Making books!
Category: Music

About two months ago, I happened to mention to my friend Thomas that people often asked me if I had sheet music at my shows. And that whenever this happened I would have to say no because, although I did have music for all of my songs entered into the computer, it wasn't thoroughly edited and I didn't have a good way to get it to people. Shrewd that he is, of course Thomas immediately saw the obvious. "Why not make a book?"

Hmm...make a book? It sure sounded simple enough. I mean, at this point I've made a couple thousand CD cases at least, and a book can't be much harder than that, right?

Well, it turns out that, however humble my design, I was grossly underestimating the complexity of this task. (In fact, I think the only project I have ever undertaken that was more complex would be making an album, which I was coincidentally doing at the same time!) It often seemed that I was running into problems at every turn, and I would find myself cursing this book, all books, Thomas (sorry Thomas!), and my limited budget for making my life so difficult. I remember at one point getting so annoyed that I started to wonder how books ever caught on in the first place! Fortunately, all this frustration was no match for my growing obsession. And now that it's all finished, I'm very very glad I persevered. After all, isn't it true that the hardest tasks are the most rewarding? (Er, well, as long as you're successful, that is...)

Anyways, I wanted to share something about the process I finally arrived at, and I originally thought about making this blog into a long step by step explanation with lots of pictures. But then I just felt too exhausted by all this book making to go to all that trouble :) However, if you want to see a piece of the process, I loosely based my method on this very informative blog I dug up via Google. If you do ever feel inspired to make a book yourself, however, I would highly recommend PVA adhesive, which is a different glue than the one he uses. Apparently YES glue is not archival as previously thought.

Here's one picture, though, of many of the tools I used:


And the finished product!




And finally, if you'd like to have your own numbered copy of my book of sheet music, you can either buy one on my myspace page or my website. It's about 70 pages in all, and includes chords, lyrics, and music for piano and voice for every song on Clouds Electric (except "The Butterfly" composed by Edvard Grieg), plus the music for Seaworthy Sleeper, and 8 pages of full-color artwork! Of course, it is all assembled (designed, printed, cut, sewn, glued, stamped, etc) by yours truly, and as I wouldn't wish that task on anyone else, copies are limited in number. Although, as Thomas reminded me this morning, now that I've done this once it will be so much easier next time! Thanks, Thomas. We'll see if there will be a next time....

Many thanks for reading! And to those who have already ordered copies, you've made this process even more rewarding! I hope you enjoy them!

Johanna

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My Mustachioed Orchestra / Live review on Seattlest.com!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the show last night at the Sunset, and to Seattlest.com for this amazing live reveiw: http://seattlest.com/2008/03/27/we_went_johanna.php

I’m hoping to finagle a way to bring this 10-piece monstrosity of a band together again soon! (CD release party, perhaps? I’ve never had one of those!)

xo Johanna

10:42 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Debuting new songs with a 9-PIECE BAND!! Next Wed in Seattle!

Hey all,

In more ways than one, next Wednesday’s show is not only my own personal dream show but also an extravagant musical smorgasbord. In the first place, I’ll be joined onstage by A LOT of my favorite Seattle musicians and people, hailing from all kinds of opposing musical directions. 9 of us in all (maybe even 10?) will crowd onto the Sunset stage, including members of such stylistic antitheses as Velella Velella, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Picoso, Monktail, and the Degenerate Art Ensemble! I’m not sure what bizarre astrological accident has come to pass, allowing these many musical worlds to collide on the small stage of the Sunset Tavern, but whatever it is, I think it’s fair to say that it’s not going to happen again any time soon.

And just to make this doubly exciting we’ll be playing ALL NEW MUSIC, debuting songs and arrangements from the new album I’ve been hard at work on, holed up in the studio these past few months!

Even moreso, I couldn’t be more thrilled with our two opening bands, friends from near and far, and true songwriting geniuses one and all. Opening the show is the extremely charming Your Heart Breaks, one of my very favorite Seattle bands!! And immediately following will be Washington DC friends These United States, passing through town on what some might call a highly-ambitious concept-tour, and others might call just plain crazy. Instead of bringing the whole band on the road, These United States frontman Jesse Eliot will be backed up by a different local musicians on every single night of his 30-some date tour. Next Wednesday, this impromptu backing band will include myself and...well, who knows...? I’d highly recommend checking out their stunning debut release, and hearing these songs in person as they will be played this way for one night only!!

Johanna Kunin (new songs w/ a 9-PIECE BAND!)
These United States
Your Heart Breaks
==============
Wednesday, March 26th
@ Sunset Tavern
5433 Ballard Ave NW
9:00PM
21+
$7

I very much hope to see you there!

Johanna

PS I’ve pasted links below where you can hear the other bands’ music. For the time being I’m also posting a different song-in-progress from my new record on both my myspace and facebook pages, which I’ll be rotating periodically...

These United States (myspace)
Your Heart Breaks (myspace)
Johanna Kunin on Facebook

PPS My album Clouds Electric is finally up on iTunes! Woo hoo!

9:56 AM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Clouds Electric on iTunes!

It took me a while to get on the bandwagon, but my album Clouds Electric is finally up on iTunes. I'm also featured on the iTunes Indie Singer/Songwriter Spotlight for the week, alongside some awesome fellow indie artists like Bon Iver, Goldfrapp, Thao, and Blitzen Trapper! I feel so welcomed into the downloadable fold.

Yes, I have entered the 21st century, folks. I think this makes it official. I have left the 90s behind! At least until a few months from now when it comes back into style...

Johanna


Oh yeah, and my friend Clyde just finished a music video for Fireflies that we kind of forgot about...you can read about and watch it here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=27271025&blogID=363998498

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About the new song(s) I posted...
Category: Music

I couldn't wait any longer to share a little bit of what we've been working on in the studio! So I posted one of the 13 songs on the new record, and will be rotating in a few more in the coming weeks as they start shaping up. These are unfinished, unmixed tracks, so you might hear a few flaws and moments that need to be smoothed out, but I'm very proud of how they are sounding so far and hope you enjoy them anyway!

Here's a list of credits for No Comprehension, which I just put up today:

Skyler "skyballs" Norwood: producer, engineer
Eric "eags" Eagle: drums
Andrew "fingers means business" Means: bass
Paris "queen of dissonance" Hurley: violin
Me: vocals, piano, flute

I owe such a huge thank you to the multitude of musicians who have put their time and energy into making this record! It has been such an amazingly intuitive and positive process, and I am so grateful to all of you for being a part of it!

Johanna

P.S. If you want to hear one more, I've posted a different new song on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Johanna-Kunin/18925430252

1:11 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Rough mixes, kind words
Category: Music

Just past the end of weekend number three in the studio, I am listening back to the rough mixes (raw, unfinished versions of songs) we have gathered together so far. It's so hard not to give in to insecurity when there's a lull in the creative process. That's one difficult thing about only being able to record on the weekends. In between there's all this time to wonder, "Are people going to like this?" On a rational level, I know full well that this is beside the point; that it is essential to put these concerns aside in order to create something genuine. But I guess there's still some small part of me that thinks this is still high school and wants the cool kids to like her. Over the past few years of making my own music I've at least made some progress in learning to more or less shut down that fearful voice in my head, although it still shows up every now and then. (By now, in fact, it's already gone again, and I am feeling totally into what I am hearing. Strange how that happens!)

Making the decision to create your own art and put it out there for anyone and everyone to see is kind of a scary one, when it comes down to it, because it is one that carries with it the risk of frequent public humiliation! Why, then, do so many of us choose to do it? While this may not motivate everyone, I think many people develop a sort of addiction to applause, to praise, to the approval of others. Not seeking this comfort is a constant battle for me. Above all, I want what I write and play to communicate something honest and create an experience for the listener, and I think catering to those cool kids I mentioned -- or anyone other than yourself for that matter -- makes this more or less impossible. Nonetheless, I can't say that it doesn't feel good to read something truly kind in the press about this music that I've worked so hard to create! Like when, this past week The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, and Willamette Week all had nice things to say before our two shows this weekend in Portland and Seattle.

Now, I don't want anyone to think that I take that for granted. I mean, that's AWESOME and I feel very fortunate to get that kind of recognition, don't get me wrong, but there's a challenge in it as well; in not getting too caught up in what anybody says -- the good OR the bad. It was wonderful and wise trombonist and teacher Julian Priester (who certainly knows the roller-coaster ride of a long career in music himself) who I once heard give the very best advice for musicians (or anyone for that matter) that I know of. He said simply, "Keep an even keel." I took that to mean, don't get carried away over the good things that come your way, or let the bad ones destroy you. And I would add that you must not allow these things to change how you view yourself. I try to remember this as often as I can through the ups and downs of being one of those weirdos who heeds the urge to perform.

xo Johanna

PS I've been watching Twin Peaks yet again...ever checked out the Log Lady intros?

Currently watching : Twin Peaks - The Second Season Release date: 03 April, 2007

11:47 AM - 3 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Recording again!
Category: Music

I spent the weekend in Skyler Norwood's recording studio in Camas, WA getting started on the new record! Eric Eagle and I had recorded the piano tracks the weekend before on Wayne Horvitz's heavenly Steinway grand. This weekend Skyler, Jeremy Hadley, Andrew Means, Matt Berger, and I started dressing up those bones, constructing vital organs and the first hints of musculature. The songs aren't exactly up and walking yet, but already they are moving in new, surprising ways. And I have a feeling that this record will have more than a few more surprises up its sleeve before all's said and done! It's very exciting to be beginning this process again, and while I can't wait to share the results, in a certain way I have this feeling of not wanting it to end any time soon.

Johanna

P.S. I just started a music page on facebook. So if you are on facebook, feel free to check it out. I'm going to try to keep writing recording updates like this, but I might just post them on that page in the "notes" section...

Currently reading : Kafka on the Shore By Haruki Murakami Release date: 03 January, 2006

11:40 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Three inches of snow
Category: Life

Almost but not quite to the end of the road, I double back. It reminds me of how, for a time, I always left a bite of each meal untouched in a small act of self-defiance; proof of my own will. Thoughts, like snow can come thinly, densely-packed, or often not at all. It is not until turning back that I notice the footprints. Seeing that unsure line is an unsettling surprise; the tread pattern repeated over and over, left then right, forwards then backwards, forwards then backwards. It is startling, being brown while everything else is so white. As I walk, at first the prints are clear and perfect, and I am surprised to find that I had not come here in a straight line. Instead, the chain of steps veers off in different sized arcs to the left and right. I wonder if I might be able to remember what I had thought during each step, in reverse order, as though each print might bear the signature of the exact moments during which it had been made, moments that are becoming more and more obscured by thought upon thought upon thought. As I continue toward home, I watch the line gradually disappearing. The snow is getting heavier, and each print is being whited out, the same way that the most distant objects in view are whited out and merging with the sky, which is brought closer by the presence of the snow in the air between me and these objects: hills, cloud-cover, trees seem essentially the same. It is the snow between myself now and the thoughts then that makes it hard to remember. Thoughts, like snow, can be so overwhelmingly dense. You can't hold onto them. When you try to hold too many, they become more like particles trapped in a slow ooze than individual bits moving independently. But the thoughts themselves remain individuals so complex and unique you can't grasp them entirely for more than a moment. They soon join with each other into an unrecognizable part of a static mass, or melt when touched and examined. There is no preserving them. I, too, am covered in snow, more and more so, and feel self-conscious, as though someone might see me and think it's strange the way I am willingly letting the snow build up on my coat and hat. I am surprised to find that, while piles of snow have accumulated on the front of my body, as I crane my neck around to check I see the back of my coat remains completely black with absolutely no snow on it at all. My head leads my body as I hurry to get back before I forget everything I want to write. I taste a snowflake that has been resting on the edge of my mouth, enjoying it, then open my mouth with the idea of catching more on my tongue. It seems strange that I can go for many steps with my mouth wide open without catching any flakes at all when they are seemingly everywhere. I remember how even air itself, invisible in small amounts, obscures objects as distant as stars, and it occurs to me that air is a lot like time in this way. I think about white-outs and black-outs, seeing and not being able to see. It occurs to me that in both cases you actually stop seeing because of the lack of information in what you are seeing. I think about how too much and too little can either be the same or exact opposites. Eventually, the footprints disappear altogether; it hadn't been snowing very hard when I left. Maybe I hadn't made any in the beginning at all? I think about how much the value of any idea is in its context, how something can at the right time seem so meaningful, and at the wrong one, have absolutely no meaning at all.

Johanna

1:42 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Profiled
Category: Music

It feels like forever since I last wrote a blog. I guess I must've been out, you know, living, all this time...and I was a little too exhausted after the last tour to attempt to get my thoughts down about it. Much as I love being on the road, it's been nice being home for a stretch, and has given me a chance to get songs finished for the next record which we'll start recording in January. All the songs are written (I think!) and I've been trying most of them out here and there at shows over the past several months, although a few still haven't left the confines of my living room...in any case, I'm extremely excited to get in the studio!

In the meantime, here's a link to a video profile of me that is airing on the Seattle Channel throughout December: http://www.seattlechannel.org/Verve/

If your computer doesn't like that method (mine doesn't...) you can download it for free at the iTunes store. Just search for "Seattle Verve," which is the name of the series. Those of you in Seattle can also watch it on Channel 21 on Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 11pm, or at various other random times in the middle of the night throughout December. The schedule is also posted at the link above.

Love,

Johanna

Currently reading : Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick Release date: 28 May, 1996

5:55 PM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Sigh Lens returns!
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Music

Finally, after being sold-out for months, "Sigh Lens" is back in print with brand-new handmade copies up for sale on my myspace page!  In case you're not familiar with this record, it is a group of my songs recorded simultaneous to Clouds Electric and produced by Karl Blau, that one and only pipe-smoking, oyster-farming musical hero of K Records.  You'll notice that many of the songs we recorded for "Sigh Lens" also appear on "Clouds Electric" but in ridiculously different versions.  In the making of this record, Karl, Steve Moore, and I prepared some pianos, recorded ourselves eating pop rocks, jerry-rigged old messed-up leslie speakers, and pretty much just went with it, whatever it was, whether it seemed weird or not.

You might also know that these recordings were originally released on issue 21 of Karl's snail-mail audio periodical, Kelp! Monthly.  And you might also be aware that that record was a split with Garrett Devoe of the Brooklyn band Pure Horsehair.  The current version only has my songs on it, so if you want to get Garrett's songs -- and you SHOULD because there's at least an 80% chance his album Aubade will be your new favorite record -- just stop by his myspace page.

And speaking of music that will surely improve your quality of life, I'd strongly advise picking up a copy of Karl Blau's latest, "Dance Positive" which just came out on Marriage Records.  And then, since -- as any fan of Karl will agree -- you can't possibly know Karl until you've heard at least 5 of his records, get yourself some back issues of Kelp! Monthly, a day off, and a pair of headphones, and prepare to be blown away.  As long as you're not a total curmudgeon, this ought to work perfectly.

Happy listening,

Johanna

P.S. I almost forgot to mention the new "sweet deal" I'm offering.  You can now buy all 3 of my CD's together -- Clouds Electric, Sigh Lens, and my EP Up North -- for the ridiculously low price of $25.  That's 1990's pricing, today!  You can take advantage of this limited time offer right here on my myspace page, or by calling 1-800-REAL-CDS-YAY.

Currently listening : Dance Positive By Karl Blau Release date: 15 May, 2007

10:08 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment