This past week I've been in the studio recording my debut CD Plush Red Chair. We've had some great moments and I've enjoyed them all.
You see, I made a pact with myself that I was going to openly and freely enjoy every moment of this process. I've waited a long time to get here. I'm working with people who have been recording albums most of their life, and I have them stop and pose for selfies. Film them. Share my enthusiasm. Do I come off as being silly? I may. Do I care? Not one iota.
I've been singing my entire life (except for a short span). I've been in the recording studio many times. But this is different. This is a life long dream unfolding right before my eyes. This is my time. My moment. And I intend on enjoying every second of it.
There is a song on the album "You Didn't Break Me" which is very personal. One song that tells more about me than any other on the album. I share a very personal side of me within the lyrics.
Anyway, the lyric is about surviving. About not letting life or people stop you from living your life as you should. Life can throw you some severe blows. Its our choice whether we let it break us or not. When Bill and I first put this song together I sobbed. I couldn't sing it. Bill shook for days. Its a very powerful song. Yesterday, Keith Bennett played some haunting harmonica sounds for it. I sat there in the studio listening to my scratch vocals for the first time. It was surreal. The words flowed from the speakers "You didn't break me." and here I was doing the one thing that I am supposed to do that had been withheld from me for so long. My eyes welled up. Bill looked over at me. At first he looked puzzled and then it dawned on him. He came over and gave me a healing producer's hug.
It is for this reason that I take selfies. It is for this reason that I am childlike with my enthusiasm toward the recording. It is for this reason that I grin from ear to ear. You see, there is a three year old little girl in me who's dream is coming true before her eyes. There is an abused child who has found her way. There is a confused teenager who's dream that seemed so far lost is now a reality. There's an alone young woman. A young woman abandoned and confused. A young woman who wondered what she'd done wrong. A young woman who picked herself up by the bootstraps to find herself sitting in a recording studio. Surrounded by cream of the crop musicians from Vancouver. Giving voice to moments of her life. There's a middle aged woman who thought her time was past and her dream was gone forever.
So, I may look unrefined. Don't care. It may look unprofessional. Don't care. It took me a long time to get here and I'm excited and I'm allowed to be. Right?
Join me. Let's go make an album.
If you would like to PRE-ORDER PLUSH RED CHAIR I would love that! In doing so you help me pay for the Cream of the Crop that is surrounding me in the studio. The same link will take you to behind the scenes video of the past few days in the studio.