Part 3 - Steel Bridge Construction Zone

This is part 3 of 3 of my experience writing and recording at the Steel Bridge Songfest Construction Zone. Please see my previous blogs for the whole story!

(In Photo: The crew from the Beach Harbor Studio)

I am finally getting around to my last song written and recorded at Steel Bridge! Last, but by no means least! I am very fond of this song and it's charming nature. It turned into a waltz and for those of you who don't know, a waltz is written in 3/4 time. I don't know why, but I had never attempted to write in 3/4 before. So once it got going, I really wanted to stick with it just because it was a first for me. I figure, part of the spirit of the Steel Bridge is to step outside your comfort zone, so we went with it!

At first our challenges were more logistical than anything. We needed to find a place to write! With an astonishing lack of transportation (none of us had a car!), we somehow all made our way to the Beach Harbor Resort to my hotel room where we could have some quiet to get the creativity going. One of the biggest challenges with writing at the construction zone is finding your group a little solitude. There are musicians literally everywhere and all of them working out a tune. While this is very inspirational, it also makes for a lot of musical distraction!

My co-writers were Landon Capelle and Chenoa Moore. Landon's background is in rap and Chenoa is just starting out in music and still trying to define her sound. So we had two chick singers and a rapper. Not a likely bunch to write a song! But somehow we put together this very sweet waltz. In the beginning, I was worried we were leaving Landon out of the process because I was having a hard time picturing rap in this dear little waltz. I was willing to give it a shot because you never know, sometimes the most opposite thing really fits! But in the end, we all decided it just wasn't necessary. Landon contributed about 3/4 of the lyrics and I was extra excited when Landon expressed how it was a new experience for him to write lyrics for girls to sing. Firsts going all around in this song! I love it!

One of the song topics that is encouraged at Steel Bridge is to use the idea of a bridge either metaphorically or physically and what ever that means to you. Our song is about lovers separated by a very wide river with no bridge to connect them. The main hook is "I'm just sitting here on the other side of the shore".

We recorded at the Beach Harbor Studio with Dan Stoffels of the Madison Media Institute. Here is a run down of the participants:

Landon Capelle - lyrics
Chenoa Moore - vocals
Sara Moilanen - guitar and vocals

Also Featuring:
Ronnie Sanchez (of Groove Session)- bass
Alessandro Saso Angeletti (of Solo per Adulti)- drums
Zack Vogel - lead guitar

I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think!
Sara

Landon's Waltz 01 by Sara Moilanen

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Part 2 - Steel Bridge Construction Zone

This is part 2 and song 2 of my experience writing and recording at the Steel Bridge Songfest Construction Zone. Please see my previous blog for the whole story!

Song #2 of the week was super fun! My writing partners were Brandon Seyferth of Chicago, Illinois and Alessandro Saso Angeletti of the Italian band, Solo per Adulti. Two really great guys and one super song. Brandon was staying in a small apartment above a workshop in Sturgeon Bay, so we retreated to the loft to start on our song. Luckily, there was a drum kit up there, which worked out perfectly for Saso, since he is a drummer. He worked out a really great drum part for the song. Pulled the whole thing together.

When we got there, Brandon's roommate for the week, Tim Severns was there. He had sat out of that day's spin the bottle, but ended up helping us with our song instead. I think he just wanted to go to sleep, but got sucked into the process. Tim was a wealth of knowledge about the Door County area and he told us about how the canal had been dug out completely by hand. Just what we needed to get us started. The first line to our song is, "Diggin this hole, all day long, knee deep in muck but I'm moving on".

We recorded the song in Steve Hamilton's studio. You can see some photos of us on my facebook page. Brandon sang and played acoustic guitar. Saso was on drums. Saso's brother, Carlo Angeletti played bass. Chrissy Dzioba sang back-up and Tony Hodges played some mean dobro. It ended up taking on a countrified, Fleetwood Mac vibe in the end.

We decided the main character was a musician stuck in a dead end job and a complicated life that seemed to all work against him being able to pursue his passion for music. Sound familiar to anyone? The hook line was something I'd had in my back pocket for a while. I don't even remember who said it. But somewhere along the line, I heard someone say, "I've never been one to borrow trouble" and it stuck with me. I wrote it down in my songwriting book and figured I'd use it someday. Well, it's day has come. This is Borrowed Trouble. I hope you enjoy!

Borrowed Trouble SH V1.1_01 by Sara Moilanen

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Part 1 - Steel Bridge Construction Zone

This is part one of a three part series on my experience songwriting last week. I collaborated with amazing artists to write and record 3 songs. Song number one is called Moscato. It got this name because we drank a bottle of Moscato wine during its creation. I later found out that the word Moscato translated means hangover in Italian. Sounds about right!

So, where was I doing this songwriting? Well, myself and fellow Whiskeybelle, Chrissy Dzioba, drove up to beautiful Door County to participate in the Steel Bridge Songfest Construction Zone in Sturgeon Bay.

For those who are not familiar, it is a week long songwriters workshop that culminates in a four day Music Festival. Every evening after dinner, an array of talented musicians from all over the world stand in a circle and play spin the bottle to choose their writing partners for the next 24 hours. In groups of three or four, the goal is to write and record a song before dinner the next day. What? Crazy you say!

But, talk about intense and fun! There are two recording studios at the Holiday Music Hotel and one more at the Beach Harbor Resort. I was lucky enough to record in all three studios over the course of the week!

Our first song, Moscato, was a collaboration with Sarven Manguiat from the band Groove Session, Ellie Maybe of the Maybenauts and Luca Coppari of Solo per Adulti.

What a talented group! Ellie's got some serious bass chops and Sarven is an amazing guitar player. He did both the rhythm and lead on this track. And in one take! Luca, who is from Italy, melts all the ladies with his smooth voice. Together we made this latin/world music sort of thing about two lovers fishing under a bridge. I think that's what Luca talks about anyway! Who cares, he sounds awesome!

We recorded with Sound Engineer, Billy Triplett. Now, keep in mind, these tracks are demo's, thrown together very quickly. We recorded ours at 3:00 AM, that's in the morning! The sun was rising on my way back to the hotel. You can hear the tired in my voice, but over-all I think it's super! Manny Sanchez, also of Groove Session, sat in on drums. It's so different from anything I would have ever come up with on my own. I guess that's the beauty of the construction zone....

Play the song below.


Moscato V.1.0 by Sara Moilanen

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WAMI Awards

DSC_8925, originally uploaded by WAMI Music.

How exciting is this! Tim and I won not one, but TWO WAMI awards this past weekend! Americana Artist of the Year and yours truly won Female Vocalist of the year in a tie with the sultry Heidi Spencer. I love, love Heidi and it's an honor to be in such good company.

We are totally taken aback by this show of recognition. So excited to be a part of the WAMI organization. When we first joined, we really just wanted to meet and connect with people like us. Musicians struggling to find their way. And we did just that. We have made so many good friends along the way, winning the awards is just like icing on the cake.

We had a great time at the party. It was our first awards show and I thought the whole thing ran really smooth and kept everyone entertained. The house band, The Jazz Orgy, were amazing! Check them out!

Thanks so much to WAMI and everyone who supported the award ceremony, all of our friends, we can't thank you enough!

Congratulations to our friends who won awards also, Jim Linneman for Best Venue, The Sandcarvers for Rock Artist and Allen Cote for Specialty Instrument among many others!

Cheers!
Sara

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Sad Songs

Ah, I love a good sad song. Can't help myself. I was reminded of this today when I was listening to PRI radio program, To The Best Of Our Knowledge. The show was called, Why Do We Love Sad Songs? Here is a link to the podcast on their web site. http://www.wpr.org/book/101212b.cfm
I highly recommend giving it a listen. It is soo good. Like a sad song.

I've found myself writing a lot of sad songs lately. Yet, I am the happiest I have been in most of my adult life! What I find is true for me anyway, is that I can express the full range of my emotions best when I am in a grounded place. My creativity spikes when I feel contented and nurtured. The old idea that artists need to be tortured in order to be creative just doesn't work for me. If I am feeling bad, I may not write at all, and if I do, my work is of a much narrower scope. In fact, I may just write happy songs in an effort to channel the positive mood. But when I am feeling good, I can go to any place in my mind and feel safe there. Does that make sense to anyone else? Tell me about your creative motivations!
Til next time,
Sara

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