#238 TELEPHONE (STEPH MILLS FEAT. RUGGZ & A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA). oh my goodness, i’ve been waiting for this song for forever! steph asked me to sing the hook of this song ages ago, and i actually thought that she only used one hook (i sent four, i think). glad she included more than just the main chorus of the song—thought this turned out really well. :)
when i grow up, i want to rap like steph mills! hahaha. until then, though, i’m content singing her songs’ hooks.
#237 JUST GIVE ME A REASON (PINK FEAT. NATE RUESS) (COVER). started as a study/demo for my band (because one of them wanted to cover this), but while i was finding out if the original key would fit my voice, i thought, “why not?”—and just straight up recorded the thing. i KNOW the bridge isn’t right, and the chorus should repeat more after where i ended; but this ismeant to be a duet, come on.
it may be a pop song, but boy does pink use her vocal range in this one. the verses are just a hair too low for me to sing comfortably, and the bridge is just a hair too high too high to belt without taking more than a few seconds to rest before recording—probably should have just punched in.
#235 SEA AND SALT WATER (MATTIR FEAT. A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA). i’m really, really proud of LAGNIAPPE and feel that it deserves ALL of my attention promoting it because we all worked so hard (especially me and the hai’s sound engineering turtle guru rekapper) to make it as awesome as it is — but it seems that i just cannot stop making music!
this is a new song that mattir (with whom i did “when you’re sober” from LAGNIAPPE) and i did just recently. <3 isn’t he just such a great musician? i’m so lucky that he likes working with me so much.
#234 INADEQUACY (ALMOST TECHNICOLOR FEAT. A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA). ninth track off LAGNIAPPE, and one of my favorites. this is actually the only previously unreleased track in the entire album. there were a lot of issues with vocal recording/processing, so rekapper had his hands full with this one, but i have to say that it was all worth it. i’m not usually proud of my lyrics (as i usually am never satisfied with them), but i like what i wrote for this instrumental! as i am naturally insecure and have performance anxiety, the subject matter is very close to my heart.
again, if you haven’t yet, you can DL my album here: http://aplm-music.thehai.org
#233 THE BANG BANG BANG INTERLUDE (ANTIQ FEAT. A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA). why can’t i ever hold all these songs? sigh.
so while we’ve been hemming and hawing and figuring out when to release LAGNIAPPE, my boy ANTIq just went ahead and released his debut — just like that. haha, seriously though, he’s been working on this a while; and though it’s mostly an instrumental EP, he does feature me in one song, and this is the one. if you like it, you can download it for free/pay-what-you-want here.
#232 UN-THINKABLE (I’M READY) (ALICIA KEYS COVER). holy shit, this was hard as fuck. alicia keys is understated but no less fierce in this song — the range needed for this is wider than i currently work with, which made covering this a bitch and a half. my cousin recently posted a video of her singing this, so i thought i’d give it a shot (the song got stuck in my head); not knowing that it would permanently damage my self-esteem.
…okay, that’s a little too dramatic. what this cover DOES do, though, is remind me that i need to be stricter about my vocal exercises. there’s too many sour notes here to count, and i was so focused on just getting through the song that i barely put any feeling into it. hopefully i post a better cover/original soon.
#231 HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS (COVER). thought i’d cover something for christmas. don’t know how (not) online i will be in the next few days, so i’ll just go ahead and greet everyone a happy holiday season right now.
thanks for listening. <3
#230 (CRIME SCENE OF A WIP). i found this WIP hidden in my phone, and i’m so angry with myself for not paying attention and not setting the audio recording quality to high! i do remember recording this — the reason it’s on my phone and not on my computer is because i felt that it was such a good idea, and it would disappear if i took the time to set up my recording equipment. i guess it disappeared anyway. :(
maybe i can figure out the muddled words and chords, we’ll see. don’t even know if i should salvage this or not. it sounds so depressing!
#229 I DON’T CARE (ELLE VARNER COVER). haven’t been practicing my singing nearly as much as i should. this girl kills me! so much emotion in her voice. going through her songs makes me want to be a better singer.
if you haven’t listened to elle varner, please do so now. can’t even begin to do this song justice. sang it my way, changed up the chords, messed up some lyrics… you know the drill.
