Jardin D'hiver

I was asked, recently, to join in on a recorded musical collaboration. 

The instrumentalist I used to duo with (pre-Covid) has been writing and recording his own instrumental music for years. He has released albums and not only can he play various instruments (and is quite masterful on the piano), but he has a knack for actually recording in his home. You can find some of his music here. 

So when he asked if I would be interested in doing a collaboration, I was all in! 

At first I thought I was in over my head, to be quite honest. I mean, I have worked very little with my own recording software, but my answer was an emphatic "yes!" with zero hesitation. 

With Covid times still upon us, this collaboration had to be done virtually. He would play and recors a backtrack, send it to me, then I would record my vocals and send just the vocals back to him. He did some mixing and added more instruments. I had to fix a vocal part so I re-recorded a small portion of my vocals to fit it in with the rest of the song and sent that over to him, which was interesting. Patching in on a recording is tougher than it may seem. Trying to get the same sound can be tricky, especially if it is done on a different day like this was. I have to pay attention not only to the volume, but also the vocal quality, how far I am from my microphone, and even the placement of the microphone in the room itself. Slight differences can come out in the recording. 

After all of this, he did the mixing and mastering of the song. 

The result was this Parisian-café feel of a cover song: "Jardin D'hiver" by Stacey Kent. 

Click here to hear our quick virtual collaboration. 

There are several things that I absolutely adore about this project. 

I love the jazzy piano, the classically french accordion addition, the overall feel of it, and the simplicity of the vocals. None of it is much modified - no crazy effects or inauthentic editing. It is like you are hearing a live lounge-type band in a french bistro.

What I love the absolute most about this project, though, is that this is the exact feel I have been working towards with writing my own songs. While this cover song is sung entirely in french, I am heading in this direction with my lyrics and songwriting, except with the twist of combining the two languages instead of choosing one or the other. 

This project also has given me more of an opportunity to work with my recording software - which has sparked the start of additional projects. 

I love My Musical Life!