This is Not Attractive

Today I have , after months of procrastination, composed my first looping track. It has been a while in the making. After berating myself for a few days about the fact that despite having bought the very expensive equipment equivalent to 1 month's rent a few weeks ago I hadnt really used it properly since the first few enthusiastic and exhausting days of setting up , and so I finally set down to work. This was precipitated mainly by two factors: 1) my drumkit teacher telling me I was making very good progress and me feeling elated as a consequence of having my own judgement in this matter confirmed 2) reading a book called " The artist's way" which told me to get over the fear / the block of the critical self and just do it. I therefore planned to get stoned first (just a little) and have a little drop of limoncello too, and then get on with it. Of course this was after spending a couple hours technically setting up the system to handle a highly creative though tech...

I am very proud to announce that as of September 2013 a new band has been formed: the temporary name of Elyssa Vulpes and The Sweet Bitter Enemies has been assigned to this array of disparate personalities. As of now we have Paul Gonzales, a Spanish drummer with a past as a metal fan,  Josh Del Tramonto, an Australian guitarist turned bass player and Simon Szymek, Polish violinist direct from the University of Edinburgh Music School.  We have big plans to take Edinburgh and Glasgow by storm and then expand to touring the UK and Europe.  Watch out for brand new tunes in Italian and English and songs as mellow as can be as well as fast and furious ironic numbers. Follow us and help us build a bigger audience to give us enough time and money to put all this down in a long awaited album ! We have too many songs, so it might have to be a double ! Thank you for your continuing support, it s what makes us keep going!

So this year has started with too many projects and too many possibilities. Of course this is better than not enough stuff to do but I seem to swing between not having enough to do and having too much... well it's been two years since I started writing new songs for the new album. I have enough material for two albums but the money is short so it will have to be a slow and long process and even then it will be a matter of selecting the best songs and only  recording them... At the moment there are both Italian and English songs and this time there is a big change... I have a drummer involved , a double bass player and a violinist... so it's going to be quite different from "Pearl of Blood" . I feel I have moved on quite a lot since Pearl of Blood. The new songs are a bit less dark and melancholic while still on the chilled side. I do have a couple of numbers that are quite poppy but having said that my 'poppy' is probably still quite eccentric compared to th...

Basically I am an obssessive thinker. I get obsessed especially by people. I find certain people fascinating and I feel a very deep need to get to know them, to love them and be loved by them. This person becomes my muse, my obsession, my problem, my ecstasy and source of light as well as darkness.  I have a deep need to communicate, and this sometimes is difficult because I often find that I spend a lot of time on my own . It is very easy for my relationships to become intense quite quickly because I am passionate and feel things with particular vividness. I fall in love too easily for my own good. Sometimes I think Id fall for anyone Id spend enough time with who wasn't totally hideous or nasty to me. I just find people so amazing. Everyone is a puzzle to understand. Everyone is a world, separate from others , and to communicate we need to find bridges that can connect us together. But there is no real possibility to fully be able to connect at all levels... always or even very o...

A change of pace is occurring. There's a few shows coming up and I am in the process of organizing more and more gigs here in Edinburgh and in Italy. Basically I will be setting up an acoustic singer song writer's night with the best Edinburgh musicians so that there is an outlet for people like me for showcasing their songs. I will also be singing in random open mic nights all over town on a regular basis as well as playing paid gigs in local bars and restaurants. The life of a musician is hard work! I am also recording a few songs all over the place, with collaborators and alone so stay tuned for future releases of Italian tracks as well as tracks with Mjuk , Graham Spence and Amy Davidson. The nights are getting longer and the light dimmer. This is the right time to put seeds underground so they may spring forth next year....

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Writing on a beautifully cloudy autumn afternoon in my flat in Edinburgh, listening to Portishead with the cat on my lap... kitty Samhein is happy and that is good because it means she's not going to bite me.  These have been busy days,  with Samhuinn just over, Italy behind me, and new projects just starting. At the moment I am waiting to hear from Arjen Schippers from the Mjuk Project so I can post our latest song "The eyes of a stranger" (which is dedicated to Ben Fyfe from Aberdeen met at the mighty Kaledoiscope festival) on our facebook page... I also am trying to finalise some new collaborations with Graham Spence from Newcastle, Amy from New Zealand , Jeannette Gray and Emily Hoddo from the UK and trying to fix dates for gigs with local artists Caro Bridges, Rob Sproul Can and Jason Tyrone... as well as  a tour in January in Italy with  James Wynne.... busy busy indeed. I also am trying to record and mix the new Italian Album , which is going rather slow due ...