New Beginnings through Online Music Collaboration

In 2010, I had just released my CD, I Believe In The Fire, and was learning what I “should” do as an Indie artist. I took the 9 week challenge by Ariel Hyatt  and fell flat on my face in about week 2! To say that I dropped the ball on this blog is an understatement! But, I wouldn’t say that it was a total fail. It’s not like I uttered those famous last words in battle, “Oops, I dropped my sword” and bam, my life is over. On the contrary, my life got interesting… very interesting… It seems that some of what I learned did pay off. I was voted one of the Top Ten To Watch in 2010 on CDBaby. Not bad… but, “what was there to watch? What was I going to do??” I kept thinking to myself… I had concerts and traveled high miles for music’s sake at a time when the economic downward spiral came crashing in on the whole world. How would I survive during this crazy economic time and still hold on to my artistic integrity? The need to think differently about what I was doing became very apparent. Concert fees and acting pay scales were dropping to an all time low. No one could afford to do anything…especially me! I began reaching out to other musicians and collaborating in between my paying gigs and started some very joyful journeys. So, now I want to pick up this broken blog and share about the talented artists and the projects that are coming into fruition.

One way to save money on travel as an Indie Musician, is to collaborate Online. This is how I began my experience with Guitarist/ Singer-Songwriter, Frederick “FunkyFreddy” Reed. The first time I ever heard Fred sing, I was trolling some live music events in the virtual world of Second Life . I was a newbie and really had no idea what I was doing. I heard this guy singing to a crowd on some virtual water front and it was all very surreal. I sincerely thought that Neil Young was doing a live performance in SL. But, why?? It turns out it was Fred! He sounds very much like Neil Young! A few years later, I met Fred in Montreal at a music jam for SL musicians. He was doing some wild, psychodelica loop magic with his guitar and I was fascinated. He approached me about singing some of his songs. After about a year, we finally got together to record in his studio. I fell in love with his songs and he loved how quickly I could lay down vocals… and viola parts! Yes, he even let me play my viola on his album, Songs Of The North Country, to be released April 21, 2012.

Since then, Fred and I have been dual streaming over the internet, developing our sound, and writing songs together. We found we made a good, though unlikely, team and decided to form a band: August Moons . March 28th,  we released our debut single, Book Of Fate  and I’m proud to say that we made it to #7 on the Ambient Pop chart of Top Songs on CDBaby ! Our next live shows online:

April 18: 3-5pm PDT/ 6-8pm EDT Fantasy Pride Event – LM TBA

April 21: 7pm PDT/ 10pm EDT for Fred’s CD Release at The Tree of Lovers

April 24: 12pm PDT Fantasy Faire Benefit for Relay For Life – LM TBA

You can listen remotely to our stream  or jump into the cool music underground of Second Life  in any form of avatar that you like.

Getting Mentally Prepared:

Getting Mentally Prepared: This is the first chapter in Ariel Hyatt’s book, “Music Success in Nine Weeks”. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? I have actually been sitting on this for two weeks. (So, maybe I will have Music Success in 10-20 weeks…) What is my hesitance? I know time has been an issue, but I make time for things that I really want… It is a mental game… I know more than half of my daily struggles are in my mind… and that if I can master that, I can really have whatever reality I want. It takes a lot of courage to dream. It takes a lot of courage to say “this is what I want, this is what I hope for” and set some goals… setting a firm goal is one step beyond just having a dream, in my opinion. Everyone has dreams, but many place them on the shelf or sweep them under the rug. I have been fortunate to have lived a few of my dreams: being on Broadway, Producing my own CD’s, selling my CD’s worldwide, meeting Carol Burnett … all dreams I’ve realized. So what’s next? I can’t sit around in my dreams forever. In fact, they are past tense now and it’s time to look forward… So this is the next step: Write down my new realistic goals and place a date on which I would like to achieve them. In doing this one “simple” task, it puts me that much closer to realizing them. After I read the first chapter,  I immediately wrote down things that first came to my mind… not a bad start, but, I didn’t write a time line… for some reason that wasn’t as easy…I can do that later… after I make beautiful artsy signs to put in front of my face.  Ariel suggests “making the goals pretty and hang them where you can see them everyday”. I think this will be the fun part. I will start by making sense of my immediate visceral list, decide whether they are an immediate, 6 month, 12 month or lifetime goal, color them with my awesome watercolor pens and then hang them around my work area. As I write this, I hear that squeaky judgemental voice from within telling me that my goals are not realistic, that I don’t really know what I’m doing… who am I to want that? …annoying… well, good news, Ariel says not to worry if I don’t reach every goal or my course changes midway… she says it’s ok if my rules change as I go. Don’t beat myself up. You hear that, impish voice from within? Ariel says stop beating me up! LOL That’ll tell her/me So, the mental struggle continues. But with a game plan and goals written down, I feel like I may just have a fighting chance at my next level of dreams… maybe the moon this time

One tip I successfully started immediately after reading the first chapter of “Music Success in Nine Weeks“ that I really want to urge you to try is writing down 5 successes a day. It really has helped me see how much I have really achieved in the past few weeks and has helped to keep my squeaky inner voice unable to accuse me of not getting enough done in a day… Some days I actually have 6-7 huge successes… which make up for the few days that I write, “I ate a delicious breakfast” haha… I know, it sounds funny to me, too… but, really, health is just as important as the business of managing an independent music career… if not more After I finish my lovely goal signs, I will move on to chapter two and let you know how I fair… until then, I wish you much joy on your journey.

Live n Kickin’ for Epiphany

Though the holidays may be over for most of us, there are many around the World who celebrate Epiphany. So, I am posting this live holiday show I sang a few weeks ago. It was filmed in machinima during the live event in the virtual world of Second Life for the Treet.tv show, Live n Kickin’: Holiday on Ice.  They did such a fantastic job with it, I want to make sure everyone sees this: 

http://archive.treet.tv/live-n-kickin-tamra-sands

In the first half of the show, I sang the title track, “Heart Attack”, and “A Series Of Misunderstandings”, from my new CD, “I Believe In The Fire” and “8th Great Wonder” from my CD, “A Day At The Fair”. Then, I closed with a few Christmas tunes, including one I wrote, “My Gift For You”. Happy Epiphany Enjoy!

As 2009 disappears in my rear view mirror…

As 2009 disappears in my rear view mirror, I set my sights on the new horizon of 2010 with hopeful anticipation. Though 2009 was a bumpy ride, there is still much to be thankful for. The most promising part of last year was a collaboration I had with several wonderful musicians who helped me birth my new CD, I Believe In The Fire. Most of the musicians are from the Denver area: Paul McDaniel, Matt McDaniel, ‘Byrd’ Tester and Steve Mossholder (of the Celtic Rock Band,  Angus Mohr), Mark Brown, Scott ‘Gusty’ Christensen, and Gregg Hansen. As if that weren’t enough, Art Halperin of New York and  Xander Nichting of  Holland added the icing to this delicious treat and the result is divine. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! I decided to put a cherry on the top with my single, Eden Will Bloom, as a bonus track. I was truly blessed to have the New York based musicians Dan Palladino, Al Greene, Roger Cohen, and Art Halperin backing me up on it, with a video by Martin Ruchman and Winston Vargas. I am proud to say that all of this led to a wonderful reality:    

The Top Ten Songs, Blues-Rock, Dec 2009 on cdbaby.com

I never dreamed it possible to get my music on any top ten list… mostly because I haven’t put it out there as much as I ‘should’. Well, I am coming out from under my self- imposed rock and I am going to roll with this…(hehe pun intended) …my gaze firmly fixed on the newly paved highway 2010.  Happy New Year to you! I would love to hear what is on your horizon!