In honor of my acceptance of my role and purpose in life, I decided to release a mix-tape, called the Beautiful Weirdo. I started this process the later part of 2009 and while recording, I got a call from a venue owner offering me a performance date of January 22, 2010 to perform @ LIV nightclub in DC. I hadn't done a live full show in DC in eons and so I thought this was perfect timing. I decided then that, January 22, 2010, would be the launch party of the mix-tape, Beautiful Weirdo, and the celebration of me taking the leap to pursue music full time. Woo hoo sounded simple enough.
Ha, I wish it were that simple. There's a lot of things that go into planning a show and mix-tape for that matter. I had a general outline...just a little sketch, but not as detailed as it could have been. Nonetheless, I dove headfirst into the project to get the job done. All I knew was the end result, my mix-tape and the performance of the mix-tape..that was all I knew. So I got busy recording the songs first. I choose for the back drop of the mix-tape all OutKast instrumentals because they exemplified what a beautiful weirdo is...they go against the grain no matter what. OutKast has created their own niche with a disregard for conformity. Not only did they represent Beautiful Weirdo, they have the grittiest tracks and the sound I love. It's funny, I've always considered myself to be a rapper (lol, though I'm not the best at it) and so I love to sing over hip-hop tracks. So that was settled:)... OutKast it is and OutKast it shall be. But with so many dope tracks, how do you choose.
Hmmm....its simple for me how I choose a track, be it OutKast or just tracks in general. I go with what speaks to my heart. Sometimes, lyrics automatically flow...sometimes I have songs already written that I can merge...sometimes I just love the track and I start from scratch (Cuz I gotta write something), or sometimes I just visualize. I don't know it just depends. Regardless of the track though, I'm a writer that writes from my heart. Normally, the 1st verse and chorus is easy. I don't normally write down the 1st verse or chorus..I just keep repeating it until memorization..but the 2nd verse...ha ha...normally takes me the longest..and I normally write that one down:) Or sometimes, I'll just press record and flow off the top and take what works and put it all together. I don't know if you guys are fans of the movie, Five Heartbeats (its my favorite), but there was a scene in the movie where the little girl and Duck (Robert Townsend's character) put pieces of trashed lyrics together to form one song... I tend to think that I do stuff like that too:). Yup so I do all those things...whatever works or I feel at the time.
So thats briefly how it started. I got the idea for the mix-tape, selected the instrumentals, and then began to write. I'm going to continue to take you on this journey that I went thru to arrive at the finished product, the mix-tape and the show...in hopes that you can take nuggets from it:) During the beginning process, I learned its good to have an outline, even better if its a thorough plan...but more than anything, I learned that whats important is that you start somewhere...you can always fine tune plans throughout the process. In fact, you may have to do that anyway even if you have the most detailed plan. Just start!!
1 comment:
Your posts are always interesting to read, it's nice to get an insight into how artists put their stuff together, especially for those of us involved in music (at least on the periphary).
Look forward to hearing more ;)
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