Posted May 14, 2015 at 9:44 am

Here we go (almost)

I know, it's so like me – to post a cliffhanger and then leave this blog empty and echoing.

But I was busy! (excuses, excuses).

And so here are some dates and goodies:

As you can see above, this is the cover for my upcoming album 'Messenger'. The single 'Trap' will go live on iTunes worldwide June 1st, and the entire album will be available for pre-order. Oh yes, and a really awesome remix of 'Trap' will be available, too. The full album will go live June 29, 2015.

Track list has been updated, and here it is:

1. Trap

2. Messenger (feat. Great Caesar)

3. Familiar

4. Time of Your Life

5. Icarus

6. Satellite

7. These Stupid Games

8. Bella Anima

9. Space Pirate's Love Song

10. Trap (J Paul Mix)

This is very much my album, in the sense that it's multi genre and yet, I am hoping, there is a thread running through it. It sits somewhere in between Beatrix Runs and Hero in scope. I'll do some detailed entries on the songs and their stories later (yes, I will – pinky swear!)

This album, unlike Hero and more like Beatrix Runs, has a number of pure acoustic moments – but also gets its share of majestic and choral. Generally speaking, it's quite organic and has a lot of piano in it. More than half the tracks – or at least their foundations were recorded live, as in: me, playing piano and singing at the same time.

That brings me to THE TOUR: Look at the right hand column and you will find my tour dates for this summer, or some of them (since we are adding more soon). I'll be performing in New York, Moscow, London, L.A. & San Francisco over the course of two months, so make sure you come and partake, if you are in the area.

What else? I will be the voice of the Tavern Bard for Dragon Age again this year, so that's fun:)

OK, I am off to do more work.

PS: the source image for the cover is by a wonderful artist I discovered recently, whose name is Eugenia Loli. Google her and partake of her work because she is remarkable – and this cover will get a blog entry all its very own quite soon.

Posted March 11, 2015 at 11:07 am

My album is done!!!!!

And here's a late night poem. I'll write more later with all the details.

A time to write, my cup is full,
I hug the night, I call its bluff –
you cannot hide, my other half,
I hear you call; I've set my sail.

From dusk till dawn where lovers live
where stardust gathers at the crack
between what's lost and what we give
I'll find you there – I'll bring you back

A time to write, the moon is high
it sings and whispers me to sleep
I'm dreaming as I slip away
while streetlights sway and shadows creep

I'm full of hope, I'm blessed by words
tomorrow is a gift to claim
Just wait for me, my other half:
I hear you call; I've set my sail.

Posted February 4, 2015 at 5:42 am

I believe in fairy tales and serendipitous encounters….

It is windy outside. i am hungry. I have been singing, writing, singing again, and now it's time for some British TV crime drama. Life is good. Next week I go to Russia!

On another note, I received an mp3 of elementary school recital performance of my song Dreamer: as performed by 2nd-5th graders. It seriously made my day!

Posted January 26, 2015 at 6:23 am

More dragon love:)

I've had a busy few weeks. The album is almost ready, it's being mixed, actually. Mixing is always so emotional and drives me crazy. All the weaknesses of the tracks become obvious, and sometimes you know exactly what needs to be done, while other times you are lost and are searching for the words in the dark, which must seriously frustrate my mixing engineer.

As I may have mentioned earlier, I sang a bunch of songs for Dragon Age Inqusition, which is a pretty cool role-playing video game. The songs were not part of the official soundtrack, but the fans of the game loved them so much, they kept asking the developers to release them separately. Lo and behold, Bioware, the game's developer gave in after a few months of the enthusiasm and is now releasing an official album:) There are ten songs. By the way, they just announced today that they are giving them away for free together with sheet music for two weeks, and also holding a fan contest. Get them HERE.

In the meantime, I filmed and recorded a couple of the songs I sang in-game, for your pleasure. The music and lyrics are by a good friend of mine, a very talented composer Raney Schockne:

Enchanter

And here is a song about a cheeky girl-warrior:

I had a fantastic show a week ago, here are a couple of pics:

Posted January 6, 2015 at 8:08 am

Happy New Year!

So my birthday came and went, and now it's already the 4th day of 2015. Is it just me or time has sped up once again? I guess it's more important than ever to be mindful and present otherwise the time will just pass you by and one day you'll wake up, thinking: 'What is this? How did I get here? This is not the right place-person-house-country-job… what??'

That said, I have great hopes for 2015, but it all depends on me. Can I steer my ship proudly out of harbors into the open ocean? Can I navigate my way to the magical archipelago of Dreams? Well, you get the idea. No wonder I was obsessed with pirate and oceanography books when I was little. Life is travel. We journey through time and space, although in reality we may not be going anywhere at all. Some people need maps, others can do it by stars. Which one am I in the end?

In the meantime, I am working on the acoustic album once again, and it's almost finished. More on that and my collaboration with a really cool band on its first single later.

I am also almost done with my first Japanese language single, which is a duet. I know it took me ages, but I guess I am one of those people – I may not get to something for the longest time, but eventually I do get there. I suppose I am more of a tortoise than hare – a late bloomer.

Same thing with my Chinese effort – Odi et Amo in Chinese will be done and released by the end of this month.

Anyway, the good news is that I am going to post an acoustic video of an original or cover every week for the next couple of months leading up to the release of the acoustic album.

Here are the first two: Titanium (Sia + David Guetta)

I have loved this song for a while – it speaks to me in many ways, especially how much stronger I want to be in general. Titanium is also a very light material, you see – so although it's incredibly resistant, it's also not heavy, which is what makes it so special. Strength, but lightness of being – I have desired this state for a while now.

And here is Blank Space by Taylor Swift. When I first heard this song, I went immediately to check the lyrics to make sure I had not misheard. This song is incredibly dark, lyrically, It's about obsession and recurring destructive patterns of behavior. It's also about never really settling, not being able to fully engage, apart from the storm of initial attraction – and so you end up with a 'blank space' over and over again. The original is so upbeat that it's easy to miss this. I loved that too, since I also often couch sadness into jaunty melodies. Anyway, here is my take on it: