Imaginary Road Studios Day 1

Thursday, November 13 was the day of many firsts for me. I could not sleep before, I was a bit anxious. I thought I was going to have to write out all the songs on manuscript paper. So you can imagine my stress level was pretty high.

I drove out to Will's place, and it was a lovely drive. There is this river along side the 30 that was so enchanting. It calmed me down sort of! lol...

I parked my GPS challenged car, and went into the warm studio. I immediately sat down and started playing my heart out on the Steinway B. I am going to own one of those one day. Yup. .I am. I filmed me playing the piano. I have this cool little vid camera called the Flip Mino and it fits on this cute little tripod. I got some good piano time. Will came into the sound room and we started to map out the music. NO, notation.. just mapping like this: A B A C ...etc... and if the song has some special qualities.. we name that particular part. I nearly fainted with relief when they worked with me this way. It has helped me immensely! I remember my own music much better than in the past. So that is going to be one of the things in my own production that I will be using.

Midnight was first to be recorded. I think we did about 10 takes. Was very hard.. he directed me and pulled things out of me I had no idea I had in me. Each take focused on one part or other in the song. Then Corin would edit the parts together. I've never done that b4 and it was a tad bit scary.. however, Will and Corin gave me assurances that I was doing fine. Normally a musician has time to ease into how they do things... well, I didn't have the luxury of time on my side.. but you know, I really became focused on the the work at hand. Midnight took much of the day to finish.

Went to lunch, and then came back to work. In between all of this, Will took the time to get to know me. Talked with me, asked me about myself. He really put me at ease. He also talked about himself. That is a sign of a very down to earth person. He really is a good man. Corin was mixing the song together.. man that guy is GREAT. He really understands Will's preferences.. etc. I was extremely pleased. Oh yes.. the ceremonies of cutting the fingernails off was quite an event! lol.. NO clicking... my teachers all told me my nails would bite me in the rear end one day! hahah.

We then began to work on Nantucket. Again, we mapped it out, pulled out some non essential parts to the song.. and made it into music. I think we finished around 7pm. My head was aching, my ears hurt... I know we were all exhausted. I was very unsure of how I did. Once again they assured me, the next day everything would sound better.

I drove back to the Colonial Motel where I was staying. I was extremely happy with how everything went. So happy, that I went to sleep and I slept like a rock.

Take a look at the photos I posted so you can see what I am talking about.

More to come...

Imaginary Road Studios Part 1

Greetings everyone!

I am finally home from Vermont. I now can tell you all about it. I will need to break up the experiences in separate blog entries.. as it would take an HUGE amount of time to write a HUGE blog. I can't even sit still to read long blogs.. so this will be short.

I left on November 11 to go work at Imaginary Road Studios in Windham County, VT. And yes I worked with Will Ackerman and Corin Nelson.

I flew from Orange County, to Atlanta, then connected and flew into Hartford, CT. All of this was going out of my comfort zone. So I was just a tiny bit stressed. I then picked up my car and drove up into Vermont. Now.. here in CA, you have to drive hours b4 you get out of the state.. well, it was a mighty different xperience for me to drive from CT, to Mass and then to VT, all in a matter of an hour and a half.

It was dark by the time I got there.. so I was a bit anxious about my surroundings as the rental car I had did not have GPS... I really was annoyed by that. However, I prevailed and got there around 10pm. I stayed at the Colonial Motel off of Putney Road in Brattleboro.

I was VERY tired when I got there. I was happy to have a place to sleep at. I did not have any expectations of what would happen there.

Tomorrow I will write about my first day at Imaginary Road. TOTALLY rockn place.

More to come...

K

November Update

How did it become November? I have been exhausted, over worked, stressed, excited, can't sleep all in the past weeks. I am looking forward to the coming week.

I was able to sleep 12 hours Saturday night which is HUGE miracle in my life. Considering 4 children that enjoy waking me up in the middle of the night. Everyone went to bed and stayed there!! yay!

I feel like a little kid at Christmas because one week from tomorrow I fly to Vermont to record music. I think the weather is going to shock me. I have not been in the cold since 1980. I left Minnesota when I was 15 and moved to Texas. So.. I plan on taking lots of warm clothing.. I just might take my M&M blankie with me! ( I do so love that furry.. it keeps me so warm). I am SUCH a wimp when it comes down to being cold.. but I just LOVE layering the sweaters.. etc.

What you should know:

1. Trillium is still in production. We have 4 songs to finish - Midnight, Nantucket, A Roses Tale and The Crystal Fields. Midnight and Nantucket will be recorded in Vermont. A Roses Tale and The Crystal Fields will be recorded here and then Jeff Silverman will be helping with Mixing/Mastering and Sound Design. Lots of work to do still.

2. Website is re-designed. Pete Havey gets the Grammy for getting it done! You can visit here: Kori's Website

3. You can purchase digital tracks from my website of the Trillium songs we have finished! Kori's Shop

Drop me a line, say hello tell me what your favorite song is so far. I do enjoy hearing from you all.

Take care and next week I'll be blogging from Vermont!

More to come...

K

Bah Humbug Politics!

KSBR Morning Breeze Cruise.. My thoughts..

As you all know, I went to Dana Point to the Ocean Institute, and participated in KSBR's Morning Breeze Cruise. It was a cool day, but I had SO much fun. I never get sea sick, which is really nice. I think my family all would have gotten a bit green on the boat because there were some pretty good ocean swells going on out there. We saw a pod of dolphins.

What was amazing about them, is they swim in front of the boat... and I got a little nervous they might get hurt, but DJ and some of the volunteers told me they are fast, and they don't get hurt. I got a lot of them on film.. so once I do the edit of my video, I'll be uploading it on my website.

I brought my Yamaha keyboard with me. I didn't have my husband with me, or any of the children.. so I was on my own to bring my equipment on board. While waiting, I met the Jazz! Music Director for KSBR. She and her friend offered to help me with my gear.. so that was cool. NO more hauling out the HUGE Korg. THAT was very nice. I am SO glad I did not have to make a huge production out of taking that beastie with me.

I did play Midnight and Nantucket for them. Since there was SO much wildlife going on.. I didn't play much more of my music after that. That was ok.. because I really enjoyed seeing what was out there.

I came home tired. I had a really good weekend.. in that I was able to rehearse 6 hours on Saturday.. then after about an hour break, I was able to add two more hours onto that. 8 hours of music time. THAT was SO cool... i NEVER get to do that in one day. I am lucky to get in maybe 2 hours at night.

Tonight I am taking things real easy. I feel like I am trying to get a cold. So I have my M&M's furry blanket wrapped around me to keep me warm. I am thinking about going to bed early. Normally, I stay up until 2 am working. Or I go to bed and get up about 1 and work until 3am. Then I am up again at 5am.... freakin awful schedule I know.. but when my muse romances me.. I gotta respond else I cannot sleep. I MUST obey.

November is on the horizon. I am so stoked to go back into studio and work. I love it. I could eat, sleep and drink studio work.

More to come...

K

Website re-design is LIVE!

I am SO excited right now because my website's facelift has finished and is live!!!! Yay! I am beyond happy.

Pete: Thank you! You did an excellent job. I cannot tell you in words my appreciation for the hard job you have done on this. Thank you for putting up with my nitpicking on the grammar/spelling. You totally rock man. I bow to you!

I hope you all enjoy visiting the new pages. My daughters did much of the artwork you see there. The rest are photos by Jason Wallis Photography. Paul Franco took the studio pics with Jim McCarty that are on the "Photo Gallery"
pages.

Website link is:

Kori's Website

iRoknNod Records is up and running too! check it out!

iRoknNod Records

Thanks everyone for your support, emails, phone calls, everything.

YAY!

October

I will take this time during the debate to do something NON-political. ( For those of you that know me.. know that I absolutely can't stand politics) So.. here are some thoughts about the time of year we are at, what is coming.

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I always get hankering to be where the leaves are in a state of change. I also love the chill in the air. Where did the time go? Summer just flew by.. I guess because I was having fun. I feel like I am changing too. There are SO many things that are touching my heart, my soul. I don't like to change, because there is always some personal growth associated with that.... and sometimes it can be painful. But I always like what happens to me afterwards. I feel better, I am better.

This month I am working on A Roses Tale. I got so burnt out in September, that I worked on other things, getting a routine with the family because of school. I even wrote a few new songs. I am now digging into what needs to get done.

November wow.. that month is going to be incredible. I will be in Studio from the 13th until the 17th, recording Midnight and Nantucket. When I feel ready to announce WHAT studio and who I am working with, I'll let you know.

My re-designed website is almost done. I am excited for you all to be able to see it. My daughters did some of the artwork and Pete has been doing a fabulous job incorporating all the fun pieces of art they did for me.

Pete.. have I told you that you totally rock ? Well, I'm telling you again! You DA MAN! Thank YOU!

More to come...

K