readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!
In her book Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song, Sara
Bareilles proves to be just as candid and charming on the page as she is
on stage. Whether it's talking about her grade school years, her
anxieties, or the true story behind her hit Love Song, Sara is
frank, funny, and open about her life, her career, her struggles, and
her triumphs. Her very naturalistic, conversational writing style makes
her comes across like a friend talking to you at the dinner table or
over the phone, equal parts self-deprecating, hopeful, grateful, and
humble.
Sara relates her stories in nine chapters - or essays, if
you prefer - each bearing the title of a song she's written. (The
section also begins with that song's lyrics, handwritten, which is a
very nice touch.) As one might assume with a biography, the book begins
with her childhood and ends with her current work on the musical Waitress
and is lightly peppered with photographs. In-between, we get a glimpse
into her early songs and shows, the year she spent in Italy in college,
and her first love and heartbreak. Fellow performers will enjoy the
details of life on the road, the gigs when she was just starting out as
well as the times she performed in large arenas or on television shows,
and so forth, but moreover, they will find connection and comfort in
knowing the difficulties Sara faced breaking into the business (and the
continued difficulties staying there) as well as the doubt, worry, and
vulnerability she feels when writing new songs, collaborating with
others, or trying to express her truest feelings in music and words.
Mid-way through the book, in the chapter Beautiful Girl,
Sara writes letters to her younger self. This is possibly my favorite
section of the book, and it serves as a reminder to be our own best
friends, to stop putting ourselves down and to keep our chins up,
because time and experience can truly make things better and clearer.
This
book will be treasured by Sara Bareilles's fans. I also hope it reaches
people who perhaps haven't heard her music, who find her through this
book first, because what an amazing experience that would be, to be
moved enough by this book and these words to go pick up her CDs. I only
wish this book contained all of her albums - but, wait, I already have
those. :)
Anything is possible, if you set your mind to it, work hard, and have your heart in the right place.
Little Mix, an awesome all-female vocal group and winner of The X Factor, reinforces these ideas in their new song "Little Me." The next time you're feeling down on yourself, turn this song on and remind yourself that the possibilities are endless, and that you can be anything you want to be.
Kudos to Rachel Crow! Recognize her from The X-Factor? This powerful 14-year-old singer released her first EP earlier this summer. We're really digging the first track, Mean Girls, which Rachel co-wrote. Check out the video, and let us know what you think in the comments!
Have you ever been bullied? How did you deal with it?
If you can't see the video player below, click here.
Lorie Ann Grover and I have often included songs by Kelly Clarkson on our rgz playlists. We're both really digging Kelly's new album, Stronger.
While listening to the album, I dropped by Kelly's website and discovered this awesome forum for Stronger Stories, which simply asks: "What has made you stronger?" and encourages people to share their stories of strength.
We here at rgz encourage you to do the same, be it here at this blog, there at Stronger Stories, in an important in-person discussion with your family or friends, or simply in your personal diary or journal. You are all strong, each and every one of you reading this blog, and we salute your strength.
Twenty five years after the first "We Are The World" song released for relief efforts in Africa, a new generation records the song to aid disaster relief in Haiti. Here's the official video:
When I looked at her list of recordings, I discovered that she had released a holiday album called American Indian Christmas featuring sung in ten different Native languages. I think her version of Amazing Grace, sung in Lumbee, is lovely.
After we watched that video, I journeyed over to her website, where I learned about Jana's Native Youth Motivational Presentation. She talks to kids and communities about culture pride and identity as well as big life choices, discussing alcohol, tobacco, and drug awareness. Her foundation, Jana's Kids, offers three different types of scholarships to Native American youth: academic, artistic, or athletic.
To learn more about the Jana's presentations, and available scholarships, please visit her website and click on Jana's Kids on the top menu.
Kudos to Jana for her work in her community, and best wishes for her career!
It was very cool to get to meet Andrea and thank her in person for generously letting readergirlz use her song. Here I am with Andrea and Liz:
We snapped a video of Central Services performing a little bit of their ode to the Number 8:
We bought the album, and You-Know-Who (age 4) wanted to listen to "The Lonely Tomato" ALL afternoon. But can you blame her? I've been singing about tomatoes in my apple pie, strawberry shortcake, tomato lemonade, guacamole pizza...hey, that actually does sound pretty good. Enjoy!
We're very excited to feature an interview with Andrea Wittgens, beautiful Seattle music-maker who graciously gave us permission to use "Marching Orders" in our Operation TBD trailer. Check it out!
Here's our interview with Andrea:
Holly Cupala: Your songs have this sultry, narrative quality, like the soundtrack to an old movie. Where do you get your ideas? Andrea Wittgens: It's true. I'm very influenced by many cinematic or retro sounds. My lyrics are often fantastical and so the older sounds seem to fit the mood of the lyrics best. I've always loved fiction and my latest album "In The Skyline" is pretty much an ode to my run away imagination and draw towards escapism. So there are lots of lyrical references to fantasy like Oz, Mordor, Creature Features, drama queens. And the music had to have some of that same sense of drama and "action-adventure."
HC: What is the process of making a song, from idea to finished single? AW: Oh, I do all manner of things to mold a song together. I'm definitely not one of those lucky people who sit down and start strumming and singing and "voila!" there's a hit song. I do a lot of collecting of ideas (my car is full of bank receipts with little phrases hastily scratched at traffic lights). I keep a big box of scraps of words and phrases that I sometimes dump on the floor to see where the weird combinations of ideas fall. I spend hours just messing around at the piano, humming or singing nonsense "placeholder" words. Usually I get the musical ideas first and pretty easily and then I have to tinker with finding the appropriate words to fit the musical world. The chorus is sometimes the hardest (and last part) to come together because it's supposed to somehow "sum up" the song but it also needs to be simple, memorable and somewhat. I find that if I can write one verse and one chorus then I'm most of the way done because then I have the "template" for the song.
HC: I’m fascinated by the how’s and why’s – how do you create the unique sounds on your albums? AW: Well, the basic tracks are done by the typical pop rock set up: drums, bass, piano, guitar and of course voice. But there's lots of effects that you can add to these instruments. There's lots of "studio magic" in the post production that can make things sound more interesting or fit the mood of the lyrics. Some examples are: reversing a guitar track so that it sounds kind of garbled and out of time, putting lots of reverb and delay on a voice so that it sounds like it's in a huge cathedral. I liked doing that with some of the operatic high voices because it created a really eery sound. We also used an instrument called a "mellotron" that plays really old crackly samples of strings and flutes - I loved messing around with that! At the beginning of "Marching Orders" the tempo is set by a pair of high heels - that was me walking around the Odd Fellows building on Capitol Hill with a metronome in my ear to set the right tempo while Vince Gates (in whose studio we recorded much of the album) followed me around with one of those fuzzy movie mics. In general recording is fun because you can layer and layer and layer sounds until they create something completely different. Many of those songs have about 70 tracks in them!
HC: What are some of your influences, literary and otherwise? AW: Well I love the fantasy books of my childhood (Lord of The Rings, The Narnia series and many other fantasy books). Robertson Davies is a wonderful Canadian author who wrote many great books my favourite being "Fifth Business." I love cinema - anything from big epics like Lord of the Rings to smaller quirky comedies like "Waiting For Guffman." I like to be wowed and I like to be endeared to characters. That goes for music too. I love all sorts and genres as long as I'm overtaken and swept away.
HC: Have you worked on other musical projects? AW: Yup. I used to front a band called Sugartown before I started to do these solo projects. I also play with a great band called Central Services who happens to have a kid's offshoot band called The Board of Education.
HC: What are you working on now? AW: Well, don't laugh, but I'm actually working on a Christmas album! Every year, Christmas takes me by surprise, I get swept up with the season and wish that I had a Christmas album to offer. So this year's new year's resolution was to chip away at one all year. It's been fun - especially since it's still winter. I don't know how I'll feel in July (that's perhaps when i'll start the festive Latin-inspired portion of the record!).
HC: If someone were to ask you how to become a musician, what advice would you give? AW: All you have to do to become a musician is start sitting down with an instrument or your voice or both and regularly work at it. There's never really an arrival point or an ending point (and looking for one is more stressful than it's worth). To jump into the "biz" of music and become a professional musician is a bit more concrete but there are still many ways to do it. I think the best thing to do first is create something (a song, an instrumental sketch, some lyrics) and find a way to record it so that you can start showing people what you're music is all about. This is the best way to meet other musicians, find performance opportunities and grow as an artist. I've had a lot of fun helping some of my teen students create and record songs and music. They've learned a lot about the whole process of getting a song idea out of their head and onto CD.
HC: Where can we find your music? AW: Well, it's in many different places online but I have them all listed on my website store page. I also always bring CDs to my live shows which are listed on the calendar page of my website.
Thanks, Andrea, for the music and the interview! Readergirlz, check out the trailer and pass it on!
