Track #4 - Need To Shine

So the fourth track is officially complete, fresh and ripe from the studio. Just the way we like 'em! Its filled with guitar tracks a la BJ Knights and drum fills a la Matt Spitz from the Van Buren Boys band. Lets not forget Derek's "No Doubt-ish" bass line. All together, with my piano as the bottom line, the song came together (with many detours along the way) just fine.

Need To Shine was the first song I ever REALLY wrote. I played the pre-chorus melody that I woke up with in my head on my trusty piano and built the rest of the song around it. I was dreaming about someone who was going through a pretty rough time with a very scary, stubborn disease of the mind. The frustration of trying to help this person and constantly failing came out in melodic ways for me. It was a haunting feeling but with the hope of conclusion around the corner. One day I was playing it again for the millionth time...I started humming words to it...and Need To Shine was born. First, I recorded the music alone, very slow. Then I decided to play around with it on a keyboard, adding some percussion and kind of re-creating the song. Once I wrote the lyrics, I recorded the song with just vocals, piano, generic drum track and string effects. That version remains to be a family favorite, while the new version from the studio is the sound I dreamt about. My producer tells me it's a song that could be the theme for Rent Two, if ever there were a Rent Twp. Personally, I am not a fan of most of Rent's music. Then again, maybe if my song was in it, I would be a fan. Ha.

So now that you know a little background into the song, you will be ready to apply it to the first listen when it goes up on iTunes someday soon. Need To Shine is really my baby that I've probably spent the most time on. I hope someday it's the song that really puts me on the map. But then again, that is up to all of you. 

So onto the next song...track five and its been almost a year since I've been working at this record in the studio. Track five, I can promise you, will be a ballad through and through. Something, I'm told, that would come at the end of the CD. Not sure if I agree with where the track will go in terms of order, but for now it will be Track five. The title is still being decided on. Once I get closer to the final version of it, I will give that info away!

But until then - happy listening, everyone! Thanks for being my fans :)

dreamBIG,
Arlanna

Crawling along...

Whats up Blogsters/Twit-meisters/Face-munchers? Umm... ok.

So I haven't written in awhile and there is just no excuse for that. NO excuse. But I am here now, so that has to count for something, right? Hopefully all will be forgiven when you realize what I've been doing - nothing. Ha! Kidding.

Seriously, the third track has been complete for a couple of months now. You know the one I'm talking about - "Sometimes." I have to say it's a lot different than the other two songs I've completed. It doesnt have that upbeat feel but rather it's a bit dark with a bit of a hook. A dark hook. That would be a very cool documentary title, wouldnt it? Hmmm... 

So the third track has a little "Chris Isaac" and a little "David Bowie" hidden in there. Now don't get too excited, they didn't actually play on the track (a girl can dream!) but the sounds we created make me think of their material. The song is basically a ditty written at a time when I was feeling like the world was against me. And, let's face it, we all have those days. The difference is, I chose to write about it. I consider this challenging moment in my life as a good thing because when the song was finished, I felt a hell of a lot better. Thats the great part about songwriting - it relieves you.

So now for the bad news...the song is not going to be released on iTunes or anywhere else on the web - YET. Now that I'm writing this, I'm thinking I may have already broken this news to you. Senior moment at 29? Ugh. But I'm now working on the fourth track and I have to admit that so far, this year has not spared me much time to work as much as I'd like in the studio. However, I am starting to have withdrawals so it's time to head back, especially because, and I'm going to seriously toot my own horn here, I think the fourth track (spoiler alert: the first song I have ever written) is going to be the bomb-diggity. Do people say bomb-diggity anymore? I'm not becoming one of those women that still say "cool" to their kids' friends in my forties, right? Wait - I'm only 29. And I dont have kids. Ok, I think I'm safe.

Well, thank you for reading my weird blog today. I will return when I'm not so weird. Oh! One more thing before I go - check me out on www.whohub.com. I did a cool interview and it's...the bomb-diggity.  

dreamBIG,
Arlanna

Have A Little Courage

The release of my first two singles - wow. Seems crazy to think that anyone in the entire world can just type "Arlanna Snow" into Amazon.com, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and my album comes up. I just have to explain a few things, though.

First of all, my producer was hoping I would wait to finish the entire album before I released it to the world (which means it would have a normal amount of songs on it, not just my first two singles), but I guess when it comes to my music I get a teensy bit impatient. So for those of you wondering, what the heck kind of album has two songs on it? Well, mine. I call it a teeny-tiny mini EP. 

Secondly, the album cover that is currently gracing my songs is NOT -- I repeat NOT -- the official album cover. My official album cover is actually pretty amazing. It was designed by Abacab Designs - Brian Curran -- and will be taking the place of the extremely boring navy blue cover with white writing once my album is complete. 

Have a Little Courage is a personal title for me which I have always imagined to be the name of my freshman album for years upon years. Its kind of a throwback to my favorite film of all time - the Wizard of Oz. I guess I see myself as the Cowardly Lion - living his entire life afraid of everything but finally realizing he had courage all along when faced with some of his greatest fears. The songs on the album are sort of my journey into that realization. So it's all wrapped up into a nice, neat little package of fun. Now, isnt that cute?

Anyway - I am now nearing the finish line of the third song. I will only say that the title of it is "Sometimes" and is a bit different from the past two songs you've heard. I can't wait for the finished product, as it's one of my faves. 

Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the first two tracks so far - you should feel very charitable! Letting everyone hear what I have held in for so long makes me nervous, but your positive feedback has given me the continued courage I need to keep going. So, thank you a million times! And please stay with me because there is SO much more to come. Happy New Year to all!

dreamBIG,
Arlanna

New Song - 2nd cut off album

Hellooooo everyone! Thanks for checking back in here to see whats up on this musical journey of mine.

Well I will tell you what's up - I just completed my second song off of my album. The song "I Know" is really revolving around the idea that, although so much has changed, what would it be like to go back to the way things were? I'm sure everyone in the world has felt that way before about something or everything. That feeling of nostalgia? C'mon, we all know it!

It was fun in the studio, even more fun than recording the first track because this time I was able to work with a few great musicians - one of them being my producer Derek playing bass, keyboards and guitar, the others being lead guitarist Chad Stevens and drummer Eric Anderson. Each of the musicians recorded their parts separately, just listening to a scratch track. So cool to watch. I wrote the song so I know exactly how it's supposed to sound, but to have someone who has never heard the song before just come in, listen to a skeleton melody and add some of their own creativity is just awesome. Obviously this is what makes a musician a good musician, but I just can't imagine how much undiscovered talent is out there. It's amazing. 

Basically, this is what went down. Derek and I were working and fiddling away with "I Know" and it was turning into a little fluffy tune. Fluffy is not the adjective I was hoping for for this song. I was constantly being told that it sounded "pretty." And it got prettier and prettier. I knew it was pretty but I wanted it to be a feel good jam song - something you can sing along to and jam to at the same time. You can't jam to "pretty." I'm sorry but it's just not possible. I heard Delta Goodrem's song "In This Life" many times before but one Saturday morning on my way to the studio I was feeling defeated with the direction of "I Know." While listening to "In This Life," I realized her chorus in that song is something of the idea I was hoping for - where the guitars just blow it up. Make it jammable. When I played it for Derek I watched it click in his head of what exactly I was hoping for. From that point on, we turned the direction of the song and it took on a life of its own. I re-sang the vocals on the track, giving it much more strength and feeling and VOILA! "I Know" was reborn. 

Both songs - "All These Years" (the first track I completed at Mockingbird Music Studio) and "I Know" - will be released on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon, etc... in just over a month. 

Stay with me - 3rd track to begin soon!

dreamBIG,
Arlanna

Let me introduce myself...

Hello everyone! My name is Arlanna Snow, pronounced (ARE-LAH-NAH) and my friends call me Lana; but whatever you want to call me works - Just please do not call me ArWanna. For some reason I get that from people. Where does that W come in? I have no clue. I was named after a great musician (Rod Stewart)'s ex - Alana Stewart. So I mean, obviously I was meant to be in the music world right from the git-go.

So I am a musician - singer/songwriter, altho what would describe me better is a songwriter/singer. Here are the facts:

1. 3 years old + Wizard of Oz + Judy Garland + Over the Rainbow = obsession with music.

2. I started playing piano at a very early age. That is when my parents bought me a little casio keyboard. I remember I figured out how to play Van Halen's "Love Comes Walkin' In" and thought that I was a rock star. I played by ear for a long time, then started taking lessons.  

3. My parents decided I needed the real thing, enter my best pal, Everett, the piano. This piano was built especially for me - special pedal, easier to press keys. I will never give him up!

4. After a couple of different teachers and realizing that I had terrible stage fright in recitals, I quit my lessons and continued on alone. I was never good at reading music, but I still played the best way I knew how.

5. Here and there I began creating my own melodies and writing a lot of poetry, that eventually ended up combining to create - what! - a song...and then another...and then another...

6. As my song library grew, I carried on with the normal things - school, work, Bryant College, accounting positions... 

7. Throughout the years, my obsession with music became stronger and stronger. Beginning with my first concert in 1988 - Tiffany with a little opening act some people may now know as New Kids On the Block - until just ten years later in '98 seeing Matchbox Twenty (then they were known as matchbox20) my head finally started to become a little less cloudy. 

8. My world changed as I knew it the night I saw Matchbox and met the guys that chilly March evening in 1998. Rob Thomas became my "reason for reason," and that reason was that I was meant to write music and make my world revolve around it.

9. I saw Matchbox Twenty (and Rob Thomas and Kyle Cook in their solo careers) more times than I can count and thank goodness because I realized that my poems weren't poems - they were song lyrics! And all of those little melodies I wrote all of these years on my piano weren't just happy little ditties - they were songs.

10. I went out and bought myself a Mac, starting recording my songs and haven't stopped. I have my own little recording studio here at home, but that was just to make some demos. I wanted to make a more marketable album so I could share my music with all of you. So that is when I decided to head into a real recording studio.

11. Mockingbird Music has become my second home and Producer/musician/engineer Derek Pisano and I have been creating some really, really good things. And all the while I keep on writing and recording my songs...they pretty much pour out of me without stopping. I like to refer to my songs as my diary - maybe its a little cliche, but writing and recording music is therapeutic for me. 

You may think you know me pretty well now - but you won't until you listen to my music. I dont think I'm comparable to many artists out there, but I can tell you that a very small few of my influences are Rob Thomas, Alicia Keys, Judy Garland, John Lennon. I am such a huge fan of music and have so much respect and admiration for so many songwriters. It's impossible to list them all.

So take a listen, it won't hurt, right?  And follow me through my Musical Adventures - it should be quite a ride!!!

dreamBig,
Arlanna