Jazz ain't jazz!

Hi there,

I can't count how many times my brief at a gig has been 'jazz' but I've ended up doing everything but. Even wikipedia admits 'Jazz' is a slippery beast to define. I'm talking Ella, Louis and Duke when I say Jazz. My mum says Jazz and means 'lively'. I've heard many a muso make a booboo and call that 'jazz'. I think a lot of venue managers like the 'cool' that the word jazz conjures but don't actually want the blue notes. After all 'Jazz on the Deck' sounds much better than 'a bit of pop music outside there past the pokies'. 

So when I've been booked for a 'jazz' gig and ended up doing anything but, it's not because I'm being a rebel - after all I know where my bread is buttered and I always aim to please the client. But sometimes, well, we entertainers actually know what we're doing! We are being booked because we are professional and know our craft, right?

I remember being booked for a wedding where the bride gave us a list of all her favourite (non-Jazz!) songs us to play at the reception. They included songs from Garbage, Portishead, Blondie, Morcheeba and the like - a woman after my own heart when it comes to taste in music. But not for a wedding. As soon as we cracked out her requested rocker: 'I'm Only Happy When it Rains' you could see the tumbleweed rolling across the barren dancefloor. 

So we played 'Moondance' and 'Love is in the Air', like we always do at a wedding and suddenly all was right in the world. The bride was happy because everyone else was - and cavorting bodies on the dancefloor is the best yardstick for a wedding band's success. 

So I soon learnt that when dealing with less-than-experienced clients, my job was to nod my head, smile and say 'sure' and then turn around and play what actually works rather than what was asked for. What is the point of hiring a professional and then telling them their job? When you hire a chef you may choose the dishes and of course it will be to suit your tastes, but you don't tell them exactly what ingredients to use and how to combine them. Jazz, rock, polka - whatever works is what is best. In the end, as Mr Ellington himself says, 'it's all music'.

See you next time,
Cheers,
Amanda
www.amandaeston.com

Sinead I love ya, but...

Hi there,

I saw Sinead O'Connor at The Opera House this week and her voice was in fine form, her band was firing and she was adorable in her shyness. I've been a long term Sinead fan and her breakthrough album 'The Lion and the Cobra' remains in my personal top 10 Albums of All Time. I know from overheard pre-show conversations that some of the audience this night were there purely because of her worldwide smash hit 'Nothing Compares 2U'. Rolling Stone rated that tune in one of their lists of the 500 Best Songs of All Time. 

Now I love hearing an artist's new material and of course a concert is always going to promote a current album, but I'm sorry, it is not your work post-1991 that allowed you to sell out this concert hall. And yes you are an artist and must do what inspires you in the now, but don't you think you have an obligation to play at least some of the songs that brought you here and now? I loved your gentle monk's chant and the never-heard-before acapella performances you gave us. I understand why you are sick of singing the Prince cover that made you really famous, but where was 'Jerusalem', 'Mandinka' or 'Jackie' - nothing from that magical first album?! We did get 'The Emperor's New Clothes' but with a concert clocked at just over an hour, and devoid of almost any of the truly famous, popular songs, the show was actually a case of emperor's new clothes with so much promised but little delivered. 

I saw Neneh Cherry on the same stage a week before (she played for two hours). Her album 'Man' sits right next to Sinead's on that list of mine. Neneh started this show playing a lot of tunes from her new album. She then reached down, picked up a piece of fabric, tied it around her head like she used to do in her early career and said something like 'I want to live in the now but let's go old skool for a while'. She proceeded to pepper hits like 'Woman', 'Man Child' and of course the big one, 'Buffalo Stance' throughout the remainder of the set, taking the turban on and off as she went back and forth in time. Now that's more like it! The versions she did of these hits weren't exactly the same as when they were released - she managed to stay in 'the now' while incorporating her history and pleasing her fans at the same time. And when I say 'pleasing', the crowd leaving the Opera House at the end of Neneh's show rode a cloud of exhiliration and inspiration whereas that leaving Sinead's was definitely underwhelmed. Can you imagine an Eagles show without 'Hotel California'? Led Zeppelin without 'Stairway to Heaven'? Fleetwood Mac without 'Go Your Own Way'? Is crowd pleasing so bad? I think it's part of your job... our job as performers and artists.
Till next time,
Amanda

And since she didn't play it, I will: Jackie

Should you Produce yourself?

Hi there,

I am the person who, in between hairdresser visits, hacks at and colours their own hair. I got down on my hands and knees and sanded and stained the damaged floorboards in the kitchen rather than call a professional and I decided I could produce, direct and edit my latest music video all by myself. So I'm no stranger to do-it-yourself.

One area I don't go near, however, is my own music production. I have lots of ideas and I put all those ideas in a multi track demo that I give to a producer. He sees through my suspect sounds and mootable mixing, sprinkles some fairy dust and suddenly what I hear in my own head comes to life. I've heard a lot of self-produced artists recently and each time I've come away thinking: great singer, great songs, but there is something missing. I'm not suggesting that there are no great artists who are also great producers - Michael Carpenter at Love Hz Studios is one of those and Floyd Vincent did a great job on his recent live album. But I think that a lot of artists aren't equally good producers and, while hair does grow back, no-one really looks at the kitchen floor and I might get away with a DIY film clip for one of my songs, I know my home baked production would be half baked. Just like I think singers need singing lessons, I think artists need producers. If nothing else, it's a second brain and pair of ears to prod you out of your comfort zone... or perhaps reign in the wilder reaches of creativity and lend some consistency to a group of tunes that will end up as an album or EP. 

Songwriter's songs are like their babies and we don't take kindly to criticism of our offspring - but let's face it, often it is required. And you might think the little tacker would look terrible in a stripey onesie but it could just be that the pattern brings out the absolute best in their complexion. It takes a lot of years to become a good singer. It takes just as long to become a good producer. So if you have been spending most of your time working on your singing and songwriting, why not leave the knob twiddling and audio magic to the guys and girls that have been spending so many of their waking hours on that craft?

By the way, you can judge for yourself, my DIY filmclip (this is the remix version).

http://youtu.be/dhI5nL0jsuY

'Till next time,
Amanda

Shameful Tributes!

Hi there!

And happy 6th Day of Christmas.

In a newsletter I sent out a couple of weeks ago, I was promoting a show I produce and perform in, called 'The Princesses of Pop'. It is a fully costumed all-ages show paying tribute to Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Katy Perry. A friend of mine, who is a keen music fan and supporter, often passes on my newsletter to his mailing lists to give me extra promo. This time he gets a caustic reply from one of his muso mailees. Along the lines of... (Ok, I'm copying and pasting here, so this is EXACTLY what he said with name deleted to protect the innocent):

'Supporting and promoting a cover band of US mass marketed talentless artistes. I didn't think you would sink to such subterranean depths - SHAME, xx, SHAME'

Really? I know tribute shows aren't necessarily considered cool, but personally I think 'cool' is terribly overrated and I've always known I've had no cool to lose! To be honest, since first putting this show together, I've been waiting for some kind of backlash. As a friend of mine said recently, the trouble with the music business is often the musicians - they're just too cool for their own good. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to play only the music you love and deem to be 'cool' but if you want to be in the 'music', or even, gasp, 'entertainment' business, then sometimes you have to look outside yourself. 

Anyway, the 'talentless artiste' I am 'mimicking' in this show is Lady Gaga. The more of her concerts I watch and the more songs I listen to, the more respect I have for her. She's brought outrageousness back to Pop where it belongs and has many beautifully crafted, irresistibly catchy pop songs that she sings with a strong, rich, properly-trained voice - and anyway, 'pop' stands for 'popular' right? Maybe more cool muso types would like her if she were playing at the Sando...

Have a Shameless new year everyone!

xAmanda

Rehearsal - not for professionals?

Hi there,

When I first left my 'real' job to become a singer, I spent a lot more time rehearsing than I did performing in public. In my very first band, we would rehearse at least twice every week, for gigs that were few and far between. Now, warning bells peal if I get a call to work with a band that 'rehearses regularly'.

Now don't get me wrong, thank goodness I spent all those hours holed up in musty studios all those years ago - it's invaluable time that helps hone the craft. But when you turn professional you rarely have that luxury. Getting a group of pro musicians in the one room at the one time is difficult unless you're prepared to pay them. I probably prepare and practise more for gigs now than I ever did in those early days, but now those neural pathways are mostly forged on my own time. The rehearsal studio is the venue where all the hopefully well-practised pieces of songs come together - it's all about the polishing and the buffing.

I made the mistake once of agreeing to join a band who rehearsed every Tuesday night. I loved the concept of the band, so I jumped in. The band leader sent me a list of songs and the date and venue of the first rehearsal, so I spent some hours getting the repertoire down. I try to aim for about 80% of the final product for a rehearsal - I want to be really familiar with the melody and have the lyrics and form charted out but leave a bit of room to move for changes that invariably happen during the first run-throughs. The band leader called the first song on this first Tuesday and the guitarist asked how many bars were in the intro. Then the bass player asked if it was a single or double chorus. The piano player asked me to sing the melody of the verse so he could work it out. The drummer said 'I haven't really listened to this but I think I've heard it on the radio.' I should have listened to those bells. 

Learning is vital, preparation is critical, but they shouldn't be done when you're in the room with everyone else. Rehearsals are not for learning, not even really for practising. So what's the bottom line? Rehearsals are not for rehearsing...and always listen to bells ringing in your head.

See you next time,
Amanda
www.amandaeaston.com

Music is Alive and Well in Sydney

Hi there,

It's very popular to bemoan the state of the music industry in this city - venues closing down, illegal downloading eating up artist profits etc. Not to say those things aren't true... but I witnessed something recently that made me feel very positive about music in Sydney town.

Twelve fabulous local independent artists joined me two weeks ago, on the video shoot for my upcoming single 'The New Bohemians'. The song is about having a fierce independent artistic spirit and all the people that I asked to feature in the clip have been important in my musical journey (now you know I really mean it when I use the word 'journey' because I cringe at its rampant overuse  - but I really think it fits here!).

As far as I know, noone that turned up for the shoot has made millions from their music, but each one has a passion for it that flares up into lots of different artistic projects. In the video I use the imagery of flowers to represent the blooming of creativity and the colour that music brings to the world - and this was very much in evidence behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera. Every artist has their 'something' and on this day everyone had their somethings on proud display. I also witnessed a lot of cross pollination of ideas between different artists that hadn't met before and the enthusiasm in the air was palpable.

You can't put a price on the way you can lose yourself a song, the way music can let you wallow, holler, scream, shout and be transported to a magical place. It can't be all about the cold hards. It may be difficult to make money from our art and even trickier sometimes to find a place to stage it, but it exists and in some sunny corners of this town, it is absolutely in full bloom.

Check out the pictures from behind the scenes of the shoot:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/87281046@N05/sets/72157649047780981/

See you next time.

Learn the f@#!$%^n song!

Hi there,

Recently a friend reminded me of an incident at a gig we had done together some years ago. When I say 'reminded' I say 'rubbed a bit more salt in the already open wound'! OK, that may be a little melodramatic, but this particular happening is not likely to slip out of my memory banks anytime soon. I was singing at The Basement, one of my favourite venues - mainly because I feel part of a rich heritage of music when I play there, and the audience are invariably real music lovers...Anyway, it was a tribute show, and as well as doing a few lead songs, I was singing backing vocals for a bunch of other artists, including some that were quite high profile. One particularly 'well-loved' (but not by me, now!) artist had decided, on stage, that he would do a different arrangement of the song than the one we had all tirelessly rehearsed. Well, the rest of us had tirelessly rehearsed but this particular singer is infamous for not learning his material. 

Now, regardless of who is in the right, I believe that a band and backing singers should always follow the frontperson - someone has to lead the charge after all and it's hard to argue with the guy singing the melody into the microphone. So the other bv singer and I did our parts while watching him intently to see where he was going. We did our darndest to follow him as he meandered through his unique version of this particular tune but the band

were struggling and so were we. At one stage he got so badly befuddled even he didn't know where to go next, and decided someone needed to be blamed. Publicly. On stage. In front of everyone. At the Basement! Yeah you guessed it, the poor backing singers copped it. In the middle of the song, he flicked his hands in our eager faces, yelling 'f7^&*#@n backing singers, get it right!!'. You could hear the audience take a collective breath in and I stood there mortified. Do I keep singing and smile as if it were a joke? Leave the stage in a huff? In reality I just stood there with an open mouth and the colour draining out of my face until I could collect myself for the next song. That was years ago but I still feel the pain.

Recently another tribute show was staged at a bigger, even more presitigious venue. The band were top notch and really learnt their stuff. The singers were again, 'well-loved' and didn't bother turning up to the rehearsals. Talent can get you so far and most of the gig went relatively well but there was a train wreck or two - just learn your f@#!$%^n songs! It's our job and it's fun. Don't get caught with your pants down.

See you next time - I've got to go - got some songs to learn!
xAmanda