December 16th, 2010
It’s now 7 in the morning and I’ve been up since 4. Yup, sounds crazy I know. I would be a little more worried about my well being if I hadn’t gone to bed at 8:30 last night so technically I’m doing okay.
A sound night’s rest has been particularly challenging these days since I’ve been preoccupied with the major life changing endeavour of finding a home and finally moving out of my apartment which I’ve been in for the past decade. Sadly, I’m not exaggerating.
Moreover, I’ve been up nights thinking about my album recording – going over the schedule, deciding what is the best way to record the guide tracks, checking off who I have to call… Suffice to say, there is a whole lot of planning that goes into recording. Just looking at my calendar you’ll quickly see by the amount of notes scribbled down and scratched out how taxing the process can get especially when you’re working with other musician’s schedules who are volunteering their time.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m not enjoying this it’s just that I’m eager to move on from the prep stage to the actual working stage of recording. That’s when you get to see the real fruits of your labour come to life and let’s pray that the end result will not be sour fruit.
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December 5th, 2010
For a Sunday night and with the Grey Cup to compete with, we had a surprisingly good show. The place was packed and with no seating room left to spare, people made full use of whatever standing room could be found.
The crowd was very receptive and oddly quiet and attentive but not that I’m complaining! Rae Spoon’s charming and quirky candor was a pleasure to watch on stage and had the audience cheering for two encores by the end of the night.
Being that it was my last show in a while, I decided it was high time to just finally let go and be myself. I know it sounds ridiculously cliché but it’s an issue that I’ve been struggling with for as long as I have been a performer. I always thought that it would be safer to censor myself rather than just say and do what came naturally for fear of offending or being perceived the wrong way.
I have to admit it felt really good. People are free to think what they please but at least this way I have first say on what that definition is going to be by staying true to myself.
Just the other day I heard a great quote recited by Nigella Lawson while in an interview on CBC’s Q with Jihan Gomeshi that speaks volumes on the subject of self perception and how we sometimes allow others to define us:
“What other people think of you is really none of your business”
I suddenly feel the weight start to lift off my shoulders.
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November 27th, 2010
Tomorrow’s going to be the last time that I’ll be playing for a little while. I’m working on putting together an album which is both exciting and stressful – gotta love those conflicting emotions! Well, at least it’s more of a good stress than a bad kind of stress. I’ll keep you updated on how things go and maybe post some videos of some of the songs in progress.
I hope you can join me for the show, it would be great to see all of your sunny faces especially now with the winter darkness approaching. So here are the details:
Sun, Nov 28 at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent) at 8pm. $6 at the door and we’ll be on second. Headlining the night will be the all terrific Rae Spoon and opening the show will be the ever engaging duo Rice & Barley.
Also, I’m going to be playing a couple of new songs – Hope I don’t screw up!
Vidya
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October 11th, 2010
Last week I met with the band for our usual practice. We had a very constructive session dedicating most of our time to working on musical arrangements for a couple of my new songs. We want to have all our material down solid so that we can have all the instrumental tracks recorded for our debut album by the end of this year. The goal is to have the album completed and ready to launch by early 2011. Exciting!
However, before all of that gets done we still have to work on preparing for our upcoming show with Rae Spoon on Sun, Nov 28 at Casa del Popolo. And from the looks of it we don’t have many rehearsal days left with the entire band. Seems like this month is the month of scheduling conflicts! Oh well, we’ll just have to make the most out of the time we do have together.
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October 8th, 2010
I’ve been at this music thing for a while now and have tried everything from playing the chameleon to fit into what other bands were looking for to being the singer/songwriter half of a trip hop duo. Then at the age of 30 right when I was about ready to call it quits I got my dream band of musicians together. It happened almost effortlessly. I guess it wasn’t all that much of an accident since all the time I put in wasn’t in vain, it was my time to discover my voice and grow into a much more confident musician than I was ten years ago. Hell, a little while back I was still struggling with the idea of referring to myself as a musician!
A lot of the time I feel like I’m in a race with myself. I want everything to have been done yesterday. Then I remember that I need to step back and look at the progress that I’ve made – which is a worthwhile thing to do especially when you’re wrapped up in all the plans for the future.
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October 3rd, 2010
So you’ve heard me whining about not being able to play with the band for the last little while but last Saturday finally marked the end of that!
Chris, Andy and I went over our set and worked on a new song. It’s amazing how much the songs stick in your muscle memory. We were surprised by how smooth everything went despite our lapse in practice.
We’re excited to be back in rehearsal mode and look forward to returning to the stage soon. Our next show will be at Casa del Popolo on Sunday, Nov. 28 with the incredible Rae Spoon. Be sure to save the date!
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September 4th, 2010
I’ve been rehearsing solo for the past two month since Christina and Andy had to attend to some work of their own. I’m feeling great and pretty much fully recovered from my jaw expansion surgery. The gap is gone and my face is back to normal.
Today I was excited to finally say goodbye to practicing alone. Steve and I went through our set and we got back into the groove of things as if we had been practicing all along. I had a new song too that we worked on a bit and I’m looking forward to presenting it to the rest of the band at next week’s practice.
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