What I’m Listening To: Florence + The Machine

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

Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials

It was like slow, painful torture waiting for this album to arrive at my door. A friend had sent me the link to the new single weeks before release and I had that ridiculously rad song on repeat all day for a week. Not kidding. When I like something, I milk it for all its incredible worth, and Shake It Out is a song that never tires.

When the album finally arrived, I’d built up huge expectation, which can be a dangerous thing, but this album did not disappoint. Not even in the slightest. I did have to listen to it a few times before the huge expectation was met and then exceeded but I think this is just one of those albums. It’s so epic in sound and production and songwriting, that it takes a few listen to fully grasp. And my artist mind is still blown.

It’s difficult to pick favourites off this album as so many of these songs speak to where my heart is right now… amongst those Shake It Out, No Light No Light, Heartlines and What The Water Gave Me. It’s a beautiful thing to have someone speak for your heart, and she does it so eloquently.

What Dreams Look Like

Published on November 8, 2011 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

The Fugard Studio, 5 November 2011

This is what my dream looks like. There aren’t enough words in the English language to describe what it was like to finally live this day, the epic experience of performing in my dream space on a Kawai grand piano to celebrate the launch of an album that has been a year in the making, what it felt like to watch it all unfold in front of my eyes. It all still feels very surreal. But it happened. I know it did. There are pictures. And if it’s possible, that space gets more beautiful every time I see it…

I’ve been dreaming about this moment since the beginning, and I can finally justify the sleepless nights wondering if I would ever make this music thing work, the tears and frustration at hitting my head against the same seemingly immovable wall that is this industry. Don’t get me wrong, I realise that at the core of it, I’ve been living the dream since I first took that terrifying fulltime leap, and I’ve had so many epic moments that I wouldn’t change for the world, but it certainly hasn’t been an easy dream to keep believing in. This is the show that I want to perform, and until now I’ve settled for whatever venue I could get, desperately trying to make ends meet, because I believed that eventually I would get to this place.

I arrived at The Fugard Theatre to flowers in the dressing room, my name engraved on the door, and a flurry of last minute activity by an unbelievably dedicated crew. It made what I do feel significant. It made me feel significant. And it made everything I’ve been working so hard towards, feel completely worthwhile. It’s strange for me, after missioning around the country on my own for so long, to have a team of people behind me, believing in me, so passionate and excited, and working so incredibly hard to make my dream a reality. I didn’t have to handle my own press and media, or set up my own sound, or operate it from the stage, or carry a piano, put up posters or sell my own merchandise… it was all done for me. The countless 16 hour days doing admin prep behind releasing the album and setting up this launch show, the months of planning, plotting and dreaming of this moment, the magnitude of which I only really understood as the lights dimmed and I walked onto that stage… it was all about to explode into 1½ hours of epic reality. For those that were there, that moment of silence sitting at the piano smiling before I started, was me realising a dream, realising that I was in it. That was me pinching myself…

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 – every tear, every smile, every encouragement and criticism, every heartbreak, victory and disappointment, and every sacrifice you’ve ever made – fade into a single, perfect, epic moment. Like magic. It’s beautiful. It’s like finally arriving home to yourself. I walked onto the perfect stage, played a grand piano lit to perfection against the most beautiful backdrop I could imagine, and lived my dream performance to a standing ovation that has made my heart shine. To the Fugard Theatre and everyone who shared this perfect night with me, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for believing, thank you for listening, and thank you for making this dream beautiful and real.

Fight A New Day

Published on October 31, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Fight A New Day is out now. I’ve been waiting to say those words for months, and finally have the intense satisfaction! And it feels pretty darn epic…

I still had a day job when my first album arrived by courier and I still clearly remember that moment and how it felt. This time was no less life-altering and profound. This album represents so many things for me, not the least of which is the accomplishment of getting to this point. On my own.

I remember looking forward at this giant, seemingly insurmountable dream that I had of pursuing music fulltime… I remember countless conversations with family and friends about this seemingly irresponsible decision to quit my day job and give this dream thing a real chance (the doubt was all me, by the way, everyone else was 100% behind the idea from the start)… I remember how terrified I was, how doubtful I was… and I remember how much I wanted it. I remember holding that finished product in my hands, so proud and excited and hopeful and so utterly terrified to believe.

And here I am, two and half years later, holding chapter 2 in my hands. Proud and excited and hopeful, and so thankful that I took the chance to believe in something with everything I am.

So with a giant smile plastered across my face, I’m thrilled to announce that Fight A New Day is out now.

The official album launch takes place at The Fugard Theatre in District Six, Cape Town on Saturday 5 November. Tickets available from Computicket. Album available from all shows and in Look & Listen stores nationwide later this week. Postal orders available by email (shannonhope@rocketmail.com). Digital downloads available from iTunes.

Crazy Beautiful Dream

Published on October 26, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

It has begun. Fight A New Day is officially released to the world on Monday – Halloween – and the big Cape Town launch celebration in my dream space, The Fugard Theatre Studio, is next weekend – yes, Guy Fawkes (my timing is completely unintentionally but ridiculously cool, I’m just saying).

I’ve been prepping for this for months, working solidly through the night the past few weeks to make sure that everything goes off perfectly, on time, as it should… and then I packed my car and hit the road for the 7 week promo tour that lies ahead, starting off in Gauteng…

I drove the 600km to Joburg feeling like a kid before Christmas. Even that long, straight road that I’ve driven countless times looked shiny and new. It’s almost sickening how chipper and excited I am. Hearing that the first single from the album received its first confirmed playlisting made the start to this tour rock even more than it already does. I have never worked so hard and dreamed so big, and I’m so ridiculously amped to watch this chapter unfold.

This week the printer delivers the final printed product!! The bubbly is chilling in anticipation… As soon as that box arrives, I send out local and international pre-orders and drop off stock with the distributor for retail stores countrywide. Worldwide digital distribution through iTunes and Nokia is prepped and ready to go. Details for the launch in Cape Town are coming together beautifully with a few media interviews coming up this week, VIP launch invites to finalise, last minute press releases and media kits to prepare, a setlist to write, a set design to envision, and a guitarist to rehearse with…. oh, and another 1,900km to drive.

It’s all a beautifully epic blend of crazy that I proudly call my dream. And it’s totally happening to me.

Releasing An Album

Published on October 11, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Fight A New Day - The Master

I got distracted. Briefly. I recorded the new album months ago and set off on a mission to find help. Releasing independently was not really something I wanted to do again, purely because I don’t have the resources to do it the way it needs and deserves to be done. I don’t have the push. I’m just me. So I set off on a mission. To find people. But people, the right people, are not actually all that easy to find…

So here I am, months later, exactly where I knew I would end up anyway: releasing the album independently. And I’m making it work. I have no budget to speak of, so I’m calling in small favours when needed, and focusing all my resources on getting this album finished and released… on time for the big dream launch in Cape Town!

The final stages of pulling an album together are, for me, the most exciting, terrifying, daunting, intense and exhilarating of what I do… Getting the final mixes, sending off to mastering, finalising tracklisting, designing the artwork, sourcing printing, prepping online and retail distribution, organising couriers, pre-orders, launch venues, posters, press releases, publishing, radio submissions, and videos;  all while touring around the country so that I can pay for it all… It’s a crazy interweaving web of intensity, all for 11 songs that I wrote, primarily in my bedroom, that I’d dig for you to hear. All this fuss seems a little ridiculous when you think about it really. But the truth is, once all these crazy pieces fit together and I’m holding that final product in my hands, that I’ve poured my heart and soul into… it’s one of those magic moments. And it’s almost here.

Here’s a little taste of what to expect:

Email shannonhope(at)rocketmail(dot)com to pre-order your signed copy of “Fight A New Day” hot off the press for R120 (excl. P&P)… Please include desired quantity, full name & delivery address.

Snowflake Radness

Published on October 10, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Snowflake 2011

There are two arts festivals in my touring calendar that I most look forward to every year. The first is the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July – a festival that shapes and challenges me in so many ways. The second is Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees in Potchefstroom in October, which I’ve just returned home from.

I don’t play on the main festival program at Aardklop, but at a venue called Snowflake, an old flour mill which has been converted into a double volume exhibition space, and plays host to an incredible exhibition of art and music until all hours of the morning. The awesomely attentive audience consists of Potch residents, festival visitors, actors and musicians participating in the festival, journalists, and industry gurus, and aside from the ridiculously rad opportunity to play for an audience who are really there to listen, it’s the most concentrated collection of industry contacts you can imagine and the perfect opportunity for some quality career networking… not to mention an overdose of rocking ‘n rolling with some of the coolest people I know!

This year’s edition was jam-packed with intensity. Aside from finalising and planning the launch of my new album during the day (which included a very well-timed day trip through to Joburg to collect the master!), and celebrating my 32nd birthday (YAY me!), I had a show every night through the week. As luck would have it, Tim Rankin (my producer / drummer) and Schalk van der Merwe (ridiculously talented bass player) were in town on the Tuesday evening and jammed a few songs with me, a pretty awesome birthday present if you ask me!! It’s been far too long since I played with a band onstage, so it was ridiculously awesome to have some extra noise and sounded pretty darn epic from where I was sitting! I really can’t wait to be in a position to showcase my music in a full band setting like this on a more regular basis. I was also invited to play a song with Karen Zoid on the Thursday evening, which was a great honour and just moerse cool!!

I have to send a huge shout out to my hosts Steven & Richardt for putting me up and for just being plain awesome, and to Santoni for giving me the opportunity to experience another unforgettable, life-changing week in the North-West! Biggest love.

The Fugard, The Dream

Published on October 7, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

About 3 months ago I walked into a venue in Cape Town and fell in love. I’ve been dreaming about a space that would serve my music, my soul, my performing spirit in exactly the right combination of awesome, and on my last national tour, I was lucky enough to find that exact space.

Turns out, the managing director of the venue, the epically beautiful Fugard Theatre, was at one of my shows at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and had already made up his mind that it was the right space for what I do. So after a few discussions, we’ve booked my album launch in the Studio space at the Fugard Theatre for November 5th and I am beyond thrilled. Having the opportunity to perform in my dream space so soon is too rad! Add to that the obvious excitement of finally releasing my album, and performing live on a Kawai grand piano for the first time (yes, really!!), with complimentary bubbles courtesy of Van Loveren – because no event of this magnitude would be complete without bubbles – and you can imagine the ridiculously epic smile on my face…

For booking details, visit Computicket.

The Song That Rewrote Itself

Published on September 12, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I have always loved the idea that one song can be interpreted in different ways; that one song can mean something to one person and something different to another. That is one of the mysterious powers of songwriting that I find so completely captivating and one of the reasons why I write the kind of music that I do. But it wasn’t until very recently that I realised to what extent this is true, because it’s not often that one song can have entirely opposing interpretations and then come to mean something entirely different to its writer.

I wrote Alone In The City about four years ago. In theory, it was about searching for a sense of home after losing what I thought defined it. In theory, it was a sad song about love lost and the search for something to hold onto. In theory, it was about finding yourself in a foreign place, struggling to settle into a new reality.

Then, four years later, quite unexpectedly, someone else played it.

It was quite a surreal moment for me, hearing someone else playing a song that I wrote for the first time. A beautiful moment. At first I couldn’t place the song, hearing familiar chords played on guitar when I’m used to hearing them on piano, and words that felt so much a part of me that sounded so foreign on someone else’s voice. But what made the moment even more powerful for me was the meaning the song had for them. “It’s the most beautiful love song.”

And in that moment, a song about losing love became a song about having love to go home to. In that moment, a song about searching for home became a song about knowing where home is and pointing steadfast in its direction. A sad song became a love song.

I guess it depends entirely where you’re at and what noise you’re hearing in the background, because your emotional noise defines how you listen and what you hear. Just like it defines how you live. Hearing someone else play a song that I wrote a lifetime ago, rewrote its place amidst the noise in my head. I don’t hear a sad song anymore. I hear a song about love and hope and coming home. That’s what I love about songwriting, about life, about love. That it changes. That we change. Turn the good stuff up.

Believe

Published on September 1, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

The album is nearing 100% completion. A few last minute tweaks and it’s off to mastering, printing and then the big reveal… It looks like I’m releasing this one independently. I didn’t particularly want to do that but it’s the best option for me at this point. Maintaining control. What this means is that I’ll most likely be doing a pre-order release very soon as I’m a little short on funding for this final part of the process. More about that when the time comes…

Believe is a song I wrote the week after I quit my day job. It keeps me going when it feels like I can’t, and it reminds me where I’m coming from, where I want to be, and how I’ll get there. Looking back over the past two years, I cannot even begin to imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t taken that terrifying leap. I’m beyond stoked that I had so many people telling me that I could. Thank you. Now I’m telling you.

Believe.

Being Brave

Published on August 21, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I’m flying across the country listening to songs from the forthcoming album in preparation for the studio work ahead this week. As Being Brave starts pulsing in my soundspace, I’m reminded how intensely happy the truth behind this song makes me. The foundation laid down in the music captures exactly what I was trying to say with this song, and moreover with the album. I have been dying to share this song with the world and as we wrap things up in studio this week, I’m thrilled that it’s almost time.

This music thing is a strange beast. After every tour there’s an emotional slump, after every studio session I feel strangely empty, but gazing out of the window 30,000 feet in the air at the snow covered mountains of the Eastern Cape on route to Cape Town for one last studio session to finalise the new record, I’m inspired again. You know those songs that make you feel like you’re flying when you’re driving down an open road? This is one of those songs for me. I’m so proud of this record and everything it says about where I am, where I’ve come from, what I believe in and what I’ve done in the last two years. As lonely as the road may sometimes be, as frustrating as this industry is, as isolated as I might feel in this giant whirlpool that is the music business, I am doing it. I’m living my dream. I’m believing. And this album is about exactly that. Being brave enough to believe. Being brave enough to wake up and fight a new day. And the story is almost ready for you to hear…

“It’s not brave if you’re not scared…”