October 20, 2017

WOW – All things Golden

‘Every Leaf Knows That Time Is Short’ Mehmet Murat Ildan

The month’s seem to go by quicker and quicker, don’t you think?!  Sometimes it can feel that not much has been achieved when you look at how the weeks have passed. I read somewhere that there is a biological reason for why it feels like time is speeding up as you get older. For myself I think it’s just that as you get older you became aware of how little we valued time when we were younger!

Anyway, I made a commitment to myself that I would update here more regularly so I’m giving myself a pat on the back that it’s only been 5 months since I last did an update here! If I can maintain a post every season, that would be a success.

That last posting was about my photoshoot with Jannica Honey and some of the results of that are now on my images page. Here’s one I particularly like and seems a good choice for upcoming Halloween! 😉

The witching hour is coming!

I’m trying to reorganise my communications at the moment. As part of that, I’m resurrecting my e-mail newsletter which I hope you’ll consider subscribing too.  My intention is to share a lot more in e-mails and to use here to give brief updates.

WOW and other Happenings

Well, I need to highlight Scotland’s first WOW Women of the World Festival which is taking place in a week’s time in Perth. I am over the moon to be performing at it and will be one of several music events programmed over the weekend.  Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be opening the Festival the evening before with a talk and Q&A. Disappointed that I can’t attend that as I’m sure it will be riveting and inspiring. But there’s so much more happening on the weekend and for everyone in your family: talks, panel discussions, workshops, walks.

I’ll be performing a short set of some of the new material I’ve written for Chrysalis and will be joined by virtuoso pianist Karen MacIver.  Our performance will be happening at 1pm on Saturday 28th October.  Tickets are for a whole day or for the weekend. Details here https://www.horsecross.co.uk/whats-on/wow-women-world-perth-2017-weekend.

Other new developments which are in the pipeline are my ‘Find Your Voice’ workshops which are targeted at women and girls.  Although music and singing are a part of these workshops, they’re about empowerment, confidence, finding ‘your’ voice through creativity and then expressing yourself.

I’ve also got my fingers crossed about an application I’ve made to a fund aimed at helping musicians develop projects with artists from other art forms. Wont go into details on what the work will be unless I get accepted. If I don’t get the funding then the project will have to be put on hold.  The single biggest challenge of being an artist is financing projects.  Although 99.9% of us self-fund developing our own projects, we have to be able to pay other people to work with us.  It would be ridiculous to expect otherwise.

I’m still actively promoting live music and women in music through my involvement in the Musician Union, sitting on the Regional Committee for Scotland and Northern Ireland and also the National Live Performance Section.  I’ll share a bit about work going on there too in the Newsletter.

Anyway, that’s the quick update. I’ve got to go and do the Newsletter, seeing as I’ve been asking you to subscribe to it!

Hope you’re enjoying the golden russet glow of Autumn or if you’re in the southern hemisphere the glow of Spring.

Cindyx

PS: I’m also now doing a quarterly music Spotify playlist of new and old music that I’ve been enjoying. A pretty diverse mix of tunes. Check out my Autumn list here http://preview.tinyurl.com/y8hdps5f

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May 22, 2017

Chrysalis Video Reveal Time!

As always, worthwhile plans take longer to put into action than you first think.  When I first thought about embarking on a project to write new compositions and collaborate with other women, it seemed like it would be a straightforward path.  However, when you work with other people, have family responsibilities and have the challenges of different geographic locations (me in NE of Scotland, just about everyone else in London!), you can’t ever make a fixed timeline work. You have to learn to be patient and flexible.  Not really how you’d describe me. Haha. Sometimes, things seem to go so slowly that you think you’re never going to get there. I guess it just makes it all the more worthwhile when you do, right?

So, after months of writing and collaborating with Janette Mason, the songs are now written and we’ve also spent time with some fab musicians working through the material, refining and developing them even more. It was such a delight to work with a group of accomplished, generous, enthusiastic and communicative women.  I can’t express just how special it was to spend time with them!  Between them, they brought years of experience and lots of ideas.  The ideal people to collaborate with. So thank you Janette Mason, Julie Walkington, Sophie Alloway and Josefina Cupido.

Having fun making some new sounds.

Having spent only a couple of days rehearsing and working through some of our material as a group. We then spent a day at the Hideaway Jazz Club in London, filming and recording several songs for marketing the project.  The videos will be posted over the next little while but here’s a little taster for you, this is the compilation promo video:

Now the work is on to bring it to an audience. So watch out!

Cindyx

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October 14, 2016

Creative Scotland Award for Chrysalis Project

Hi all

I’m delighted to announce that I was recently awarded funding by Creative Scotland for a major project I’ve embarked on. This is the first time I’ve ever applied for funding and wasn’t that hopeful that I’d be successful, so was overwhelmed when they gave me their decision.  Have to say that the application was gruelling, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  However, even if I hadn’t got the award, going through the process was definitely worthwhile as it forced me to really focus on the content and purpose of my project.

Background

For some time, I’ve felt a burning need to say something more in the songs I sing.  Something about the issues that really concern me, as a woman, as a mother, as a citizen of this world with it’s many problems.  I get angry, upset and frustrated, like I’m sure many of you do when we see the abuse, violence and ill treatment of people happening because of their gender, their race, their sexual identity, their religion, the list goes on.   Seems to me that though we’ve made massive technological advances, we’ve made little progress when it comes to our humanity and understanding, sometimes it even seems we’re moving backwards becoming increasingly intolerant, dividing ourselves instead of coming together.  I’m a political animal and I feel my music so far hasn’t incorporated this important part of who I am.  The songs I’ve been singing, although I cherish them, have been generally focussed on being in or out of love.  Now, love is something we all need, life is nothing without it but that’s not all there is!

The Project

I’ve been writing lyrics for a while now but wanted to create some original songs that focus on some of the issues that matter to me, particularly gender, identity, equality and the female experience.  I realise there’s a fine balance here between entertaining whilst raising issues and avoiding spouting from a soapbox.  A big influence on me is soul/funk music of the 60’s and 70’s which did this so well, so many great songs from that period, the grooves and hooks carried the sentiments in the lyrics.  So I’m also using this as an opportunity to explore different sounds and experiment a bit, leaving it open to going in a new direction musically.  There will always be some jazz in there though!!

Why Chrysalis?

The working title right now for the project is Chrysalis.  God that was a hard one to decide on.  How I laboured over it!  Trying to find one or two words at most that encapsulated what it was about?!!  In the end, I felt the word Chrysalis best expressed what this work means to me and where I am in my personal development as an artist.  I don’t know what I’ll be when I come out the other end of it.  Will I be  colourful like a butterfly or dull like a moth?!  Have I set myself up? 😉

Collaboration

I’m really pleased to have on board musician/composer/band leader Janette Mason who brings a wealth of experience from pop to jazz.  I feel so fortunate to have such a generous, accomplished and committed guide to help me on this journey.  Janette is co-writing as well as being my Musical Director and Producer, so it matters a lot that she feels equally passionate about a lot of the issues I’m writing about.  It’s been an interesting and sometimes uncomfortable process developing a collaborative relationship with her and I’m learning a lot!  You have to be honest and open to criticism, difficult at first but it’s getting easier. 🙂

Another objective of this project is to work predominantly with other female artists as I’ve generally been working exclusively with male musicians.  I like working with guys but I wonder how different the experience with women will be?  Plus I’d like to share the platform with other women too, we need to support each other.  I could present lots of stats on the numbers of women in music, how their presented, how few are included in festivals, etc, etc, but that would take up a whole other posting!

Links

If you want to check out Janette and the exciting stuff she’s been working on, including work on her next Trio album. Go to the following:

http://www.janettemason.com

Also, I’m now on Instagram and Pinterest, where I’ll be sharing links to things that are inspiring me:

https://www.instagram.com/cindydouglasmusic/

https://uk.pinterest.com/cdouglas0525/

I’ll share more as time goes on: plans for performing, recording, including visual art, expanding into education, etc.  I’ve a lot going on in my head but I’ve also got to get writing those songs!!

In closing, please feed back comments.  Let me know if there are aspects of the Project you’d like to hear more about.

Love & peace to you.

Cindyx

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