Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Lots of Progress

Whew, it's been a long month with a lot of progress, apologies on not updating..so it goes! So the EP is slowly coming along. Lead vocals have been laid down on I think 4 tunes or so and last week we laid down background vocals with Stephanie Rogers (Ladybird and the Vultures/Rust Belt Rumble Band/Max Power Trio and more) and Allison Woods, a student at OU whom I met the day of officially (we had talked on the phone and exchanged emails). I had sent them parts via email and got together with Steph once to talk about the direction of the album and everything came together in the studio quite nicely. I stood in the control booth, Steph was to my right in an isolated booth, and Allison was in front of us in the bigger room. It was fun singing with them and kind of directing both of them. They both have wonderful voices and I am excited to hear back what we did, I did not come home with anything so it'll be nice to hear the tracks with fresh ears once I go back down.

I have been rehearsing with a new drummer (Justin Campbell has since moved to L.A. so he is on to bigger and better things, good luck JCam you are already missed!!). Ryan Jessie is a drummer who I know through Chillicothe people, he just moved back to town from Tennessee. He is a great guy and was recommended by a trusted musician friend Stephen Hummel from down in Chilli and has been filling the "JCam void" very nicely. Jeff Bass is holding down the bass right now as well. We practiced the other day in the day time at my townhouse in the basement and his bass was rumbling the whole place..luckily we did not get yelled at by the neighbors (like last time when we practiced at night..oops). They seem to be pretty tolerable, since the townhouses are all technically connected I try to give them the heads up we're gonna be making noise.

So the other really cool thing with this project is the VISUALS! I always seem to be in bands that are a little less about the performance and visuals which is fine..it let's the music really shine. This time around though I'm looking to fuse the visual art with the music. First thing we gotta get right? The outfits! I've been working with Brittany Lawson who works out of a studio over at the 400 W. Rich St. warehouse. She is super cool and is helping create a custom designed suit for me. It's super fun going over there and being inspired by all the artists, trapeze artists, food trucks, and more. We had one of the final suit fittings today and she ordered the fabric today as well, I'm super excited. Check out my instagram @efilsitra to see some of the fabric and what the suit looks like, I'll try to upload some pics here as well as progress is made.

I'm working on my soul education as this project is all about groove, R&B, gospel, and soul so here are some covers I'm working on...some old some new:

The Walk - Mayer Hawthorne
Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
Getting Out - Daniel Merriweather
That's It I Quit I'm Moving On - Sam Cooke
Baby Don't Ya Do It - Alvin Robinson

July 17th is going to be the big debut at Brothers Drake 9p-12a so put that on your calendars...getting pumped!

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