The raindrops start to fall and winter swings our way down here in South Africa. As the city is ever-buzzing on this wet grey day, I'm treating my ears to a little piece of heaven.
If you're not in love with someone you will fall in love with his gently inviting voice after listening to the ultimate love singer of all time Nat King Cole.
"L-O-V-E" is a personal favourite but "Unforgettable" is currently on my mind.
It makes me feel like I'm stepping into old Hollywood where absolutely anything is possible.
I have no idea how I landed myself on this lovely lady's video of her first audition of the Australian X Factor 2012.
Her audition of the song "Skinny Love" was perfectly magical. I became slightly obsessed and checked out more of her performances on the X Factor.
Since the X Factor she has been signed by Sony and is coming on the music scene with some good content. I am very keen to hear some of her own songs in the future. I don't think this girl is going to die out very soon.
The combination of her voice, her look and her character is undoubtedly captivating.
Her single "Set Me On Fire" is out and you can download it on iTunes.
First on the list is classical Lana del Rey. The composition of her music is absolutely insane. Such an easy singer with a mystical feel. I love how she puts her experiences to words.
The lady who took me through my teenage days - Avril Lavigne. Outspoken. Outrageous. Every girl can relate. You think she'll change but she never does.
I fell in love with Fantasia in her performance at the American Idols 2013 Finale. A soul woman! This lady sings right from the gut.
Ain't no messing around with this lady. Nicki Minaj does what she wants when she wants. Attitude for days. She's a brilliant rapper. Don't argue with me on this.
We each have a Never Never Land of our own - a place where we can escape from "reality". Whether it be a spiritual place of happiness and peace, substance addiction, a lover, or some form of ritualistic behaviour. We need a form of escape because we are not one dimensional creatures.
The idea of Never Never Land has been growing on me for quite some time. The Disney movie Peter Pan holds so many hidden messages which slowly start coming to light as I progress through the "stages" of life.
Peter Pan doesn't want to grow up (like many of us) so he tries to prolong the process by going to a place where time pauses and he doesn't age. Wendy is about to grow up and is confronted with the responsibilites that she'll have to take on. But alas, Peter Pan invites her to dodge the harsh reality ahead of her and escape to a world where time is paused.
I don't think there's anything wrong with us escaping into a different world - to experience pockets of fantasy and wonder where all the worries disappear.
But it gets more complicated when you realise that even Never Never Land has dangers of its own. Peter Pan has to take on the evil Hook and the hungry croc. Wendy also realises that mermaids aren't as charming as she may have thought.
When we enter into our own Never Never Lands, we experience the same thing. There are dangers and disappointments. But even so, our Never Never Lands are much more appealing than reality. Secretly, we hold on tight to our experiences in Never Never Land as we enter back into reality.
My Never Never Land in the song I wrote is a place where two lovers enter where nothing else in the world matters. Time stops. There are no worries. The world is a beautiful place.
My first impression of Eurice van Zyl was not a good one. I was trying to concentrate in the crowded sociology class. Unlike most of the 400 odd students in the class, I was genuinely interested in the topic of discussion. In the fourth row, an annoying person caught my attention. I swear this guy was ADD. He kept laughing and carrying on. I was so angry with this disruptive guy, I hated him from the start.
But I changed my mind later on in the year when I myself was becoming quite disruptive in the Xhosa lecture purely because the lectures were so boring. This guy that I always thought was majorly annoying, could be my partner in crime in this particular lecture. We landed up joking our way through class, purposefully steering our lecturers away from anything related to Xhosa and flirting with anyone who landed themselves next to us. Regardless of our self-entertaining class activities, we passed the subject.
Eurice told me about his band and all the gigs that they were playing at but nothing really became of it until 2012. Within those two years I started writing my own songs. Eurice invited me to play at some of his band's gigs and invited me to record with him playing violin parts. Later, he roped me in on singing in one of his songs at Jo Ellis' studio in the Karoo. This is what came out of the studio:
Eurice van Zyl. An amazing man, positively mad, great song -writer/singer, full of ideas, all over the place. But it takes mad people to change the world.
Its time to get back to song-writing. And its frikken hard. When life gets busy and you're always on the move, its hard to get back to that emotional state where songs flow from your heart to a sound.
My wallet is empty, my mind is full and my heart is dry. This is what happens when you invest your life and your time into turning your diary to life as Alicia Keys would put it.
But its time to build a bridge and get over myself. So I begin to think back on times gone by. Them good old days when we were honey children of the fields. Then the thoughts are numbed and feeling kicks in. I get lost in the piano keys and a melody finds me.
Since I've been receiving really good feedback from Soundcloud, I've been taking some time to explore the talent on Soundcloud.
Upon my quest I found a very big chunk of average to below average music. There seems to be a lot of music out there in the void which is really not musical at all - by this I mean there's no feeling.
But then, with tired eyes and an unsatisfied heart, it hit me in the face. Insane music. Indie folk is where they place themselves. But I'd like to call it... a drifting stroll through time and space.
Click here to take a listen and allow your heart to float.
Sooooo...
My tracks are finally up on Soundcloud and I'm running full steam with them.
I did not realise how many music lovers use Soundcloud to support each others' music.
I'm loving the music collaborations and am definitely open to working with musicians all over the world via Soundcloud. Afterall, the world is flat again ;)
If you have any RNB tracks and you're looking for vocals, send them my way and I'll try fill in those melodies.
