An Eclectic Joyful Christmas

This Christmas I had many stops..... Christmas Eve was spent with my amazing family eating food and showering each other with love, gifts and our annual ping pong tournament, which I lose every year. I haven't quite got the "its all in the wrist" thing down yet. 

Christmas day, I went to Fountain Valley fire station and hung with Ty and the boys, then on my way home stopped by JP and Joni's for a musical Christmas. I had no idea it was going to be so awesome. A room full of genuine, one of a kind music loving people all gathered to listen or play music. We harmonized to Christmas carols, passed guitars and ukulele's around, and just jammed out for a few hours straight. It was simply magical! I am already looking forward to next year. 

2014 was a great year! I am ready for 2015, this is going to be an epic year! Thanks to all my family, friends and fans who have supported my musical journey so far. Get ready for a fun ride. There is way more to come:)

I (Heart) ASCAP

I had an incredible day today, I had a pretty awesome opportunity to play some music for the staff at ASCAP. If you're not familiar with who they are, it stands for American Society of Composers and Publishers. They are an organization that protects its members and collects their royalties. They are a global company and the biggest in their category and just celebrated 100 years of business. 

JP and I drove up in the pouring rain and like most of our musical adventures we had no idea what to expect. We got there a little early so we walked across the street and ate at 9021 Pho, a delicious Vietnamese place on Sunset Blvd. It was my first time eating at a Pho restaurant and I will definitely be back again. It was delicious! 

After lunch we walked our way over to the fancy American Directors Guild building. I don’t usually get too nervous before meetings or shows but for some reason my nerves were firing. I have such a huge respect for this company, I was so honored to be there. We jumped in the elevator and headed to the 3rd floor where we checked in with Yvette the Membership Coordinator for Film & TV, our 'shining light' and liaison. She lead us into the ASCAP songwriting room. The room had guitars on the wall, keyboards, Apple computers for recording and comfy couches. It had a really unique vibe to it. I can totally see how hit songs are written there.  

We were introduced to Ed and Gali from the pop/rock division. As soon as I met them my nerves completely subsided. They were so down to earth and made me feel at home. The next hour and a half was filled with conversations about my musical history, what I am up to now and my goals. They gave me advice and I played them some of my original songs. The experience was both laid back and powerful. I will never forget it. 

I can't thank ASCAP enough for believing in my music and offering their support and help as we kick off 2015. Do yourself a favor and go to www.ASCAP.com and check out all they do. They are an incredible company and I am so stoked to have them on my side;)

Moves Like the Ocean

I have been writing music for almost 10 years now, it’s always been something I’ve done on my own. Always the melody first, and then the lyrics. Usually I let the melody bring a feeling out of me and I go from there. 

A little over 3 years ago I met Tylor. I was on a music tour called “Salt Sessions” and he came to one of my shows. I was introduced to him after and it was instant. At first I thought maybe it was just instant for me… but then for the next few shows I kept seeing his face in the audience and by the end of the tour we were dating. As we got closer, I started running my melodies by him to see what he thought. He would bashfully say “what if you started it like this” and spit out something so perfect. I would immediately start to feed off him, then he would chime back in and feed off me, until we started writing song after song together. 

Here is a song we recently wrote, it’s sort of like a love song to the ocean. I recorded it on an iphone so forgive the quality. Hope you like it:)

#truth :)

Salt Creek Concert: Ocean with a Splash of Rasp

I was booked to play the OC Parks Summer Concert Series about 8 months prior and had a lot of time to prepare and get excited. I was opening for Moonsville Collective, Annie McQueen, and Justin Norman was going to accompany me on guitar. The show consisted of an outdoor stage, it was by the ocean and best of all in my hometown. I couldn’t of been more pumped:) Fast forward to the morning of the show, the morning I was looking forward to all 8 months..... I go to say hello to my roommates and not only was my voice barley there but I sounded like a raspy 14 year old boy. I didn’t want to cancel, so I Googled “How to get your voice back” and I think I tried 60% of the reasonable options. Such my luck that this happens the day of the show...

Long story short and as dramatic as I am making it seem my voice did come back. Well just enough to where it actually sounded a little cool having the added rasp. I was blown away by all the family, friends, acquaintances, and familiar faces I saw at this show. This was one for the books and I will never forget it.

The Violin and the Cello

On Monday of this week I had an incredible day!! JP, Deb and I headed up to Sage and Sound Studio in Hollywood where we got to see Gabe Witcher and Richard Dodd play on Trippin' On. When JP told me his idea of putting strings on Trippin' On, I was excited but really had no idea what to expect.

I will never forget the goose bumps that covered my body on that first take when the cello and violin kicked in.  Gabe and Richard nailed it and perfectly interpreted all the emotion that song contains for me.

I wrote Trippin' On years ago. It is very close to my heart and is pretty deep. Most people hear it and immediately assume it's about a failed relationship, but its not…… I will explain it another time.

That’s the amazing thing about music, its ability to connect on such a personal level to our own lives and stories. It's up to the listener how to relate to a song and get whatever they need from it.

Take a listen to the finished product on the music link of my site.  Heading out for a trail run, write you all again soon.

Xo

Summer

Happy 4th of July

Sitting here in my backyard on my swinging chair enjoying the solitude.

The 4th is such a climactic holiday, seems like rarely do you ever ask someone “what did you do for the 4th ?” and they answer “just sat in my backyard with my dog and enjoyed the solitude”. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the time I have with family and friends around, but there was something so appealing about spending the day solo, listening to Otis Taylor Pandora and swinging back and forth on my deck swing.

I love blues music; I think in another life I was from Nashville and sang and played slide guitar like nobody’s business…

Speaking of music, I have been really excited to be sharing some of my new recordings with everyone. This record has been a really fun ride so far. From the beginning JP and I have had somewhat of an idea of what we wanted each song to sound like, but where these songs ended up going, we could not have dreamed up.

We are finally at a point in this project where we can start sharing what we made and see how it reaches and touches people. That’s one of my favorite parts of making new music: discovering who gravitates to what song and how it affects them.

Not only has the recording process been incredible, but so has been watching my new website come to life and witnessing Joni put together a photo shoot at my house with amazing, talented photographers like Ally Morris. I feel like the whole photo shoot day could just be a blog in itself. Thank you to Stacy for my hair and Deb for my makeup and Pedro's tacos. I can't forget to mention Joni for taking all the elements and her creative mind to make these photos fun and funky while still staying true to who I am in every shot. I'm really blown away and honored to have such a remarkable crew working so tirelessly on my music project right now. I will definitely never forget this experience.

So...I am a writer, well in a sense with all my song writing, but I’ve never really been a blogger. I am now, however, going to start doing a little “blogging” just to keep everyone updated on my music project. I have had such a wide array of adventures up to this point, I am confident there’s more to come!

Stay tuned…….:) and Happy 4th of July everyone!

Sum

Click the pics below to see us girls all on our adventure together.