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Carpe Diem

Published on March 2, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I’m a planner – a bit of a perfectionist, truth be told – particularly when it comes to plotting my career. I’m big on spreadsheets and lists and analysing every available option to ensure that everything goes as perfectly as possible. But over the past few years, I’ve also had to embrace the concept of ‘living for now’, which contradicts a bit with the planner in me.

When I quit my day job, I had no idea what I was doing, or how I was going to do it, but I embraced the decision and the universe seemed to open up more options to me as I finally accepted who I’ve always wanted to be. Two and a half years later, I have to acknowledge that the more moments I soldier through, the more I realise how much more present I am in them. It’s so important to embrace what you have while you have it, to embrace what you’re capable of while you can, to embrace change as it happens and accept that ultimately, you have no absolute control over the exact course of your life. Things change. People change. Circumstances change. Life is short.

So I packed up my life and decided to move to Cape Town for a few months. Because I can. Because I have no reason not to. Because you never know. While a little terrifying, embracing this concept in its entirety is quite a thrilling space to be in, particularly because I realise how powerful it can be in ensuring that I live. I have absolutely no idea what lies around the corner, which means that all I’m left with is the decision to fully appreciate what I have right now. That’s not to say that I should forget the dreams that I have for the future and pay no attention to what I want for my life. Courage, motivation, and believing in everything you can become is paramount … but believing in everything you already are, and acknowledging how much you’ve done and how far you’ve come is just as vital. Right now I’m a musician… right now I’m touring the country… right now I have two albums on the shelf… right now I perform in beautiful spaces… right now I tell my story and people listen because they hear their own. In this moment right now, I am who I want to be. I am living my dream. And that is enough. For now.

Cross My Heart

Published on February 26, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Heartlines...

I’m big on honesty, I always have been, and I’ve been thinking about the concept a lot lately, particularly how much honesty I communicate to a world in which I want to live authentically. How much honesty is too much…?

I believe in honesty. Anyone who’s heard my songs can tell you that. And I want to live a full, authentic, enriched life. I want to live passionately, courageously, whole-heartedly, and it’s been interesting to think about how much of that fullness depends on how honest you are about it. It takes courage to do anything worthwhile… to live fully, to love at all, to risk loving completely, to follow your dreams, to be who you are, to be honest… and as with anything else of value, when it comes to honesty, there is a fine line between being brave and being foolish, because you can end up giving too much of yourself away, and possibly losing yourself in the process.

It’s important to define the delicate balances of honesty in the relationships that I cultivate, the songs that I write, the shows that I perform, and the life that I live. Finding the balance between living your truth, living every breath of your essence, but without sacrificing your integrity, without giving or risking too much, but enough… finding the balance of honesty on stage and serving the performance without risking too much of my personal story or losing too many pieces of myself to strangers… and finding the balance of honesty in songs while serving the song but respecting where it came from… there is a fine line that takes practice to understand, and courage to accept. I’m still finding those lines are a little blurred at times… but I’m learning.

For me, when it comes to anything of value in life, those things I hold of greatest importance to me are entirely worth the risk. Allowing your heart to love despite the heartbreak you may suffer, owning your truth because it’s yours and it matters, feeling the fear of uncertainty but believing that you can be and do everything you can dream you can… I am willing to risk the fragility of my heart for what my heart believes in. If it ends in heartbreak, I know that I will get up again because I’ve proved that I can. In no way is it easier to risk my heart simply because I know that, but I know it nonetheless. But if the risk brings whole-hearted living, if it realises a dream, if it tells a story that no one else was brave enough to tell and touches a life that needed to hear it, if the love I let myself believe in ends up being the love that believes in me… I believe that the epic potential always outweighs the risk. So I believe in honesty.

Location. Location. Location.

Published on February 15, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

More often than not, if I’m not blogging about going to Cape Town, I’m blogging about coming back from Cape Town (which, funny enough, is exactly what I’m doing as I write this), so it was kind of inevitable that I would eventually end up in Cape Town on a more permanent basis. After a week of session work in the mother city, I’m heading back to Durban to pack my bags for a 5 month visit to my second home. It’s not an official move, more of a trial run of sorts, but makes sense for now and I’m looking forward to checking out some exciting opportunities that the temporary relocation presents.

The next two weeks are jam packed with enough chaos to keep me on my toes. Aside from packing up my life, driving 3,000km and dealing with the usual mountain of admin that is my life, I’m doing a show at my favourite starry-skied venue, St. Clements in Musgrave on Friday night, to bid my hometown farewell for a little while. Then I head to Joburg to launch my new album to Gauteng audiences at The Bioscope Independent Cinema, a super rad venue I’ve been looking forward to playing for a while now, before I hit the N1 for Cape Town, settling in Noordhoek initially… Yes, I get to glare at that awful view every day. Woe is me.

There are some dream space performances coming up and I’m cooking up all sorts of radness to occupy my time on the other side of the big rock. You’ll hear it here first.

Every Heart

Published on February 2, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

After 4 weeks off stage, I found myself back in my favourite place again this week. On a stage, behind a piano, doing what I do that makes me me. I’ve missed it. In the grand scheme of things, four weeks is not a long time but it was necessary for me to mentally disconnect from performing for a few weeks. I only realised how necessary when I got back on that stage.

I’ve spent the last few weeks writing, doing studio sessions, planning my touring schedule for the year… so yeah, basically working… although I did manage to take a week break in Cape Town. I did some living, fell in love with new music and beautiful spaces, debated the meaning of life, challenged myself to dream bigger and believe more, and breathed in the epic novel that is my life. And then I closed a chapter of my life that I didn’t realise was still ever so slightly ajar – the chapter of my life that wrote my first album. I process my life through my music and after two years of living that album and everything it represented, two years of promoting the open-heart surgery that made me a complete person again, I didn’t realise that there was one final step to really moving on from that part of my life. Realising that I’ve become indifferent. Not to the moments, or the life that I lived, or the love that I lost – I can’t deny the value of those things, because in denying them, I would deny a part of myself and who I’ve become. But I’m finally indifferent to the players in that story, myself included, or at least who I was back then. I’m not a big fan of indifference. I’m big on passion and feeling completely with your entire being, so when I was confronted by indifference, it surprised me, to say the least. But in this case it’s necessary for closure, and for once in my life, to just feel nothing after feeling far too much.

So I found myself back on stage with this story that I wrote a lifetime ago and I realised that I’m so often disconnected from myself as a songwriter, in that I only fully understand what I’m on about when the smoke has cleared much later on. Every Heart has always been one of my favourite songs from my first album. It’s a song about hope and shared experience, about the idea that everyone suffers heartache but every heart heals eventually. I’ve always understood that the idea of shared experience is supposed to help, but in that moment, you believe with all your heart that no one else understands what you’re going through. Heartache is a universal affliction. The intensity and circumstances vary, but it is essentially the same for everyone and people have survived it since the beginning of time (well, most have). And you can’t deny that it’s comforting to know that you don’t suffer it alone. I honestly didn’t believe that I would ever get over the heartache that I felt so intensely, and then I wrote a song about every heart finding its way, almost like I was writing a song to myself, hoping that it might be true. And it is. It always is. It’s funny what we believe about ourselves in those moments when we think there is no hope. It took me years to really hear that song, and it’s never rung so true to my heart before.

As I sat on that stage, back in my authentic space, I realised how much I’ve grown as a performer in the last four weeks, by being off the stage. I have never played so passionately, believed so much, or been so thankful for who I’ve become. “It’s true what they say. Everyone has a broken heart and every heart has broken a little before, but I believe that a broken heart will always find its way.” ~ Every Heart, Shannon Hope

2011, According to Shannon Hope

Published on December 28, 2011 in Uncategorized. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I’ve never been a big fan of New Year. I’ve always found it to be a little anti-climactic, and I guess part of me feels that the concept is all wrong. I don’t like the idea of waiting for a new year to begin so that you can start doing something new with your life. It’s like waiting until Monday to start a new diet or start going to gym. What are you waiting for? People sum up their lives and worth into years that are either good or bad, and we try to convince ourselves that a new year will bring something different, something better… But at the end of the day, it’s another collection of days that I want to count for something. Just like yesterday did… I think it’s important to look back at where you’ve come from though. It puts things into perspective and helps to account for what you’ve achieved (and for what you haven’t) and allows you to give credit to yourself where it’s due. Dividing that account into years makes good bookkeeping sense, so here goes…

I started off the year just like the year (and days) before, with a plan to keep my head down and keep on trucking, and boy, did I truck! Covering almost 35,000km around the country, I played 84 shows, in beautiful spaces to audiences who wanted to listen and in the wrong kinds of spaces for audiences who ended up listening, and some who didn’t; I heard someone cover one of my songs for the first time; I made mistakes that made me stronger; I made mistakes I’m sure I’ll make again; I watched some of my best friends get married and fall in love all over again; I played half a show with an almost full band (and definitely need to do more of that); I missed birthdays but I made it home in time for Christmas; I caught my first sunset from the top of Signal Hill; I met beautiful people whom I now call friends and reconnected with old friends who I’m lucky enough to see on a regular basis; I collaborated with artists from Argentina in an outdoor spectacle that blew my mind; I visited a studio in a township shack which gave me a new respect for artists who believe; I watched Tori Amos and Michelle Shocked live, two artists whose music my sister played non-stop when I was growing up; I discovered new artists who spoke for my heart; I launched my second album and got play listed on radio; I sold out of stock at a show and was spoilt by Kawai with a new stage piano that makes me smile every time I play it; I shot my first music video and experienced my first casting; I celebrated two years fulltime; I worked too many 16 hour days and played too little actual music; I drove beautiful new routes, discovered new places, fell in love with towns I’d never heard of and sold out a show in the middle of nowhere; I got stuck in a herd of sheep; I discovered the Overberg; I discovered Hogsback; I was charged by a seal; I went 4×4ing on dunes and fell in love with a little red Jeep; I challenged my Durbanness in mid-winter in Grahamstown, again, and lost to a chest infection, but won an Ovation Award; I climbed lighthouses and stood at the foot of Africa where the two oceans meet; I felt lonely and hopeless but was reminded that these things always right themselves, and they did; I ticked off dream #1 on the wishlist and played a grand piano onstage; I played in my dream space against the most magnificent backdrop I could imagine and got a standing ovation that has made my heart shine. I cried and laughed and lived a dream…

And I’ll keep doing it all and dreaming bigger. I cannot put into words what it’s like to live a dream. I can only tell you that the moments leading up to it, the moments that build it – every tear, every smile, every encouragement and criticism, every heartbreak, victory and disappointment, and every sacrifice you’ve ever made – are entirely worth it. It’s like finally arriving home to yourself. Thanks for listening and happy New Year, Rockstars. I hope that all your days are full of the things that your dreams are made of.

In Studio with Jim Faulds, Pt.1

Published on December 20, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I’m on my way back to Durban after another crazy cool (albeit brief) trip to Cape Town. I was booked for a day in studio doing session work on an album by a singer-songwriter named Jim Faulds. I met Jim at one of the shows on my November tour to Cape Town and he mentioned wanting to collaborate sometime in the future. Little did I know but that future was less than a month away…

I haven’t had a chance for much studio collaboration because I’ve been so busy on my own stuff, but this is definitely my kind of music, so when I got a call out of the blue last week for a collaboration, and realised that it all fitted so perfectly into my schedule, I jumped at the chance immediately (besides, how could I say no to a trip to Cape Town?!). His vocal quality and phrasing remind me of Glen Hansard (The Frames / The Swell Season / one of my favourite people), who was responsible for the ‘Once’ soundtrack, which was huge inspiration for me when I recorded my first album. Dig it.

Studio is my favourite musical space to be in so with a huge grin on my artist heart, I joined the expert talents of Barry van Zyl (drums), Schalk Joubert (bass), and Carl Wegelin (guitar), lead by Jim on acoustic & vocals, for a day at The Rooftop Recording Studio in St James. The day was basically one big jam session of two tracks and they’re totally rad. I can’t wait to hear the finished product and am too stoked to have been involved in the process.

The timing of this trip also coincided with a friend’s tenth wedding anniversary celebration I would otherwise have missed, complete with ridiculously talented magician, face painting, belly dancers, photo booth and, of course, unlimited bubbles, at the ubercool Tjing Tjing on Longmarket Street. So after a pretty rock ‘n roll two days, it’s a bittersweet smile accompanying me home…

Here’s a little preview of what to expect from Jim Faulds… you’ll hear more as soon as I do!

The Drake Music Festival

Published on December 18, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I’ve just got back from the inaugural Drake Music Festival. The brainchild of South African singer-songwriter Josie Field, it was an absolute honour to be a part of what is a ridiculously rad music festival in the perfect setting in Rosetta, a quaint little town in the heart of the KZN Midlands.

With a crazy cool lineup of some of South Africa’s hardest-working acoustic artists, and a passionate crew, this festival is set to become a landmark event on the year-end calendar. After an epic 8 hour marathon of acoustic radness, the ‘Drake Hour’, a spur of the moment collaboration of jams between artists in various incarnations, ended the event off sublimely. Thanks to John Ellis for jamming a rad version of Billie Jean with me. Despite going blank on the second verse, it was quite possibly the best version I’ve ever had the pleasure of singing. And a huge shout out to Josie Field for creating this platform, and for putting it together so exquisitely. Massive respect.

Do not, under any circumstances, miss The Drake Festival next year!

Non-Stop Epic

Published on December 14, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Seven weeks, 18 shows and 7,127km later, and I’m back home, already planning the next tour. I had an epic adventure with a dream-come-true launch at The Fugard Theatre and I’m looking forward to realising so many more dreams in the new year… but this one’s not over yet!

The next 10 days are going to be non-stop epic. This weekend I join some incredible talent in the KZN Midlands for the inaugural Drake Music Festival alongside some of my favourite people in the business. I’ve been booked for some studio work back in Cape Town next week (LOVING my life right now!), so I’ll be checking out the mountain for a few days before jetting back to Durbs in time for the official Durban launch of “Fight A New Day”, a 3-night theatre run at The Catalina Theatre leading up to Christmas. So excited to play to my homies!

Post-non-stop-crazy, I plan on sleeping in (there’s been far too little of that going on the last few months), chilling and writing for a few weeks before another year of crazy, intense dreaming begins.

A Tour That Dreams Are Made Of

Published on December 4, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Sunset, R44 South

This was my eleventh tour to Cape Town and it still surprises me. This city has totally stolen my heart. The thing about tours to Cape Town is that it doesn’t seem to matter how hard I’m working, it never really feels like work in the true sense of the word.

Kicking off a tour in Cape Town by playing my dream gig in my dream venue ensured that this was going to be the most epic tour thus far (you can read about that here if you haven’t already). It also meant that any gigs I’d booked at venues that didn’t measure up would hit harder than they usually do. I always book a few gigs on these tours that pay a guarantee to ensure that I can cover the cost of the tour, but they are predominantly “background music” gigs, not shows, and they do nothing for my reputation and even less for my emotional well-being, so this is going to have to change. I’m tired of compromising my worth.

But it’s been an epic six weeks that I can’t truly put into words to fully capture the magic of it all. I really do love this crazy intense life, and for all its toil, I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I made some great contacts and rad friends; played in some beautiful spaces to audiences who wanted to listen and heard inspiring stories from people who heard their truth in my songs. I launched an album in my dream venue, was treated like a Rockstar, got play listed on radio and sold out of album stock at a show; and was thoroughly spoilt by Kawai with a new stage piano which is even better than the last one (didn’t think that was possible!). I drove beautiful roads like the R44 south from Somerset West to the Overberg (epic view!); went 4×4ing on the Atlantis Dunes; climbed the Slangkop Lighthouse in Kommetjie and climbed into the light (don’t tell the keeper!); was charged by a seal during a run on Blouberg Beach (not something everyone can say!); jumped around on old vintage cars at the Wijnland Auto Museum (I heart vintage cars); experienced my first casting for an ad; shot my first music video; watched Tori Amos rocking two pianos simultaneously and finally saw Yoav’s live set. I watched the sun set over the sea after running into the wind on numerous occasions; and I even managed to take a day off somewhere in the middle and did absolutely nothing for an entire day… and I get to dream a little bigger for what comes next, with thanks to a few people who are making a difference, simply by listening and believing. I’m living a dream. Thank you.

Lights, Camera, Action. Finally.

Published on December 1, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

You’d think that someone who’d been in the industry for 12 years would’ve had the opportunity to shoot a music video by now… Not for lack of trying, but these things cost money, and realistically, touring and albums must take priority.

So when I got a call from an ex-Durbanite, who’s recently relocated to Cape Town, about shooting a music video for a ‘varisty project while I’m here, an artistic exchange of sorts, I jumped at the opportunity. Did you say free video? Yes please!! And so, during an already epic tour to Cape Town, I also shot my very first music video, for On Second Thought… coming soon.

A few behind-the-scenes shots, courtesy of Belia Oh…