hello, from sunny florida

Here at the Vanguard room it doesn't take long to warm up to producer Aaron Marsh's quirky personality. In fact I have now come to expect r&b/hip hop culture lessons, (we are still recording an indie/pop record aren't we Aaron?) beat boxing/whistling breakdowns, and interesting vocabulary i have never heard to be used on a daily basis. The cozy atmosphere, and warm Florida weather certainly isn't hurting this experience either! I couldn't ask for much more.

Now that the piano and vocal scratch tracks are all recorded, most of my time here these days is spent on a comfy couch observing all the madness involved in creating a great album. While Alex Bennett was working hard recording some rockin' drums, i managed to beat my high score on 'word pop' 3 times. :p But all jokes aside... its been nothing short of amazing to see Alex and Aaron turn my cryptic requests for "like...hit the snare drum really fast... ya know?" and "maybe a few less drums on this one?" into brilliant inventive drum parts.

Our current endeavor is tracking bass guitar... and who knew Aaron could kill at bass! And beyond just playing bass... he's created these pretty magical bass gloves... i can't talk too much about them in case someone tries to steal his tricks. I don't have much to say when it comes to bass....but so far it's sounding pretty BA!

The next steps will be guitar, strings, (suuuupperrr excited for strings!), and then finally my part, piano and vocals! Aaron has this amazzzinnggg white upright Weber (japanese weber) piano that I know is going to sound so great on the record! It has a distinct sound heard on tracks of "Felt" by Anchor&Braille and "Illuminate" by Lydia, two awesome records, so I'm prettty stoked. And of course vocals will be a total blast! working with in my opinion one of the most inventive current vocalists, I think to say I am eager to start recording would be a total understatement. can't wait!

I came here to Lakeland all the way from Portland Oregon specifically to work with Aaron Marsh, who's work in the band Copeland has been hugely inspiring to my music, and let me tell you... he has far exceeded my expectations already! It really is an honor to have such a talented guy produce my album. :) In this short time here, already I feel like I've grown as a musician. Being able to be involved in the production process is helping me become more well rounded musically, and I'm even learning great new musical terminology like 'flying brick'! Not to mention what a confidence booster it is to have Aaron Marsh jazzed about your compositions. :)

I'm really stoked to continue working on this record and share it with all of my friends and fans!!


Holly Ann