A Cappella, A Cappella, A Cappella Woche Hannover!

Jingle
What an incredible first 8 days this festival was! I just spent the whole week filming all the vocal groups and ensembles for the A Cappella Woche Festival and interviewing them. And not only that: I've also asked the artists to improvise on the jingle I created for the occasion. And it was so funny to see the takes of each group and to see how the vocal identity of each group revealed itself in the interpretation of it. Tonight promises to finish in apotheosis with The Boxettes and Slixs my 2 absolute favorite vocal groups of the week.

Opening act for the Boxettes
That wasn't first planned but I also ended up having the honour to open for the Boxettes on Sunday 28th April. You can see the video with extracts from my concert and a short interview in German below. And a few pictures on my Facebook page.

Going back to my roots, yeah!

Cocorico!

I've been very quiet recently but for a good reason... I was working very hard on researching & learning French Songs. From September to December, I was a student of the VHS, a Hannover adult learning center to re-learn German which I must admit I had almost completely forgotten after 10 years without speaking it. When my teacher heard I was a singer, she immediately took me to the French department which had been looking for someone to give a course about French Chansons for a very long time. So I said yes and here we are 4 months later...

I already got 4 sessions booked on April 9th, April 23rd, May 7th and May 23rd and I had my first class last Tuesday. People who know me know that I always write my songs in English because, well I almost only listen to songs in English. But I actually digged in my own repertoire and exhumed 5 songs in French (including J'te ramène à la boutique on my latest album The A Cappella Sessions). So I also write in French but reluctantly...

This plunge into French Chanson was quite eye-opening since I realised with all the radio I listened to as a child, I actually knew a lot of French songs. But then I had to find what was successful too in Germany. So I ended up not only singing La Vie en Rose but also Joe le Taxi. I must confess it was a bit of stress cos I'm really not used to sing those songs and play them on the piano at the same time... But it was a lot of fun and I actually managed to make everyone sing! Even the people who said they didn't want to sing ;) In the next sessions I will of course sing well-known French Chansons but also probably songs from my French artist friends (Auren, Gaëlle Buswel) and who knows maybe the rare songs I have in French...

We'll see!

My musical life lately!

Table booked for me & guests at XS All Areas

It's been a long time I haven't written a blog post but it doesn't mean nothing happened in between musically. On the contrary, it just means there's not enough hours in a day to do everything and write about it!

So since March 3rd (last time I wrote), what happened? Well
- I've been meeting my mentor, Marco Heggen for the first time on the 9th March and he came to see me live at Gig Linden on the 10th.
- The Show was recorded and will be boradcast on Radio Leinehertz in Hanover soon (I'll keep you posted!).

- Then I had a concert on the 15th March at XS All Areas.
- on the 16th a seminar (the second of a series of 6 that I won with the Kre(h)tiv Prize).
- On the 17th a house Birthday Concert
- Since then I've been writing lyrics and toplining for a few songs Marco composed.
- I've also organized another 3 house concerts! One in Dortmund on the 19th April, one in Leeuwarden (Netherlands) on the 20th April and another one in Hamburg in the 1st of June.
- And I'm in the process of redesigning and building a new website too.
- And I've also reposted all the videos of Busking in Australia on Youtube since many of you told me they had problems watching it on Dailymotion.

So it's busy out there!

Schönes Wochenende...!

Friday: on the radio

In the studio at Radio LeineHertz

It was the first time I went to a radio station (Radio Leinehertz in Hannover) to record a live show in Germany. Germaid, the host of The "acoustic Poeten" nights (I do a concert for this night on 10/03/2013) had invited me and the least we can say is we had a lot of fun. I didn't bring an amp and the loop-pedal doesn't work without amplification. I thought it would be amplified through the mixing table in the radio station. But it was not possible. So Germaid suggested I used her voice and we asked also the sound engineer. So we ended up improvising totally live in the studio on "I can't hold inside". It reminded me when I sent Greg Shivy, the husband of producer Sylvia Massy and Jason Benham In the recording booth to record male voices on "And maybe a tree will rise out of me..." for the A cappella part at the end.

Off to Kiel

With Suse at her place in Kiel

With Marlies at her place in Kiel

I went to Kiel when I was 14 and already learning German at school. That was the first time I went in Germany on my own and was in a guest family. I couldn't speak much German at the time and what I remember most vividly is the cold. It was -16C and we even skated on the lake nearby (that's how cold it was in February 1994). I had promised myself never to go back with such temperatures and was pleased to see the weather forecast was 4C. Suse picked me up at the Kiel railway station and offered me tea and cakes. She has hosted already more than 30 House Concerts at her home and so the bar was set high! She had a piano so I decided to do a first set on the piano and a second set on the loop-pedal. Normally I don't play very often the Great Gig in the Sky cos I screw it up every other time but this time I made it through! And then the second part went great too with everybody singing the now traditional No Diggity at the end. I caught a cold since Thursday so I welcomed an early night of sleep. I was in bed at 0h15 and didn't wake up before 9am. We had a great breakfast with Suse listening to music an chatting before Marlies came to pick me up for a second brunch-concert at her place. That was my first brunch concert and we had a great time too. Marlies is incredibly nice and the whole audience also played the game. There should be a video of it soon so I'll keep you posted. And now I'm on my way back home still with a cold but with ple ty of good memories, an incredible weekend behind me and looking forward to a little bit of rest tonight before a new week begins!

Erfolgreich!

...Successful in German!

Well a lot of success was wished for yesterday night as I was given my Soundcheck Prize. It's funny I was trying to remember all the prizes I got. I won a prize given to the most deserving school students at 14 and had petits fours and macarons for free at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris... Then I won a cup dancing rock'n'roll when I was 15. Then I got my first musical Prize with the Muzik'elles when I opened in front of 5,000 people in Meaux (France) for Linda Lemay. And now my second musical prize from the Kre(h)tiv Network in Hanover. I must say I'm particularly proud of that one because:

• I moved to Germany since September 2012 and in Hanover since December 2012 so it's like having a bit of recognition in a country, which language I still don't know perfectly. 
• It took me 2 weeks to complete the application and I almost didn't submit as I thought it was bloody hard work! 

Didn't meet my Mentor yet!
I couldn't wait to meet my mentor at last yesterday night, only to hear that he was stuck in LA with a flu that was so bad he couldn't take a plane... So I still don't know when I'll be able to meet him but I can tell you his name: Marco Heggen. I just discovered him. He had a lot of success in Germany with a band called Marquess and apparently shares my taste for travelling since he's already done a world tour! In any case it was a delight to meet the other winners and to see the faces of all the people who take part in the seminar as well. And what is all the more surprising is that we are 2 French out of 5 winners since the pianist of the band Naked Ape and the Trumpery is also French! Who said the Franco-German relationships were dead? I think it's just extraordinary to see how well we are also received here! Europe at its best! Thanks Hannover for adopting me!

Even ended up again in the local newspaper...
Twice in papers this month... Once front page of the local paper in the Netherlands and today in the "Neue Presse" one of the local papers of Hanover. "And it's a good day, for singing a song!!!!"

what a week and more about my Prize!

Soundcheck Prize!
On Tuesday evening I met Kai Schirmeyer (Project Manager of Kre(h)tiv) and Holger Maack (Director of Musik Zentrum Hannover) for a little talk about how the year of mentoring would go. This is part of the "Soundcheck" prize I won with 2 other contestants that I will probably meet today as we are all taking part in a series of seminars called "Erfolgreich" ("Successful" in German) that take place once a month up until July. So I'm starting today officially this year of mentoring. As for my mentor, I will meet him for the first time on Tuesday evening. Which is also the night I will receive officially the prize and where I will be showcasing a few songs to the audience. If you're in Hannover, come along, it's free.

Halle 96 Hanomaghof 2 30449 Hannover

Birthday at XS All Areas
I started performing at XS All Areas totally by chance. As I registered in Hannover as a resident, I was handled a few documents. And on a map of the area where I reside, I saw an ad for XS All Areas with piano keys on it. So I went to see what it was and saw that they were looking for acts to perform. I immediately sent an email and 2 days later I was meeting with the chef, Alex and we decided I would come and perform a week later. That was the 21st December. We had a blast and it was decided I would come again in January. And then Cora, Alex's wife asked me if I could come and perform for Alex's birthday on 21st February. So here I was again. First time we did a duet with Alex (welcome to my world by Elvis Presley) and I even put our my bass on stage for the first time in my life to perform Personal Jesus, one of Alex's favorite. I wasn't the only musician in the room, in fact I found out later that many members of the band Fury in the Slaughterhouse (which I must admit I had never heard of but who are apparently fast as huge as Scorpions, another band from Hannover) were there too. Chris, the guitarist performed (in the kitchen) an altogether entire take of An Englishman in NY originally by Sting that was transformed in "ich bin ein Lindener in der List "(Linden and List are 2 different neighbourhoods of Hannover. The List is where XS All Areas is, a very residential place and Linden is where all the bars and concert venues are). A fun night but then nights at XS All Areas are always fun! So much so that I'm performing again there on the 15th of March. It seems like it's become a monthly feat!!!

Oh what a night!

I love A Cappella Festivals

Ben

In A Cappella Festivals, There's always a great atmosphere. And from the moment Ben, one of the organisers of Balk Festival Oost picked me up at the station, I knew I was in for a treat.

As soon as I arrived I directly went upstairs to catch a performance of Joep Hoestaken's vocal group, VPS Kek. Then I bumped into Merel Martens, the conductor of Pitch Control who was also our conductor in Stockholm last summer for the Single Singers project. It was such a pleasure to see her again! Then I went to see a few choirs, did my vocal warm ups in my own room backstage and then it was already time to soundcheck... The concert passed all too quickly and then I had the pleasure to see Merel Martens at work with Pitch Control. I guess Merel

Merel Martens and I

is the only girl I know who can lead a choir while beatboxing. Pretty impressive! And then it was already time to say goodbye to everyone and to go back to Joep Hoestaken's place for the night. Joep's family is just fantastic. His daughter who happens to be a singer was there too. And this morning after breakfast we all did a last jam before I caught my train...

So I have only one thing to say! Dank u wel!

My personal Backstage Room

Balk Festival Oost

DRU Cultuur Fabriek, where the festival took place

On the cover of the local newspaper