Last weekend, I met with a group of like-minded individuals. People who love to perform, create, and develop their music. I've been in situations like this before, but it just seemed so distant to me. Many moons ago - nearly a decade ago, before the boardroom meetings, before the office start-ups, before the flashy neckties, before the eventual corporate takeover of your main man over here, was a dude who lived and breathed music, day in day out. A dude who took shows on the road, performed alongside accomplished musicians, and who had his eyes, ears, and heart set on living this life to the fullest. All said and done, seven, eight, nine years have passed and the path this dude chose was slightly different from the one first undertaken, but that's fine - in fact I'm not writing this out of bitterness or regret. I'm remembering some wonderful experiences and I'm also realizing that it's not too late - that this isn't all so far behind me.
On Sunday night, we found ourselves invited by one of Melissa's friends to a get-together in the old loft district near St-Henri. After a little bit of how are you and what is your deal, someone took to the piano and started singing and playing a tune. Then another person took on a guitar and played something quiet and ya know, it was rather nice. After another Sondheim-esque performance, everybody had eyes set on me. The pressure was on. Melissa had let it slip that I'd spent some time training to be an opera singer, so they all wanted to hear a little something. Now let's get one thing straight - it's been years, no joke, since I'd even attempted to sing anything other than a novelty song from the 20's. It was also nearly impossible to even get me to show up to a rehearsed and scheduled performance back when I was singing (just ask![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
joedick ), so the chances of Eric getting up to sing an aria amidst a crowd of people he'd never met - not likely. So uh, I don't know if it was the wine, or the fact that I really wanted to impress my lady or something, but I got up there, and broke out into "Frondi Tenere/Ombra Mai Fu" by Handel. It's a piece which was on familiar ground, and there are pretty much like eight words repeated over and over so I knew I wouldn't mess that up (I still did kinda). But ya know,it didn't sound half bad. Some of those sixteenth notes could use some work, but overall the pitch was there, and the sound certainly carried well in that wide open loft space. It felt great, and it seemed the folks genuinely enjoyed it. Prior to last weekend, I'd already promised myself I'd record two new songs a month to offer here on my blog, and yeah, that's in the works, so stay tuned.
My whole point here, what I'm trying to share, is that this one evening, this one song, brought me back to a place of creativity and expression that I really hadn't experienced since I lived in Ottawa, where I felt part of a coalition of up-and-coming franco-ontarian songwriters, performers, whatever-the-case. We were trying to pull out off a 21st century version of CANO (minus the hippie bullshit). One of the last things I did there was a series of recordings in a pretty state-of-the-art recording studio. I'd like to share one of them with you today. It's a little different from all the Kahn/Arlen-type songs I've put up here in the past, but it shows my voice at a time when I was doin' a lot of singin'. It's the Gethsemane type song from the rock opera Starmania - the whole "why me? why did she have to die for me!"-type whiney song you hear in every musical, and it was kinda "my song" for any audition I would do at the time. I'm backed by Matthieu Saindon on the keys and Angie Russell on guitar. Thanks for reading, cats.
S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse (2:58, MP3, 128kbps, 2.71mb)
(Music/Words by Luc Plamondon/Michel Berger, Performed by Eric V.)
(Above image of what I believe is Notre-Dame St. in Old Montreal was taken from this website.)
On Sunday night, we found ourselves invited by one of Melissa's friends to a get-together in the old loft district near St-Henri. After a little bit of how are you and what is your deal, someone took to the piano and started singing and playing a tune. Then another person took on a guitar and played something quiet and ya know, it was rather nice. After another Sondheim-esque performance, everybody had eyes set on me. The pressure was on. Melissa had let it slip that I'd spent some time training to be an opera singer, so they all wanted to hear a little something. Now let's get one thing straight - it's been years, no joke, since I'd even attempted to sing anything other than a novelty song from the 20's. It was also nearly impossible to even get me to show up to a rehearsed and scheduled performance back when I was singing (just ask
joedick ), so the chances of Eric getting up to sing an aria amidst a crowd of people he'd never met - not likely. So uh, I don't know if it was the wine, or the fact that I really wanted to impress my lady or something, but I got up there, and broke out into "Frondi Tenere/Ombra Mai Fu" by Handel. It's a piece which was on familiar ground, and there are pretty much like eight words repeated over and over so I knew I wouldn't mess that up (I still did kinda). But ya know,it didn't sound half bad. Some of those sixteenth notes could use some work, but overall the pitch was there, and the sound certainly carried well in that wide open loft space. It felt great, and it seemed the folks genuinely enjoyed it. Prior to last weekend, I'd already promised myself I'd record two new songs a month to offer here on my blog, and yeah, that's in the works, so stay tuned. My whole point here, what I'm trying to share, is that this one evening, this one song, brought me back to a place of creativity and expression that I really hadn't experienced since I lived in Ottawa, where I felt part of a coalition of up-and-coming franco-ontarian songwriters, performers, whatever-the-case. We were trying to pull out off a 21st century version of CANO (minus the hippie bullshit). One of the last things I did there was a series of recordings in a pretty state-of-the-art recording studio. I'd like to share one of them with you today. It's a little different from all the Kahn/Arlen-type songs I've put up here in the past, but it shows my voice at a time when I was doin' a lot of singin'. It's the Gethsemane type song from the rock opera Starmania - the whole "why me? why did she have to die for me!"-type whiney song you hear in every musical, and it was kinda "my song" for any audition I would do at the time. I'm backed by Matthieu Saindon on the keys and Angie Russell on guitar. Thanks for reading, cats.
S.O.S. d'un terrien en detresse (2:58, MP3, 128kbps, 2.71mb)
(Music/Words by Luc Plamondon/Michel Berger, Performed by Eric V.)
(Above image of what I believe is Notre-Dame St. in Old Montreal was taken from this website.)
