From Seed To Sprout To Song

I can sit down and put a pen to paper, I can strum my guitar and listen for the melody, I can combine both to create a song, but what does it take to get a song out of my living room and into yours?

On that fateful afternoon, when SIREN was born, I sent the rough draft/Iphone recording to a couple of trusted people straight away and was, surprisingly, told that it didn’t suit to them. Not sure why, but the negative feedback made me want to work at it even harder, to get to know it even better. That I did, and eventually, brought it to the stage with me, observing the audiences reaction. It always delighted me (delights me!) to sing this song, because it evokes certain reactions in people which I do not get from some of my other songs. Reaction, to me, is the most important thing! Good or bad, if it makes you FEEL something, then I am doing something right.

Eventually I took SIREN into the studio at BIG MUDDY in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada with Brock Zeman (Brock produced my last full length record CHAMELEON in 2015.) Along with Brock’s instrumental skills, I invited Blair Hogan to play whatever he felt like playing and the song became almost what it is today. I had to re record my vocals, as the ghost vocals just didn’t cut it! They rarely do. What are ghost vocals, you ask? When you take a song into the studio (for others to play on) you have to record yourself playing it to a click track, so it does not veer out of time, no beats missed, so everyone can play along also not missing a beat. You can imagine having a “tick tick tick tick” in your ears while are singing can be a little annoying, and singing, annoyed, usually doesn’t come out so nice, so yeah, I had to re record my vocals, this time singing along to the fully produced version. Thanks to Christina Rieder for our vocal recording session. Then the song had to be sent to a mixing engineer, basically a new set of ears, to make sure it all sounded “right.” Not everyone can be trusted to do such a thing, but after working with Steve Foley of Audio Valley Recording Studios for my 2015 record, I knew I could trust his ears, and I was correct! Thanks Steve, I LOVE your ears! After mixing, I had to send it to get mastered. Some might compare mastering to a bowl of Spaghetti. The noodles and sauce are great, but that melted cheese on top just adds to it and makes it that much yummier (vegan or not!) Enter Jason Fee of Conduction Mastering, with those finishing touches and PRESTO! The song is ready.

I wanted to get a lyric video for the song before it’s release, since people (myself included) like to watch and listen so I headed over to FIVERR where I found Youssef from Egypt. And please, do not be mistaken, you think that you can buy a video for a fiver, try multiplying that by about 100 and you might be closer to the truth. Anyway, talk about having FAITH in a stranger. Well, it turned out he really liked the song and did a pretty good job at the animated lyric video. He also put together a forty second teaser for me, which you can watch HERE.

I sent the song over to INDIEPOOL a small Canadian distribution company, and we chose it’s release date for FRIDAY MAY 22nd. This is when this little song I wrote in a two hundred year old farmhouse will be released into the world to all the major music platforms.

So when they say it takes a village to raise a song? They are right.

So Much New! Surprise Ending!

Just over a month ago was the last “outing” I had. Who knew that spending time with David and Miro from Minnow Sessions (an independent video production company out of Switzerland) would be the last in-person socializing that I would be a part of? It was an odd day for me and maybe, looking back, somehow my intuition was trying to tell me something? I had already been sick for almost two weeks and was just at the very end of it, thankfully (if you know me, you might even be able to hear it in my voice in the video.) We decided to meet along the banks of the Wohlensee, near the city of Bern. We were driving down an old dirt road, trying to find the perfect spot for a video shoot. I have always been a water baby, and when I saw the crystal clear blue waters of the lake that day, I felt centered in a different kind of way than normal ( my normal these days is living in a valley at the foot of the Alps… a long way from a deep blue lake) but being around water gives me a feeling of connection, to which I have a hard time finding the right words. Well, we pulled over to a little nook on the side of the road, sandwiched between the skinny dusty road and the glorious crystal clear waters. We found a patch of forest floor with roots, branches, pine cones and, strangely enough, a Canadian vibe. For those moments, when I inhaled a nice, deep breath, I could swear I was back home in Canada. Coincidentally, the song we would record together “Between Two Doors” features the idea of two realms, the cosmos and shiver-inducing moments. It all, somehow, fit together like a puzzle, and those moments, those last, fear-free moments of togetherness will stay with me for awhile. So BIG thanks to the duo team, David and Miro from Minnow Sessions, for that last unique experience we shared.

My guitar chilling by the lake

Soon, life would be forever changed. People would come together over social media in the most creative of ways! Friends of mine over in Luzern (some of whom are from Ireland) have a band called “The Led Farmers.” The lads decided to do a traditional sounding mash-up of a couple of Beatles tunes and asked anyone if they wanted to join in from home! So here was my first time collaborating with others to make some music, together, alone, at home? Check out the video HERE.

Very low res photo of myself and The Led Farmers

We are seeing many innovative ways to keep the long hours of these “Stay At Home” days a little less monotonous, and/or lonely. I am thankful for the internet so I can still make and share music with others. Of course, having my Mum and Dad just seconds apart (instead of actual continents) makes things a little easier. I am also lucky to have a few things around me to keep me interested (and hopefully interesting?) My guitar, for one. The ability to get lost in a new song creates a certain soulful balance in these strange, uncertain times. I have a whack load of new songs which I am trying to learn for NEXT SUNDAY’s (April 26th) Live Stream Concert. There are lots of new platforms popping up online these days and the one I am working with for the Live Stream on Sunday (2pm EST 8pm CET) is through FemFolkUK and will be streamed through their website as well as Facebook LIVE. So tune in for a Lindsay Live Concert!

Photo by David Irvine

Then, I received an email from a music colleague out of Austria, asking me to be a part of a Song Collaboration. He sent me the song, BOAT OF SOULS, which at the time, had only one verse and the chorus written. I sat with it for a few days and put pen to paper. What came from this little planted seed of song turned out to be a permaculture oasis! In the end, there were 25 musicians in total on this one very amazing tune. You can listen to it HERE and have a look at the crowd-funding campaign HERE. Soon there will be a video to watch, but for now, turn up your speakers and have a good listen!

Screen capture of the video teaser for BOAT OF SOULS (LOW res ;) )

I wrote a very poignant song a few months back called SIREN (it is featured as a LIVE VIDEO in the last blog I posted here in October, shot live by David Irvine in Wakefield, Quebec.) Siren has hints of today’s times and in turn, looks like perfect time to release it! I took the bare bones of the song (and a couple of others) with me into BIG MUDDY STUDIOS, a production studio owned by musical troubadour, Brock Zeman. With Brock’s production we created a pretty great tune out of it and soon it will be released into the WORLD with a brand new video to boot! So please keep an eye out for my NEW SINGLE “Siren” … coming soon to ALL platforms.

Screen shot of the new animated lyric video for SIREN, coming soon