Madam Roar

Freedom’s Not Waiting by Madam Roar

This is a recent recording I’ve done here on Cortes Island. My intention was to create a new album over the winter, and I spent some time recording before and just after Christmas only to completely halt the project. My interest in recording faded as my insatiable hunger to know the truth of myself ravaged my being. Here I was in the middle of nowhere and something inside me insisted that I stop. Completely stop and use this opportunity to find out the truth. So I sat. I sat in meditation throughout the days. I watched my dysfunctional thoughts. I read Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chodron, and watched youtube videos of Gangaji and Mooji who are students of Ramana Maharshi. All of this unfolded with an urgency I can’t explain. It was like I couldn’t go on any longer without an answer to this fundamental question. Who Am I? Through facing myself fully I have experienced revelations that can not be put into words. The biggest discovery I wish to share with you. We are free. We have always been free and will forever be free. Beyond even the concept of free.

I recorded this song simply. The guitar has a bit of bass reduction and reverb but the vocal remains untouched. I have never shared my voice this naked and raw before. It is totally free of all the effects I’ve used in the past and it feels natural to share myself this way with you now. I love hearing the intimate details of singers’ voices. The creaks and cracks and textures are what make a voice unique. For some reason it has been hard to accept the realness, the intimacy of my own voice. It is an interesting parallel that as I face my inner self completely I am now asked to face my voice as well. Hear it as it truly is instead of patching, polishing, fixing, changing. Allowing it to be as it is. Something inside of me is relaxing into a beauty that needs no tampering, no cultivation. It has always been.

I’ve recently moved to Cortes Island with the intention of recording another album over the winter. The raw beauty of the land is inspiring as I connect to my inner groove and visualize the type of album I want to make. I’m living in a small cabin by the ocean overlooking the twin islands. Deer are nibbling grass outside my window and wolves howl at the full moon. The energy of the land is wild and raw and that’s the kind of sound I hope flows out of me. I envision much emphasis on acoustic sounds, with the vocal and guitar very upfront and present. Natural percussion using scavenged materials such as shells and driftwood will be fun to experiment with rhythmically. In my opinion, all great music incorporates space which is just as important as the actual sounds. I will try to allow this album the space to breathe, the space to sprawl out on the beach and listen to the waves, the space to be present with the splendid simplicity of a shell cracking under foot.

This will be my first album completely self-produced. Over the course of my last project, In The Hearts Of Seeds with Oliver Giving, I grew tremendously as a musician and even more so on the technical aspects of recording and producing. I found an insatiable hunger arise to learn about recording and producing music. Having the control to make things sound exactly the way I want brings me another step closer to complete creative freedom. I’m so curious about what I’m about to create, and look forward to the day when I get to share it with you.

Thanks to all the beautiful people who came out for the album release party on June 16th, exactly a year to the day that Oliver and I began recording the album! It was wonderful to feel such support and see the smiles of friends and family in the audience.

Now that the album has been properly welcomed into the world it is up on Bandcamp.com available for purchase. Bandcamp is a wonderful site for artists to sell their music as all the money goes straight to the artists themselves.

http://roargiving.bandcamp.com

Come join Oliver and I for an evening of celebration and creativity! It is a year to the day that we began the recording for the album, June 16th 2009, and our hearts are overjoyed to share the music and experiences we collected during this year of production and friendship building!

The year long collaboration between Madam Roar and Oliver Giving is about to come full circle. We began recording in June of 2009 and our album is nearing completion for an anticipated June 2010 release.

Our musical journey began almost a year ago with the recording of 17 songs in 4 days. The acoustic guitar and vocal recordings became the foundation for an experimental approach to the production. In the Hearts of Seeds is a fusion of acoustic singer/songwriting and electronic sounds and masterful production skillz.

Over the course of this journey a strong friendship has developed between Madam Roar and Oliver Giving and visions of future projects have arisen. We find ourselves walking parallel paths with many opportunities to build bridges between the gap. Our desire to inspire artistic experimentation and expression especially in regards to youth activism is one of those bridges. Another bridge is our commitment to the health and well-being of humanity and planet earth.

Our album In the Hearts of Seeds shall be available in digital form for download with no physical copies being created to clutter up our practically bursting world. We aspire to leave a light touch on the planet and give back when we can. 5% of the profits of the album will go to Earth, and 5% will go to Humans. We feel the world needs people who are willing to step up and live their truth, follow their heart wisdom, and give back to community and culture.

Thank you for supporting us in living our dreams, as we will support you in yours. Namaste.

MADAM ROAR is a songbird (a red-winged blackbird to be exact) who swallowed a trumpet and now has a rather uncomfortable sensation in her throat. She tries hard to conceal it and keep it all together, but the moment she lets her guard down the oddest sounds escape her esophagus.

Songbird by madam roar

MADAM ROAR double dog dares you to enjoy your life, enjoy this moment, and completely liberate yourself from self-inflicted bondage. FREEDOM IS A CHOICE!