Today is a good day.
Full of excitement.
Full of promise.
Today is the day that we get to share with you more of what we do…
But we don’t want it to be about us.
We want it to be about you.
You see, we write music for a reason.
A purpose.
We strongly believe that this is our calling right now.
And so we write music.
New music…
Music with a purpose.
Music for your soul.
Music for studying.
For writing.
For creating.
As the soundtrack to your moments.
To bring a little calm in the chaos.
To allow you to take some time.
To reflect.
To listen.
To breathe.
We’re excited to bring you Meditations Vol. 2 – our second complete album of instrumental music.
Written by us.
For you.
And your moments.
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Oh, and if Spotify isn’t your thing, you can also find it on our Bandcamp Store, iTunes, or Google Play.
Plus, for the first time ever we have a collaboration track on one of our albums – while we have done several collaborations in the past, we felt that ‘Quiet Me’ (a song originally written by songwriter Ken Peschell) really worked with the flow of Meditations Vol. 2. We are thankful to have been able to work with him on this – and if you subscribe via Bandcamp, you can hear the full vocal version as an exclusive bonus track.
Finally, we would love to know what you think – do get in touch by leaving a comment below.
It was last year that I posted about the importance of SUSDAT – Show Up, Sit Down, & Type (or paint, or compose… or whatever). Having a regular rhythm is especially important as an independent… well, anything! I think so many artists, bloggers, musicians would agree – the practice of regularity provides focus, inspires creativity and most importantly becomes a useful tool in developing as a musician, writer or creator.
A few weeks ago, Ben and I decided to take this idea of regularity and turn it into more than just writing or composing – which is normal practice for us. Instead, we set ourselves a challenge to release a live cover version of one song each week on Youtube, which we release every Monday.
There are lots of reasons behind why we chose to do this. The main one being – we want to continually challenge ourselves to develop and improve on what we are doing, and singing live cover songs in one take, in our own style – with no room for mistake-fixes or autotuning(!) – is quite a challenge (for me anyway). So here I am – embracing this challenge fully and in doing so, also feeling quite vulnerable…
Here are our the tracks from the last 3 weeks – all different in genre, style and well… see for yourself…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57uNbAfoDaM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVfnnol8XAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aNAWdG1TMg
There you have it!
If you have any suggestions for songs we should cover – let me know by leaving a comment below! I’d love to hear your suggestions. Oh…and if you follow us by subscribing on Youtube – you won’t miss a single #MondayCover!
What a year 2016 has been so far! Since my last post, we moved all of our stuff from our apartment into storage at my in-laws, went travelling for 5 weeks to East and South-East Asia, got the keys to our new apartment and subsequently moved everything in, went on tour in the UK with Salt Of The Sound and now we are in the final renovation stages of our new apartment in Stockholm.
We like to keep ourselves busy – that’s for sure.
Travelling
I had every intention of writing blog posts for each of the 4 countries we visited in Asia, but internet access was limited in some areas, making this a little tricky – but I do still intend to post some short articles on here about those experiences. Here are a few pictures in the meantime…
Japan
China
Singapore
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Experiencing Singapore
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Ben’s dislike of the Durian Fruit in Singapore
Indonesia
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Sunrise at Borobudur, Java, Indonesia
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New Apartment
We’re still in Stockholm – in a slightly bigger place – it means that we have a dedicated studio space so can work more comfortably from home – recording and producing new music. We (well, Ben mostly) even found a way of creating our own, cost-effective and aesthetically-pleasing soundproofing for the home-studio:
I have also been busy re-upholstering our sofa, chairs and dreaming up design ideas for our new home. The renovations have been happening and here are a few of my favourite parts…
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Display of fabrics collected from around the world
Now all that is left to happen is our new kitchen and I am hoping that it will be finished by the end of the week(!).
Salt Of The Sound On Tour
We were contacted last year and asked if we would come over and play for an event in Cambridgeshire at the start of July and so we set about organising our first mini-tour. We played 5 events and were hugely encouraged by the response of people who came out to hear our music. Here is a short video of our week on the road…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2BP_myHoIo
Technology. What a wonderful thing! Without a doubt, we live in a world is a world of instant gratification.
24 hour helplines. Extended store opening hours. Next day delivery. A world of entertainment, news, opinions, education and inspiration at our fingertips… if you need or want something, there’s a high possibility that you won’t need to wait long to get it.
And this works so well for today’s consumer! So where’s the problem?
Well, as this cycle becomes part of our daily routine, we also come to expect an instant response from others too – from messages to our friends to contacting and posting on social media platforms. Are we becoming wired to expect these immediate responses?
Take a look at this screenshot I took from our Facebook Page:
See a problem? While we might be able to expect large corporations to respond in super-human time, individuals and independent start-ups aren’t quite the same. It seems, Facebook can ‘reward’ me with a badge if I respond quicker to people’s questions and comments. What a great idea…in principle.
When people communicate with you from different time zones all over the world, reality seeps in. You see, in order for us to respond instantaneously would require me to not be present in so many of life’s moments:
- I would have to stop conversations in full flow at the sound of a notification (don’t worry – these are already turned off).
- I would never be fully present in meetings, and conversations with colleagues when I am working as a worship leader.
- During time spent with friends and family, my mind would be elsewhere.
- Imagine what a songwriting or recording session would be like if I had to stop at the sound of a notification just so that I could get the ‘responds in under 5 minutes’ badge.
- And timezones… What do I do when the other side of the world is awake and active online? Interrupted sleep? Or maybe I should just forego this night time luxury…
- Precious evenings that I spend with my husband, when we don’t work, would be compromised and constantly interrupted.
- In fact, my life would be more focussed online than everything around me and that isn’t really where I want to be.
Don’t get me wrong – I love to get messages of encouragement and questions from people but Facebook, I don’t think you’ve got it right in this case. It’s not about haste. I’d rather spend time on a more personal reply when I have set aside time to be fully present.
So, if it’s ok with you, I might do things differently.
Rest assured I will look forward to reading comments and to replying but if it’s ok with you world… I might reply later.
Something unexpected happened to me last week; it caught me off guard and I was not prepared.
I’m not sure it is something I can fully explain it. So forgive my rambling as I try to express what happened in one small moment.
If you press play below, I’ll try my best to take you back to where I was in that moment…
Sitting. Listening. And trying to hear.…
Last year, I spent countless days, weeks and even months writing the lyrics and songs for our latest album: Echoes of Wonder. And you would think after all that time that I knew the songs I had written pretty well, wouldn’t you! At least I thought I knew what they were about. After all, I had spent time crafting each one carefully. Writing and re-writing…
And as it turns out, there was more contained within these songs of ‘mine’ than even I knew.
As I sat on the train on regular journey into Stockholm, looking out over the frozen lakes & watching people walk on water (well, frozen-water…but still!). Taking in the beauty of the illuminating sun; hanging low in the winter sky, just above the rooftops of this snow-capped city. I stopped thinking for a moment and I just listened: To this music which I had a hand in creating yet felt strangely unfamiliar to me…
For the first time, I listened with intention to the evolving instrumentation and lyrics that I had penned.
And for the first time… in my listening… I heard!
The song ‘Did You Hear It?’ is a song about listening for God’s voice in our lives. Sometimes we make ourselves so busy, we don’t hear it. Sometimes we hear it but we just don’t want to know. The answer wasn’t quite what we were looking for. It isn’t quite the path I wanted. It makes me uncomfortable.
How closed I have been. This song was written with the intention of being an encouragement to everyone who hears it. But in that moment, and for the first time, I knew it was also written for me…
For God to speak to my heart too.
Did you hear it in the wind?
Did you fear it once again?
Did you see it closing in?
Did you wonder if it was for you again?
The answer that you wanted isn’t there for you. You know in time you’ll need to see this thing through.
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All Photos © 2016 Anita & Benjamin Tatlow
