I have been away for a while working on details for releasing the album. Most likely I’ll start a new blog in the next few weeks with my name in the title to make it more searchable, but for now…please download some free tracks from my new album! Here’s the link:

jennygillespie1.bandcamp.mu
Also, if you’re in the Chicago area, please save the date for my CD Release Party at Uncommon Ground on Devon. I’ll play with a full band and my new album will finally be for sale! It will take place Saturday, January 17 at 8 pm.

“There are days when the cage doesn’t seem to open very wide at all….” I love this lyric that opens Martha Wainwright’s new album I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too. I’m not having one of those days, but I definitely do have those days when no matter how hard I pry, I feel stuck. It’s so simply put, but so apt.

I remember hearing Matapedia, the record by her mother’s band The McGarrigles, whose music I grew up with as my mother is a huge fan. There’s a lyric that references Martha meeting an old lover of her mother’s: “He said, ‘Oh my god it’s Kate!’ /’No, I’m the daughter of Kate/My name is Martha, who are you?/Ma never told me about you. ‘ ” Martha ended up being one of my favorite musicians of the whole McGarrigle/Wainwright clan. I think she’s one the most interesting, daring singer/songwriters out there today. Her voice alone, which is full of aching spasms and heavenly crescendos, makes her brilliant enough. But then her risky melodic structures and direct, womanly lyrics send her over the edge of voice-alone brilliance. I still haven’t tired of her new album (though I did of her 1st one–I think this one is much better.)

I’m also listening a lot to Frightened Rabbit…their songs just send bittersweet pangs through me.  And make me want to go walkin’ in the Scottish rain.

The album is being mixed right now. I’m being patient. It might turn out to be an EP. I’d rather have all of the songs be polished gems than have some flab. We’ll see. Having a period just to write, play a few shows and enjoy the lazy, lilting summer has been really good for my spirit. I’ve been practicing with my sister, who sings and plays piano, and there’s nothing more fun than that.

My darling boyfriend got me an Ipod touch for my birthday. I have to say, it makes the music-listening experience even more fun. Just seeing that gorgeous, lucid graphic of the album’s art pop up is so satisfying! It’s so wonderful to walk in the morning, when the light is still new, under the green eaves of my neighborhood, with a beautiful tune in my ears. I remember my roommate in Paris telling me how much she loved walking through the city with Radiohead in her ears, and at the time (19) I couldn’t understand why she would want to block out the rich sounds of the town with Thom Yorke’s sad warble. But now I understand how it only adds another layer to the experience, not a shield but an illuminating screen. Today I listened to Tift Merrit’s “Something to Me”–the perfect bittersweet but positive morning tune–and some tracks from Habib Koite’s “Afriki.” It didn’t hurt that the weather has been absolutely stunning, cool and pure blue skies. I’m in love with my Ipod.

i hope i’m headed towards some strange event at this age
hold me down like the warm jade in the ring’s setting, stay

in the last light of youth
we look around at our friends
some are trying to stay wild
others are building their shelter
so where are we

the roses you brought turned black as oil spills today
when i need your contours close you just seem to float away

in the last light of youth
we look around at our friends
some are wandering home to their mothers
others becoming their own

Image by Nancy Gillespie

I just mailed my hard drive off to the engineer in Austin, who will mix my album…whoohoo!

At this point I have let go–I feel pretty free, like I’ve struck this balance between ambition and surrender. I feel clear and energized, but also more immune to bouts of low self-confidence and the need for everyone’s approval surrounding the project. I’m just one drop of water in the ocean…I only would like to cool a few people’s brows with my music…but I’m not expecting to turn into a tsunami. (Pardon the late-in-the-workday cheesy metaphor.)

Lately I am getting excited to write again…I kind of want to write with a lightness of touch in the next batch of songs, not just in the music but in the lyrics. I want to work with more images, create atmospheres and tell stories about love. I feel like the songs on “Light Year” (my recent project) are pretty heavy–a few songs about loss and regret (though I try to keep the music grounded in lightness, for the most part.) And I also kind of ignored love for the most part in the songwriting…I think I was trying to prove to myself that I could write about experiences other than romantic love.

I also want to make this blog a bit more interesting to read…it’s been a bit self-involved, mostly because I’m not writing in a real journal (and it’s helped me, symbolically sort of move myself along in the album-making process.) I just read my friend Allen’s blog and it’s so well-crafted and funny…so I will aspire to make this a bit zippier!

in my mind’s eye a white butterfly flashed on the shadows against the wall, like the afterimage of sun, when i heard the news she was gone

and later that afternoon one was trailing my sister and me

*

without you around, i took my friend and the dog to the lake. the sky pale violet, the water blue chiffon. duress of day crumbling like soft bricks of gold. and what should have been a romantic setting was a love setting. love for the world and the dog and the friend and for you not there.

This whole event promoters ordinance thing really worries me, as a musician and concert-goer. It seems once again bureaucracy is blaring its misguided horn and the voices of real people try to respond in the midst of its honking.

“The ordinance will reduce the amount of music in Chicago, make events more expensive for consumers, dampen the large and growing economic engine that is Chicago music, and create a much less supportive business climate for Chicago’s small music business community.”  -Chicago Music Commission

So, if an independent musician wants to have a CD release party at a club, I need to have $300,000 in insurance?

Or if someone wants to throw a benefit for an injured musician at a venue, same deal?

Hmm. Well, all I can do  (besides attend the city council meeting) is continue working on the album. I go in this weekend to the studio again. I’m spending so much money on this little baby. But I have started to become less and less anxious about the outcome and rest in the knowledge that I’m a musician no matter what–and that will lead me to the next waterfall of creativity and opportunity.

I attempted to paint my apartment back to white yesterday. I got through most of one wall.

I went through several CDs (Joanna Newsome, too intricate; Arcade Fire, too indignant) before I finally picked the right one to paint a wall to:

The Last Beautiful Day-New Buffalo

Because it’s cheery, weird, and spacious. You can squeegee in time to the beat.

Thanks, Sally.

I feel like it would be good to just put this out there for musicians who might be going it alone in making an album. Of course I still have that feeling where “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, eeek!” but I have learned a few things I thought I’d share. Part 2 will appear when I’m finished, I guess!

Finding a Band: 

• Network with people you know and trust. I’ve found that musicians are more than willing to help each other out, but you have to ask! 
• Offer payment to your players, even if they want to do it for free. If they insist on doing it for free, do something nice for them in return! (Admittedly, I still owe someone a massage gift certificate!) If you go with studio musicians, make sure they connect with the project and aren’t just doing it for pay. Studio musicians are worth it for those instruments you want to really shine.

The content:

• Understand that the songs you rehearse and record with the band might not make the final cut. You will spend money on tracks that might not see the light of day if you want to end up with something really cohesive. Try to see your album as a whole dramatic statement, and weed out the songs (as beloved as they might be) that are weighing that statement down.
• Understand that you might still be writing even when you thought the album was done. Most likely, those songs will probably end up on the record and stand out because they’re the culmination of all of your output and effort over this period of album-making. Don’t stop writing while you’re recording! Keep your muse energized.
• Remember the attention span of your listener. I’m not the type of writer to sit down and say “oh, I’ll write an upbeat song” and then “oh, I’ll write a slow, intense one.” But in choosing the final tracks, pull the songs that play against each other in mood and tempo. Again, sometimes you’ll have to kick out a track that sounds too much like another one.
• In arranging, you can always pull parts from those kicked-out songs, or use the “cuttings” method from other songs that didn’t make it. Sometimes a stray lyric or riff will fit perfectly with your final songs.

Recording

• You can choose to record it all yourself, but realize this process will take a long time to master. Personally, I thought I was going to teach myself Logic and do it all myself, but this made me panic. I do want to learn eventually, but having to spend so much time focusing on learning recording when I wanted to really focus on the content of the songs and arranging didn’t make sense. I had already pretty much mastered Garageband, which I’ve been using to arrange the songs.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help in the process. I finally decided to go into 2 studios/engineers I trusted, and feel confident enough in my arrangements that the sessions would translate what’s been in my head to the recording. I’m also asking an old friend to put finishing touches with guitars/other instruments on his Protools…and he’s 1000 miles away in Austin! The recording of the album doesn’t have to be conventional. Josh Rouse recorded his most recent album in Spain but sent the tracks to a drummer in Nashville. In this era, you can make the process as global as you’d like.
• Have fun in the studio. Take it seriously, but laugh too. Solid preproduction will ease the nerves. By that I mean arranging as much as possible, having your task list at hand, and rehearsing enough to feel comfortable with the songs.