Jacose July
September 2, 2016July was the launch month of my first ever release. A narrative piano album called Evolving Reflections. As my website states, ‘Music can trigger an emotional journey, it can tell a tale, or simply be heard. We cannot dictate the experience of a listener but we can create music which has a relatable narrative. Inspired by a collection of photographs, the pieces evolved into stories, representing a mini-biography of a few of my life reflections. Just as lyrics can describe a narrative, the music in Evolving Reflections sings the narrative. You can listen to it on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4ABWAvyL5fW4SBw8hgHneg
One thing I’ve learnt from this experience is that I find it very difficult to sell myself. You know the type of artists who are super confident in themselves, you see them everywhere, hear them everywhere, just unashamedly sell sell sell, they potentially become utterly annoying because they have just posted yet another seemingly pointless unrelated instagram post and facebook and twitter and linkedin and snapchat (the existence of the latter is still incomprehensible to me but that’s for another post) and every other social media they can think of, just blah blah blah and they’re …well….everywhere? Well, that’s not me. I’m the type of person who will change the subject when asked about her work in a social situation, I’ll hide away from group discussions of my work, putting a facebook/ twitter/ linkedin update takes either an agonising period of a motivational conversation with myself combined with a bout of the ‘just do it’ approach or alternatively a comatose state where I’m working through my ‘to-do’ list without realising what I’m actually doing. So in all honesty, July became a month of challenging my marketing skills demon. Upon reflection it was ‘jacose’. That’s a word I learnt today. Wonder if I’m using it the correct way?
My experience of journalism this month has been they email you questions and ask you to email your replies back to them. This isn’t a preferable approach for me purely because I’m really not very good at explaining things on paper. I’m much better in person so it’s really taken a lot of hours and multiple drafts to create these interviews/ blogs. If you fancy a read here are the ones that have been published.
BBC Radio Norfolk Press play, then move the slider to 3:32:00 to hear the interview
The wonderful animator Rebecca Meilak created a beautiful animation for one of the tracks from the album. This can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/174792323
The highlight of the campaign was being on Radio Norfolk. Stephen Bumfrey was wonderful to chat to. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview. If only there had been more like this. The launch event went exceptionally well, better than any of my expectations. I have to thank my friends and family for this. I am so lucky to have such a supportive bunch of people. I hope they know how eternally grateful I am for all their support.
Next thing is to buy a piano for my house. It seems my Dad has become very fond of the beautiful 110 year old Bechstein piano I grew up with so I don’t want to take it away from him! So buy a piano and a concert of the full album in November time which will include piano performances with live electronics from myself and the wonderful pianists who played the two duets. One of the pieces will also be played along to animation and there will be an exhibition of photography. Maybe I’m being too ambitious but that’s nothing new.
Right, this isn’t the intended short post so I will sign off with these quotes:
‘Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands’ - Brene Brown
‘You’re stronger than you believe. Don’t let fear own you. Own Yourself’ - Michelle Hodkin