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:

Posted December 17, 2014 at 1:40 am

Onwards

I got a little burned out and spent the last day and a half basically being a vegetable and watching a lot of Japanese animation. Yeah, I am a geek, what can I say. When I have time, I'll take good anime over pretty much any TV or film stuff. It's probably no surprise then, that my new version of Dreamer I just recorded in Japanese (live video to follow shortly) sounds like something from the opening credits of an anime.

I need to get back to work tomorrow and give it one big final push until Christmas and my birthday roll around in a week and a half's time.

The energy feels odd these days. There is a lot of tension in the air. It feels like systems and structures are either breaking down or are at their limits. There have been two big shoot-outs and hostage situations in the last 48 hours. Maybe I am also afraid whether I can live up to what 2015 has in store for me.

I am also worried about Russia and its economy. I feel terrible about Ukraine and where it's headed in 2015. I don't understand the glee I often encounter online, Twitter and Facebook when it comes to economical woes of countries. I don't find it funny when pundits compete with each other for the pithiest tweet on the subject. Don't people understand that at some level, *all* the rich and powerful of the world are always ok? It's the normal, regular people who suffer when a currency goes way down or when sanctions are applied. It's the old people who have to survive on their measly pensions – children who don't get proper healthcare or education – nurses and musicians who don't get paid – and so on.

I also don't understand blanket hate and derision. I don't understand when someone posts under my audio for 'Hero' a comment: "F**ck all Russians".

Anyway. I think it's time I took a long break from all news and internet-related things.

And here are a couple of videos we shot recently, when I was in the studio, recording.

This is 'Marshmallow World' – one of my fav Christmas songs:

We kind of went overboard with Santa hats, but hey – sometimes you just need to be silly.

And this is 'Silent Night', in Russian:

I am going to take a couple of days off internet and work on music. Enjoy and see you soon…x

Posted December 12, 2014 at 10:46 am

perfect storms

I am writing this, while I am laying in bed. Southern California has been finally blessed by the weather gods and we got another storm, courtesy of Hawaii. The Pineapple Express is drenching the city and the L.A. river, for once, looks like a river. I am happy for the plants and the hills.

This was a long and pretty intense week, as I was also fighting off a cold. We shot and recorded a bunch more live videos, some of which will go up shortly. Christmas songs, yea. And others.

I recorded some songs on Dragon Age Inquisition (video game) and recently it's been fun getting all the positive feedback from the fans.

We also laid down some foundation for the official "Hero" video this weekend. Without revealing too much yet, this is going to be epic and so much fun. Hint: swords, storyboards, epic adventure and cloaks to be involved.

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Here is one of the songs I sang for Dragon Age, by the way. It's quite fun and mischivious:

In any case, as I am writing this, the sun is coming out. I am feeling contented, although tired. There's a lot of work ahead before my birthday and the year's end. But I am feeling hopeful and accomplished. Hard work, passion and faith will get me there.

Posted November 23, 2014 at 5:46 am

Spy Satellites

So, as a little heads up, I will be launching a brand new music side project soon. It's called Spy Satellites and it will be All Electro All The Time. What that means is that this will be my electronic music project. I am excited about it because it has a significantly different sound. We already have the first single in place, it's getting mixed, and we're looking to make a video for it very soon, too.

This morning I am rather grumpy because I dropped my iPhone into a cup of tea as I randomly woke up in the wee hours of the morning and was checking the time. Fingers crossed it will dry out and be as good as new – because it IS new – my old one was washed in the washing machine prior to my departure for Russia. I am never this clumsy, I have no idea what is happening.

I'll just choose to believe that something amazing is around the corner and this is a way to get any kinks out of the way. Yeah, yeah, I know. But I have to believe something other than that I have to get a new iPhone.

Posted November 22, 2014 at 7:51 am