We’re going to try live streaming as we record Tea with Hungry Lucy tomorrow (Sunday, July 6) at 3:30 PM EST. If you can make it, join us here. Before and after the podcast we’ll be chatting with anyone that is interested.
We’ll be performing the song “Softly” live.
Today (Sunday) was spent working on a new song (called “Just Imagine”) that started life as “Futurist Space Car”. We actually played bit of it on TWHL #102.
I spent today cleaning up the arrangement and we just recorded Christa’s final vocals about 30 minutes ago. The song started life as a little drum loop from Matilda (our affectionately named Alesis Micron) and a somber, yet spacey, synth pad. If memory serves correctly, Christa wrote lyrics on the spot for this one and we recorded scratch vocals right away. The lyrics and whole feel of the song speaks of life(?) after we are all gone for this world. Christa’s melody is really beautiful in contrast to the cold music bed. With this in mind, I decided that Christa’s lone voice should be the only real human element to the song. I added some very mechanically played electric piano… playing only the first and fifth of each chord. I’ve always liked the way fifths leave enough space in a chord progression for the melody to really dictate the tone. Is it major or minor? There is also a certain sterility to this method of harmonizing that lends itself well to this song. For a nice lift (but not too much) on the chorus I added some very stylistic TR-808 and CR-78 cymbals. Nothing screams early electronics like these percussive sounds. There’s a 8 bar break between verse and chorus that needed a little something. So I added a very cold sounding CS-80 synth (well, a virtual version of it). The song ends (quite dramatically I think) with just Christa’s voice and the ambient synth pads, so a nice crescendo is needed to build up to this. The crescendo still needs a bit of work. I’m thinking (and Christa agrees) that some strings might fit the bill here. That will add another human element besides the voice I suppose, but what are rules other than things to break? 
Sorry if I’ve been a little too music theory/tech geek in my description here. I just wanted to document what we’ve been up to today… in the only language I know. All-in-all… a good day of creative work. It’s been along time since I’ve had such a productive and rewarding day, musically. So I wanted to share.
Hello all. We’ve decided to take Tea With Hungry Lucy (our weekly podcast) to a bi-weekly schedule for the Summer. At least until we have something more frequent to share with you that is.
So, stay tuned for the next installment on June 8th. We’ll also be streaming live (audio and video) as we record the podcast at http://www.hungrylucy.com/live.php.
Last week we chatted with Guy David for his Night Guy podcast. Episode 64 (Tea and Vegetables) featuring CB and me is now online. We talk about organic food, music freedom and how Christa shoots herself!
Check it out over at the Night Guy website.
Thanks Guy. It was a pleasure chatting with you.
Human nature, at least many people’s, is to always suspect that the grass is greener on the other side. We take the parts of our lives that we don’t like and focus on how great life would be if the exact opposite were true. The trouble with that bad habit, is that it never goes away. Life is a compromise. No matter what possessions you have, what job you have or what relationships you have… there will always be a downside. There is a fine line between striving for better and never being happy. It’s easy to recognize what is wrong in our lives, but not always so easy to recognize the wonderful experiences and people in our lives. Find what makes you happy in your life and totally dwell on it… go on… just roll around in it! Take all that energy you spend wishing for something more, and bask in everything great you have going on right now.
It’s working for me… right now… and I aim to keep it that way.
Signed, one moody bastid
Happy Mother’s Day to all. No podcast this week, but we’ll be back next week with another live performance and our usual brand of silliness.
We just (moments ago) recorded a nice chat with our new friend in Israel, Guy David. Look for our conversation an upcoming episode of the Night Guy podcasts.
Thanks Guy, it was great to chat with you!
Just a quick note to let fellow podcasters know that you can now get EVERY Hungry Lucy song via the Podsafe Music Network (AKA Podshow/Mevio). We’ve always stated that we’re totally cool with podcasters playing ANY of our songs. After all, you’re helping to tell the world about us! Until now, though, there hasn’t been an easy way to actually acquire these tracks.
So, head on over to the Podsafe Music Network and grab our music for your podcast. We have 65 tracks up there to choose from. Everything from ambient/downtempo to dark-and-gothy to bumpy-bumpy club mixes. If you do play our music on your podcast, please let us know. Then we can tell the world about your fab podcast as well. It’ll also make us feel all special and tingley.
Queen of new media and talented vocalist of Lovespirals, Anji Bee, has featured Hungry Lucy (and our video for Harvest) on her latest Chillcast video. Watch below or visit Anji’s site for much more. In addition to the video podcast, Anji produces the very popular weekly Chillcast audio podcast as well as her band podcast, Chillin’ with Lovespirals, along with her partner in blissful music Ryan Lum.
Tons more at anjibee.com. A huge thanks to Anji!
Time to return to my ongoing musings (or endless rant, depending on your viewpoint) on what I’ll call “music freedom“.
I came across a wonderful article by Andrew Dubber (via Derek Sivers) entitled “Should I Be Worried About Piracy?“. Andrew thoughtfully and eloquently explained the point I’ve been trying to make for some while.
Instead of battling hard against this new consumer power to copy and share music…why not embrace it?
Hungry Lucy has been doing so now for about 1 year. Aside from my peace of mind (in which I place great value) we have seen greater interest in our music and, yes, a gradual but steady increase in paid (yes paid) downloads. Granted, I have no evidence as to what has caused this. I quite firmly believe, though, that our “please copy & share” attitude is at least partially to blame. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I don’t worry about all those lost sales anymore, and that…is priceless.
Remember the days of sharing mixtapes … well, it’s back and on the interweb. A new service called Muxtape allows you to upload MP3s (up to 12 per “tape”) and then share the URL. Anyone viewing your muxtape can listen to your “tape” online (streaming only).
Check out a Hungry Lucy muxtape I just made:
http://hungrylucy.muxtape.com/ (feel free to share the URL)