Abby London

OFf the grid diary 

April 17th

We have done a bunch of work previously but I guess I wasn't keeping my diary :-/

I did the midi at home and perfected it in the studio and added some more synth parts.

Got my annoying tech noises in for the second part of the bridge too.

I changed the first verse: 

I’m afraid to say it’s a scam but it is 

We wanna keep all the money that we make but we’re afraid of the IRS 

Why are we born into a world of paper agreements? 

Why can’t we teach the children real history and grow all our own plants? 

and live on our own? 

Made a chanting part for the bridge like a call and response protest chant which was really fun.

I'll keep adding to this when I work on this song.

Febuary 6th 

added a cool sound 

electric 88 distorted electric guetanno  on the verses 

also did 808s and 909s on the alexis drum machine thingy 

hard to go away from the dancy track but I think we will build this one up. 

I was really feeling emotional paying the rhody sound on the keyboard like with my soul 

this song is so important to me. 

whats about cave and glass sounds I thought for the choruses 

April 12th 

 worked on making the song better.  Did some intro stuff.  A piano part, a rhodes part, a super high single note piano part that I think we switched to a synth. I wanted to get rid of the walkdown feel since the chords walk down so I adapted the chords so they walk up and are partial chords. 

Did some bomb harmonies for the choruses and the last two verses. 

“It’s starting to sound like if Katy Perry had a soul” - anonymous

This song is sounding so amazing and I'm loving it so much 

January 25, 2019 

Started working more heavily on War to Peace. 

We rerecorded the MIDI parts and added a harp part. 

Also cut the song from over 4 minutes to 3 and a half! 

Jakael said he appreciated me being sensitive to making the song shorter. 

Jakael is thinking about buying a horse.  He has been leasing the current ones.  He was looking at the map getting home.  The 99 project is still going so it is worse that usual. 

Rick and Jerry are in Palm Springs.  The thermostat is having some issues so it’s colder than normal.  I keep finding myself next to the space heater.  I’m going to my mom’s after this and having shrimp. 

January 28th 

Met Vika today at Diva Espresso.  She likes the song and is going to fiddle with doing a drum part for it.  She likes dreamy sounding music. 

April 10th 

Vika came to the studio and we messed around with drum sounds with the pictured synth.  The electronic set we used was called Tremelo Cycles and then we did a take with the snare from a sound called Murk it Up and the kick from Deep Duo. 

I took this pictures of my notes about drums and of Vika and I. 

I took this pictures of my notes about drums and of Vika and I. 

I have a little fine tuning of the 3rd verse lyrics to do still. 

 The Abby London is Miss-Cheivous show last Friday went very well.  Let me tell you more about it.

 It was hard work preparing everything out and bringing life to my song creations by adding costumes, pictures, an amazing beatboxer and some glow in the dark baton action.  I had little interludes between each song while I changed my costume.  There were a few lighting changes that happened too.  These are the papers that I typed out so the show would go as smoothly as possible. 

Sammy, a volunteer at The Pocket for the night, ran the sound and lights and introduced me.  My boyfriend helped with equipment and videos and ran the audio interludes backing tracks.  He also helped me pick out costumes and came up with the name of the show. The Jackal helped me so the audio didn't need adjusting.  We practiced the cues at home every day the week before.  Brian Kirkness did beatboxing which we had rehearsed, he got an effects pedal to do the electric guitar solo (which sounded so cool!) on Rollercoaster, helped with equipment, opened and shut the curtains, and came up with the idea to do Time completely a cappella at the end of the show.  

I was able to get some photos courtesy of Christopher A.  He even let me take his phone home with me after the show so I could upload them.  

It felt so good to give a performance my all and be able to put so much energy into every aspect of the show.  I think the songs made more sense and were more impactful than usual.  I feel very proud of myself for putting this together and motivated to do more shows like this in the future. One of my friends sent me an email the day after the show and said she felt affected the next day as one does when seeing a good movie. What a great compliment! 

I had a bunch of help during the show and preparing for it but it would have been weird if there was no audience.  Promotions are such a huge part of getting an energetic performance because, of course, an audience is such an important part of the equation.  I emailed, I ran ads, I sent texts, I invited, I facebooked, I posted on various places online. When I learned I had sold out I was elated! Lots of people shared and commented about my event (before and after) which I am so grateful for.    

All in all, it feels so good to be dedicating so much time and energy to my art and to have it be so well received.  Thank you to everyone who helped me promote and who came to see me.     

I will be sharing more photos and clips online and am looking forward to getting the video of the event from The Pocket Theater sometime in the next week or so.  

'til next time ;) 

One of my missions this summer is to play music at art walks around Seattle.  I want to see more art, know more artists, and help each other out.  I've grown less keen of playing music late at night in a bar since giving up certain vices completely and have been yearning for a different environment.  After some careful thought thanks to a marketing class I took last quarter, I decided on some new avenues for my live performances and art walks is one of them.  My first one will be at Thread Church during the Capitol Hill Art Walk next Thursday, June 14th from 5-9pm.  When I visited the website of the Capitol Hill Artwalk the Thread Church location totally stood out to me as did the art from the photographer they were displaying.  His name is John Deleon.  I hit it off with John right away and also the pastor of the church Justin!  The artist featured this month is Ranan Itchon another super amazing photographer.  

If you know of any art walk locations that I'd be a good fit for please,  let me know!  I'm also interested in gallery openings.

Last year I was contacted on my Soundcloud by someone asking if I would be interested in singing on a song he wrote.  Initially I was like, who is this guy messaging me?  I think he had to contact me a couple more times before we ended up emailing and scheduling a phone call.  He sent me the song around Christmas time and I played it at my grandparents house.  Everyone who heard it liked it and said to go for it.  I wasn't sure I was going to be good at it, but I practiced a zillion times and eventually scheduled a recording session.  The day before I almost backed out I was so nervous but I'm so glad I didn't.  I did an amazing job in the studio giving take after take of options for the songwriter and engineer to pick from.  I had to go back multiple times because of allergies( I fixed them with the NEAT btw), to do harmonies and also oohs and ahhs.  The oohs and ahhs were in a choral register and I was so lightheaded from it that I had to take one tiny direction at a time.  I could not be more proud of my work on this song.  I later found out that the song was written with my voice in mind!  I have become good friends with the songwriter, David Nyro and am currently working with the engineer and producer for that song Jakael Tristam.  I was so impressed with the pro level both of these guys are at.  They really got the best possible performance out of me and I'm so happy to be working with Jakael now on my own stuff.  The Man in the Window is in a variety of places online.  If you listen to it on Indie Music People, you can contribute to the song winning an award.  You can also hear it on Spotify and Pandora, and buy it on iTunes and Amazon.  There is a longer version of the song on YouTube and Soundcloud.