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.
Who’s that on the front page of reverbnation.com??? WOW! It’s me!!! You can help me to thank reverbnation by downloading my new tune The Sound of a Breaking Heart…for free! Just have a listen and then click the download button on the widget below. There’s plenty of other great content on my reverbnation page and lots of free downloads so have a look. And if you’re an artist who hasn’t yet signed up, I’m now giving you a virtual spanking! Thwack! Thanks peeps. x
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
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!
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!
So lovelies, it’s been a while! I’m back to talk about my Buy Nothing New for a Year Project. Next month, it will have been one year since I started. It hardly seems possible! For those of you who are not familiar with this challenge. Here’s what I’ve restricted myself from doing…
No new stuff! This includes,
Here’s what I allowed myself to buy if I needed
So I did pretty well. Did I actually go an entire year without buying anything new? Not really. Here’s what I cheated on:
I’m sure there have been various other infractions over time…but these are the ones I can think of at present. It’s been a good year, I think that I will try to continue as best I can and certainly to buy nothing new, wisely. I’ve learned a lot in this past year and really wish I could have back all that money I’ve spent over time on shit I just don’t need! Makes me a little sick to my stomach to think of things I’ve bought in the past and then contributed to the landfill a few short years later. I’m sure the thousands of dollars could have been much better employed somewhere else. As the song by one of my fave solo bass players says….You Can’t Throw It Away (There’s No Such Thing as Away).
So since I feel I’ve vastly improved the quality of my life by this little challenge, I’ve now started thinking about what’s next. One of the things I’ve been proudest of in my life was how books have steered me, changed me, molded me, inspired me. I used to be one of the most prolific readers that I knew. The time that I used to spend reading books, I now mostly spend on the Internet. There’s got to be some balance between these two things no? So my next challenge is to join a library (too bad London doesn’t have any good ones to read one book per week and write about it. I’ve also joined LibraryThing at the suggestion of the lovely @secretlondon So have a look, send me a suggestion for a nice read and I’ll let you know how it goes in the coming months. I’ll probably start in January this time as I’ll be on tour for most of November and December but who knows, maybe I’ll get a head start! 
Much love and thanks for all the love and support lots have you have given me this last year. You know who you are! xoxox
