If you are a musician and you have not checked out The Spot Studio in Winston-Salem, NC then you are missing something very cool and inspiring. Okay, I should also mention that if you are a musician AND you love trees and everything natural then....ditto all of the above. This week saw another piece of the collaborative puzzle, currently known as Common Threads, fall into place. Cara Hagan, my collaborator extraordinaire gifted me with some Spot Studio Time this week -- the results of which I find most pleasing. Imagine a sound (vocal) booth surrounded by beautiful woodwork, killer mics at multiple angles, the best coffee and the smell of cypress, pine and other woods gently wafting around you. I felt absolutely transported and that's what gets to me in most other studio settings -- the sterility. All of these beautiful "toys" and processors and cables and incredible programs of sound recording and manipulation, tons of talent, and then foam. Foam and panels as far as the eye can see and such a feeling of containment and being boxed in, so that you almost have to close your eyes or turn your imagination on overdrive. Not so at Spot. I felt like I had transported to some woodland retreat in the Pacific Northwest. Granted, I have been studying somatic body work as a means to unlocking greater creative expression and so to go to a place where smell is such an inspiring factor (for me at least, fresh wood is a happy trigger) -- wow.
Chris, our fabulous engineer, was great. Knowledgeable, creative, everything. And that's just it -- I felt like so much attention to creative detail had been crafted into that studio that it inspired notes in me. I'm telling you, it's well worth the trip to make music at this place. So check it out.
And stay posted for more on Common Threads, an artistic exploration and tribute to women's work, relationships, and experiences. We have a few installments now of this dance/music work -- so far all are a capella women's voices and we're thinking of keeping it that way. Cara has a piece called "Eve at the River," and another, "Our Quilt." I've gotten work done on "Georgia,"a tribute to my grandmother's life and legacy, with "Lilith" and "Letter Song" and "Sweet Femininity" mapped out and/or in process...but NOW that I know what a beautiful studio process awaits me, I am totally motivated to finish these pieces up and get a recording done by early November so that we can begin work on the CD.
Cara and I are workshopping a few threads or pieces of CT (Common Threads) at NC State this fall. We're looking forward to tightening our stitches, so to speak, but already the work is garnering positive feedback and excitement. There is talk of a US mini-tour of the work. Hopefully my hometown will be interested in hosting us for Piccolo Spoleto or some other artistic festival.
Meanwhile, it's back to the home studio...and the garden...and my trees!
Make the world your dance party!
MB Disco
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