The Wheel Weaves (an Album?) as the Wheel Wills
Posted: July 25, 2014 Filed under: Music, Songwriting | Tags: Brandon Sanderson, EP, Full-length album, inspiration, music, piano, Rand, Robert Jordan, songwriting, strong female characters, Wheel of Time, women, WoT Leave a comment*The following blog is about songs I have written or plan to write, but it is going to talk about some minor happenings in the Wheel of Time series written by Robert Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan’s passing.
One of those songs, Make Him Mine, is about a relationship in the Wheel of Time series from Elayne’s point of view.
As I was writing the song, I had ideas for other songs and I daydreamed of an entire WoT-themed album. Over the course of the fourteen books Rand encounters many people, but it is his relationships with all the extremely strong women that inspire me to get writing. They love him, they hate him, they fear him, and they treat him like a little child. It is so entertaining to read, and I have so many thoughts about how each woman’s song might sound. I love that in these books the men and women constantly talk about how they have no idea how to even begin to understand the opposite sex. It makes for great source material! Before I sent Reconstruction off to the printer, I even started on a song for a feisty older gal we meet in book 7.
I will keep you updated on how this project progresses. Right now I am still riding high on the excitement of my most recent album, but that itch to write more is always just beneath the surface. I’ve been jotting down lyrics here and there as inspiration strikes.
Random funny quote from the Wheel of Time Wikia page for the women of WoT: Women: “People who sniff, stare, smooth their skirts, and fold their arms under their breasts, and other stuff also, but mostly that.”
Yeah, that sounds like what one of the male characters would say!
Awesome trivia: there are 1,031 female characters in this series!!!!
Acknowledgements for the Reconstruction EP
Posted: May 25, 2014 Filed under: Music, Recording Studio | Tags: acknowledgements, album, Ardour, Ardour 3, DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, EP, free, home recording studio, liner notes, Linux, Mandala at Twilight, MIDI, music, open source, photography, piano, Qsampler, recording, self-portrait, software, songwriting, studio, Ubuntu Studio, Yoshimi Leave a commentThere were too many things to say to squeeze them onto a single insert page on a CD, so I am taking advantage of the space I have on this blog to list my acknowledgements and also to talk about the process of recording this album.
I will start with the acknowledgements to spare those who might not be interested in the technical details, though those details are cool, I swear! 😉
- This album would not exist if it were not for the help and patience of my dear husband, and for the most laid-back (and super fantastic, seriously solidly sleeping) baby.
- I want to thank my musician father for his feedback on songs when I thought the auditory “vision” was going astray. I love that we have music and songwriting in common.
- I appreciate the graphic design advice given to me by my step-dad. This was rather tricky since he is not connected to the Internet and I had to describe to him, over the phone, what I wanted to accomplish on the album cover. Luckily he is a great (retired) designer, as well as a musician, so he gets it.
- I am ever so grateful to my friend Jen Boone for helping with the photo shoot for the album cover. She is the first friend I made when we recently moved to Louisiana and we’ve not known each other very long. However, she was quick to lend a hand when I wanted to drive to an unfamiliar area of town to do a series of self portraits in front of an abandoned building. The word “abandoned” inspired a “YOU WANT TO GO ALONE AND TAKE THE BABY WHERE?” when I told my husband what I wanted to do. Jen was happy to babysit during the shoot, and to give me feedback on when the wind was blowing my dress just right. 🙂
- And YOU. If you are reading this, it might be because you bought the album and saw the link to my blog. Thank you! Supporting musicians is what allows them to keep making more music. ❤
Other liner notes:
- “Dusk to Dawn” originally appeared on my 2010 album The Soundtrack to Your Demise. Because that album is very different from the rest of my music, I thought it might be nice to attempt a dreamy piano version of the rhythmic, beat-heavy, and synth-driven original. I’m really happy with the piano arrangement.
- The song title, “The Medium,” refers to a concept in the Legends of Muirwood series by Jeff Wheeler. Though this song is in fact about that concept, it is also about my general spiritual beliefs.
- “Make Him Mine” is directly inspired by The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (written by Robert Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan’s passing.) If you’ve read the first three (of 14) books, you know whose point of view I am taking. It’s not spoiler-y, just in case you are avoiding spoilers.
Now for the technical stuff:
- I am so very pleased to say that this album was recorded using entirely open source (FREE) software. I used Ardour 3 as my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and used Yoshimi and Qsampler for my MIDI sound fonts. I ran all these programs using 64-bit Ubuntu Studio 13.10, a Linux-based operating system (again, all free.)
- For the beautiful grand piano sound, I used the open source Maestro Concert Grand piano sound font provided by Mats Helgesson.
- I did not have any guest musicians appear on this album. I like to think I am rather resourceful at getting my keyboard (via MIDI) to sound as much like other instruments as possible. I try not to push those boundaries too hard though; I am still a piano player at heart.
- My keyboard, an old Casio Privia, has a huge selection of drum presets, and it is amazing what a lot of time, patience, and clever editing can do to make boring, repetitive drum tracks a whole lot more interesting. For the record, in hindsight, it may have taken the same amount of time to just hire someone to play drums and record them. I ran into a few snags that had me searching dozens of presets for just the right boom/crash combo with a cymbal that was not too long and not too short. Painful.
- If you are still reading this, you may enjoy some of my previous blogs about setting up my studio and using MIDI in Ardour. I also wrote a post on the specs of Ardour (though my blog post was written for the previous version of Ardour, it is still good for the basics.)
Coming Soon!
Posted: May 14, 2014 Filed under: Merchandise, Music, Recording Studio | Tags: album, Ardour 3, EP, Linux, music, piano, Reconstruction, recording, songwriter, songwriting Leave a comment
My new album!
A Look Into the Madness of a Mixing Musician?
Posted: May 2, 2014 Filed under: Music, Recording Studio | Tags: album, Ardour, Ardour 3, DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, EP, home recording studio, Linux, music, recording, recording studio Leave a commentAm I the only one who goes through tons of pieces of paper like this while mixing a CD? Am I just that OCD about it being as perfect as I can make it?
New Music Update
Posted: April 15, 2014 Filed under: Music, Recording Studio, Uncategorized | Tags: album, Ardour, Ardour 3, cons, conventions, DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, EP, home recording studio, Linux, music, recording, recording studio, songwriting, studio Leave a commentI’ve been working on new music everyday while the kiddo naps. I’ve been writing, recording, and editing the mix, which takes the most time of all three. After a month and a half of doing this 5-6 days a week, 2 hours a day, my five new songs have these percentages of being complete: 99%, 97%, 70%, 40%, and 1% (1% = stream of consciousness lyrical ideas in my notebook.)
I’m aiming to have an EP of new songs ready for Cleveland ConCoction at the end of May. Though I’ve been working on stuff every day, and doing some serious time management (ie. writing lyrics while waiting for the baby to fall asleep)I still have so much to do!
I need to keep plug plug plugging along. 🙂
In Which the Ringlords Interview Me
Posted: July 28, 2013 Filed under: Interview, Life, Music | Tags: album, Alma Katsu, baby, bass, drums, EP, fans, Mandala at Twilight, Mandalorian Mercs, music, Orlando, Phoenix Rising, piano, Ringlords, show, shows, songwriting, The Taker, Wheel of Time, Witherwings, wizard rock, Wrock Leave a commentSaturday night I was honored to do a live chat interview with the Ringlords.™ We talked about music and books and music about books. From my first band, to my beginnings in wizard rock, to future projects (Wheel of Time rock!?!?!) we covered it all.
Ringlords.™
Here is a transcript of the conversation:
{Please note that due to a bit of a lag, a few of the answers got separated from their questions. I put them back together here for ease of reading. I left nothing out and left all typos in place.}
Ringlords™: All ready to begin ?
Me: YESSSS! I see things now!
Me: You know, the page looked really weird. I thought it was becasue i was used to the phone app, but I think it was a freak alt-universe Ringlords page!
Me: Is this mic on? *tap tap tap*
Me: Hello hello?
Ringlords™: So, Mandala , Tell us a little about your new record
Me: I am really excited about a five-song EP I worked on at the end of last year called “Momentarily Distracted.” It is, in many ways, quite a departure from my other music projects.
Me: You can listen to it here! http://mandalasongs.bandcamp.com/
{Note: I am embedding a player here since a player appeared in the comment, though this shows only the first song}
Me: It has a very different feel from my other two projects: Witherwings and Mandala at Twilight. I basically get right to the heart of some very raw emotions with the lyrics and sparse musical arrangements. Piano and vocals dominate this album, with a couple of songs being backed by a classic trio of piano, drums and bass.
Ringlords™: very cool … we were amazed to see Vick Degiorgio listed on the credits … awesome musician
Me: He really is! He and I go way back! Let’s tag him.
Ringlords™: by wild coincidence Vick apparently knows Sue Martin who is friends with our Chicago crowd from waaay back
Me: Vick Degiorgio and I met in 2002. He was playing bass at a show for a friend of his and we got to talking when I was waiting to buy a CD. He invited me to his weekly music group and the rest is history.
Me: That history is that I performed in a band (that Vick was in) called SusieCool and the Coolotees from 2033-2009. This group of very experienced musicians took me under their wing to sing harmonies and ended up letting me sing lead on quite a few songs. They asked me to fill out the band right before they were to tape a poilet for a tv show that was to be an Orlando version of Austin City Limits. It never got picked up but it turned into some of the best years of my life. Before that performance they put me though “Crappy-Bar Boot Camp” where we played every dive in the city of Orlando 6 or seven nights a week (late into the night when I had to work the next day) until the taping of the show. They wanted to make sure I sounded, looked, and felt like I was a PART of the band and not the new girl. That was the best education I could have ever asked for as a musician and a performer. I earned my place on the stage, that’s for sure.
Me: Ha! I am not a time lord. 2003 NOT 2033.
Me: A name that might be more familiar to your followers though, is Russ Benoit. He played drums on two tracks on this album. You might know him as The Creevy Crisis.
Me: Gotta love the wrock family. I am so happy he played on the songs despite them NOT being wizard rock this time around.
Ringlords™: Yeah, Russ was working on a film, wasn’t he ?
Ringlords™: We understand that one of the songs on your new record has a literary background
Me: Lag…. gaaaahhh.
Me: Yeah, so though this is not a wrock album, or an album with a vampire lit theme, I could stray too far from my love of books!
Me: *couldn’t BIG DIFFERENCE
Ringlords™: Yes… for those of you unfamiliar with FB’s poor programming, anything that does not make them money is treated poorly
Me: “Wrong” is inspired by “The Taker” by Alma Katsu. It is the first of three books, but only the first two have been published. I was drawn to the horribly selfish deeds of the main character, Lanny. She falls in love with the boy in her town that all the girls are in love with. She does some pretty terrible things to try to make him hers. As the story goes on, she is made immortal and makes him immortal against his will to be with her forever. But he doesn’t want to be immortal. He does not love her with the same intensity that she loves him, and the big catch: only she can kill him – and he is begging her to. That is where the book begins… at the end, so to speak.
Me: What drew me to her and her situation is that, despite what sounds here like a very selfish character, is really a very complex woman who you come to sympathize with and like. It is a GREAT story. Oh and there is SO. MUCH. MORE. One word/character: Adair. Yeowza!
Ringlords™: You have quite the literary roots in your music … Tell us how you got into the wizarding sound …
Me: I attended a HP convention in 2007 I think. ANYONE? 2007? Called Phoenix Rising.
Me: It was not my first exposure to wizard rock, that was a Harry and the Potters concert the year before. But PR was the first time I thought that wrock might be for me. After returning home, and going on MySpace and seeing how supportive the community was, I really felt safe to try writing music on my own for the first time.
Me: Goggle confirms May 2007.
Me: I posted my first songs onto MySpace in October of 2007 and I have not stopped writing and performing!
Ringlords™: … and there’s was a clip we saw of you rocking with the Imperial Troopers
Ringlords™: Lessee if we can scare up the vid … hang on
Me: Ha! The Mandalorian Mercs!! They were so much fun. I love mixing with other fandoms. (I am a HUGE Star Wars fan, BTW.)
Me: I use a pic of that performance on my Witherwings band page.
Me:
Ringlords™: YES !! the very one !
Ringlords™: LOL! … very suave !
Ringlords™: Is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with that you haven’t tried ?
Me: I really love the Wheel of Time series, but my friend Pattie Beavensaid she would go postal if ever there was WoT Rock. I fear she might be serious so I have not attempted any. DON’T SPOIL THE LAST BOOK FOR ME ANYONE!!!
Ringlords™: Robert Jordan humm ? … we always wanted to see a band based on Heinlein … you should try something like that …
Me: I’ve read a few Heinlein books… Other than Witherwings, I cannot see dedicating an entire album to one book or author. Books will always influence me though. as they do many musicians!
Ringlords™: So, where are you headed next ?
Me: I’m really just focused on now. I’ve got a new little baby here and he is keeping me quite busy. He loves music though so I can do shows. Lining up one for the Friedricksbrg VA area in the fall right now. Working on booking for 2014 as well.
I’ve worked on some new lyrics here and there but nothing polished.
Ringlords™: Ahh, bringing up baby … That’s gotta put the pressure on you … how do you handle juggling home and gigs?
Me: My husband helps me out a lot at shows. He is merch boy/Daddy extraordinaire!
Ringlords™: Do you get nervous before a performance ? & how do you handle a mistake when you are playing ?
Me: I do get nervous, but it is also a rush.
As for mistakes… Ha! I am like the story of George Washington announcing “I cannot tell a lie! I chopped down a cherry tree!” I usually announce it. “Whoops my bad!” “Whoa what was THAT!?” Luckily I’ve performed long enough that if I forgot the words, I am able to vamp and just keep playing until I can bring that part aroiund again and start over. Or I just make up words or sing about forgetting words. I don’t get upset about it. Unless I am trying to video the performance. But then again, there is a video of me forgetting the lyrics to “Malfoy” that I posted on Youtube. That was harder though because I was singing to an iPod. Then you cannot vamp. I just made fun of myself and started over. Let me find the video.
Me:
It comes about a minute in.
Ringlords™: How often and for how long do you practice?
Me: I really “cram” before a show.I get in ruts sometimes, and other times I regularly practice once a day. By that I mean spend time on music whether playing or writing. Baby has made that irregular though. Speaking of baby… sounds like I am needed…
Ringlords™: that’s our cue to wrap it up here … we want to thank Mandala for hanging out with us this evening and struggling through FB’s wony behaviors … be sure to pick up a copy of her new record at that Bandcamp link up above
Me: This has been really fun, guys! Thanks so much for having me and promoting the album. I am SO SO proud of it. $5 on b
Me: bandcamp
Me: Whoops! http://mandalasongs.bandcamp.com/
Me: Ha! Well i posted it again. 🙂 Thanks so much! Have a great weekend everyone!
Me: ❤
Ringlords™: And keep an eye on this page … we plan to bring you an interview with a certain author one of these days coming up
“Momentarily Distracted” Behind the Scenes Part 2
Posted: January 23, 2013 Filed under: Music | Tags: album, Ardour, artwork, CD, entertainment, EP, home recording studio, music, painting, songwriting Leave a commentAs I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog, I released an EP back in October, but was too busy preparing for and experiencing the birth of my first child to post about the making of the album.
I had a lot of emotional baggage I wanted to dump before I needed to be a rock for this helpless little bundle, and I really feel that producing this CD was effective in doing that. I previously blogged about some of the CD’s darker content, but never got around to explaining some of the behind-the-scenes work that went into making the CD.
When it came to the album art, I decided that I wanted to make it myself. I was once very active with sketching and doodling and I liked to paint once in a while. It has been a while though, and I was unsure of what I was going to be able to accomplish. I had a vision, but could I pull it off? I think I did!
Wet canvases. I actually had five paintings to choose from. The one on the upper right did not make the cut.
I needed four images: the cover, the inside cover, the back cover and the CD itself. The image featured in the photo above was used for the back cover. The front cover ended up being an experimental mixed-media piece. I like how it came out.
The Final Cover Art for “Momentarily Distracted.”
If you would like to listen to some of this new music, I have clips of two of the songs: “Momentarily Distracted” and “Wrong” on my website. If you like what you hear, visit the site’s store and pick up the full EP! 🙂
“Momentarily Distracted” Behind the Scenes Part 1
Posted: January 19, 2013 Filed under: Music, Recording Studio | Tags: album, Ardour, Ardour 3, DAW, Digital Audio Workstation, EP, home recording studio, Linux, music, recording, recording studio, software, time stretching 1 CommentMy music career has taken a brief pause these last couple of months as I have been adjusting to being a new mom. It has been exhausting, but I am so in love with this little boy. He is starting to coo now and I just cannot get enough of it! And yes, I have been recording him!
I knew being a first-time mommy was going to be all-consuming, so I made sure to bust my butt to get some new music out before the baby was born.
If you are not already aware, I released a five song EP in October called Momentarily Distracted. It was a unique experience for me in both recording and song-writing. It was the first time I used Ardour 3 as my sole DAW (digital audio workstation.) Learning how to use Ardour has been a huge part of this blog and I am quite proud that I was able to navigate it with relative ease after a short adjustment period. It was also the first CD I put out under just “Mandala” rather than one of my other projects.
As I have done in the past, I collaborated with a couple of musicians to fill out the sound on a few songs. I wear many hats, but I am not the best bass player and I am certainly no drummer. I love that with today’s resources and technology, you no longer need to be in the same city, or even the same state in order to collaborate with other musicians. While I reside in the Washington DC area, the drummer lives in Massachusetts and the bass player lives in Florida. Both guys are really into recording equipment and I knew they would be able to provide me with high quality recordings to edit and mix into my own.
It had been a couple of years since I used outside musicians, and that was long before I converted my studio to a Linux-based system. I knew I might have to do things a little differently. The only issue I really had with these songs was that both the drummer and the bass player recorded their tracks with a 44.1 sample rate, whereas I was using 88.2 kHz. (My previous DAW only allowed my to record in 44.1, so it was not an issue.) I did some searching and found a blog that explained “time stretching” in Ardour. Time stretching is when an algorithm is used to force a recording to play at another speed without changing the pitch of the track. It seemed like the perfect solution, but I was not able to get it to work. It would get through about 99% of the render before crashing the session no matter how many times I tried it.
I was on a tight schedule and needed a quick solution. I ended up just creating a final mix in 44.1 kHz. I imported the bass and drum tracks and made sure I had all my vocal and MIDI keyboard tracks exactly as I wanted them before exporting them from 88.2 kHz to 44.1 kHz and importing them to this “final” version. I still maintained my higher bit rate when converting. The two musicians had nearly final versions of my parts to perform along to, so everything synched up perfectly.
If you would like to listen to some of this new music, I have clips of “Momentarily Distracted” and “Wrong” on my website. If you like what you hear, you can purchase the full EP in my store. 🙂
Announcing My New Album, “Momentarily Distracted”
Posted: October 12, 2012 Filed under: Merchandise, Music, Recording Studio, Touring | Tags: album, CD, EP, home recording studio, music, new music, recording, release, shows, Tori Amos Leave a commentI have been meaning to post an update, but I have been so busy that I felt like I could not properly express all of my emotions.
I finished recording and editing my CD, sent it off to be printed, and it is now in my hands. It looks and sounds great.
I opened one and listened to it yesterday, and was surprised to find myself getting emotional about it. Writing these songs was a very different experience for me than it was with other albums and projects. Whether or not an album had a theme, I always tried to stay true to my source material, but it was a must to also make each song personal. This time around, there was no theme. This is not a CD about vampires or about witches and wizards.
I’ve not talked much about it on social media, but I am pregnant, and there is something about bringing a little baby into the world that made me want to dig deep and release a lot of darkness before the day I meet him or her. Some of the songs will not be easy to listen to. When I listened to the CD yesterday after having some distance from it, it was sort of hard for ME to listen to. In fact, I feel a little like Tori Amos as I enter into the uncomfortable territory as she often does with her songs.
I am very proud of this album. It is an EP, but it is a power-packed five songs, and I hope you enjoy them. I hope that people can relate to the songs and maybe feel the release that I did by writing and recording them.
I will be performing these songs live for the first time tonight here in DC and then tomorrow in Greensboro, North Carolina where I will also have the CDs for sale. On-line sales will start on Monday, and I will post an update here with that link when they go live. You can listen to short clips of two of the songs right now on my Website. The songs are called “Momentarily Distracted” and “Wrong.”
*UPDATE* You can now purchase the CD from the shop on my Website!
mandalasongs 