Sometimes it’s a little embarrassing to hear my own music in a public situation. Maybe kind of like parents showing people your baby photos? And I also tend to ‘get over’ my older songs and move on to the new fairly quickly. But today I re-discovered my uptempo alt-country song “Dig,” and I’m only a little embarrassed to admit that I am rocking out to it right now. You can too if you like.
Recently, every time I’ve sat down with my guitar I start writing. Which is great, it’s not getting me any closer to having my live set together. Today I had to kick my butt into gear, so I rented a rehearsal space for a couple hours at nearby Exposition Studios (which I recommend – nice guys over there!).
I’m getting ready for a crazy springtime combination of NACA conferences, college shows, and then shows at clubs and churches and coffeehouses. Not to say that my shows in the past have been thrown together, but before I started using a looper pedal it was a bit simpler to put together a set. It’s, you know, don’t do three ballads in a row (or even two, really). Don’t play a bunch of songs in the same key or with the exact same rhythmic feel.
Now that I have the looper as a resource, there are more and somehow fewer possibilities. On the one hand, I can do an a cappella song with a whole bunch of harmonies (yay, working on this) but I also need to vary the way I create the background for each song so it doesn’t get monotonous. I might want to vary looper and non-looper songs, so the order has to be really set in advance. Some shows I need to do lots of covers, some none. Suffice it to say I’m putting a lot of thought into each iteration of my set, but that feels good. I have a ways to go, but I really feel like I will not just be playing songs now, I’ll be putting on a show!
Tags: bandcamp, Dig, Exposition Studios, Into the Quiet, kristy hanson, looper pedal, setlist
I’m not sure if there’s anything more narcissistic than sitting around recording multiple tracks of your own voice and then listening to them, but there also might not be anything more FUN. That’s essentially what I did yesterday, with a song that I began writing a long time ago with the use of my looper pedal. There’s more, but here’s a 15-second snippet to give you a glimpse:
The looper allows me to create vocal lines, record them, and harmonize with them on the spot. This particular song – a baby song, I suppose, in its infancy – didn’t begin with a heavy vocal focus, but Mike really liked the harmonies I created and suggested I bring them forward a bit more. He offered up a couple different examples of vocal layering, including Elliott Smith’s “I Didn’t Understand.” Even though I don’t want to make this song a cappella, that was a really helpful point of inspiration, and after listening and thinking a bit, I started messing around with some vocal layering in GarageBand. From here I’ll keep working on more of a demo, getting a good skeleton of the song together until possibly doing a studio recording of it.
Today was spent more on personal things (read: doctor’s office visits) and other “extracurricular” activity. I went to see my dear friend Craig Ramsay speak about his book, The Anatomy of Muscle Building, at the Authors@Google series in Venice. And I’m shortly on my way to a volunteer/staff party for 826LA, an organization that I’m part of as a volunteer tutor. I usually try to take weekends off, at least when I’m not traveling or playing shows, but I’m on my own at home for a good chunk of tomorrow, so I’m hoping to make it a productive writing and/or demoing day. More to come then!
Tags: 826LA, Authors@Google, chorus, Craig Ramsay, Google, kristy hanson, SoundCloud, vocals
If you weren’t able to make it to Cafe Muse last week, or you live somewhere far, far away from sunny LA, you can still be a part of the debut of our side project, “East Paris.” Our new song “Balloon”:
East Paris performs “Balloon” live at Cafe Muse 2/24 from Kristy Hanson on Vimeo.
Each day this week I’ll be posting new video snippets and lyrics from the six songs that Mike and I wrote together for February’s RPM Challenge on our tumblr page. We’re going to actually keep at it into March, recording these songs properly. I look forward to sharing the completed project with you as it comes together!
Tags: Cafe Muse, kristy hanson, Mike Chiaburu, RPM Challenge, Slacklust, Stacy Elaine Dacheux
Mike and I have decided that we will take part in this year’s RPM Challenge and attempt to write, record, and release an album digitally all the course of that oh-so-short month, February. Which means we need to get crackin’! It also, in my opinion, takes a village to create an album in a month, so we’ll be working with friends to gather additional inspiration from unexpected sources – blogs, plays, poems, drawings. Art begets art! We hope, anyway. :) Please stay tuned – we’ll be creating a special blog just for the project, and I’ll be keeping everyone up to date here, too.
Tags: kristy hanson, Mike Chiaburu, RPM Challenge
So, I’ve been talking and talking about the song I wrote a few years ago, inspired by my friend Brian’s battle with cancer, and it’s FINALLY available, TODAY, for you to purchase! It’s warm and fuzzy, it’s about hoping to become a better person with each passing year, and all proceeds will be donated to fund cancer research – so you can feel confident that your 99 cents is going to a good place. I really hope you enjoy it! Click here to check it out.
Tags: Christmas, Christmas song, holiday song, iTunes, kristy hanson, This Christmas
Usually the frantic pace of the holidays freaks me out – I swear, one year the downtown Rite Aid started putting out Christmas decorations BEFORE Halloween – but I’ve got a lot going on around this holiday season, and I’m pretty excited to jump in. I’m most excited about my new Christmas song – some of you have heard it live here in Los Angeles over the last couple years, but it’s been recorded, mixed, mastered, and it’s ready for the airwaves! To that end, we’ll be sending it to some of our favorite radio stations soon. I’ll be sure to let you know what stations are playing it and when you’ll be able to pick it up on iTunes, and while we’re working out the details, I can tell you that every cent we make from song sales will be donated to charity.
In other Christmas news, I’ll be taking part in JC Hyke’s Songwriter Serenade – the Christmas Carol edition! I played the regular show last week and had a blast, so I was happy to oblige when JC asked me to play. There are two shows on December 14 and 21, and I’ll be singing a few carols that everyone will be welcome to sing along to. I think my parents will even be in town for the latter, and it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten the chance to sing some carols together, so I’m really looking forward to it. There will be song books given out and everything – JC is not messing around with the singalong thing. Come ready to belt it out!
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Carols, JC Hyke, kristy hanson, Matt Denny's, Songwriter Serenade
The fun and bizarre thing about playing-and even just living-in Los Angeles is that you cross paths with celebrities, inevitably. As well you should, given the fact that they are just normal people going about their lives like the rest of us. But it’s still somewhat shocking and amusing to me every time it happens.
Here’s an example – the other night, while I was playing at Genghis Cohen, I noticed a tall man in the back who seemed especially attentive (or maybe he just caught my eye because, he’s super tall and was standing up), but didn’t think anything of it. The duo “Town and Country” played next to me on stage (it was an in-the-round set-up), and after the show, as we were stowing our guitars, the tall man came backstage as well, and I heard the words, “Thanks so much for coming, Jamie…” When I looked up (and up and up) at the man, he said, “Well done!” to me.
It was only as I walked away that I realized it was James Cromwell, and all I could think of was the movie “Babe” as I made my way to join my friends. Meanwhile, Mike was thrilled to have spotted an actor from “LA Confidential,” one of his all-time favorite movies. I suppose I’m glad I didn’t realize it was him, so I didn’t have a chance to act foolish in any way – like, asking him to re-phrase his compliment as, “That’ll do, Kristy.” Here in LA, you just gotta play it cool…
Tags: Babe, Genghis Cohen, James Cromwell, kristy hanson, LA Confidential, Town and Country band
My old hometown newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press (specifically the great John Sinkevics), had this to say about Into the Quiet:
“The ex-Grand Rapidian, U-M vocal performance major and now Los Angeles-based Hanson keeps honing her considerable singer-songwriter talents, with breezy-but-captivating, pop- and rock-flavored songs that spotlight her emotion-packed, powerful vocals….”
If you’re in the LA area, just over a week left ’til Hear NoHo! Make sure to get your tickets now and take advantage of the 2-for-1 deal.
In the meantime, I’m blogging up a storm this week about Lilith Fair. Click here or just go to “Blog” above, enjoy, agree, disagree, comment!
Tags: grand rapids press, Hear NoHo, Into the Quiet, john sinkevics, kristy hanson, Lilith Fair, Wantickets.com
I just discovered that “Second Fiddle” was recently played on a show of that same name (What’s a Girl To Do, that is) on radio station KOOP of Austin, TX. It thrills me to know that my music rang out through that fine music city! And I always get a special feeling of warm fuzziness when my music is played on a lady-themed show. I don’t know why, exactly…
In part, I think it’s because I do still feel like women are a little under-represented out there in the pop music world, and I think we do need programming dedicated to women to balance it out. But I’ve been thinking about whether this under-representation is actual or in my head quite a lot recently, as debates regarding the return of Lilith Fair and its “relevance” swirl through the media. This coming week, I will actually be blogging every day re: Lilith Fair, women in music, etc. A bit of a “how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go,” story, I think, told through my own – admittedly limited! – perspective and my own personal experience with Lilith Fair and its performers over the years. Staaaay tuned!
Tags: Austin TX, KOOP, kristy hanson, Lilith Fair, radio, Second Fiddle, What's a Girl to Do, women in music
I don’t know about you, but I sure like cruise ships. Even better when there’s rockin’ music on them!
I read that the fantastic Southern-fried folk/rock Zac Brown Band – having won a 2004 Battle of the Band contest for The Rock Boat and played a number of cruises since then – is inviting a songwriter to join him and some amazing other artists on this fall’s cruise, “Sailing Southern Ground.” So, of course, I entered! Lo and behold, I found out yesterday that I’d made it to the semifinals. Hurray! If I make it to the top 25, the band will check me out and then…who knows?
The contest is being run by American Songwriter, and you can check out my American Songspace page here. I hope you’ll keep your fingers crossed, and kindly send your good, country-cruising vibes my way! :)
Tags: American Songspace, American Songwriter, cruises, kristy hanson, Sailing Southern Ground, Zac Brown Band