Say that five times fast.

Hello folks. I’ve just returned from a remote corner of Newfoundland after almost two and a half weeks of kneeling at the grand piano altar. The trip was inspired by some stuck-ness with the “Sea” portion of this double album project “Land & Sea”. “Why is it coming so slowly?” I wondered, looking out my window at the roaring cement trucks and the rattling diesel train. Ah! Right. “Sea”. Dark green music that is supposed to rise and swell and sink like the tides of memory – underwater landscapes that speak to the wordless places deep within us, songs about the source of it all, the intelligence that goes beyond our minds, the nameless grace that is existence. Yep. I need to be by the sea.

So off I went.
My art dealer/bon vivant friend from The Rock happened upon an ideal seaside shack for me and set about equipping it with a Yamaha grand. Another one of my fairy godparents, it seems! He just waved his magic wand, and voila! My deepest curtsy to him. I arrived to a wide open, pearly, 88-tooth grin and a surprise handful of lilies. Thank you heavens! Sometimes I get a big thumbs-up good-move winkety-wink from the universe. Those times feel so good, like my lungs finally take a full inhale.

A bit of furniture rearranging later, I had the perfect station set up. I could write at the piano while looking out onto the undulating surface of the Atlantic ocean. Rugged cliffs, crashing surf, and meadows full of wildflowers. I love Canada.

Now that I’m back, music in hand, I’m switching gears again (while I let all those new songs/scores gestate in the mind of Sea’s producer Jonathan Goldsmith) and recording all the vocals for “Land”. It’s so close I can taste it! Returning to these tunes makes me impatient to show you…

Later in September Mr. Plaskett returns for that victorious homestretch of the recording process known as the “bells and whistles” stage. Tambourines, shakers, extra back ups, all those little details that make it real and done. Yeee!

In October, Jon and I will unearth the salty marine music and start dreaming it out.
Dots on paper crafted and shuffled around will be translated by great players into big, glorious sound. Miracle of miracles. :)

Thank you Newfoundland. Thank you humpback whales. Thank you rainbows and ocean fog. I shall attempt to return the favour (digitally however) in a few months.

Curtsy,
SS