In these days of musicians counting myspace plays and friend requests as a way of measuring popularity, it's easy to forget that not too long ago the much lamented MP3.com was making stars of its own (and paying them, no less!) with independent artists racking up ten of thousands of plays. And some whose play count went from tens to hundreds of thousands, and then to millions.
Enter singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist Lobelia, whose profile on that original indie music portal lead her to places most independent musicians only dream of - lucrative sponsorship deals, a publishing contract and a feature in Billboard magazine. Playing in a duo with acclaimed British bassist Steve Lawson, Lobelia's sound blends hook-laden adult pop with a more spacial ambient sensibility reminiscent of David Sylvian, Talk Talk and The Blue Nile. Singing songs of love and loss, her star is once again on the ascendancy, with the coming year promising at least two new albums and more touring in Europe, the US and further afield.
Steve has just about put the finishing touches on our Live In Nebraska Album on Bandcamp. This has been just about sold out since we made it (and we did make lots of copies!) but now you’ll be able to pay what you want for this amazing CD. It’s truly one of the best recordings I’ve ever been a part of….partly due to it being the last show on our US tour that year and us playing really well….and partly due to the amazing Dan Kane at Power Base Studio really knowing how to capture live sound. It also doesn’t hurt that his studio is perfect either. (It’s only $500/US per diem, you really should go and record there sometime!) We’ve never played the song Rain like this since. It’s breathtaking.
So download like crazy, share with your friends. Pass it on and let us know what you think! xo Steve and Lo.
What time is it? My internal body clock has stopped. Not on the one that goes…”hey honey, lets make a baby!” or the one that says..”Don’t you think it’s time to settle down?” but the one that tells me to wake up at 8am every morning and then lets me go back to sleep ’til 11. I usually fly from California, back to the East coast, and then back to the UK. That makes it a lot easier. This year it was the hardcore 10 hour flight from San Francisco over the Canadian wilderness. The real clock says it’s 3:47am, and I just ate some crisps and a larabar. Hellooo breakfast.
Random Facts I’ve been getting all these requests for random facts about myself on facebook. Why am I acquiescing and doing your bidding? Cause I’m jet lagged and don’t yet have the brain capacity to do some real work. I could barely spell acquiescing. Hell, I could barely spell barely. Read the rest of this entry »
Hi there all! This’ll be a long one as I’ve got a lot to say. :D Hopefully you’re itchin’ fer an update so you won’t be snoozing by the end. If not, treat each part like a chapter…bookmark my RSS feed and come back every day! House Concerts and the Like
I know that I’ve been a bad person and haven’t been blogging of late. Truthfully, I find it hard to be on the web much when I’m on the road. I just don’t have the constitution for it, and am likely to be more concerned with when/where I might find something I can eat. (I’m endlessly concerned about food when we’re touring) I have tried to keep you all updated via facebook and twitter…and if you’re following Steve, then none of this matters because you’ll have known our every move for sure as he lives his entire life on the web….well, almost.
So having a tour that was almost exclusively house concerts this year was a blast. There’s nothing like getting to play to groups of under 40 each night, the connection you can achieve with your audience is astounding. There’s a real conversational banter that opens up between you and your audience and it makes me realise how much I always hated playing club dates…and why I was always happier playing places like the Yellow Door and Ginglik. Aside from that, getting to stay somewhere cool each night, rather than some overpriced rat trap with someone else’s hair on the sheets was amazing. Aside from that, people letting me use their kitchens….personal tours of new cities….and just an all round feeling of welcoming into new/old groups of friends was stunning.
Thanks to everyone! Here’s some great pics from the shows!
Bob knows the Obama makes the world a better place for blind cats.
Steve and I with Holly and Victor Wooten
Being filmed at the house concert in Nashville.
Lovely Rachel Dyer and Sarah Masen Dark
Rachel and I at the Nashville House Concert
My hero Corey and I having fun and being silly!
Duquesne Uni in Pittsburgh Masterclass
YAY! It’s one of my fave drummers/friends Kevin Quickle!!!!
Steve and Owen from the Roots, in Philly
LA Future of Music Masterclass
Ah, sweet boys. Peter Murray and Steve
Claudio Zanghieri and Alain Caron
Steve and Claudio at Looperlative, Michael Manring to the left
David Torn, Moi, and the lovely Bryan Lawson
Two great bassists…Lee Sklar and Arianne Cap
Me learning some new skillz
How cool is this…I’m so proud to be a part of a whole new America
Kerry Getz’s fabulous house concert and inaugural party! She’s amazing!
Hi lovelies. So everyone knows that I’m crazy about looping. I think it’s the most fun one can have outside of hog rasslin’ and whittlin’. So I thought I’d post a couple of the latest vids in case you haven’t seen them. Why? Because I like sharing. Why else? Cause I’m in desperate need of your approval. But seriously, we’re gearing up to do a nice little tutorial video on looping and using the Looperlative, which is the most amazing looper in the universe. Designed and built by one of the coolest and nicest people in the known universe as well. Do you know what that means? It means that looping has never been nicer, or more amazing.
So enjoy the videos and as always, speaking for frogs and rutabagas everywhere, I’m Lobelia. Good day.
This is a new song called The Sound of a Breaking Heart. I started the looping out on mute….which is a dangerous thing..cause not only you can’t hear what it’s going to sound like…I can’t either!!! Also, a nice example of what happens when you get an extra beat in the loop live. You just go with it and point upwards.
This is a song called In, which I wrote for bass and voice when I was 19. I’d never done it live as it needed to have tonnes of harmonies and what not to work on stage. And only a short 249 years later Voila! Modern technology!
How important is self esteem to your audience? I’ve been pondering this question quite a lot since last Tuesday…when a couple of producers who were interested in perhaps featuring me and my music in a TV series that they’re shooting in different cities around the world came to the show. I was very nervous of course, and to add a little more pressure I had planned a mostly looping set including a total a Capella improv piece. Due to nervousness, I did what I normally do…which is to make self-deprecating jokes.
At the end of the show, it seems that both producers really liked the music, but one in particular didn’t like my stage presence at all. The self-deprecation was annoying to him and he felt that it just wasn’t what he needed for the show. (this is what I gathered after chatting with the other producer/filmmaker that stayed) To be fair, there is a difference in how I perform to a room full of mates (which this show certainly was, and how I perform on a large stage to hundreds (or thousands) of people whom I don’t know.
There’s certainly a lesson to be learned here. Music is the one thing in my life that I am confident about. So why do I feel the need to apologise for myself on stage if I make a mistake? Am I spending precious time internally focused when I should be spending time connecting with my audience? I do know one thing for sure; when I open up and talk about myself and explain what my songs mean to me, I sell a lot more CDs and people stay to chat after the show. If I can’t show the audience that I believe that I’m worth the six squids they just spent to see me, or the time they took to travel to the venue…do you think they’re going to think I am worth it?
The audience has no idea how long I’ve been writing songs, or busting my ass to make a living in this business and probably most of them don’t really care. They came out to be entertained…to a PERFORMANCE, and me being apologetic about dropping a D chord on the 2nd verse of Morgantown and Montreal isn’t nearly as interesting to them as me telling the story of what the song is about. About the last night I spent with my friend before he was in a horrible car accident, and the guilt associated with moving on with your life and having to leave people you love behind. How life moves on after you do and people who were once your whole world get hurt….people are born, people die, and you can’t stop any of it. A lot more interesting eh?
The truth is, I’m always going to be a little awkward on stage; I’m awkward in person. I’ve spent enough time in my life trying to force myself into roles that don’t fit…trying to be things I’m not. I’m not going to change everything I do based on the opinion of someone I don’t know who has seen me perform one time. But I can learn from the experience and keep in it mind in the future. The whole reason I perform is to share little snippets of my life. I’ve created little snow globes out of experiences and I shake ‘em all up once in a while for you to see. The next time I do this, I’ll try and tell you more stories about the snow, I promise.
What time is it? My internal body clock has stopped. Not on the one that goes…”hey honey, lets make a baby!” or the one that says..”Don’t you think it’s time to settle down?” but the one that tells me to wake up at 8am every morning and then lets me go back to sleep ’til 11. I usually fly from California, back to the East coast, and then back to the UK. That makes it a lot easier. This year it was the hardcore 10 hour flight from San Francisco over the Canadian wilderness. The real clock says it’s 3:47am, and I just ate some crisps and a larabar. Hellooo breakfast.
