Well, I've returned form a very productive collaboration session with Dubtone Records producer Zak B. We didn't get any music video filming done this time, but it's just around the corner. What we did do was finish 2 songs, and plan out enough for a full album and then some! The collaboration project's name is Volt, and it will be a trip through goth, industrial, ebm, darkwave, and ethereal genres. The MySpace page for Volt is:

http://www.myspace.com/voltsound

though there's nothing there at the moment. Look for it soon! ^__^

mood: accomplished

I haven't updated in quite some time, so I thought I'd give it a go. I've been quite busy on the music front lately, not the least of which is that:

I'm currently collaborating with Zak B of Dubtone Records in Osaka on some new, "old-school" goth/EMB tracks! Also, there will be a possible music video, currently scheduled to shoot around March, on location in Kyoto. We will also be trying out some hard-house/acid jazz tracks in the future. More details to come...

mood: bouncy music: Dark City OST

I've just finished scripting the last bit of code for my official site
( http://www.s-a-b-r-i-n-a.net ), so please check it out!

There are 6 new demos up, including a new Christmas song, "Closing Of The Year" (from the awesome movie "Toys"), and a new English version of Gackt's "Last Song". The 4 songs I did for the Yoga show on FoxLife are also up. Please comment and let me know what you think!

Also added are a huge batch of new photos, fan art, and merchandise through my new CafePress shop! Please check it out!
( http://www.cafepress.com/000sabrina000 )

On another note, recently I got a chance to interview Masa (formerly of GacktJOB) and write up a live report of the Marmarsa-Mu show for "Five For", a bi-monthly American music magazine about all kinds of Japanese music.

It's on sale NOW, and it's the first issue, so they're almost all gone!



Get your issue here:

http://www.five-for.com

Also, be sure to friend Five For's MySpace and LiveJournal communities for news and net exclusives:

http://www.myspace.com/fiveformagazine

http://5for-magazine.livejournal.com


Thanks! ^____^

mood: accomplished music: Loreena McKennitt - "Balulalow"

I just finished recording today for the TV show. Everything was pretty much done in one take, so I had a hard time peeling lips off my ass. ~_^

The studio was in a very nice part of town, near the Azabu National Market, so afterwards I treated myself to some excellent Spanish, Valdeon blue cheese, and a garlic cream spread with foie gras. YUM!

location: home mood: accomplished music: CSI

Well, things at the old studio have gone down the crapper fast. Long story short, the buy-out initially seemed like a good thing, but ended up going the way of all buy-outs, which is pretty much "Bye bye, old staff, hello, new!"

Things aren't so bad though, and actually, this could be better for me. My producer has got me a gig this Sunday doing recordings for tv show bgm soundtracks, and I stand to meet a lot more interesting people this way. Also, networking on MySpace is actually working, since Japanese people tend to use it for that, rather than 13yr-old-emo-wankitry. I've got very possible guest artist gigs coming up in Nov. and Dec. Woot!

mood: accomplished music: Randy Graff - "Good Morning Sun"

Just finished my first take of "Last Song" (English version, by me!). It was just done at home, nothing special, but I'll take it in to my producer tomorrow and see what he thinks. I made 10 different vocal tracks for harmony, so it's one fuck of a complicated song by the end!

mood: accomplished music: me

So, just a quick update to let everyone know I'm not dead! And...

I have finally caved to the urgings of my friends and cohorts in the music biz to get a MySpace account. You can find me here. I've added three songs that are not yet available on my official homepage, so please go check it out! ^__^

Still possessed by the demon mood to create more webspamming networking pages, you can also find me on FaceBook (and yes, *sigh* with my REAL last name there as well, since there was no way around it if I wanted to get in touch with long-lost old friends) here. (In order to use FaceBook you have to sign up -- though signing up is free. Apparently, it's an attempt to keep out the spamming and retardation that occurs rampantly on MySpace. FaceBook is intended to be a professional contact site.)

Both of the above accounts have photo albums with NEW photoshoots available! So, again, please check it out and tell me what you think (and feel free to friend me if you have an account in either place)! ^__^

And if you want to torture yourself with figuring out a Japanese blog, I've also opened one up at Ameba in order to keep in touch with my various new Japanese music industry contacts. At the moment, though, there's nothing there, but you can see it here if you really want to.

Enjoy!

mood: creative

Today the rain is falling in tiny droplets that seem more like snow flurries drifting lazily down. Not so small as to be indistinct like the misty haze that's been plaguing us for the past three days, nor large enough to fall like proper summer raindrops.

I hate the rainy season and all its stifling humidity, but today the air is a bit cooler and I could lose myself staring out the sliver of a window at the glittery, floating rain.

mood: peaceful

Well, I've finally gotten over my allergies, and have been spending weeks in the studio doing some catch-up work.

Our production company recently expanded, which is good news all around because now we have some very good sponsors, which means more money and advertising power! But it also means I need to make a 5 song demo instead of a 3 song demo in order to get the clearance for a full album.

I've got one song completely finished, one more in post, two being recorded now, and one more being composed as of this writing.

I'm thinking I'll just put up alot of the work I've been doing on my website (which needs a serious update!) instead of making everyone wait for the CD release. Then people can hear the processes I go thorough as well (raw track-> first take-> harmonies-> effects-> mix-> final product). I also have two other photoshoots to add to the photos section.

As soon as I get some time, maybe next Sunday, I'll start updating the site! Thanks for your patience, everyone! ^__^

location: studio mood: artistic

Blah. Still having sinus problems, so no recording this week. It's been three weeks now! This is just ridiculous. I wish I had some sort of flip-top nose, so I could flip it up and stick a vacuum cleaner nozzle up there and suck out all the crap. Arrrrgh!

mood: sick music: Erasure - Senseless (Catatonic Mix)

Well, the release date has been pushed back AGAIN, despite things being mostly done. Turns out that "Home" is registered with *5* different publishing rights agencies because it's been released in 5 different parts of the world (and why they didn't just stick to one licensing agreement is beyond me), and of course, ALL 5 have to be asked for permission to reproduce it in Japanese. *sigh*

That, combined with my horrific hay fever has left us in a state of being unable to move forward any further until at least the end of March or possibly April. Until then, I'm working on more songs of my own, which will hopefully take the place of "Home" for the time being, and then allow "Home" to become a second release later down the line.

Hopefully I'll have my jazz rep finished within the next two weeks and then I can get to work on that audition. That should also come up around April. ^__^

Today I worked on two covers (Michael Bubel's "Home", and Imogen Heap's "Hide And Seek") which will eventually be done in Japanese, and also finished up the Japanese version of my original song, "Missing You". So far, it looks like the three songs to appear on my CD will be "Missing You" (E & J versions), "Home" (J version), and "Wataridori" (E version). There are still some bits of the Japanese "Missing You" that need to be worked out, but it shouldn't take long. My producer will help to smooth out where my Japanese is less than perfect (which is probably alot ~_^).

I downloaded over 2 gigs of Jazz, Bossa, and Swing from T-san, in order to work up an audition repertoire for some high-class Jazz bars/restaurants who are currently seeking foreign female vocalists. In further news, since Amaterase's break up, it seems D-san will be available for some session work for a time. I don't currently have any rock songs in the works, but once I do (there's one coming up for an anime theme song), I'm definitely going about seeing how much session work will be from him as well.

Still sick though... I feel ok, just too stuffed up to properly say the word "home", much less sing it. Doh!

mood: stuffy

Today I'll be finishing up the lyrics to the last of three songs that will possibly be on my maxi-single CD. Next week I will be translating the existing English lyrics into Japanese in order to record the final version of the songs. Looks like C-san will be asked to provide the Spanish guitar riffs and bg on "Missing You" and possibly other tracks as well. We'll see!

location: work mood: blah music: copy machine... I should sample it.

Everything went stunningly, and I even had a special guest at the show! ~_^ Really, for once, everything went right. Better than right. Excellent!

I performed two songs as a guest artist, "Music Of The Night" and my original song, "Missing You". "Missing You" will be released in late February.

( Pics! )

Hopefully, I will have a DVD copy of the show soon, which will then be edited and placed on my site, possibly audio tracks in the demo section as well. ^__^ (Thanks to all my friends who attended, and endless_aoi for taking the live pics!)

I've uploaded my jazz version of "White Christmas" to the Demos section of my website for one week only! Please enjoy! ^__^

mood: accomplished music: me practicing

The details of the live are as follows:

Place: Yokohama Oosanbashi Hall

Access: 10 minute walk from JR Kannai station (North Exit) -or-
5 minute walk from the subway Nihondaidori station (Exit #3)

Time: Dec.25th, 2006. Doors open at 6:00pm, show starts at 6:30pm (I will be onstage around 7:15pm)

Price: FREE! (I have a huge amount of comp tickets to give out. ^__^)

location: work mood: accomplished music: Gari - "F.A.M.E."

I'm happy to announce that I will be having my first official concert in Japan on Dec.25th at the Yokohama City Jazz / Song Festival on the Oosanbashi stage. I'll be one of many guest artists to perform (about 2~3 songs), plus other artists will be performing songs that I've written (maybe 4~5 songs).

More details to follow when I've gotten them!

location: home studio mood: accomplished music: me - "Missing You" (work in progress)

Yep. While I'll aparently never be a rock star, I will settle for being the pop ballad star of Japan. ~_^

Basically, my producer gave me the "you have to pick ONE genre" talk, along with the "you're too old to have many more chances" talk a few nights ago. I know the latter is true, at least for Japan, so that's fine by me. I intend to put my nose to the grindstone and work it to get where I want. Too bad *where* I want and *what* I want aren't going to be the same thing anymore.

I went in to record my new song and he told me, point-blank, "We can't produce this here. We can't sell this song." I appreciate the honesty, and I'm used to that kind of thing, so it's not as crushing as it sounds, but it felt shitty nonetheless given the general circumstances of the last week. I had put alot of work into that song, even if it was too weird to be mainstream (it wasn't meant to be anyway). He told me that my voice was good enough for any genre I wanted to do, and if I really wanted to do rock and techno he could hook me up with someone next year, but they produce R&B, hip-hop, jazz, and pop. And then there was also that dreaded next year.

So, rather than give up on a good thing, I decided to change my tack entirely. I like singing Broadway (as you can see from my website ~_^) and I like the songs of Utada Hikaru and Ayumi Hamasaki, if not the singing. So basically, we're going about making me into the Sarah Brightman / Celine Dion of Japan. Heh.

It's apparently not acceptable (with the exception of Gackt, because he's already famous) to perform in several different genres in Japan. You have to pick ONE, and then that's you forever. Versatility and individuality are not prized here -- which is surprising given the musical history of Japan (the ideal of instrumental specialization didn't come until well post-Meiji).

So here goes! Wish me luck!

location: home studio (TRYING to get some work done!) mood: blank music: me - "Things I'll Never Have" (work in progress)

I'm sick as a daaaaawg. WTF. Just as I get over my last upper-respiratory, I catch a cold. *grrrr* I better be well enough to record tomorrow or my producer will have my head.

location: work mood: sick music: kids screaming in the halls

Recorded a test run for "Last Song" and "In Your Own Thoughts" today. Both sound like ass, due to the fact that my microphone was acting up. (>__<)

location: home studio (TRYING to get some work done!) mood: annoyed music: over and over and over again...