Thought I'd do a little update, not because I want to but because I need to (for inner purposes) -

In fact my past week is characterized by re-remembering why I possibly kept doing this in the first place, i.e. music.

I have not experienced enlightenment yet, but at least I've started to ask questions again. What questions? Such as: "Why art?" "Does art matter?" "Do even the best songs in the world really matter?" "Does anything matter?"

I often find myself asking these questions, but what's funny is that I don't really know if anything similar goes on in most people's heads. I have the temptation to shut the frigging questions off, but it hasn't seemed to work for me. It's almost like I'm meant to ask these questions. probably why I wasted, I mean spent 2-3 years in the Philosophy department in the Uni of helsinki... then I realized that their questions had never worked for me. There was a time when Philosophers asked big, important questions. These days it's all about semantics - which ARE important, language DOES matter more that we think in our everyday lives but the Philosophy department has taken it to the other extreme. Us humans are not born of language, and even our culture, meanings, symbols consist of other things than simply language. I believe in energies... I don't believe in them actually, but I've perceived them to be a more accurate description of 'what really goes in the world' than language.

Why things change...it's all about energies changing and attracting similar energies. I only met my wonderful partner when I got rid of that immature thought that "all men are ultimately lazy, selfish, uncaring and only care about you when you look pretty." My partner is the opposite of all of this, okay maybe we're a bit superficial but that's cos ... we like bright colours. (I am also lazy, selfish and uncaring at times. I know it and I want to change.) It could be a coincidence, but this is how it happened. I realized that I had been an idiot and a stereotypical bitter feminist for having that belief - feeling that all the 120 people I fancied should fancy me back because...well, because, I've kinda got a good heart and so...But doesn't the fact that I was terribly bitter (and demanding) contradict the idea of having a good heart? Anyway, you'll notice that my song I'm Not Hot was written shortly before I binned this belief. It's a unique song, I feel, so it deserves its place - but it is a very bitter song. Bitter, vengeful and defeated, yet sarcastic and maintaining an egoistic position where "I am actually cleverer than you, man, because I realize the superficiality we're in, even tho I only fancy you for your charisma". hahahaha. it actually makes me laugh. Anyway, there's not another song like that, so it holds a special place in my aesthetic hall of fame. The music came from divine inspiration. and it was sincere when it was written, and performed. (When we recorded it at Ken's, it was easy for me to go back to the bitter self-pity, after all I had practised it for years.)

Now do not ask me how that terrible tragedy in Norway happened. There is evil energy in the world - but not like, any particular X is 100% evil. Hitler was not 100% evil - we just elected him to portray it after-the-fact, because we didn't want to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask - how did all the people in Germany let this happen? - i.e. how could ANY GROUP OF PEOPLE, ANYWHERE, let this happen (Because the fact that it was Germany is just a historical coincidence. Cue other examples of mass genocides around the world). Any group. There's always that fear of seeing your inner Hitler tendencies and your cronies' inner Nazi tendencies. And we live in a culture where seeing your dark side is not accepted. Yet this separation causes us to hate what we perceive to be evil (as we refuse to see the same tendencies in ourselves), and paradoxically creates more manifestations of the 'evil energy'. I think they should teach meditation at schools, and teamwork. At the moment ever since we go to school we enter the institution based on separation, competition, and EGO. Ego who has to be better-than-them and if it think it's worse-than-them, it wants to destroy them.

Anyways - the point of art? Could possibly be: allowing us to see our dark side - without feeding it. Just, like, portraying the truth. Art and truth are somehow linked... Entertainment and lie are also linked... but when a lie is great enough it is the truth? Pulp's Mis-shapes is a great song but it's bitter just like my I'm Not Hot - however if we're not allowed to portray our FUCKING BITTERNESS how could we possibly come to terms with it? The first step is always admitting that you have a problem, isn't that what they say in AA? Art helps us to accept ourselves and the shittiness of the world, because we can express ourselves (Stop Shh-ing, cue my new video, the release of which made space in my head for all these questions to turn up and grow like the live yeast cake I made last week). And then we can also see that the world is the opposite of shitty. The sun is shining and it's Saturday, we can relax and enjoy the moment that we're allowed to exist on this planet, by the grace of whatever.

 A nice girl on Twitter, an aspiring singer called Soph aka @selJBBMfan , inspired me to write about some things and thoughts that I've found helpful in singing. I often have confidence issues when it comes to my singing, although these days as often I'm positively surprised by how my voice sounds. Yet I am always astonished when people on Twitter tell me they "love" my voice. And because of @selJBBMfan and the other amazing people on twitter I finally got the confidence to share what I've learned so far, or at least try to.

To be at a level where some people would feel that way about my voice is really a dream come true. It doesn't make it less effective that I'm not a famous singer, it's the fact that some individuals have actually listened to my music online and loved it. I love my music, the new recordings with my producer Ken mainly, as they finally represent my vision - but the music comes from God, from a Spirit, somewhere Divine, so I love it like the divine amazingness that it is and I am humbly and deeply grateful to be a channel to it. But I said "my music" there, not "my voice". Loving my songs only feels right to me, it's genuine and I'm a proud Mother of them in a way not completely dissimilar to being a Mum to my 3-year old; to me he's Divine - hey, stop for a minute and think: life on Earth is a miracle in itself. And to give birth to it...is just beyond miraculous. I actually have a creature there, who's a unique human being, and he's grown in my tummy and wouldn't exist without me and his lovely Dad. It is miraculous, and I understand there are cynics out there who despise me for saying this, but it doesn't stop me from saying it, because it's my truth. I have this thing that pretending bores me stiff, so I'm only interested in what I perceive to be true - and I do realize the limits of our perception (I did study Philosophy for 2 years after all!).

I haven't created my Son the way I can create a vegan tuna pasta (yes such a thing really exists!), deliberately deciding what ingredients and components to put in. I haven't decided his looks, his IQ, his emotional qualities and so forth. (As a political statement, even if I could, which these days starts to be possible via technology, I would not and I am against with that kind of Brave New World tampering.) I've been a channel to my Son in a way not dissimilar to being a channel to my songs. I have some control over my songs, yes, but I've noticed that the best thing to do with songwriting is to "let go and let God". I always write better songs when I don't write them but channel them.

Ultimately, the same applies to singing, but it has been much harder for me to understand. Elvis is the most Divine singer ever. He had no vocal training. He invented his own way of singing - and I do not think that it was a calculated invention. I think he stumbled upon it, like I stumble upon my best songs. In other words, Elvis was a channel to a higher power, and it's the higher power, through Elvis's voice, that so moves us when we listen to him. Similarly, when someone loves my music, it's my personal truth that they respond to the same divine power that made me write the song in the first place, though I understand this thought must be weird for the atheists who respond to my music positively.

I like to think of myself as a self-taught singer, although sometimes I've tried to study singing techniques - yes there is not one technique but many, most of them contradicting each other. This becomes obvious when you read 3 or more books on singing by different authors. But there's only one book that I've found immensely helpful, and it's The Inner Game of Music. Which basically says that forget the rules, simply pay attention to what you're doing, how it feels and how it sounds. Pay attention. And correct accordingly. Because there's not such a thing that is always right or always wrong in singing. Bob Dylan, anyone? His voice is against any rules but it works and people love it. Lily Allen? Same thing. Personally I don't like diva voices like Beyonce's, because they sound the same (Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, Rihanna...okay the last one's sometimes nicely unique) and they're so highly compressed and treble-emphasized that it hurts my ears to listen to them. You don't need to tell me that it's not an opinion shared by the masses. It's just my personal preference. Music is very much a matter of personal preference, although accessibility and exposure of course make a massive difference - and what the influential guys say they like, and so forth. Justin Timberlake said Jessie J is the best voice of our times. I think he was paid to say it, because Jessie just sounds like the others on the list of divas, because I can't comprehend that comment. But maybe he wasn't. It's just his opinion. If I had to pick the best voice of our times, I'd start from: Ken Stringfellow, Neil Finn, Aimee Mann, even Lily Allen and Kate Nash...Just something that sounds honest, personal and has a unique sound. And sounds quite organic (autotune makes my ears hurt).

Anyway, I can philosophize for forever, but I wanted to share tips on singing. The best things I've learned, and I truly would be a happy bunny if I lived according to these tips every time I sing, is:
1) Accept your voice. Like having a child, or frigging hell having YOURSELF, is not something you have pre-determined. Your vocal cords are what they are, your resonance chambers of your face are what they are, the size of your lungs and diagram and so forth...We are what we are, made by nature (or Spirit), anyway something beyond our control. We cannot sound like someone else, our voices are by nature UNIQUE. This is why we recognize who's on the phone with them saying a mere "hi". There's been phases where I've felt I need to sing more "proper", more "technical". That's when my voice's sucked the most. Once I went to singing lessons for 6 months and were not able to sing. However I had been a singer in my band for years by that time! All the new rules of breathing fucked my brain up. I wasn't a great singer in my band, but I certainly went from bad to worse. I carried on with the lessons, like I said, for 6 months, and tried to record some demos in between, and they simply sucked. Then I had enough: I said to myself: I love these songs, they will sound good even if I sing with my average voice. So I accepted my voice as it was, forgot the technique, and simply interpreted the songs. The result? My voice was better than ever. The sound engineer said: "It sounds like we have a different woman in the studio" and for the first time, when I played that demo to people, they said that I had a great voice. Well, I was quite a good singer as a child, possibly very good, because I was singing all the time and people complimented me. Then I became more and more shy, a combination of being bullied at school and my best friend telling me she didn't like my voice... So my voice was not that good anymore, until the miraculous recording session that I just told about. Which brings me to the second point:

2) Have confidence. This goes hand in hand with accepting your voice and is often a result of it plus a bit of practise. Or, confidence may need to come first. After all, as I child, when I was perceived as a good singer, I had no reason to question my voice and feel inadequate. It changed. Then, I got my confidence back because I found confidence in the songs that I was singing - the confidence that they would carry me through and I was simply an interpreter. So, have confidence in something... the music, or at the very least, your right to sing. Because you have a right, no matter how 'bad' it sounds, or no matter what others think. Hell, I don't like Beyonce, and there's many people who do not like Bob Dylan (I do). Which brings me to...

3) Be an interpreter and a channel. Let the nature work for you, and learn by doing. Your voice is not called an INSTRUMENT for no reason. It is an instrument to emotions, ideas, the message in the songs (or even a Divine force). It's not an end in itself. Whenever I obsess about my voice, I lose track, and my singing becomes worse. The point is to, again, "let go and let God". I remembered the other day that we recorded vocals to at least 6 tracks in July when me & Ken started making my album. 5 of them were not used, and were re-recorded in our January sessions this year. I remembered that in those ones I had tried to have the correct posture, breathing, etc.etc. and I was very worried about how I sounded. Yet the 6th vocal I decided not to give a toss, because I was so pissed off with that song's subject matter: Julian's World. I was peeved about nepotism, and how the cool guys who really don't give a fuck about their musical skills are the ones who get praised by hipsters, bloggers and NME alike - and they date only supermodels! So I sang that song in the "Julian" way, bad posture, slouching, not giving a toss about any rules. And it worked, it's the Julian's World track on this website, and it was even played on BBC. Whether this proves the lazy hipsters right is another topic (I'd love to hear your comments!)...

4) Sing and be present. Essentially, any thoughts concerned with breathing, posture, resonance etc. during your singing, are thoughts that take you away from WHAT you are singing. They prevent you from interpreting. I've benefited from technical exercises by Anne Peckham, but I aim at keeping the two separate. Funny though - in our July sessions I always warmed up for at least 30 minutes with my Peckham tracks, except for Julian. This January I used it once, for Innocent, but I remember we recorded the vocals to Innocent at several times during several days and nights (night - appropriate for a song I considered in need of exorcism) so I wouldn't say it was the key to that vocal's success. And I sang better than ever. I had just re-read The Inner Game of Music and didn't want to give any thoughts to technique. And more and more people have told they love my voice on these new tracks. Strange. My vocal teacher during a brief spot at a singing school in London always told that if you don't warm up you cannot sing at your best. I don't know the answer, but I do know that whatever takes your mind off anything except the message in the song is unnecessary and should be avoided by any means, even by the means of refusing to warm up.

5) A final word on technique...Technique might be helpful. Might be. Singing is much more than technique. Peckham has helped me, but only to the degree when I refuse to think about technique when I sing actual songs, not vocal runs. To me, it's best to keep those separate. Except if there's an especially difficult part. Then I've found it beneficial to practise just that part with reference to technique, until I can do it without thinking about technique anymore.

6) There are lots of other techniques that I've found helpful, but they're not called singing techniques. Alexander technique is one of them - it's about body awareness. Again we come to the magical 'awareness' which in my opinion is the secret to all good art, and coincidentally is also what the Buddhists and meditation devotees consider to be the secret to life as such. In fact meditation is also a great technique for singing, because it helps you to be aware, and forget about distractions, and focus on the music.

7) Another technique that deserved it's own section is: exercise. Now, I hate exercise. I absolutely hate it. But I've noticed it helps with my singing - and with my fatigue! So I force myself to go jogging, which I hate. But as the cognitive behavioural therapists say, just because you hate something worth doing doesn't make it any less worth doing.

I probably have other helpful tips related to singing but these are the ones that I right now find the most important. Oh yes, one more...

8) Just sing. When I lost belief in my voice, do you think it made me sing more? No, it made me sing less. Which probably resulted in my voice deteriorating due to lack of practise. So...main thing is, everyone has a right to sing. It's not against the law and it's not morally wrong. If you want to express yourself by singing, sing. Simply sing. Once I lived as a neighbour to one of my pop idols and when he finally moved out I experienced a huge relief - I could never sing in that flat before he moved out! All I could think of was: Is he home and does he think I suck? So... finding a safe place to practise also helps, but ultimately, singing is your right and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Singers, especially non-famous ones and amateurs, are an easy target. Singing is personal, your voice is a part of YOU and when somebody says they dislike your voice (like my ex-best friend did), it hurts deeply, it's like people saying they don't like your soul, they don't like the deepest and truest side of you. Well, two words: FUCK THEM. And keep on singing.

 Hi guys with 2 i's!

So the summer's here and I felt it's time to unleash Stop Shh-ing as a free download...I'd love all of you to blast it out from your stereos, especially car stereos if you're driving! 'Disco cars' always put me on a good mood! You know when there's a guy driving with the window open and he must have deafened himself by now 'cos the volume is so high...but it's always the surefire sign that summer is here! And summer is happiness, right?

I figured out a way to start recording videos where you can actually see what I'm doing with my foot when playing the loop pedal...This required putting a child's step on top of a tall suitcase and my mobile on top of it, balanced out by tying it up to a crystal, because the camera had to be in a particular angle. Here's the first videos:

Lady Gaga Live Mashup on Youtube

New loop version of Stop Shh-ing on Youtube

Please comment on the videos, all feedback is appreciated. 
The Gaga mashup actually came to me after I wrote a blog post about how Judas is so similar to Bad Romance and PokerFace...I'm about to start a music blog, as there's so much amazing music out there that I've come across and would like to spread...so stay tuned!!! I will try and get round this in the next few days, I've got so many great artists in mind I could feature. From mega-famous to totally unknown. I actually really love this Lady Gaga mashup, it started from an experiment but grew into another great Gaga song in its own right and I can't help but try and imagine what it'd sound like if the Lady did it herself (not that she ever would)!

Love, love, summer and love :D
Liisa

 Hi lovelies!

Hope you're enjoying nice weather wherever you are! Spring has come to the South of England, some say even summer, but to me it's spring with all the intoxicatingly beautiful smells of flowers and the change in the air. "A Whole New World..." Spring has always been my fave time of the year, normally it hits me like a good dose of happy pills, but this year I've been increasingly aware that it's all gonna go away in a month or so...
No, summer isn't the same; if the course of a year was a Disney film, it would start from summer, quite steady and happy, then autumn would bring the adversities, with winter almost wiping out all hope, and then - against all odds, spring comes along and life wins! And we all live happily ever after!! For the next month and a half!!!

Perhaps this is the first time in my life that I realize that life's not supposed to be spring all the time. I've been thinking that maybe at some point it will be, because there simply has been too many long autumns and winters before. But spring is such a short season, birth of life, falling in love, whatever -

I think I just love creating new things, like new songs, and it's much harder to stick with those that I've created and water those seeds and slowly grow them into their full potential, because it's only me that sees the potential in the seed, and I can't offer the seed like the flower for others to smell. My big project for the past few years has been to work on the existing seeds and turn them into flowers, and not just beautiful flowers as such, but the best possible flowers they could be. Luckily I've acquired help from the mastermind producer Ken Stringfellow; it's a slow process working on finding suitable sounds but, it can be done, and I'm finally doing it. The songs we've recorded with Ken so far are: Julian's World, I'm Not Hot, Stop Shh-ing, and a fourth one, that doesn't yet want to reveal itself but in this context can go by the name 'night flower', hopefully that doesn't mean anything pervy BTW!

If there is an area in the world where spring is continuous, PLEASE do let me know. That will be part of my future plans. Except I doubt that such a place exists; eternal summer, yes, yes and yes. And it sounds pretty tempting. But the whole thing about spring - and this I've NEVER realized before - is that it's transitory; because if new life was born all the time, none of it would develop any further. It's a massive push for nature once a year...How silly of me, I've never realized that there would never be a point in my life where it's continuous spring, metaphorically or geographically. I guess summer's not bad at all tho, and my parents who came to visit told that there's still snow all over the South of Finland!

Actually, writing this blog made me think that I'd share an old recording of my song 'Spring' with my mailing list members; remember this song is yet as much a seed as a flower! So if you want this for yourself, please subscribe to my mailing list, and you'll get Julian's World too. Julian's World was played a few weeks ago on the Finnish equivalent of Radio 1 (YleX), which was a nice surprise. If you have a radio show and want to play my music then go ahead, and if you hear my music somewhere please let me know! Thanks to the friend who et me know on Facebook about the aforementioned Radio play! (P.S. We just went over 600 members on my Facebook music site so thanks to all of you!)

Liisa xx

P.P.S. I'm playing a loooong gig tonight at the Camden InSpiral, my first gig in Camden and only 2nd gig in London with my One-Woman Girl Band! InSpiral is a very special vegan/raw café, I'm honoured to be playing there, it's like going back to Glastonbury! I guess I'll play some covers too, like Elliott Smith's Waltz 2 (XO) which I've been obsessed with lately, and Lady Gaga's Telephone.

 The wonderful blog Trending Records wrote a feature about me! And a well-thought one too. Glad they took the time to listen to my songs. I'm so happy these music lovers get my music. Please check out their post on me and the whole blog in general.
Apparently someone had said to them on Twitter to check my music out. I love it when stuff like this happens. A big thanks to whoever it was.
Just checked I have 2948 twitter followers, so getting close to a funky 3000. There are such lovely people in twitter, hi there :)
I have gigs coming up in April and May in Reading and London, and the wonderful people at Newbury Town Council &Newbury Sound got me to play an outdoor gig at Newbury Market Square in July. As you may recall, we recently shot a music video there...no, it's not available yet, we're editing it! Little did I know that my pursuits in music would take me to learn everything from music video producing to general web nerding - the aforementioned twitter etc. Tho unfortunately I'm not really a nerd because I can't do the coding stuff - this is something I'd really love to do, I remember at about 7 I tried to create a computer game under my Dad's tuition (his profession was all this coding stuff!) but I guess I moved on to the next pursuit, I guess it was a story-based game like those good old Disney comics where you could 'jump to page 45, 67 or 99' to choose how you want the story to continue, and I'd have wanted to have pictures & movement included.
Okay I'm off to have a diary session with myself, trying to get deeper into the philosophy behind all of this I'm doing, articulating it a bit more. Byee you. See you at some gigs I hope.
P.S. So excited about seeing The Disciplines tomorrow in Bull & Gate, London. It's one of my producer Ken Stringfellow's bands and the only one where he's not tied down by an instrument and apparently he goes wild on stage.

So, the presenter of BBC Introducing in BBC Berkshire sent me the following info on Friday: "One of your tracks has been selected to be reviewed on BBC Berkshire Introducing's demo panel this Sunday. Listen out from 7pm to 8pm on BBC Radio Berkshire or the iPlayer. Cheers!"

I kinda knew what to expect from my music's previous appearance on the same program (check out last blog), but I was hoping that the program would have more quality than last time when it was run by some out-of-school maternity leave step-in. Now the resident woman was back, but I had a feeling it was all gonna go pear-shaped for me again... Demo Panel. Demo-Fucking-Panel. Why, oh why, don't they tell you that when they encourage you to send your music to BBC Introducing, what they really want is not to find&encourage the newest talent but to humiliate them on air? To me this just seems like a collective form of bullying (check out my last post about wannabe Cowells).

So...I listened in, and it was interesting what great merits the "guest judges" had. The other one was an out-of-school girl, "a bit of a promoter in Wiltshire", who said she's "interested in media and is thinking of maybe going to uni to study it". It is rather interesting that BBC Introducing and BBC Berkshire aren't worried about preserving anything resembling credibility, as this girl (whose merits are...what? Is she a niece of someone at the BBC Berks or a girlfriend of a male presenter?) gets to say on air that my song "I'm Not Hot" was "repetitive". Okay, that song's a 4-minute progressive pop song with 7 different melodic &chord progression parts - anyone with a remote understanding of music will know that an average pop song has between 2 and 4 parts, and any pop song that has over 4 parts can not be repetitive in the context of catchy pop music - can someone please tell me a reason I should consider this a 'fair criticism'? I have nothing against intelligent, to-the-point criticism but...this kind of verbal farting just doesn't make me respect BBC Berkshire any longer, and subsequently I won't be sending them any more tracks. I certainly won't be needing any more attention from losers like this.

I mean, when you're criticizing music, one would think you would understand at least the basics of what a pop song is and how it's constructed, but no, - these days everybody seems to think that they can be as clever as Cowell just by putting someone down. Well, I've got news for you: the difference between you and Cowell is the basic understanding of pop music, and no matter how rude Cowell's comments can be, at least he has the dignity of actually understanding the topic he's talking about - I.E. MUSIC. Since when were artists who have worked on their craft for years (about 23 yrs in my case) have to "take criticism" from fuck-wits who have never played an instrument and never bothered to even know the basics of a pop song structure? Actually I know exactly when - whenever Simon Cowell became famous. Then every idiot who's occasionally had the radio on in their lives started to think of themselves as a potent music critic. "All of your obligations, downright critique and constipation never did it for me" - this is exactly why I wrote that line in Stop Shh-ing.

I have to say I was glad the male guest called John, a promoter from Reading (SnapBack promotions), gave really decent feedback and actually said my voice "is amazing" which warmed my heart deeply and I am always very surprised to hear that said about my music as my music's all about the songs and my voice is just an instrument in conveying those musical works.
He was the only one displaying actual musical understanding in his comments in general. The woman presenter wasn't too bad, "I quite liked her" just as she "quite liked me" although I don't understand how someone who clearly specializes in the genre of noise music is even presenting a 'new music' program on the radio, and maybe it's not her fault her show's a display of how to bully musicians who open their hearts, but whose ever idea it was in the beginning, I'll tell you: "I see you driving round with no talent at all and I'm like, fuck you." At least I learnt I look like Saint Etienne or whatever, need to check that out, thanks for the constructive feedback.

Also I received this email from the presenter: "I understand you performed a great gig for us the other week. We'd like to invite you to play again in the next couple of months. Cheers." So I'll be playing there on the 11th of May it looks like. Looking forward to that, I love playing live. I am myself's biggest critic so I was happily surprised by the positive feedback my BBC Introducing gig got. I just wish the show would start inviting guests who actually know something about music, well, like the male guy in yesterday's show. But I won't be sucking anybody's dicks and am gonna post this even if it means a countryside station says ' she's too rude'. It wouldn't surprise me because people who love evaluating others can normally never take it when they're being evaluated in turn!

On a positive note, a wonderful person in Newbury chose me to play at the Market Square in July so that's rather fantastic. I should focus on the positive stuff... But sometimes it is good that someone tells the people who think they're above others that actually they're emperors without clothes... So basically, looking forward to playing some gigs and unleashing myself again. I am too sensitive for the stupidities of this world, and that is why I write songs and play them, that is the only way I can stay semi-sane. 
Love & Piss XOXO
Liisa

 Just heard my track "I'm Not Hot" will be played on BBC Introducing this Sunday the 27th.  Listen out from 7pm to 8pm on BBC Radio Berkshire or the iPlayer.
I do wanna say A BIG THANK YOU to whomever at the BBC chose to play my music again. I sincerily mean this. But let me tell you, because I'm an honest person:
Last time that they let me know of this official stamp of approval delight, I logged on to hear it on the iPlayer and...well...I got slagged off by the guest of the show (a promoter in Reading) who said "It is STRANGE when people say that they're working with someone like Stringfellow from the Posies 'cos I'm a big fan of the Posies"  -now, how is it strange? My name's Liisa, I'm a gemini and when I state facts like that do You find it strange? I also happen to be working with the aforementioned Fellow (pun almost intended as if it was funny) and ...well, I just find THAT comment strange, personally. Besides, I didn't 'say' I was working with ...Fellow, the presenter did. I was at home listening to something as honourable as the BBC which is the best broadcasting corporation in the world, waiting for my track to be played, and it took me by surprise that this was not a nice 'stamp of approval, you're one of us, finally a respected musician' kind of thing, but instead, an in-your-face bullying show as if Mr.Promoter was Simon Cowell. He went on to say: "I just can't see anyone buying this music and this track would not ever be played on radio". Whoa, then the maternity-leave-step-in presenter said sheepishly, "the panel has chosen to play Julian's World by Liisa" and Mr.Promoter's voice was a picture when he went: "Oh", like he'd just farted in public.

I emailed him to set the record straight and he sent a wimpy, wanky reply. Face to face bitching is so much harder than slagging unknown artists behind their backs when you haven't got the balls nor the brain to appreciate something different.

So, at least this time, I'm prepared - bring it on! Slag me off, you bullies, I am prepared. At least you can't say "Liisa is Not Hot" because you'll only validate my song. hahaha.

I have to add, that Mr.Promoter was a one-off guest so maybe this time they won't attack an unknown foreign girl with the phallic force of self-congratulent music snobbery. After all, I love to love people. It's just I get disappointed in human stupidity, but who doesn't? I need to remember that there was and is a panel that chose to play my tracks so... HOWEVER I must ADD that my experience with this particular show taught me one thing: I WILL NEVER BE PART OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. I WILL NEVER BE ONE OF THE COOL GUYS (WHO COVER UP THEIR BEAUTIFUL EYES) ETC., I'LL FOREVER BE NOT HOT, AND PROUD OF IT! Because if everyone's just sucking each others dicks when they're successful, and hitting them with the Cowell-wannabe hammer when they're not, that is not a particularly interesting way of life to me. I WILL FOREVER BE AN OUTSIDER AND NEVER AGAIN WILL I THINK THAT 'THEY' HAVE ACCEPTED ME FOR WHO I AM BECAUSE THE ONLY REASON THESE DUMB-ASSES EVER ACCEPT ANYONE IS BECAUSE ALL THE OTHER COOL DUDES DO. I prefer independent thinking. My fans are independent thinkers - there's no external reason for them to like my music - FULL RESPECT to my lovely group of fans out there, I love you so much because we connect via music and music is the connection between souls. And that's what really matters, none of the establishment/credibility bullshit. THANK YOU for seeing thru that.

So we shot a music video to Stop Shh-ing over the weekend. Thanks to the fabulous film crew.

Here's a feature on Newbury Sound, note the audio interview as well as the photos :)

Other links:  Reading Chronicle featured the casting call, with an interview of me explaining what the song & video are about, as well as  Newbury Today ...

Many thanks to all the people in Newbury & Reading for making this happen. Shoot's done, I've caught a cold for dancing in summer clothing in this freezing weather - thank goodness I had had practise thanks to cold showers! Now ...editing! Then...the final video! When? I dunno but I'll keep you posted, hopefully SOON as I want to see it myself.

I've been working on this video for the past year and a half, the story's been bursting out of me and it's been a massive relief to finally get this project going. I had an inner need to express this story via the music video to Stop Shh-ing, and it was like an itch I couldn't scratch for 1,5 yrs until...NOW. Now I'm gonna scratch it til it bleeds, baby...

 Hi darliings,

a quick one, as it's Saturday and we all want to relax...
I got a gig at the BBC Introducing night in Reading on this Wednesday! Short notice but no problem as I've been dying to get my one-woman girl band on the road!
If you can come down, let me know. So happy for this opportunity.
It's free entry and the gig's on at 9 p.m. More info on the gig page.
The best thing about this, or the cherry on top of the cake, is that the gig is in the Oakford Social Club, which of course is the inspiration behind my favourite club name 'the Awkward Social Club'. I'm even thinking of calling my EP by that name, let me know what you think. I have other alternatives too, - I might put a poll on my website so stay tuned if you want to help me name the upcoming EP.
Love, Liisa

p.s. the Newbury Sound interview shall be here soon to listen to, if you want to know about the making of my album, a crazy scam, and my tea drinking habits among with others.

There's an interview of me by Smiley Dave & a few tracks of mine played tonight on Newbury Sound GMT +00 7-8 p.m. You can hear it on the local FM & all over the world online at www.newburysound.co.uk... Please tune in and let me know how it went! As usual, when I'm either nervous, excited or both, I speak veryquicklyandwithoutthinking,prettymuchlikeinpsychoanalysisreally. I wonder how Smiley Dave analyzed me.
Have a cool Sunday!