where they have set up a massive stage and there are bands and people and music blasting all the way out to sea.  And this is the song that I remember.  Dancing in the Storm.  Epic.  Toms and crashes all over the shop.  Dale Ryder and his buddies are working it hard and before I know it we are totally buzzing, bobbing up and down in the ocean and singing at the top of our lungs along with one of the best and happiest choruses I can think of!  Ever!  Maybe that’s why I like happy choruses now but goodness, this one packs a punch right where your endorphins come from and sends them spilling out uncontrollably!  One of the best memories of my childhood and every time I hear it (even if it’s on an electricity TVC, which it is now) my heart soars and I feel young and naive and uplifted and simply optimistic just like I did on that day. Isn’t it amazing how music can do that for you?

Well there is a little window into my adolescent soul and the small place that this song will always have there. An anthem for my youth.  The clip, from 1989 is of course very old but try to ignore it and don’t forget to do one very important thing. TURN IT UP LOUD!!! And just try not to jump or gesticulate with imaginary drumsticks on beat 2 of almost every bar in the chorus. I dare you! You will be overcome by the urge by the end I guarantee.

Til tomorrow (I am on a roll!)

Sarah xx

P.S  The best thing about this story is that my friend and I are still very close and even though she lives on another continent,  she and I also make great music together which will be the subject of a different post on here soon!

P.P.S  I never realised before how sexy Dale Ryder is!  And I am not normally into men with long hair at all.

The Ruben’s…

3 Brothers and a Mate, 'The Rubens'

So those of you who know me well might think there is more than one good reason that I like this Triple J unearthed act and they would be right.  ’The Rubens’.  Great name for a band and I think I may have a future member should they need a replacement in 15 years.  Anyway, The J’s have been thrashing this amazing soulful bluesy piece of raw edged magic for a while now – there is no clip yet and instead of posting some fans youtube montage I shall direct you with this link over to their Facebook page to listen.  The song is called ‘Lay It Down’ and you must do as I say and go and listen now!  I love it!  It’s a bit sexy too and I haven’t written about a sexy vocal for a while – well it’s probably time.  This delivery is amazing!  For some reason it seems like a perfect summer soundtrack, although global warming is certainly not playing along here in Melbourne this week.  Even the ducted heating is in denial about being required in January.

Anyway.  Enough talk about the weather, enjoy your day wherever you are!

Sarah xx

It Takes Five People to Play One Guitar.

I don’t mean the title of this post to be disrespectful, but, who knew?  Where are my four guitar playing assistants?  Out the back trying to get a more challenging gig?  Oh, that’s right, you only need them when you are trying to sound as good as Gotye and Kimbra.  Did anyone else know you can play that bit in-between the neck and the tuning keys?  Is it okay to post about the same song twice in 3 months?  Looks like I am so here goes.

Dear friends, I bring to your attention a very cool cover of my vote for Triple J’s Hottest 100 song of the year – yes I am happy to broadcast it, I couldn’t go past it, not even for this, this, or Bon Iver’s this (which, inadvertently makes me feel like I am in the end scene of some wistful eighties movie, with everything ahead of me and nothing behind me, Judd Nelson in the foreground).  It has already received so many accolades, but seriously, one cannot doubt the importance and hugeness of that song in our industry right now.

So here are the boys from Walk of the Earth (going off to investigate them now) and Sarah Blackwood in an homage to the most musically exquisite thing to come out of Victoria in a while.

The dude singing the chorus punches it out amazingly and not unlike that dude from Nickleback (a compliment, interestingly) and when all the harmonies come in at the end it’s lovely.

I hope they all sell lots of their own records because of this.  Cheers to Youtube and the power of the internet and social media for the good of music.

Thanks to mamamia.com.au for the heads up on this.

Shibuya Records

So it got to the point when I was working on all this music and producing and writing with lots of great artists, only to have them get signed and then the project would be directed by some hot shot A&R (no disrespect, really) onto some other producer/writer, the album would be made, it would sound nowhere near as good as the demo’s I had done and then it would subsequently tank and the artist be dropped.  I have experienced this indirectly so many times I wish I had $100,000 for every time it happened.

Anyway, so a year or so ago I came across a lovely singer/songwriter whose music really inspired me and decided to start my own label to help take that music all the way and stay involved along the journey.  Which is what it is all about really.  Helping great music come out on the radio for people to buy lots of.  So, business partner in crime (who actually knows something about music and business, handy really) and lots of recordings, photo shoots and ‘artist development meetings’ later and it’s looking great for 2012 and my new role as producer/record label honcho.  We are called Shibuya Records after a very cool district in Tokyo, Japan and we will be responsible for some extra amazing music noise coming your way later this year.

It’s all very vague as you can tell as we are ‘in development’ and my usual blabbing has been somewhat though appropriately stifled so this is it for now I am afraid.  All this really means is that now you must address me by my new royal title.  Head of Creative/A&R Manager.  Thank you very much.

Hope 2012 is rocking for you!

New Record Label Exec Hairdo.

P.S  My new Record Label Honcho Look.  Please comment positively.

Best Job in the World.

When I heard that Bret McKenzie, the more normal looking one from the brilliant Flight of the Concords was the music supervisor on the new Muppets Movie, I think I had the worst case of job envy ever!  What a hilarious and inspired piece of HR if ever there was one.  Then, I  came across this clip.  Do  you think Bret knows how lucky he is?  It’s such a cute little pop song too.  What I think is really sad is there is this whole generation of 70′s/80′s babies that are now grown adults and are at risk of becoming obsessed with Kermit and co all over again!  Ironically (or perhaps not so) the same audience that gets the dorky good natured and catchy humour of Flight of the Concords.  What a crossover!

Anyway I shall posture no more about it – here is the clip to put a smile on your face today!!  Go Bret and Kermit (although I was always a Miss Piggy/Swedish Chef fan to be truthful)

SLACK! + LYKKE LI LOVING

Okay so yes 2 months in between posts, let’s just get it out of the way now and say how slack I am, blah blah, my apologies, let’s get back into it!

As you all know I have recently developed a newfound infatuation with Triple J and sometimes this does extend to the friday morning treats that are Like A Version.  Where an artist performs one of their own tracks and then a cover of their choice.  The versions can be quite literal (see Owl Eyes do Foster the People), slightly surreal (Eskimo Joe performing Somebody that I used to Know) and sometimes pure genius.  Take the lovely Lyyke Li, I have always been a bit of a fan although don’t own anything of hers (terrible really).  When I heard this version of Unchained Melody, a song I have sung at many a wedding (with nowhere near the amount of cool factor, of course) a month or so back I was flawed.  I think this clip shows her for the true artist she is, talk about making it your own!  Love, love, love it.  Couple that with a bit of ‘I wish I was her’ and Lykke, you have a bonafide new fan.  Enjoy!

(She starts singing around 35 seconds in.)

In My Hands…

I know a lot of you have seen this as I have mentioned it before but here it is again.  Cause it’s fun.  A few years ago a track I wrote in Sweden, with English lyrics, ended up on a Japanese TVC for Vienus Jeans with half Japanese/English lyrics.  Don’t ask me why, that’s just how they do it over there.  The ad features Japanese actress/model/singer (not necessarily in that order) Anna Tsuchiya who released the song to tie in with the commercial.  Funny how these things happen!  The original track, ‘Where have you Been Lately’, became ‘In My Hands’, we cut Anna in for writing the new lyric.  It seemed weird at the time to cut someone in to write what are essentially pretty terrible lyrics in English, but I think it’s important to be mindful of what works for the artist and what is appropriate within the market.  If you can be.  And the Japanese music industry is huge and totally a mini-economy in itself.    The whole ‘Japanese with bits of English thrown in for good measure’ is so massive for the pop stuff over there.  And considering the EP was called ‘Taste My Beat’ and some of her other song titles include ‘Brave Vibration’, ‘Virgin Cat’ and ‘Slap that Naughty Body’, I think we did alright with ‘In My Hands’ as an alternative title to the song.

This clip is over on my my music page so if you have already checked it out, apologies for being repetitious!

Cheers!

Sarah xx