Friday the 13th of August, 2010

Friday the 13th? Really??  I hadn't stopped to think about the date until just now...oops! Well, I suppose if I only choose to believe in good karma and good vibes (I don't think the world works that way) then none of the things I have started today will be affected by the date....or will they??  (mwah ha ha...!!!)

Anyways, what HAVE I started today? I have started getting my first tracks made for my electric violin show! I know, you say - "But wait, Tara, you have already been playing an electric violin show...?" True, true - but I have been using tracks I got from other people, improv-ing over other music, etc.  While this is the sad fate of many of us relegated to playing with backing tracks, I have decided it is time to move on.

I have been thinking for a long time that I wanted to create "a sound" - a signature sound, if you will, which is uniquely that of Tara 
Novak.  A giant task!!  This has been in the back of my head for many years, and I have been fortunate enough to be able to explore this "unique sound" within the other projects that I work with - writing compositions used in the Three Irish Tenors, Druid, my own band Ishna, Nyle Wolfe's album, etc etc.

That's all well and good, but when does playing other people's music stop being enough and when does playing your own music become the focus? I guess the answer is now (Friday the 13th?!).  Not that you ever stop playing other people's music - I could never spend any large period of my life playing only music from my own head - I would go far more insane than I already am.  There is so much beautiful music in the world - from early music to contemporary music to all the traditional music styles around the world.  I LOVE that I will never, ever be finished discovering new amazing music!

But the time is now to start putting all this music that has collected on my trusty (or not-so-trusty as it proved early this week) laptop and release it to the world, see where it goes from there

No, I am not recording an album yet - sorry!  But I am sure these tracks I am now working on creating will be the backbone of that first album, which will hopefully follow not too long in the future.  I've always felt before recording an album, if you have the luxury of 
taking your music out to the public, out to gigs and concerts where you are playing for people who have never heard of you, have no idea who you are, you can get a real feel for what works, what doesn't, what people like, what you enjoy performing, etc.  Because this music thing is, ultimately, a collaborative art, isn't it?  I certainly didn't train all these years to sit in a practice room and play for myself!

So, here it is, Friday the 13th, and the collaboration on the first track for the show has begun.  Please, world, be kind and send me 
funding for the tracks - bring on the gigs, let's get this show on the road!

Happy Friday the 13th...

Tara