New Creative Projects 2015

 The mid winter dark brings me to the close of another uni semester that makes me drift back to the warmer sunshine days of late summer, when I was still cycling everywhere and the new year of studies were only just beginning.

Over the holidays I’d got into some great creative projects.

My new band The Black Cockatoos were forming, finding its members, learning songs and getting to know each other. The new theatre group I’m part of Commedia Tasmania was establishing itself with regular meetings, workshops and jams. I discovered an awesome fire twirling crew called The Hobart Fire Flies along with busking regularly at Salamanca Markets, dancing under the sky at Rektango and working at fun summer festivals….weeeeee!!!!

 So when full time studies began again life became very full. In those first few weeks our band went into the recording studio to make a demo, laying down three original songs ‘Bigger Picture’, ‘Rain’ and ‘Dark Clouds’. You can listen to them on our Triple J website:
https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/black-cockatoos

We also set up a facebook page….if you have time to ‘Like’ us that would be wonderful :) https://www.facebook.com/theblackcockatoos

As all this was happening I was involved in writing a massive grant with the theatre group and I’m excited to share one of our applications was accepted, so we have funds to put on a production in the next 6 months, YAY!

At uni I dived straight into this amazing studio project managed by Stewart Long who produced one of my songs called ‘Be My Friend’. As a songwriter I was linked up with a talented group of musicians from the performance major taking part in this creative process in arrangement, rehearsing together twice a week and eventually performing on the recording. A group of engineering students were in charge of both the recording and mixing side of the project; plus we had five other mentors guiding and teaching skills in voice leading, arrangement, song writing, production and engineering.

The project challenged me with accepting lots of changes to my song, like writing new lyrics and melodies, time and key signature changes, as well as rearranging the structure and form. It was a valuable lesson in letting go and allowing Stewart to open my eyes to new ways of doing things. I got to watch all these people add their own creativity to the song and I feel super grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many amazing artists. This was a new experience for me, both exhilarating and hard! Now I get to share my first produced song with you guys too…yay! https://soundcloud.com/shellentertain/be-my-friend-produced-version

 Another part of my song-writing unit was writing new music, so lots of songs flowing through over the semester, one of which became part of a separate recording project. Using one of the conservatorium studios I tried out a new recording technique to create a stereo effect on my song ‘Sleep Peaceful’, with a vocal choir. I didn’t have time to mix or master this song so it’s quiet and ruff around the edges:
https://soundcloud.com/shellentertain/sleep-peaceful

My other engineering project was to learn more about mixing a recording. Using the song ‘Rain’ from the demo I’d recorded with The Black Cockatoos, I attempted to remix it. To be honest I think I should just leave mixing to the experts, I find the software and frequency manipulations all very complex and confusing! Here is my experiment ;)
https://soundcloud.com/shellentertain/rain-remix

 The other unit was music business…no fun songs to link for this one! We delved into copyright laws, marketing, business plans and structures. Ahhh the subject to help us actually make money from the creativity we all love….though in truth it’s a compulsory subject and I’d probably pick performance over business anyday…he,he,he,he! Eeeeee I just remembered one of my songs was inspired (well really it’s a rebellious response) to the scary capitalist techniques we learnt and seem to be considered an appropriate contribution to our society….so I do have a song link after all ;) Its called Autumn Leaves: https://soundcloud.com/shellentertain/autumn-leaves

As my final weeks of uni rushed in upon me, assignments and exams added stress to some big personal changes and challenges happening in my life. So it’s a relief to find myself on holidays surrounded by family and friends in the beautiful mountains of my birth land!

Coming back to my joy and inspiration again. Looking forward to working at the Festival of Voices and the Mid-Winter Festival in the last couple of weeks before 2^nd semester begins.

This is a picture of The Black Cockatoos performing at the Apple Shed, which has led us into a slot at the Mid-Winter Festival in July, YAY!

 Hoping you are all well and creativity is finding its sweet way into you heart :)

With love always

Shells xxoo