02/11/2025
Glad you had such an amazing time, Wendy! I spent time in a pro studio when I was in high school and was so inspired by that experience. That’s why I built Animal Lane. Thanks everyone! “This weekend was such a hugely transformational point in my life that I have needed to let the memories and the moments all coalesce into something I could describe in words, even a little! I'll try, but I'm not sure I can do any of it justice... but I want to acknowledge Nadine Sekerez, as host and all around facilitator, and everyone else who made this amazing event happen, so I'll try!
❤️🔥✨
It has been hard to come back down to earth, after breathing in the heady and rarified air we all enjoyed in the company of other songwriters who were there at the UpStream Mountain Songwriting Retreat, for one reason... to hone their song-craft in any and every way they can. We learned from the facilitators and from each other, and we found inspiration in every place we looked for it... and we wrote, and wrote, and wrote some more. We all performed in the Lyons Songwriter Walkabout on Sunday, between 4 different venues, which was also a new experience for me as a songwriter! I started several new songs, wrote a couple of poems and got more than half of a new song written, all from prompts... and had the mind-blowing experience of co-writing AND recording a brand new song with 5 other musicians... in roughly 30+- hours, with no actual rehearsal, and only 3 run throughs WHILE we were in the studio, as they were still setting us up! 😲 Lol And it actually turned out really well! It's a pretty decent song, even with the short amount of time we had, and since I was the only vocalist in our group who had never recorded before... I GOT TO SING LEAD VOCALS ON THE RECORDING!!! 😯😲😯😲😯😲😯 That's not something you get over, I promise you...
So, not ONLY did I get to have all of these other amazing never-before experiences, I got a dangerously addictive taste of the Vocal Isolation Booth at Animal Lane Studio... and THEN (as though that were not enough), after we had finished our collaborative recording, there was some extra time left, and 3 of us got to go back in to record one of our own original songs. The other 3 chose to let us have the time, so we had 10 minutes each, and I got to lay down a vocal track of a song I finished last year that I'm hoping to maybe do something with.
But, as incredibly amazing as all of this was... the absolute pinnacle of the entire experience was when I finally opened my eyes while I was recording my own song, to see 8 people in the sound booth dancing like they were at the Best. Party. Ever... to MY SONG, while I was singing it!!! I thought my heart might explode right then, and I would have cried except I was too stunned, and I was still in the middle of the song, so I had to keep going! 🥰❤️🤣 I was singing a capella, so they were literally just dancing to my voice coming through the speakers...
🥹💥❤️
And now I have to figure out how to get myself back in there, because I have had an epiphany, and finally understand what my spirit has been searching for and straining toward my whole life... and I am both inspired and energized to get myself there again, and spend as much time in there as I possibly can!
❤️🔥🎼🎶
(and of course I was so IN every moment that I almost completely forgot to take any pics or video... most of these are from the concert on Saturday evening.)”
