It seems like another life when I used to write my TRUTH stories regularly and religiously. Without looking back at dates, I seriously can’t remember the last time I wrote one, apart to quickly say I had a great gig or to explain why I missed a gig.
It’s crazy. Life is crazy. It flies, and you either see it passing you by or you’re too stuck in it to even feel the wind in your hair. I guess we all live things that speed us up, things that slow us down, and until you really reach the next step in your life you don’t really understand what happened, and why, but then you look at yourself and while you feel older, you also feel like a different person which, in most cases, depending on how well you’re capable of analyzing yourself, maybe even criticize yourself, and do a total introspection of yourself, and depending on whether you’ve been taught at some point in your life what empathy really is, you end up looking at yourself and realizing that you became a better, grown up person.
It’s not always easy. But it’s so gratifying when you look back, and when you see that all the joys and the pains you’ve lived in your life brought you to construct something valuable and not just destroy everything that surrounds you, so that your only way out is to start building again, and then destroying again, without realizing what you’re doing to yourself, and finish your life exhausted because you’ve been running around in circles, repeating always and always the same vicious patterns without really moving forward. Not many people know how to try and always be happy, hanging in there, even in the hard times, and frankly I’m still trying everyday to figure out how it works, but if through all the challenges that life is offering me I can deliver a piece of art that can touch people, I would definitely say that I’m ready to dive into this ride even deeper now, and try as hard as I can to leave all my fears outside of the field on which I’m playing this game: my life.
This piece of art in question is called “I’m No Human”. My baby. My upcoming album.
So I am not going to read my old posts to see what I’ve said and what not. Let me just briefly recapitulate where I’m at with myself…
A few months ago I finished the recording of my first artist project ever. As many of you know I released quite a few mixed albums throughout my career as well as plenty, plenty of EP’s, but I’ve spent more than half of it saying I wanted to work on a full length artist project, though I never took the time to. Too busy running around airports to get to my gigs to make you all dance all over the world. Unfortunately, but luckily at the same time only for how this is one of the greatest gifts he left me, my father passed away almost two years ago, and I started writing this album right after his death. I wrote many, many, many songs, and among all of them a total of 11 made the album, which I am so, so proud of!
A little side note here… just so you know, the album is still electronic music, totally is. But I call them songs because they really are structured like songs, you know, verse / chorus, etc. But they are not a total departure from where I come from.
This whole project has been a loooong road, full of bumps, ups and downs, but I reached the end of it and I can’t wait to share it with all of you now. I will not yet get into the deeper details of the songs of the album yet though, because that’s a surprise that I am laving for later, when you’ll buy it! 🙂
For now, let me just tell you what is going on… because I know some people are very confused in my regards… some may know I started singing, some may think I completely changed my style and I’m not into techno anymore, while some may probably think I’m going to stop being a DJ.
No, no, no.
I had a lot to say, but really a lot to say, I was very inspired, so I started writing songs, with lyrics. I could have written about anything, anyone, at any given moment. I was a fountain of words, seriously. And I wrote song after song, without really thinking I’d end up singing all of them. I just decided to do it. I needed a new challenge, and I needed to go to the bottom of all the stuff that I wrote, and for me that meant performing these songs live.
I’m very proud to mention about some artist collaborations on the album. One with Bjorn (Peter, Bjorn and John), one with Brazilian Girls and the last but not the least is one with Sam Roberts. Can I just say that Sam is THE most sweet and generous artist I have EVER met in my entire life!!!? He is a real, connected, deep, kind person. He was very supportive of my project and also very encouraging towards the live aspect of my project, talking to me in a very positive way which gave me a lot of confidence and strength when I did my first live back in June. I wish all artists were like him… But unfortunately so many are so insecure that they live too close to their belly, often caught up in all sorts of jealousies created by the success of others, so let alone helping each other out!
I have created a nice little band with Mathieu Square!! Hahahaa. Two Mathieu that is. Mathieu Brault at the bass and the other Mathieu, that we call Matai Dubus, at the keyboards. While I sing, I run the programming and the effects, I play maracas, wood blocks, tambourines, a few parts of keys here and there, and more… But mostly, I’m busy singing!
Singing is fun. Challenging, but so fun! It makes me feel good and I enjoy it very much. I’ve always loved it, but never would have I thought to be doing it in front of crowds one day… I remember my first singing class a few years ago… My father was still alive and I hadn’t written one single song yet, nor did I know I ever would, and my teacher asked me why I was attending her class, I said I just wanted to learn the techniques of singing because I have always enjoyed it, then she asked me if I was planning on singing in front of crowds one day and I started laughing out loud responding “no way, never in my entire life!!”… Well, never say never I guess.
So right now we are rehearsing our little butts off in order to be ready to give you the greatest and most rocking show that a new band can give you, considering of course that with time, only by experiencing and trying things out live, we will make it more and more perfect. All this will happen only once the album will come out and you will know the songs and you will want to hear them live and sing them along with me. 🙂
I certainly can’t wait until that day!!
Until then, if you open up your ears, you may be lucky enough to find out about a few Montreal shows that we’ll be doing entirely without promotion here and there. We will just throw the word out like that, up in the air, and play in front of a very small crowd somewhere in Montreal, at some point, very soon…. Good luck to catch that, or good luck being patient till the album comes out! 🙂
“I’m No Human” is coming out in April 2009
The DJing now… It’s not over.
And Techno… It’s not over.
Techno is never over because it’s graved in my heart, it runs in my blood, so it’s a part of me. As for DJing, I’ve always thought I was born to be a DJ, so I don’t intend to let that go anytime soon. But you see, what happens when you write an album is that you disappear from the face of the earth. Hence why I’ve always said I wanted to do one but never really did before. Because I didn’t want to disappear. So, even if you normally disappear, I’ve managed keeping up the DJing during all this time. I may have toured a bit less, but at least I still toured throughout the process of writing and recording the album, which really didn’t make my life easy at all… but who said life was easy? I just wanted to make sure I didn’t abandon what I still enjoy doing so much, and that I didn’t abandon my crowds throughout the world and then everyone would think that I quit DJing to dedicate myself to a singing career.
No, no, no, it’s not like that.
Although I will, from now on, also dedicate myself to my new singing career.
I said ALSO. 🙂
As for writing techno tracks, well… that’s even harder to keep up than just going out DJing while you’re working on such a special and different album project. Because while I’m writing songs, my mind is not set at all to be writing 8 minutes techno tracks and tools really. I just couldn’t. I did a few remixes here and there, but it’s true that I haven’t released anything since my EP on Border Community. This too will come, in time. I promise. There is a say I like very much that goes like this: “Once the search is in progress, something will be found”. So before I push the “search” button again, I’m taking a moment to breathe, proud of all I’ve accomplished and excited of all the new things that are coming up and that I will finally be able to sharing with you very soon.
All my best.
Barbara x