New Album & New Home in New Orleans

It’s been a while since i blogged, i’ve mainly been in touch with everyone through social media and my newsletter, but this medium allows for a bit more long windedness.

The biggest news to share is that i’m releasing a new album “GLITTER & BLOOD”, (technically an EP) on Nov 3rd 2023!! This is project is definitely a follow-up to my album “BREAKING SHADOWS”. It is the culmination of a lot of other things that i’ve also not yet blogged about. They include emotional healing made possible by the world being put on pause during a global pandemic; a move to the wild and wet New Orleans where i am blessed to make most of my living as a music artist both in clubs and singing into the French Quarter night on Royal St; finding musical community in a new city; and the continuation of my relationships with creative community in Berlin. I’ll start with the the last point first, but bare with me, i talk in spirals, my mind works in narrative interconnectedness.

Busking on Royal St. Photo Cr Steve Rapport

I am super grateful that my friend and creative collaborator Andy Schlegel engineered and co-produced this new project with me. He flew in from Berlin and lived in the living room of my shotgun house for two weeks while we recorded in multiple studios (including my home lab) with seven local stellar musicians. Since his residency here a couple musicians have been added to the recordings both here and in Berlin, and we’ve been mixing and completing the project remotely. I love working with Andy.

Back in 2019 when we were finishing up recording the Berlin tracks of my debut LP “BREAKING SHADOWS” Andy looked at me in all seriousness and expressed that he wanted to work on my next project, all of it, and from the beginning. I was too overwhelmed with getting back to the US and getting everything together to release “BREAKING SHADOWS” to really entertain the conversation, and i honestly could not imagine writing new songs ever, but i smiled and sealed the conversation in memory.

Andy in my home lab in New Orleans recording vocal loops for track “Rear View” on “GLITTER & BLOOD”..

“BREAKING SHADOWS” was demoed in my home lab in Los Angeles over the course of 2016 with me playing all the instruments. It was recorded in Los Angeles in 2017, and in Berlin and Lisbon in 2018 and 2019. It was a voyage of an album, and not a simple one. It was a massive statement of my musical/cultural ideas and poetically narrative leanings as a lyricist. Thematically it was a reckoning with a lot of dark shit yet with an optimistic spirit, hence the title. The recordings were made possible by donations through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, and by my tenacity to travel in order to find musicians and collaborators that fit both my vision. I was also on a quest to make inroads in Europe and potentially move there. I was tired of Los Angeles where it was almost impossible to regularly perform music live. And i was tired of the USA in general, but that’s a longer backroom conversation. I specifically recorded in Berlin because i wanted a funky acoustic soul vibe band with Eastern European Jewish Klezmer horns on top, and i could make that happen there more easily than i could in Los Angeles or New York. Recording in Lisbon was the result of meeting a collaborator in Berlin, Rita Senhor.

The album was released with a great concert at The Mayfair Hotel in Los Angeles, it received some decent press and radio play. I was in the midst of self booking a some shows in the US and possibly Canada, and Europe for 2020, and then crashed into the worlds gears grinding to a halt….… We all have a bunch of pandemic stories. In short, I got pretty depressed. The album could only move online through streaming concerts from my one room apartment, solo. I did released some great remixes. In 2021 i released the instrumentals as their own album and invested in Ableton Live training to manipulate them in creative ways on Instagram live. But while working through the frustration of a 4 year long project not moving how i wanted due to circumstances far beyond my control, i was also given opportunity to move through the heavy emotions and circumstances that made the album. I got paid by the government to stay home……. I got to heal….. Healing leads to change. Through lockdown i got to look at myself, at old toxic family relationships and subsequent intimacy patterns. I resolved my beef with tinsel town and her glorious vistas, strategized next moves, welcomed some sweetness into my life, and peaced out. Along with the gift of time, i was also blessed with pandemic funds that gave me a cushion to make life moves. After flirting with moving home to New York for a spell, in fall 2021 i packed my things and drove to the Gulf Coast to put roots down in New Orleans.

Why New Orleans? A bunch of reasons. First of all, i’ve been influenced by the place for a long time. I came up as a jazz singer and jazz is an air everyone breathes here, literally. The full scope of New Orleans music from Congo Sq drums to Bounce is in the streets constantly, and music in the street is something i have always craved to live. Second, my grad school bestie has been here for many years both before and after our MFA program in San Francisco. Creative community is important to me and i knew from being around her that i could find that in New Orleans. Living here had been in the back of my mind for a long while, but the city finally said “the time is now.” It’s often said that New Orleans makes it clear when she wants you to live here, she did that with me for sure; again all those details are a longer story. Third and most importantly, i just really wanted to play music. To know the feeling of letting the music and the emotions move through me and out to an audience daily, to up level my skill as a musician and as an amplifier of emotions. It was clear that i could more easily do that here, both in clubs and also through the initiation of playing the streets. It’s wild and beautiful, and sometimes a royal pain in the ass, but i continue to learn so much about people, about my own songs, about how i interpret other peoples’ songs. In the year and a half since i moved here i’ve developed a larger following both here and elsewhere, booked some pretty amazing concerts. And i’ve developed relationships with some fabulous local musicians.

Working horn lines in the studio with Ashton Heines and Kala Chandra

Last September in the mix of understanding my new life in New Orleans, i took a trip back to Berlin for the first time since releasing “BREAKING SHADOWS”. It was great to play a few concerts be reminded how strong my music community is there. And it was a spring board into making this new album.

I’d been demo-ing a collection of new songs, some of which i started writing while moving across the country. These songs helped me continue the process of healing and taking risks to choose joy, of understanding where i had been and where i had arrived. Of articulating my musical ideas in new ways……. I made a point to complete decent demos to share with Andy when i was in Berlin cause while i didn’t think it was realistic to record in Berlin again, i knew he would be interested and that his ears would help me understand what i was doing, and would motivate me to make the project happen. He has a way of understanding me, my music, my sentiments, and generously contributing his high level of skill as an engineer, sound designer, musician, and producer. To my delight and surprise Andy offered to come to New Orleans to record. I was over the moon. In early March 2023 i launched another crowd funding campaign to fund the album, later that month Andy arrived and we started recording. Thank you to everyone who helped us make the fundraising goal of that campaign!!!!

Cross pollinating my music community in New Orleans with my music community in Berlin is super meaningful to me, both the actual relationships and the skills of these communities. Balancing the cultural and technical differences was not always simple, but it was super rewarding and full of great humor….. I am super proud of this first project of mine as a New Orleans based artist.

“GLITTER & BLOOD” is an EP about choosing wellness, letting go of the past, embracing the journey, seeking authentic purpose, and acknowledging that everywhere and everyone has their darkness and their light. I do hope you enjoy it!!

The full EP will be out Nov 3rd on all platforms. The first single drops Aug 4th :)