Go Go Go

Posted: August 24, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Life, Music, School, Touring | Leave a comment »

Thanks so the new feature on facebook, I learned that two years ago yesterday I was “go go go.” Well that makes sense as I was planning a wedding, but it made me think about how much I have done and how much things have changed in the last few years.

In the last three years I:

  • Quit my job (a career I had for 13 years)
  • Moved across the country
  • Planned a wedding
  • Got married
  • Threw a killer Halloween party (including making serious paper mache decorations like mounted elf heads, and a troll foot umbrella stand)
  • Started volunteering at my local nature center
  • Organized and put out a Holiday Compilation album for charity
  • Helped plan a Yule Ball
  • Suffered through my Mother’s death
  • Concurrently recorded TWO CDs (in a span of about six months)
  • Played the LARGEST show of my life (in front of several hundred people)
  • Went on tour – Ohio down to Texas up to Chicago and back down to Ohio with many stops in between
  • Completed NaNoWriMo (aka National Novel Writing Month) Which means I wrote a 50,000 word novella in the month of November
  • Moved again (this time East instead of North)
  • Went on a mini-tour from Virginia down to Florida and back
  • Decided to go back to school for Audio Production and am 1/2 way through my first quarter now

Am I missing anything?

Wow. That is a lot of stuff accomplished. Go me! Go go go!

I Am Up To My Eyeballs in Projects and Papers

Posted: August 21, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: School, Touring | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Sorry for the lack of posts. It is mid-term time. Though… my midterm project for my video class was due in week 4. (I guess that professor is confused when it comes to math: the half-way mark of 11 weeks is 5.5.)

But anyway… now I am swamped. I am overwhelmed. I have a list next to me with 9 things on it due Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Here, I will give you an funny performance video to watch from my tour last Fall with Snidget. This is perfect example of me being me. I am a ham and not afraid to make a fool of myself.

Enjoy “Witherwings serenades a Barnes and Noble in Texas with ‘Malfoy.’”

Mini-Tour Wrap-up

Posted: August 1, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Touring | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Sorry for the delayed post. Coming home from the road only to jump right back into classes, homework and mid-term preperation delayed just about everything in my life not related to school. Which… is going well, by the way. My Audio 101 class is about 2/3 Math and 1/3 Biology, but I am learning some really cool stuff that already has me thinking about what I need to adjust in my home studio. That, however, is an entirely different post altogether.

So the mini-tour which got nick-named the “minotaur” was blast. I really loved being on the road with Hawthorn and Holly. They even thought my reckless driving antics were funny rather than scary, so I expect more road trips to be in our collective future.

No tour is complete with out some road-side stops, and this was no exception. The peach stand dudes in Georgia asked us to contribute to their college fund, and we sang for free peaches. Now THAT is Fair Trade.

We even got to romp around in Universal’s City Walk the morning after our Orlando show. Wish we could have stayed longer, but we live for the open road, man.

But the most amazing thing for me was getting to play with my old band-mates in Orlando. Susie, Vick and Stuart joined me on stage and played MY songs. I was in Susie’s band, SusieCool and the Coolottes, for seven years. They taught me everything I know about live performances and how to be a seamless songwriting team. It could have been really stressful showing up and hearing their rendition of my songs for the first time while ON STAGE, but I had faith in these people. I know NO ONE more professional and knowledgeable than this trio, and they came through as I knew they would. So much so, that when I got ahead of the music on “In Defense of Ginny Weasley” due to the lack of (working) monitors, they caught right up to me in 2 bars.

Here is the only video clip I have at the moment. I will get more posted ASAP.

Thanks to everyone who came out to a show, bought a CD or shirt, or contributed to our gas fund. I met some really cool people and it makes me want to hit the road again as soon as possible!

Wrockers and Wizarding Life folks at the show in Orlando. Photo by Kevin Young.

In Which I Organinze My Brain For Tour

Posted: July 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: School, Touring | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

There is so much to do before this mini-tour! It went from a full-fledged tour to a mini tour becasue I decided to go back to school. This school stuff is getting in the way of getting ready for tour! *phsaw* Priorities! ;)

So I am making a to do list for the next few days:

  • Oil change and official recording of mileage. (Hey you, self-employed musicians! Are you aware that July 1st was the start of the increased rate you get back for mileage on your taxes? Get your car’s miles documented ASAP!)
  • Make sure all four bands are on board for the proposed show itinerary. (ie. order of bands and the idea of playing two sets rather than one long one.)
  • Check in with my band for Saturday’s show (I am SO SO SO excited to be playing with a full band!!!)
  • Double check that the chords the guitar player figured out are, in fact, the correct chords.
  • Make sure everyone got and looked at the chords for the other songs.
  • Pull out that awesome new Zoom H4n Handy Recorder (Check! Woot!) and see if/how it works to record ambient sound while running my keyboard directly into it. I would really like to be able to record Saturday’s show. Recording directly from the sound board and being able to capture audience reaction would be fantastic! (…but only if I can control levels. Need to find a manual on-line.)
  • Call the Taste to find when they want us to sound check. The restaurant part of the place is open all day. The art show portion of our event starts at 7, but the concert doesn’t start until 9.
  • I need to communicate this to all the musicians. *side note: THANK GOD for smart phones. I have been doing so much of this communication (emails, facebook messages etc.) on the train to and from school.*
  • Figure out what the heck I am going to wear. I hate this part. I can never just find something at the store when nothing I own seems to be working out. At least I know I am going to wear the sparkley new bracelet I bought a few weeks ago JUST for Sat’s show :) I feel no pressure when deciding what to wear for house concerts or library shows, but  involve a stage, lights etc – and now I gotta glam it up.
  • Email reminders to my professors that I will not be in class on Monday. I am glad they find my excuse acceptable, but there will be consequences for missing material. I hope my hard work the rest of the quarter makes up for it.
  • Make sure the ipod is loaded up for all the shows. As for Saturday, organize the parts of my set not being played on piano or by the band. I have already made several versions of set lists. I guess I either need to pick one or load all of them onto the ipod.
  • Back-up my ipod. It is sometimes acts flaky – like starting the song 15 seconds in. *grrr*
  • Create a wrock play-list for intermission. Get permission from those bands.
  • Find/borrow/purchase a FUNCTIONAL car charger!!!
  • Organize my merchandise.
  • Practice, practice, practice!

Okay. Is that it?!?

Incendio 2011

Posted: June 14, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Touring | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

This past weekend was Incendio 2011, a two day wrock festival in Bethlehem, PA. I performed last year when it was just one jam-packed day, but this year, it was just too awesome to contain in a single day. I had an afternoon slot on Saturday, and though there is a magic to performing at night under the lights, I am happy to get a show done early enough to have time to relax and enjoy the other performers.

I would really have liked it if I had been able to get up to Pennsylvania for Friday’s performances as there were many really great acts scheduled, but alas, life intervened. Several of the bands hung around for both days though, so at least I got to visit with them a bit.

I am happy with how my set turned out. You never know when borrowing someone else’s instrument! I performed “The Tale of Tom Riddle” live for the first time. I was glad to add another song on piano to my repertoire, and it seemed to go over well.

I had a little stunt planned for this show and it could not have gone more smoothly. Recently, I was approached by a hop-hop wrock artist called Undesirable #1. He was interested in making a hip-hop remix of my song “Alone.” I only agreed to allow it if he added a rap to the song, and man, did it come out great.

Undesirable #1 performed the first day of the festival, but I knew he was sticking around, so I planned a super secret duet performance. I started out playing “Alone” on the piano as usual, but after the first chorus, U#1 very casually started up my ipod and I heard a gasp from the crowd. I felt like I was on the MTV Video Music Awards as I gestured stage right and said, “Undesirable Number Oooooonnneeeeee!” Richard took the stage and went full force into his rap. It was pretty awesome.

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Tina Wilkins who organized this event. The whole family is super amazing and supportive and I think the world of them. It was so great to see old friends, make a few new ones, and be inspired by some pretty fantastic musicians.

Here is a video of me performing “The Tale of Tom Riddle” shot by the always inspiring MaryBeth Schroeder:

Upcoming Shows and New Merchandise

Posted: June 2, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Merchandise, Touring | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

It is amazing how much time I have been spending everyday doing something relating to my music business.

Several Portland, Oregon DJs have expressed interest in my Mandala at Twilight music and I have been re-mixing many of the tracks to be better suited for club play. My albums tend to be mixed vocal-heavy, and that just does not translate as well to the dance floor. I have had to retrain my ear to mix the songs so that the bass and percussion are a little higher than normal to sound corectly mixed when played in a club.

Next, I have been spending many, many back-breaking (okay, maybe back-irritating) hours making new Witherwings t-shirts.  Each is hand made and I love them. I found a really great silver fabric paint that is opaque and looks good on dark shirts. The holographic glitter has these shirts making rainbows in the sun. They are a dream.

Why the new merch? Well I have a couple of big shows coming up and I wanted to have something new for my fans. In just over a week I will be performing in Bethlehem, Pensylvania at an event called Incendio 2011. Twenty two bands confirmed over two days. It is going to be some much fun. I have seen pics of the performance space and I am really excited about it.  June 10th and 11th (I perform as Witherwings on day 2.) Here is a link with more info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=206457176033637 I performed at this event last year and I really recommended you check it out if you can!

I am also organizing a HUGE event in Orlando scheduled for July 23rd. It is going to be a very unique night in that it will be a combined art show and rock concert. The details are almost ready to be announced, so save the date if you are anywhere near Central Florida mid-July! There will be a show in North Carolina the night before on the 22nd, and I will get you those details as soon as I have them.

Want more details about upcoming shows? Want a shirt? Want a CD or a digital download? All you can ever want to know and more can be found at: http://mandalasongs.com/index

Okay, off to clean glitter off my dog. It is everywhere.

Coverage of the Mount Kisco, NY Show

Posted: April 22, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Touring | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

I just found a link to the article about Tuesday’s show in NY.

Stu Bayer was the photographer who covered the event. He seemed genuinely interested in this thing we call Wizard Rock <3

Here is a link to the short article and wonderful photos:   http://chappaqua.patch.com/articles/photos-wizard-rock-at-mount-kisco-library#photo-5721146

Photo by Stu Bayer http://chappaqua.patch.com

Recent Shows (April 2011)

Posted: April 22, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Touring | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

I had two really fun shows this week. Monday’s performance was in Annandale, VA, and it was my first show in my new home state. I received a very warm welcome and had a blast with the other 4 acts: Snidget, The Blibbering Humdingers, Leth I. Fold and KwikSpell.  It is not very often that a show lends itself to a round-robin format, but it really worked for us.  It allowed for some cool harmonies and I got to do a really fun, impromptu keyboard solo on a Blibbering Humdingers song.

The next night The Humdingers and I took the show on the road up to Mount Kisco, NY and were joined by Swish and Flick and The Gringotts Grrls. Swish and Flick are so amazing live and I was ever so grateful to be able to plug into their system.  My keyboard is just too bass-heavy and a little muddy coming out of my amp and man, did it sound crystal clear.  I had a great time and I was so thankful for all the folks who took the train out from the city in the rain. Such troopers!

Witherwings in Mt Kisco NY

Witherwings performs "Alone" in Mount Kisco, NY April 2011

These shows reminded me of the importance of translating a few more songs to just piano. I really like playing live music, so relying less on my iPod for backing tracks would be a good thing.  The issue I have is that the songs that really rock-out would take on such a different vibe live if I did them exclusively on piano. That is cool if people are familiar with the songs, but if not, it does not give an accurate picture of my sound. It is a trade-off that I need to reconcile. What I really need is a full band!

Touring: Impatience (part 2) and Manners

Posted: April 15, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Touring | Leave a comment »

Okay, so impatience was reinforced the other day when, after I posted, I decided to make a couple of follow-up calls. One call paid off when I learned the venue had approved, but had just not had the time to get back to me. Lady you just fed the monster. As if I wasn’t already impatient, teach me that it pays off and I will be even more assertive and annoying now to all the others… whoops :)

Last night, I was unable to sleep thinking about this show. It is going to be huge. First off it is in Orlando – a place I called home for 9 years, so it is sure to be packed with old friends in addition to people who like my genre of literary-inspired music. Then, I have invited a few musician friends to perform along with us. Add to that, it is a trendy little restaurant and bar. Food, Drinks, Music and Friends. You just can’t go wrong.

So let’s talk about manners, shall we? I spoke with a lovely woman on the phone today and sent her a follow-up email. With in a few hours, I received a response saying that she got my email and that she would get back to me when her supervisor returned from a day off. Wow. Of all the calls and emails I have placed, this is the first  time someone acknowledged that they got my email.  I should not be blown away by this.  I think this is a completely reasonable and professional thing to do. Have we just lost our manners in the age of short texts and tweets? Well, I hope that place works out because I really want to meet this woman and shake her hand. Thank you lady in Tallahassee!

Tour Planning and Impatient Me

Posted: April 13, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Touring | 2 Comments »

Ahh… tour planning, how quickly I forget the frustrations you can cause me. I can be a little impatient sometimes ~ okay that might be a tad of an understatement~ and planning a tour really brings this out in me.

I am sitting in front of my empty inbox, frustrated that I sent out those inquiries so. long. ago. I then decide to make follow-up calls, only to look at my calendar and realize it has only been three business days since my initial contact with these places.

Oh.

Well, I work 7 days a week on my career. It has been six days since I made contact and I though I realize that it has not been that long, it feels more like two weeks.

Patience, Mandala. Patience.

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