I just returned from an amazing trip to London, UK where I was writing at Kensaltown Studios with some amazing artists. Kensaltown is a studio set up by Martin Terefe (producer for Jason Mraz, Train, KT Tunstall) and it’s quite the hub of activity, with many amazing producers and writers working there, one of which is my good friend James Bryan (whom you may remember as the guitarist of Sunshine State and the Philosopher Kings). I wrote quite a few songs there at the studio with european label artists who were coming through; one of the personal highlights for me was a song called “Outlaw” that James and I wrote with Sophie Delila (an artist signed to Universal Music, France). Our trip got extended by a few days due to the volcanic activity in Iceland and the disruption of air travel, but for me that was a plus because it meant I got to celebrate my birthday in London on May 1!

Other song/record related updates: Shannon Butcher will be releasing her new album Little Hearts on June 2nd at Hugh’s Room in Toronto and the record features a song we wrote together called “Simple Love”. Check out her website for details: www.shannonbutcher.com. Julie C has mixed and mastered her record and the final songlist has 3 tunes we wrote together (release date has not yet been announced). I’ve also recently received word that Australian artist and Vietnamese pop star Thanh Bui has begun rehearsing the 2 songs we wrote together with his live band. Plans are in the works for his new record, so stay tuned!

Time away from a song can give you a fresh perspective. Leah Daniels and I got together the other day and made some improvements to the chorus of our new song… causing it to be now called “One Night Crush” instead of the original “Uh Oh”… check out our little midi demo!

This spring seems to be all about travelling and writing with people from abroad. It started a couple of weeks ago I was in Nashville where I got to write with the great Keith Follese. We wrote a ballsy pop tune called “Bad Girls” that’s still stuck in my head! Then I got back to Toronto and had 2 marathon days of writing with the dynamic Thanh Bui who was in Canada visiting from Australia… turns out we had a lot in common and had a couple magical writing days that resulted in 2 anthemic pop tunes that really suit his new direction, as well as a collaboration between Thanh, myself, and Chad Doucette… giving us a song called “Half” that joins the growing list of songs I have collaborated on for Chad’s own upcoming recording this year. My travels continue next month, when I will be visiting my good friend James Bryan McCollum at his studio in London, England at the end of April and doing some writing sessions with the good folks over there.

Speaking of upcoming recordings, I’m looking ahead at this spring and am really excited that many of the people I’ve been writing with are now making their records… a few highlights: Julie C is in the studio with producer Ron Lopata at the helm, which is exciting because over the last year I’ve co-written 6 tunes with her towards this album (One of our songs called “Love Is Gone” -co-written with Julie C and Vince Degiorgio- has already been mixed and Julie has posted a sneak peek of it on Reverbnation).

I’ve written 4 tunes with Matt McKenna and James Bloemendal for their new duo project called Ash & Bloom (check out their entertaining album-recording diary called The Ongoing Saga of Matt & James on Facebook), and jazz singer Shannon Butcher has just mixed and mastered her new album, which features a tune we wrote called “Simple Love”. Soon as I know the release date I’ll let you know!

I’m still doing my 20 Song Game days about once a month, which are proving both interesting and fruitful… for example, the starter “nugget” idea that became the “Bad Girls” song I referred to at the start of this update came out of one of those game days for me, and proceeded to turn into a cool song weeks later in Nashville! Another game day is coming up next week and I’m already anticipating it will be both fun and challenging… follow me on Twitter and I’ll let you know how it works out!

Happy Spring!

xo
K
ps: here’s a little pic of me and Emma-Lee finally getting together to watch/celebrate the episode of HBO Canada’s Bloodletting+Miraculous Cures that featured our song “Shot In The Dark”. Wine!

I’m so happy to finally share with you this beautiful music film written and directed by Teresa Hannigan for my song Life Is Short Enough, from my own 2008 album Meeting The Future At Full Speed… this will be airing on BRAVO TV soon! I’ve embedded a copy here but feel free to go to YouTube to see it in higher quality!

In time for the television premiere of ‘Shot In The Dark’ in this upcoming sunday’s episode of Bloodletting + Miraculous Cures (HBO Canada, 8pm ET/MT), Emma-Lee’s label Bumstead Records has just released a full length version of the song in their online store. Preview the song using the widget below, and click on the banner to purchase a digital download via paypal. In addition to co-writing the song with the very talented Emma-Lee, I also had the pleasure of producing this track in my studio. Remember to tune in this Sunday January 24th to see the sexy kissing scene that will feature this song!

Remember to tune in for the new hit miniseries Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures on HBO Canada this Sunday January 24 at 8pm ET/MT to hear the premiere of ‘Shot In The Dark’, an unreleased song I wrote with the very talented Emma-Lee. Our song is at the very end of the episode, and (*spoiler alert*) it begins during a tasty kissing scene and continues to play out over the end credits. Hope you enjoy!

I recently had a couple writing sessions with Ava Kay and a young country artist named Leah Daniels. It’s hard to make midi demos for anything remotely “country” because it’s a genre that has a very acoustic-based sound that’s hard to replicate with midi. These 2 demos are about as close as I felt I could come before bringing in a full band… call them pre-demo-production demos, if you will…

I always have a total blast writing with Julie Crochetiere and Vince Degiorgio… and here’s one of the many songs we’ve written together over the last year and a half, recorded by Julie and produced by Ron Lopata for her upcoming album. Listen now to “Love Is Gone”.

Here’s a demo I finished right before the holidays: it’s a tune called The Runout, and I wrote it with Ava Kay, a fellow songwriter who currently splits her time between Toronto and Nashville. The fantastic Shezelle Weekes (singer with Kreesha Turner, Anjulie) contributed her vocal talents to this track. Enjoy! Click here for lyrics.

Hope you’re reading this over some hot cocoa… I’m just getting ready to sign off for the holidays myself -and believe me, i’m primed for some R’n'R! December has been a busy month, filled with writing sessions with talented people like Courtney Farquhar, Leah Daniels, Ava Kay, Chad Doucette, Matt McKenna, James Bloemendal, and Emma-Lee. I’ve also been working on about 10 different demos that I’ll be sharing with you sometime in the new year… some highlights included recording some killer string tracks with Shannon Quinn for a new song I wrote with Emma-Lee called “Right Behind You”, and a vocal session with the very talented Shezelle for a new tune called “The Runout”, which I co-wrote in November with Ava Kay.

I also have an update about the premiere of a new song called “Shot in the Dark”, which I co-wrote with the very talented Emma-Lee. It will be appearing in upcoming HBO Canada mini-series called Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. The song will be featured at the end of Episode 3 which airs on Sunday, January 24th at 8:00pm!

In other news, my mezzo-soprano opera singing sister Jennifer was in town this past month and aside from convincing me to try a crazy kick-boxing fitness video, she also did some recording in studio A at Canterbury… check out Jen’s website for some samples.

Thanks for reading, and for all your support this year.

xo
Karen

ps: here’s an old xmas/winter song from many years ago when I first moved to Toronto (in 2001). Back then I was too broke to buy gifts for my family back home in Winnipeg, so I wrote this song, recorded it and gave them all handmade/decorated CDs. (The song also ended up on my 2002 CD Optimist Party the following year.) Just a little something for those times when you can’t be with loved ones during the holidays. Click here for lyrics.