"Woke up this morning, with a smile on my face....how I can never replace thoughts of you..."
Well...maybe not "you", but rather "Europe"!
These are the first lyrics of my song "Never The Less" and these few words describe EXACTLY how I'm feeling at this very early hour on a Saturday morning! I should be sleeping in, right? Well, when you have a 6 y/o who craves life and wakes up at the break of dawn, no matter what day of the week, Saturdays no longer equate to "sleep in". So, of course, as I roll over trying to wake up I grab my cell phone to get social media's bright light...yes, I am that girl who wakes up to say "Hmm...wonder if I have any new fb notifications" (a bit sad, but you know you do it too!).
Well, to my very pleasant surprise, when I looked at my fb notifications, I was tagged to a review by Soul Sonic, (a German social media site for soul and jazz music) of my new remix "I Can't Help It"...and boy is this a gift! Why? So many reasons...let me explain:
For the past several years, I have been an uber fan of soul music from European artists. After getting hipped to a variety of artists and listening carefully to the progressive nature of the music, my musical interests have grown and my ear has also become pretty selective. One of the reasons I began "MUSIC TUESDAYS!" here on fb was to spread the joy I receive from listening to music that isn't main stream, and often these artists and their music are either based in Europe or at least in heavy rotation abroad.
When I decided to return to my passion for performing music, I had no clue what that really meant. I knew that I wanted to make good music and I simply wanted people to hear it. I didn't contemplate "test markets" or "social media how to's" or "steps 1,2 & 3" of the life of an independent artist- I just jumped into this ocean called the music industry and learned how to tread water pretty quickly. I think I have at least learned a basic swim stroke, but the specialty strokes are still on the horizon!
One of the things I learned very quickly was that here in the US, music's sense of community is so dilapidated that we no longer can rely on our main stream efforts to showcase independent artists, or those artists who have less than 75K Twitter followers or less than 100K views on Youtube. Well, as an artist, I fall into "this" category of independent musicians who is still climbing and developing. My few thousands of fb fans and few hundred twitter followers don't truly make the cut for American main stream music standards. Therefore, I realized quickly, I would need to say "Hello, Europe!" because they have a music market in many of their countries that DO show heavy support for independent artists in a mainstream manner. Plus, I have admired and supported artists abroad for years...why not see if Europe will do the same for me and my music journey?
And so...with my newest remix release of "I Can't Help It" the goal was to do my best to enter the European market of music. Now, there was no rocket science involved. In fact, my ears have listened to so much soul and jazz music from abroad that it simply drifts in that space when I'm writing and arranging. I love the contemporary yet retro sounds of many artists such as Jazzanova, Brand New Heavies, Incognito, Janita, Beady Belle, Clara Hill, Omar, and the list goes on and on...(if you've never heard music from these artists- google, go to amazon, iTunes, SOMETHING quick and in a hurry!). Not that I want to mimic anyone's music, but creating grooves that I admire was something I definitely desired. With the help of the new producers I've met (Othello Glenn and Dave Stoller with SugaBoom Productions; Maurice Joshua with NuSoul), I see the light! I see the possibilities...I see how my music can evolve and sit comfortably in the European music market.
And so...for 40 days after my 40th birthday last November, I sat still, prayed, meditated and had many "come to Jesus" moments as I asked God to reveal a way for me to make some type of mark or move in Europe. I didn't have any more details than that- simply my goal was to get the attention of a European market, whether it be the UK, Germany, France, etc. Simply somewhere because I knew my spirit was telling me...this will be a good supportive place for your music as you grow.
Now...I'm not giving up on the US. This is HOME!!! I need American supporters beyond a shadow of a doubt...but, I'm not limited to this space. And that's okay.
In the past several months, several European DJ's, music industry professionals, and artists have reached out and either promoted my music, played it on their sites/stations/podcasts, and written blogs. But, today I received my first European (German) FORMAL (unsolicited) review of my music! Funny...it's in German...but, thankfully Google offers translation so I was able to copy and paste the piece in Google Translation. Here is the link for you to check out as well:
New Music on SonicSoul Reviews
http://www.sonicsoulreviews.com/2013/04/28/kenya-i-sugaboom-remix/
Hoping I not only say "Hello, Europe!" from my computer in Illinois...hoping I can step off a plane, touch the ground, and hop on stage and say "Hello, Europe! Let's go!"... :-)
Here is a (broken) English translation of the review, but please visit the link above so you can browse the site, listen to my music, and see reviews for other fantastic artists!
"Rain falls - but it is approaching redemption in part of Kenya. Contrary to its already used like M.Jackson statement of "I Can not Help It" contains the matching sun beat right here. By almost playful ease wipes an airy arrangement on a fast-understated groove any clouds field from the firmament. Soul soufflé.
To us so gladdening "Sugaboom Mix" took Kenya in 2012, published their EP called "Jazz Rhythm Made" The title says it all - Kenya and their variations of classics from soul and jazz. And that it succeeds in stattsam otherwise known popular songs a la "Summertime" or to set its own priorities "My Funny Valentine", reason enough for a Sonic Soul recommendation should be."
Well...maybe not "you", but rather "Europe"!
These are the first lyrics of my song "Never The Less" and these few words describe EXACTLY how I'm feeling at this very early hour on a Saturday morning! I should be sleeping in, right? Well, when you have a 6 y/o who craves life and wakes up at the break of dawn, no matter what day of the week, Saturdays no longer equate to "sleep in". So, of course, as I roll over trying to wake up I grab my cell phone to get social media's bright light...yes, I am that girl who wakes up to say "Hmm...wonder if I have any new fb notifications" (a bit sad, but you know you do it too!).
Well, to my very pleasant surprise, when I looked at my fb notifications, I was tagged to a review by Soul Sonic, (a German social media site for soul and jazz music) of my new remix "I Can't Help It"...and boy is this a gift! Why? So many reasons...let me explain:
For the past several years, I have been an uber fan of soul music from European artists. After getting hipped to a variety of artists and listening carefully to the progressive nature of the music, my musical interests have grown and my ear has also become pretty selective. One of the reasons I began "MUSIC TUESDAYS!" here on fb was to spread the joy I receive from listening to music that isn't main stream, and often these artists and their music are either based in Europe or at least in heavy rotation abroad.
When I decided to return to my passion for performing music, I had no clue what that really meant. I knew that I wanted to make good music and I simply wanted people to hear it. I didn't contemplate "test markets" or "social media how to's" or "steps 1,2 & 3" of the life of an independent artist- I just jumped into this ocean called the music industry and learned how to tread water pretty quickly. I think I have at least learned a basic swim stroke, but the specialty strokes are still on the horizon!
One of the things I learned very quickly was that here in the US, music's sense of community is so dilapidated that we no longer can rely on our main stream efforts to showcase independent artists, or those artists who have less than 75K Twitter followers or less than 100K views on Youtube. Well, as an artist, I fall into "this" category of independent musicians who is still climbing and developing. My few thousands of fb fans and few hundred twitter followers don't truly make the cut for American main stream music standards. Therefore, I realized quickly, I would need to say "Hello, Europe!" because they have a music market in many of their countries that DO show heavy support for independent artists in a mainstream manner. Plus, I have admired and supported artists abroad for years...why not see if Europe will do the same for me and my music journey?
And so...with my newest remix release of "I Can't Help It" the goal was to do my best to enter the European market of music. Now, there was no rocket science involved. In fact, my ears have listened to so much soul and jazz music from abroad that it simply drifts in that space when I'm writing and arranging. I love the contemporary yet retro sounds of many artists such as Jazzanova, Brand New Heavies, Incognito, Janita, Beady Belle, Clara Hill, Omar, and the list goes on and on...(if you've never heard music from these artists- google, go to amazon, iTunes, SOMETHING quick and in a hurry!). Not that I want to mimic anyone's music, but creating grooves that I admire was something I definitely desired. With the help of the new producers I've met (Othello Glenn and Dave Stoller with SugaBoom Productions; Maurice Joshua with NuSoul), I see the light! I see the possibilities...I see how my music can evolve and sit comfortably in the European music market.
And so...for 40 days after my 40th birthday last November, I sat still, prayed, meditated and had many "come to Jesus" moments as I asked God to reveal a way for me to make some type of mark or move in Europe. I didn't have any more details than that- simply my goal was to get the attention of a European market, whether it be the UK, Germany, France, etc. Simply somewhere because I knew my spirit was telling me...this will be a good supportive place for your music as you grow.
Now...I'm not giving up on the US. This is HOME!!! I need American supporters beyond a shadow of a doubt...but, I'm not limited to this space. And that's okay.
In the past several months, several European DJ's, music industry professionals, and artists have reached out and either promoted my music, played it on their sites/stations/podcasts, and written blogs. But, today I received my first European (German) FORMAL (unsolicited) review of my music! Funny...it's in German...but, thankfully Google offers translation so I was able to copy and paste the piece in Google Translation. Here is the link for you to check out as well:
New Music on SonicSoul Reviews
http://www.sonicsoulreviews.com/2013/04/28/kenya-i-sugaboom-remix/
Hoping I not only say "Hello, Europe!" from my computer in Illinois...hoping I can step off a plane, touch the ground, and hop on stage and say "Hello, Europe! Let's go!"... :-)
Here is a (broken) English translation of the review, but please visit the link above so you can browse the site, listen to my music, and see reviews for other fantastic artists!
"Rain falls - but it is approaching redemption in part of Kenya. Contrary to its already used like M.Jackson statement of "I Can not Help It" contains the matching sun beat right here. By almost playful ease wipes an airy arrangement on a fast-understated groove any clouds field from the firmament. Soul soufflé.
To us so gladdening "Sugaboom Mix" took Kenya in 2012, published their EP called "Jazz Rhythm Made" The title says it all - Kenya and their variations of classics from soul and jazz. And that it succeeds in stattsam otherwise known popular songs a la "Summertime" or to set its own priorities "My Funny Valentine", reason enough for a Sonic Soul recommendation should be."
Download available at www.KenyaMJMusic.com
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