Shout Outs:

Shout Outs:

I have some reccomnedations for you to check out some friends of mine who are inspiring to me, and I am sure you would all love as well.

[Justin Huey]

First is Justin Huey, whom you heard me speak of a lot when I was studio blogging.
Justin is a producer and sound engineer, a great one, and you can click here to see his page and contact for that. Justin runs the Bear Cave studios out of Matthews N.C. when he is not on tour.

[Steel Train]

Secondly, Justin is in the band Steel Train. Their music is available on itunes ( I recommend the song " I feel weird" , it plays on the background of this blog), and you can see them around the country all spring touring with Tegan and Sara. ( You might have also caught them on the Conan Obrien Show!!) They are a lot of fun to see live, and I've only ever seen them in a small venue so I can't wait until they come to the Warner Theatre in DC this spring. [ get your tickets soon ]



You might recognize Jack from Steel train as also being from [ fun. ] their music is truely intoxicating.




Coincidently, Justin's girlfriend the lovely Emily Anne Moore is also in fun. Emily's music is always charming. I recorded a song with her back when I was 15, and am very lucky to have her lend her voice to my recent album as well.

[Emily Anne]

If so far you've loved Justin and Emily... You will REALLY love their duet project "Seahorses" . Seahorses recently did a limited press edition of their EP, and the first time I played it in my car, I almost wrecked i was dancing so much.

Myspace M U S I C

Oh yah.. I finally did it. Hope Leigh on MYSPACE MUSIC: http://www.myspace.com/hopeleigh

I dropped off of myspace about 3 or 4 years ago when Facebook took over, but it seems as if though it is still quite hoppin for bands.

so if you're on, friend me! and if not, check it out ill post Mp3's as i get em back from the studio, till then, I'll just post covers n such


http://www.myspace.com/hopeleigh

Musical T H E A T R E ?

When I was little, I started to sing. When I was 3 my grandfather screamed to the other room " She's singing Jesus loves me!" ok? " No! You don't get it shes singing on key!" so what was next? Choirs, voice recitals, voice lessons, the usual for a little song bird.

When I got into middle school, people told me to dance. Pop music was taking over, and all the good singers could dance... I was going to be a Britney spears people...

When I got to high school people said "You can study this in College, if you learn how to act too" It's musical theatre... So I went to the Duke Ellington School of the arts to learn the last piece... acting. ( It's more than memorizing lines appearantly)

So I went to NYU for a summer semester, and then came to American University for a 4 year degree program in Musical Theatre.weird right? me.... broadway? I've never had the Broadway dream, but I've loved dancing, singing, and acting...all seperatly.Anyways, VERY FEW people see that side of my voice... but recently silly loveable adorable mike litch posted all of our recitals onto YouTube so here ya go kids:

That's me and Joani in the dressing room before a dress run of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party
1930's flappers


Me backstage, with my dance partner Don mike, before my first College show, the World Premiere of " They Shoot Horses Don't they?" based on the Jane Fonda film. Again... 1920's /30's dancers. We toured this show to Russia.



Here's a fun one. I am the little boy on the right, in sword fight training.
I played Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet, thus took fencing on the set every night.



Or here, yes, I am a man. a 1930's man. [ defensivly] and I was a very pretty man.


Or finally.... in Hello, Dolly. Dancing with an umbrella with the amazing Kode Brown, in Charlotte, N.C.

That's me & some of my Duke girls with our director Ken Johnson at the Kennedy Center Awards.
Our performance of " The Laramie Project" was nominated for 8 awards including Best Play, Best Actor, best Actress etc.... the list goes on. The medal on my neck is for my personal nomination.

Just a whole 'nother side of Hope leigh...

First copy of the A L B U M

The very first burned [ very ROUGH ] copy of my album.



Justin writes:

" Hope Leigh Rollins and her band of merry men
play the songs of the generation including
such monster hits as 'The Catalina Wine Mixer'
'Man with Saggy Moobs' and of course the old
crowd pleaser 'Justin's trumpet solo' (Extended Version)
Oh yahhhhhh. Thats the jam"

fyi: Moobs = Man Boobs

Merry Christmas to A L L

My sister, Mariah in the snow

You know that time of year where you just feel like you become grounded again. You are surrounded by love and giving. There is 2 feet of snow outside your door and you are trapped inside to keep warm. And then ...You return home, so does every other family member who has strayed down the path of their own life... and you laugh over the same jokes, that no one without your last name would ever get? You all wear matching Pajamas even though you are all adults now ( maybe thats just our family...) You bake cookies shaped like gingerbread men, candycanes, and well, in our families case Mr.Hankey the Christmas Poo who actually is the tree-topper on our tree every year. ( 10 years running) ....



( I wish I was kidding) .... We really just are white trash with money.




As I was writing this post, the smoke alarm went off in the Kitchen, I hear my mother, egg nog in hang say " Dinner's ready" then begins laughing.. I guess I'm needed upstairs....

In conclusion, Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, may your day be filled with joy.

The Mystery of: the C A P O monster

HAVE YOU SEEN MY CAPO?

If you play guitar, I can almost guarantee that this has been you... desperate to capo your guitar, and no capo to be found. while recording Justin said that in his studio, you either find 12 at a time, or none. Ica and me once lost ours on a mission trip and tried to use a rubber band and pen. I lost mine and Pedro the amazing gave me one. The girl I nanny lost hers for 3 weeks and we sang Taylor Swift 4 octaves too low...it was tradgedy. the fact that they cost $20.00 to replace is just blasphemy.

Fear not! I've solved the mystery!

WE CAUGHT HIM RED ( well blue) HANDED! THE CAPO MONSTER!!!!!!

please people, take this seriously. You never know when he could strike again. this is no joke..... please, watch over your precious capos. i will never take mine for granted again.

Don't say i didnt warn you people.


for the record: there is NO PHOTOSHOP involved in this picture. this is actually taken on justin's desk this week... very real.

Studio: P H O TO S

Made That Good Drive. Back up Ninety-Five ... Well 485-85--95-395....

I made it 30 minutes away before realizing I forgot my new winter coat, considering we have 2 feet of snow at home, it was a must that I turn around. Oh well, A second Good-bye. I was confused however, about how it took ONE full tank of gas to get from DC -> Charlotte but TWO full tanks of gas to get from Charlotte -> DC . Is the east coast one giant hill?

Anyways... I was able to listen to a rough bounce out of the full album in the car, it is still very unbalanced, and you can hear me laughing a lot, and Justin saying " Cool" when a song is over... oh charming. I must say, at this stage, Be your girl, Stay, Just be friends, and Pancake Song are my favorite... I also spent the ride pondering album titles, and I think I got a good one. ;)

Now that I made it home, I can upload studio photos, I wish I had taken more... And while i upload them and settle in, I swear my kitten is just sitting next to me, and will NOT STOP meowing... Is she asking me about my week? I wish I spoke cat talk.






...more fun pictures to ensue.

CD label: I D E A S

For my actual CD Disc Label I wanted to do a silouhette image that would compliment the album photos. I can stop making ideas, and I kinda sort of like them all....

Do you guys love or hate any of them? None of the sizes/colors etc. are set in stone I was just playing around.

let me know what YOU think...

the H A R D part

Most people would say that the hard part is over...

not for me. the music, that's the easy part. Making words rhyme and singing melodies that get stuck in peoples minds, that's the easy part for me. That's what I was sort of just born able to do I guess. That's the gift of mine that makes me do what I do.

the hard part is the business side. the money side. the production side. the marketing side. the turning a passion into a job side. the side that uses, you know, the other half of my brain.

but then again, guitar used to be the hard part for me, and sure, I have quite a long way to go, but maybe I just need more expierience with this side of things. Maybe if i practice 5 times a day like I did guitar, this will become an easy part too... { or if i marry a billionaire }

Until then, it will just be what it is for me, the hard part.


Tonight as I left the good ol' Bear Cave Studios here in Matthews N.C. I walked away fine, happy, even a little sleepy and relieved to be heading home to a nice comfy bed. But the minute I got into my car...it was a mixture of the freezing cold, the fact that Coldplay was blasting on my stereo, and pure timing... it hit me, and i couldn't help but cry. In the weird, why am i crying way? then i knew... the fun part is over, and there are countless more fun parts to come, but this part..... this is the hard part.

DAY 7: in the S T U D I O

THE LAST DAY:

Well, for me at least. There will be mixing and all kinds of fun engineering stuff to do for weeks on this album, but for me. All of my vocals and input is over today. Kind of sweet and sour. So excited to hear all of the songs take shape and sound like, well songs... good songs. Some of them, have really beautiful moments, and fairly epic bridges lol.... Today is sweet also because I can imagine how relaxed I will feel tommorow morning when i wake up... Sour because it is over, and it has been fun, and it is sort of like when you leave town, you wonder " oh did i put the garage door down?" or " turn off the heater?" .... I wonder what little things I may have forgotten. It is also sour because I would love to go home to MY BED and MY KITTY ... and unfortunately mother nature has told me that is not an option. there is 12-14 inches of snow already in Washington D.C. and someone in transportation made an EPIC FAIL when deciding that salting 495 wasn't necessary.

Plus i can't wait to get home for christmas to wear matching sweatshirts with my sisters:

that's us circa 1995-ish.... we are still this awkward.

Today is a lot of vocal harmonies for me, we want to make sure we get everything done that involves me that can not be done once I am gone. Harmonies for me are very frusturating because I do not usually sing in a band, and when I do sing with someone, It is usually a boy and the harmonies are easier for me to pick up on. When I was in choir, or even musicals, I am usually soprano 1 which is melody so it just isn't something I am very good at.

And it's quite frustrating. Some takes I had to do over and over again to get right and let out a few 4 letter words. ( Sorry Justin)... We also did a lot of work on the A Capella song which is such a nightmare lol but when it is done, hopefully it will be dreamy.

We finally added the " group sing along" part of the pancake song. It sounds awesome, and that mixed with the Kazoo call and response really brought this song together.

Emily made it over after work and lent her beautiful ear and voice to "Stay", and we added 2 more vocal parts to the end of the song, panned seperatly, it really brought this one together as well.

We added a shaker wrapped in a full sized blanket to " every single time" [the sexy song] lol...it was a bizarre idea I had, but I think you will all like the tone.

When trying to find out what kind of vocals to add to " a little more perfect" ... justin pulled a " what would Taylor Swift tdo?" and listened to some of her music for inspiration of pop. It was funny, but the girl knows whats up so... lol, thank you for inspiring us.

Finally, some quite creepy harmonies on 0-60 make the song slightly taunting but mainly awesome... and I'm really happy with how this turned out.

GOOD NEWS!

So a few days ago in my post, I noted that we finished just in time as Justin got wonderful news...that I wasn't allowed to say out loud! Well the secret is out....

Justin and his band Steel Train are going on tour February-April with

the beautiful and talented TEGAN AND SARA! one of my favorite bands!

This is a huge band and a huge oppurtunity and hugely AWESOME... And best of all, they are coming to Washington dc! to the Warner Theatre so I get to see this epic-ness.

Congrats Justin & all of Steel Train!

HELP: Pancake S O N G

IDEAS?

Stay, sad little boy, Just be friends, be your girl, Check yes, Better half...all done, so many songs...DONE... and now we are in the middle of finishing instrumentation for the Pancake song, many of you know and love this song live. it is the one that Ciaran Makepeace of the Makepeace brothers usually plays on the cajon with me for...

...remember?

Anywho, we added in the guitar 4 bars of instrumental break figuring we would add something awesome...

nothing. we got nothing.

Justin just whipped out a trumpet and a trombone neither of which he knows how to play, and I'll tell you, it's harder than it looks, especially in C Sharp which I stupidlly wrote this song in.

I tried beat boxing, rapping, and even just carrying on laughter through the whole 4 bars. All 3 of these ideas sucked almost as bad as Justin's trumpet skills.

So we;ve blown through options... There is a shaker on this song, and stops and claps in the final chorus' .... weve already used piano, kazoo, whistles, even glockenspeil on other songs so we're running out of weird crap to put on this album.

we are leaning towards Sax, we have one... can't be too hard to learn, right?


We suck.

Day 6: in the S T U D I O

DAY 6:

Today is the fun day. We made a mock track list, and are going through each song and playing this game called "wouldn't this song be better if we added_____[fill in the blank______"
Of course, some songs are staying totally stripped down (i.e. guitar and voice or piano and voice, etc)
but some songs (like, as you can imagine the pancake song) have everything from

• Lots of awesome vocals lol,
  
• harmony vocals, boys and girls!

• Acoustic guitar
• Electric guitar
• drums
• bass
• Ukelele
  
• Kazoo
• Whistles
• glockenspiel
• snaps ( doing 8 takes of snaps is retarted on your hands)
• Snare (seperate from drum set)
• egg shaker ( and sprinkles?)
• strings ( cello and violen esque, not sure where we are going with this though)
• organ-esque keys.
• then of course a fair share of old school claps and stomps...
• sleigh bells
  
• Piano ( Rhodes)
• and more to come, more to come....

And yes, the "Pancake Song" will have a real song title by the time this album is made. Today is kind of a slow day. Reason and Pro tools are not quite getting along and at one point out of nowhere, dropped the midi 6 octaves, and what used to sound like a pretty piano line now sounded like a dark rumble in a monsters stomach. Jesse from Harvard and Emily from Seahorses came over, and we took a break for Grilled Cheese mmm. This is especially nice since it is freezing rain outside.

On a very sad note, I broke the zipper on my courderoys. I am very sad, and embaressed because for the rest of the day my fly is down.

LOGO: hope makes m u s i c

LOGO:

I made this when I first started my hope makes music group. I wanted a logo that was really rooted with h.m.m. then... Kenneth made an awesome stencil of it that is life size of my head. So, if you would like this spray painted on your wall...car...back...just hit me up.

RECORDING: S T A Y

STAY:


Many of you who follow my music or who have seen me live have heard my song "Stay" - I jokingly call it my "Grey's Anatomy" song, because it has that sound that just makes you want to cry without even hearing the lyrics, which are equally upsetting. Most people don't know where it comes from, so I thought I'd share.

This past June, I met a women in passing, through work. I met her family as well. She was very young, and beautiful, and full of life. 5 children under the age of 15. They came to me to pick out outfits for a concert they were attending. A few weeks later, she came into my store asking if i rememberd her, after a moment I did. She came to tell me that her husband died of natural causes unexpectadly just a few weeks before. She said she was fighting with him because he ruined the dress I sold them by putting it in the dryer, and while yelling at him, he began ignoring her. In anger, she ignored him back.

When she went upstairs, she found him dead. When he was ignoring her, he was actually dying, and in her fit of rage over what now is seen as a very stupid dress she ignored his silence. She came to me because she hadn't been able to tell anyone that they were fighting when he died. She was too embarressed to actually tell her family how horrible the last words they shared were. She left without even telling me her name, and she'll probably never hear this song.

But I left work early, really torn up about what had just been said. I couldn't imagine starting my life with someone and giving my heart to them, to have them leave so suddenly. So I wrote stay that afternoon.

Most people have no idea what the song is about, i try to color it as a love song, but this is who it was for.

These are the lyrics:

i get so afraid
everytime i see your face
what if you leave?
where would i be?
i get so scared
everytime i hear your voice
what if it's the last time?

don't walk away
stay
don't walk away
stay

what would i do?
after all we've been through...
i've lost who i am
my heart is somewhere inside of you
without you
how could i go another day?
when your the sparkle of my eye
without your touch
without your smile
nothing in my whole wide world
would seem worth while

don't walk away
stay
don't walk away
stay
don't leave
stay with me
stay with me, me
stay

you're the air i breathe
you're the one i love
i know you're still here
asking what i'm so scared of
i guess i fear
that one day you might see
that if you leave
you can do better than me

don't walk away
stay
don't walk away
please stay
don't go
please stay
don't walk away
stay stay stay
oh

Anyways, I originally played this song on the guitar. For the album I wanted to keep it simple, but with a great piano player here, we were tempted to hear how it sounded on keys, and it sounds even more beautiful. This song is very hard to record because hearing it over and over again is simply painful, and really breaks my heart. Because this isn't my story, in a way it isn't my song, and so it breaks my heart every time.

DAY 5: in the S T U D I O

DAY 5:

[part 1] vocals.

Wow, the days are flying by. Until 5:00 I could have sworn today was Wednesday- well, false alarm people, it is indeed Thursday. Shocking, really.

quote of the day: " Mommy said I can get 10 polar bears for Christmas and put them in the yard" -Justin Huey, my 12 year old producer.

Most of our days aim for 10am -8 pm, today is a later day, and you can tell I am almost ready for nap time. We realized today ( in the midst of J taking try 3 at using the espresso machine) that we never recorded "A little more perfect" yesterday...oops.

So we finished with that, tracked the Ukelele for " My better half" , and vocals for that as well. that song is my only duet on the album and naturally, Justin will be doing that. Since he is well, doing 99% of my album anyways. I do my 1% well though.... ;)

We also tracked the final run of my all a capella song. <--- oh ya I said it. Which I just had the genuis idea of doing a few days, I believe it has 10 parts. It is a major throwback to my Women's Chamber days at Providence. (can i get a woop woop terri setzer?) this song is just "aa" and "dum dum" and "bum bum" and its FRICKEN awesome.<--- oh ya i said that too. [ It goes to the same tune as the intro song "Check yes or no" , consider it a dorky glee reprise. I'm pretty sure Justin wants to hit me for doing this song. ]

[PART 2] ELECTRIC GUITAR

Mr.Huey recently bought the most beautiful Gibson Vintage electric guitar. It quite literally makes me weak at the knees. I think I'm in love with it. It is only more adorable with a small painted seafoam green seahorse on it ( if you ordered the Seahorses album, it is the same one that is on the envelope you got... if you haven't gotten the seahorses album you should and can do so by clicking here). I will post a photograph later, but for now this is the most similar I can find online:

by the way, this picture does not do it proper justice...

...I also got jersey mikes again. there was a booklet there on franchising. I considered opening my own in DC for about 45 solid seconds.

WAV. FILE OR MAP OF TEXAS?

=
On a ridiculous side note:

One of my wav. files from vocal tracking looks strikingly similar to the great American state of Texas...who sees it?

Thank you Emily for the cell phone pic, and Justin for the discovery.

DAY 4: In the S T U D I O

DAY 4 :

I woke up in a lovely bed at my great friend Merry's house. What a relaxing evening that was much needed. After a very long shower, Justin picked me up and we headed to Starbucks, where my barista said "what are you up today" ... me responding with "recording my debut album" was probably not what he expected, and I'm still not sure he even believed me.

VOCAL TRACKING.

We set up a vocal booth, with the walls, and just an Elroy mic and pop screen ( this prevents p's and b's from sounding to poppy). We started "tracking songs". I picked mellow songs to start with as my voice warmed up then I moved on to harder songs and saved songs like 0-60 that have huskier blues sounds for last, in case my voice was tired or hoarse because they can work like that...

Vocal tracking is just going over each song about 9 times and keeping 4-5 tracks to pick parts from to mix down a final version. I sang over the guitar and drum tracks that we already had made, and stayed to a click to stay on beat, since I always play live and without a metronome staying perfectly on rhythm is pretty challenging for me.

Justin can usually hear where things are wrong, or could be changed to be better, both melodically and structurally. The hard thing is, when he suggest changes, the way I've been singing them is usually well engrained in my memory and it is hard to change.

Singing "sad little boy" and "stay" was also challenging. Both of these songs are quite mellow, sad, and have a lot of sentimental value behind them. I sort of closed my eyes and zoned out during them, and although the emotional performance was great- I am not sure how much I was really paying attention to the quality. They are just those types of songs... and I hope that when you all hear the C.D. you will get lost in them to.

this is "Stay" in case you haven't heard it however on the album it will be on piano, and the structure is slightly different.



I have an intro song that is 40 seconds long, 4 lines, and very cute. right now it is on the piano. I decided to do a CRAZY glee-style a capella version of it for the Outro on the album which i started today and it is REMARKABLY fun to make a choir with your own voice, although it will never be able to be sung live, bummmer....

at the end, my friends Beau and Trevor from MIDDLE SCHOOL came... It was pretty wonderful. Beau has served in the army over seas and Trevor has backpacked Europe and it is insane to see these boys all grown up.

We got sushi and now I am off to yet again, another wonderful nights rest at Merry's. I can not thank her and red enough for having me here....


on a side note: I enabled anonymous comment options so now anyone can comment on these blog posts. even just to let me know you actually read it all ;)

USB MIC: the b l u e s n o w f l a k e

USB MIC: The Blue Snowflake

This year I asked for two things: an iPhone , and a USB MIC.

i got an iPhone...awesome. love love love it.

and i didn't get a blue snowflake...BUT... i bought one myself!

In you-tubing, I've loved the quality of my Macbook and iMovie programs. Ok, love is a strong word, but for a free program that comes with my laptop, I am quite greatfull and satisfied. However, the microphone on mac's peak out a lot, especially since I am a girl who A)Sings loud and B)sings high. My favorite You-tube-princess Kina Grannis uses a Blue Snowflake, and her sound quality is great, and she sings quite high, so I took her recommendation and got it!

and it came today, look how cute it is!

i can not WAIT for my iLife to be fixed so i can start recording on it, i am so happy!!

DAY 3: in the S T U D I O

DAY 3:

Rough day. Well, wonderful results, but a s l o w start, and a slow me. To be honest, since I am away from home not being in my own bed at night and other factors have made me grumpy today. I recorded the entire day in my redskins pajamas, I really do look like a homeless person, Mrs.Huey said I smelt good though so that's promising... I was a little better with cofee & Excedrin.

Mr.Dean dropped me off in his grand daddy's 1972 all blue pick up truck.... We caused a scene.

We set up sound boards to catch the acoustic guitars better. (Justin made them recently - such a handy boy he is ) We also set up two different microphones, an "elroy" which is a condenser mic(borrowed from Alex Johns) and a "Sm57" which is dynamic. They are set up right above each other to help catch on different frequencies and ranges from the guitar strings.

When we started the morning, we were using Miss.Emily's beautiful Martin guitar, but it had a slight rattle when playing in the G frequency, so in order to switch to Justin's Gibson guitar we needed to go get more strings and change his so the sound was more fresh. So off to guitar center we went. [We also stopped and got JerseyMikes... My favorite thing in the world]

By the way...Harmonicas were $4.95, I was tempted to purchase one and am already sad that I didn't. I want to learn how to play it ( I FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT EVERY INSTRUMENT...except brass/horns)

Once we got home, we started off okay with the first 2 songs, both strumming tracks. We re-tuned in between every song. Especially because all but one of my songs are capo-d. By track 3 however ( Sad Little Boy) I tried to play it and was miserable at staying on the click. It's a beautiful song but a pain to play. Justin had to take over, and he too had a hard time with the structure since the song is fairly redundant but the small changes are a big deal. - if that makes any sense- Eventually we wrapped it...

And just-in time ( ...haha) - Justin got great news, but it's top secret. And no, he isn't pregnant. I'll tell you soon.

Once we got on a role, things went much smoother, I got to play sound engineer today and manage the pro tools, which was fun and educational. It looks intimidating but it is fairly user-friendly.



by the way we tracked this song today, and it's stupid crazy awesome how much cooler it sounds a) When justin plays it and b) with tim's drumming... oh god its gonna be sweet.

DAY 2: In the S t u d i o

DAY 2:

"I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drums all day"...

Today, the devistatingly handsome Tim Cossor banged-it-out (quite literally) on the drums. He is playing with a transparent red acrylic drum set, which sounds and looks quite lovely. and you all know how i love pretty instruments. Kind of like these:

Tim is used to playing much harder rock so whether he will ever admit it, I think he is having fun playing my girly-pop-music.

So a few fun facts:

1. Drums are loud. like really loud when you are in a closed room. Have tylenol handy...
2. You adjust how they sound, how they resonate, tightening the "heads" of them, etc.
3. You mic all of them independantly, as well as room mics to pick up the overall rock n' roll.

We are really using percussion on this album to build each song, really peaking at the bridges, etc. It is amazing how much a little drums in a song makes you just want to stomp your feet or dance around. I kind of really love it.

I really wish i had a video camera ( or that my stinkin' Macbook was working right...) to show you all whats going on here. It's fairly entertaining. We've developed tons of inside jokes...NBD.

So the drum-recording el-processo:

1. It takes hours to set up, thats really the longest part of recording drums. Our goal was to start @ 10 am. ( I was 20 minutes late once the man @ the gas station told me "there was no oil on my dipstick" & i made an emergency Starbucks run) ... It is now 1:29 p.m. and we haven't even started the first song.

2. During the set up: Aside from physically setting up the drum set and stands...the mics are placed then each one is individually tested as they run through ProTools ( the digital recording program on the computer).

3. Tim starts rocking out on the drums, and Justin goes back to listen to how each individual piece sounds isolated through their respective mics... There are 8 mics...4 drums ... 4 cymbals... It's pretty friggen rockin'. Justin likes to make sure that the kick and snare drum are "crisp" not "boxy".

* tim adds these "moon gels" to the snare to
reduce some of the overtones, pretty awesome.

4. Once it's all good - We play a scratch track for Tim. (remember those? See day 1's blog). Tim taps out rhythms on his legs and gets a feel for the overall arch of the song while we chime in with our naiive ideas " Oh wouldn't it be cool if you...."

5. We give it a go. Take a listen. And give it another go. Take another listen. Repeat till perfection is achieved. ( although i think it sounds great every time)


** On average, post set up... We are averaging about one song an hour. Percussion however, at least full drum set ( as opposed to hand) will not be on every track, so we should finish in the intended 10 hour daily time frame.**

After each take, Justin and Tim look to me for approval, because, well, it is my album. But to be honest, I think it sounds good every time and it is so loud, I often can't hear any mistakes. So lesson learned, if you aren't a master of every instrument, have acompianests that you trust- and let them tell you what works and doesn't work.

DAY 1: In the S t u d i o

DAY 1:

We started today at 2:00 with the intention of "Scratch Tracking" Every song. 4 were already done since we started a few days this summer. We went through each song and Justin helped me to adjust their formats as we turn them into full-band songs from the stripped down acoustic style that I wrote them in, we also started imagining what other instruments would sounds good on each track (think everything from piano to kazoo...)

Justin learned how to play them each on the guitar and laid down a simple track. ( It still wows my mind how great they sound when he plays them, I'll never be able to say thank you enough) We set each song to a click ( Beats per minute) to keep them tight on tempo.

Once each song was done, we went back and I laid down a "sangin' track". Since this will all be done over, I threw in a few things for laughs. A Few giggles and snorts of course.

We finished- ALL 9 songs... and the 10th track ( actually the intro) as an A Capella Glee-ish feel ( My musical theatre degree is finally useful!) we didn't track.

So now we go back...add drums...and go back to re do everything else on top of the rhythm.

TRACK LIST

1. I think I am falling
2. My Better half
3. Just be friends
4. Sad Little Boy
5. Zero To Sixty
6. Stay
7. Every Single time
8. A little more perfect than you
9. Be your girl
10. Don't ask why ( The pancake song)

.I am happy.

THE DREAM: Making an A L B U M

This week I am In the Studio with the oh so wonderful Justin Huey of Steel Train and Seahorses, with his lovely lady Emily Moore Emily who also tours with the INCREDIBLE band FUN.

I started recording music when I was 14 with good ol' Chris Kincaid... But I've been quite the lucky girl and have always been guided through the process by a very talented circle of friends. With this being my first solo full-length album, I am learning a lot about the WHOLE PROCESS... So as I go through this week, I want to blog how it's all going. ( Maybe even it'll help some of you interested in doing your first album!)

Step 1: Was learn an instrument (obvi). As a singer, and a songwriter, it was hard to keep track of all of my songs- So over the last year year and a half... I picked up by good old Laguna Acoustic,and learned my fair share of chords. And we were off...

Step 2: Get better...

Step 3: ...Get better

Step 4: ...Get better, no really, keep practicing everyday. And Keep writing songs. You can almost tell which songs were written when in my guitar-learning process based on how simple or difficult they are.

Step 5: Start Playing! I couldn't be scared, So starting one year ago, I started playing guitar for people...family, friends, strangers! I played at local venues often. Rugby Cafe ( with the one and only Bill T Wilde) on Tuesdays and Bloombars on Sundays- I got feedback on what songs and styles were working. And trust me, people are honest. Even if there words aren't...they're applause is...

Step 6: Pick a solid set and start marketing yourself. Everyone is multi-faceted, find the you that matches your music and is honest to who you are... I was advised to go the self-promotion indie path...so internet world here I come. I HAVE LOVED GETTING TO KNOW PEOPLE from all of the world who follow my music... It is the most wonderful gift.

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/hopefuleigh
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/LilMisshopefuleigh
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44608889650&ref=mf

[So I skipped a lot of steps in finding the right producer, sound engineer, etc. because Like I said, somehow, the man upstairs and blessed me with a wonderful circle of talented friends. So I came home to Carolina, where my passion for love started. ]

The JukeBox Hero (JBH whoop whoop! and yes, a website still exists) was one of my first favorite local bands, I was young, the lyrics were catchy, and the boys- were oh so dreamy. I had my mommy and daddy drive me to all of their shows... Justin Huey was the lead singer, and years later... check us out. Still friends, and still laughing at our roots in the Charlotte "Music Scene" .(SIDE NOTE: R.I.P. Tremont MusicHall shutting down) Justin is producing the album, and playing guitar... and let me tell you, my songs sound so much-more-better when he plays them. Rock out J. NBD.

Also, When I was 16, I sang on the album for TEN MISSING DAYS with Will Gilreath. The drummer was Tim Cossor (Now of the band Harvard: http://www.myspace.com/harvard) and now, he is back to play drums on my album, and I am such a lucky girl for this.

You'll here about more of my awesome friends as their day in the studio comes...


So now we are off... And I can't wait to share what has taken years of preperation and networking to make... My First Full-length all original fabulous C.D. and I hope you are just as excited as me.