House Music!!!

So much has happened since my last blog, and I have been so busy (or lazy) that I haven't blogged nearly as much as I would have wanted to. Not that I'm complaining, but I feel perennially tired... My mom says I need a good dose of vitamin B, so that's what I'm OD'ing on at the moment...

But I'm happy and I'm grateful. September/October have been great months for me. Even though I felt a bit strange that I was being too Madonna-esque, trying to do too many music things at once and being involved in too many genres (this "too many irons in the fire" syndrome, as my mom calls it, has always been a problem for me), I feel like at least I'm moving forward. I have been reading up on other musicians and songwriters lately, and I see a lot of people multi-tasking their careers. For example, I didn't know that indie film producer Gus Van Sant had released a few CDs of his own music! I was also surprised to read that Rupert Holmes (the Pina Colada song guy) has written musicals for Broadway and has written TV scripts. Suddenly I don't feel quite so strange!

Let me etch this in stone, this MOMENTOUS event: on Saturday 11 September, Stapura, a student of mine at Soul Candi and a prominent DJ on YFM, a Gauteng-based radio station, phoned me to try and let me know that the house remix of my song, Could This Be Love, was being played on Metro FM, one of the largest radio stations in my native South Africa. What a kick to be watching your music performed live at a theatre at the same time as it's being played on national radio!

Then, to my utter delight (I have to admit that when I found out I squealed like a little girl), Stapura contacted me this past Tuesday, 5 October, to let me know that the same track had been playlisted on YFM, which is a very popular youth radio station broadcasting out of Johannesburg to the province of Gauteng. Does it get any better than this????? AFTER TWENTY YEARS, I FINALLY HAVE AIRPLAY ON MAJOR RADIO!!!!! YIPPPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!! A huge thank you to Stapura, Cuebur the producer, and DJ Shimza, for helping me make one of my dreams come true - airplay... Now let's just hope it becomes a massive, smash hit!

I must say, though, in all the years I've been doing music, I never dreamed that I'd be doing house. I researched it a bit on Wikipedia. It has its roots in Chicago, in disco, stemming from the early 1980s. From there it spread to Detroit, New York, Los Angeles and Miami, before crossing the Atlantic to Europe and the Med and the Sahara Desert to Johannesburg, my home town, where it has hugely taken root and flourished. My foray into house is thanks to my connections at Soul Candi, the music school where I lecture, that is linked to a record label. I have access to all these young students who are eager to churn out music, and so I asked some of them if they would work with me. These new tracks, seemingly a million miles away from my own Josh Groban influence, are the fruits of my (and their) labour...

I'm thrilled and I'm very pleased, and on the inside looking out, my career feels like a big fat mess, a mish-mash of all sorts of genres and styles. But this is how new music is born, and if there's one thing I've learnt in all my marketing studies, it's that being different is a good thing. Well, it's been a while since someone with a classically-trained voice has forged ahead into contemporary music. Talk about a culture clash! It's like Josh Groban and David Guetta having a baby! You gotta laugh at that!

So, I'm tired, but very happy. Not making zillions yet, but I fully intend to use my brain to move me forward in the finance department too. And that's one thing that I have also realised about myself: I have incredibly high standards, and I have set the bar really, really high for myself. It means being uncomfortable often, but I still think it's been worth it...

It's ironic that I find myself writing about this today, the 9th of October. It was this day 12 years ago that my father died. He was one of my biggest fans, and he would have been hugely proud of me. Everybody would have known that "my son has a song on radio!" Well Dad, wherever you are, floating around in the universe, I still think of you.

And Mom, I'm so glad you're still around to guide me through the muddy waters of life. What are we without the people we love and those who love us?

My Friend Kevin

My dear friend Kevin and I were chatting today. He said that in the next 5 years he will write a script and I can set it to music, and I might also just try my hand at writing my own script for something else. Hey, I don't think my creativity is limited to my music...

Time for dinner!

Elton John

I'm so pleased that, after all this time, in the immortal words of Elton John, I'm still standing.

I guess you just can't keep a good music spirit down...

Music & Marathons

For me, having a music career is like running the Comrades Marathon. It doesn't matter that you don't win. It matters that you run, and that you do your best to finish...

Finding My Own Voice

Today is my birthday! I'm very excited because I'm launching my new album tonight - just a little party with some friends, to celebrate. It's only officially released next month. I'm very pleased, after four years of hard work. It has plenty wrong with it, but at least I am getting stuff out there.

I was hanging out with a very good friend of mine, Obita, on Monday, because he cannot make tonight's launch. We spoke about a recording session with Josh, an artist who used my voice on one of his tracks. Obita says he was back in town a few weeks ago and Josh asked after me. They had a chat and then Josh said to him, "That guy has has got one of the best voices I have ever heard..." Man, I was so hugely encouraged. It took ten years to get that voice, and it may well taken another ten years before I'm making the kind of music that I will do justice to. But that's okay - as long as I don't end up being some weekend wannabe.

Time marches inexorably forward...

Come Wednesday I'll be a day older, but also a full year older. Can you believe it?

To celebrate this auspicious occasion I'm releasing my first album of solo original music. I have other original stuff out there, but this is my first solo flight, with ten original tracks. It's taken four years, and without sounding too harsh, it's an ok album - no awards, but it really is a labour of love and therefore, for me, a highly prized piece of art.

It still bothers me immensely that I'm turning 40 next year (what a BIG party & album launch that's gonna be) and I should be so much further along in my career, but I'm not. I still have so much to learn about the music industry and about making good music that people like and enjoy. I want an album with 10 crowd-pleaser tracks. But it feels like the DJs are taking over the world, man! Not that that's a bad thing... With my students at Soul Candi I am busy reworking some of my music into House tracks. It's keeping me young, and it really has been great fun.

But back to the album... It's called "Finding My Own Voice," which I should really have done by this stage of my life, right? Well, maybe this album will move me there, but I don't know if I've found my voice yet. Maybe that's because it keeps changing, and maybe that's what should happen.

As my sister says, the universe is exactly as it should be... That ever-so curious French expression comes to mind: C'est la vie...

Going, going, gone!

I was very sad to see that the iconic Roxy's in Melville and the Victory Theatre in Orange Grove are both going on auction. Amazing musicians like Dave Matthews played at Roxy's in Melville, and the Victory Theatre brings back wonderful memories for me. I first saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show there.

Hope the new owners will turn these two wonderful Jo'burg venues into entertainment hot spots for the city.

PS This is my 100th post. Is that cool or what!!!???!!!