It's All About the Music

Yes, 2012! Prepare yourself for some new music and groovy live shows from me, singer-songwriter Angela Predhomme.

I had a nice, restful  holiday, and I’m going into the new year with optimism. My music is positioned to grow wings and fly to new places around the globe through channels like Tinderbox Music, Naz-Sect Publishing, Muzak, Crucial Music, Pandora, and various international radio stations, both terrestrial and streaming. I’m also recording a few new songs, and although they’re not quite done yet, they’re sounding really good so far.

Live shows planned include an intimate little gig at

The Plymouth Coffee Bean, the hippest coffee shop in Plymouth, Michigan on Saturday, February 25th, with Tracy Kash Thomas,

and a streaming Internet show on Sunday, March 11th at 6pm broadcast through Ann Arbor Alive radio.

More to come! Have a great January!

Angela

I had a wonderful time in Montreal meeting writer/director Trevor Garlick and some of the actors in the film A Wedding Most Strange. Most of the attending cast came over from the UK and France, while one of the actresses and I came up from the States.

It was really a great experience, and we had beautiful weather in the European-like city of Montreal, Quebec for the 2011 Film Festival.

The premiere of the film took place on a Tuesday at noon, and we counted about 50 people in the theatre, Latin Quarter Cineplex off of Rue St. Denis in Montreal. It was a huge thrill to hear my song, “This Might Be Good,” play at the end of the movie, coming in in a key part of the last scene and continuing through the credits. I heard the song through a state-of-the-art movie theater sound system, and it was really satisfying to hear that the professional mixing and mastering on this track (by the awesome Jim Kissling of The Tempermill Studio) paid off. This song was recorded under the direction and unstoppable talent of Brett Lucas, guitarist and producer.

The film had 4 showings over 5 days, and by Saturday, the final showing, the theater was full! Apparently, the word spread!  Everyone involved with the film was really happy with the splash the movie made at the film festival.

I gotta tell ya, being part of it was every bit as exciting and fun and you would imagine. It was an experience I’ll never forget, and Montreal is a place I will get back to one day. It’s a wonderful, charming city. And people there were very familiar with my French last name!

We all hope that wider distribution of the film will follow, but these things take time and the right channels. I applaud Trevor Garlick and everyone at Trinity X Productions for their dedication and perseverance with getting their first feature film out there. It is definitely not an easy task, but Trevor is a pro. Filmmaking is as competitive as music, no doubt. But we creative types must keep the faith in ourselves and our work, and with persistence, a quality product, and some serious grit, we know that lesser-known artists of any medium CAN achieve success, one step at a time.

Here are some pics:

Place des Arts. This is the view from the Hyatt's patio, the hotel where the film festival was based.

The director of the film A Wedding Most Strange along with a few cast members did a Q & A with the audience after the screening. From left, Trevor Garlick, Kaye Quinley, Louise Houghton, Valary Sanders, and a film festival facilitator.

Outdoor movie screen at the Place des Arts in downtown Montreal.

Follow on the web:

Angela Predhomme – Facebook

A Wedding Most Strange – Facebook

Angela Predhomme website

A Wedding Most Strange – IMDB

Buy the song “This Might Be Good” on iTunes or  Order a CD

This is an old blues standard called “How Long Blues,” released by bluesman Leroy Carr in 1928. It was made famous by Eric Clapton in recent years.

We did this performance as part of a live music summer concert series last week. It was a lot of fun! This song features John Rhoades on guitar and me, Angela Predhomme, on vocals.

Check it out! Without blues, there would be no rock and roll!

Follow future performances and news on this blog and on my Facebook music page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angela-Predhomme/32121454905

A few years back, after being inspired by my brother’s band and their group of friends, I decided I wanted to try performing music, too. I had been musical all my life, but I had never brought it out in public. In particular, the lead singer, of my brother’s band, Kevin, oozed charisma and talent like I had never seen. He was compelling to watch perform, because he sounded so good and was an undisputed “natural.” He and some of the other guys would go out and do acoustic sets sometimes, and I thought, “I can do that!” So, I recruited the guitarist, Todd, and my brother Jim on percussion, for my first gig, and we played at the Wooden Nickel in Ypsilanti. Kevin had moved to sunny California by then, and is still gracing West-coasters with his musical talent.

These guys are people I had known for a very long time. They had been coming over to practice in my parents’ basement since I had been in high school. I knew them pretty well. During a rehearsal for my debut gig, one of them said to me, “Are you sure you want to do this? It can be rough out there. At some point, somebody might yell out ‘you suck!!’ or something else mean, because sometimes at bars people can get out of hand. Can you handle that?” And actually, I don’t remember what my response was, but it was probably something like “I think I’ll be OK,” because I did go out and perform, ready for whatever.

I’m happy to say that in my several years of performing music now, no one has ever yelled out “You suck!” Thank goodness. That would be horrible, wouldn’t it?

So, that said, I will be “not sucking” on Thursday, July 14^th at the Fountain Walk Mall in Novi, Michigan from 5pm – 8pm, with guitarist John Rhoades, formerly of the touring blues band Motor City Josh. John will also be not sucking, because I don’t think that’s possible. He’s quite good at what he does. We’ll be in the center court of this wonderful outdoor mall playing covers and originals, and it’s free. So come and check it out if you can!

Here’s a link with directions: Directions to Novi’s Fountain Wall Mall

Singer-songwriter Angela Predhomme’s 2011 album, Don’t Wonder, is available through iTunes and other digital retailers. CDs are available from Angela’s website.

This is one of my personal favorites on the album, and I still can’t decide if this one or “This Might Be Good” is the top pick to promote in the music industry. “My New Favorite Song” has an ultra-catchy melodic hook in the chorus, and it’s this type of writing/composition that I feel helps to define my musical style as a songwriter. I do love to write a good hook!

In fact, I love to write a good melodic hook so much that I had written this exact one before. Back in 2009, I had written a song called “When I Make It” for the possibility of an American Idol-type use, with other artists in mind to sing it. I sent this song around, and nobody raved about it or jumped on it, and so I just shelved the song. However, that melody in the chorus was something I really, really liked. So, a year later, I took that melody and created the chorus of “My New Favorite Song.” I tried different lyric ideas, but I was really drawn to just keeping the chorus just “doo doo doo, etc.,” and so I crafted the lyrics around that.

I have many little pieces of would-be songs as 20-second recordings, and one of them I made into the verse for this song. I had the tune and lyrics, “I’m just swimming in ecstasy,” and I thought that was an intriguing first line, but I didn’t have much else. I worked these two parts (verse and chorus) so they’d go together lyrically to set up the “doo doo doo” in the chorus, and voila, I had a really cool little song!

This makes it sound easy. It wasn’t. Generally, I slave over these things with tenacity and persistence, until they are good enough that the songs will jump out and grab the listener.

This particular song went through 3 different melodies in the bridge section during the songwriting process, and I ended up with this one after working with an LA song “coach” and the contributions of the album’s producer and guitarist, Brett Lucas. It was Brett’s idea, too, to do a section with hand claps after the bridge, and to make the song have a surf or beach party feel.  We toyed with the idea of using a ukulele on it, but being trendy isn’t a priority to me, and I trusted that we could do great music with a traditional band of guitar, bass, drums and piano. Chuck Bartels did an especially awesome job with the bouncy bassline, and as always, Todd Glass is holding it all together on drums.

For the clapping part after the chorus, I set up my girls, Gabrielle and Clarice, with headphones and a mic, and they did a great job.

Overall, we got a finished product that is a fun, memorable and catchy pop song, and I’m happy to have it on my album.

My New Favorite Song (click to listen)

I’m just swimming in ecstasy
Every time you pull me close
Last night seems like a dream to me
Here’s what I remember most
We could hear that music playing loud out on the town
Can’t recall the words, but darlin’, that’s my new favorite song

(chorus)
It went like
doo doo doo…
Doo doo doo…
…my favorite song

(verse 2)
You’re front row for my fantasy
You’re making it all unfold
Last night it became clear to me
You and I from the same mold
And we were free and flying on the sound of that sweet song
Oh it felt so good when you and I were singing along

(chorus)
It felt like
doo doo doo…
Doo doo doo…
…my favorite song

(bridge)
Now that melody plays on and on in my head
Taking me straight back to that charmed night that we had

(break w/ hand claps)
(repeat chorus)

© 2011 Come Shine Music, SESAC; Jr. Flip Music, ASCAP

“My New Favorite Song” is part of singer-songwriter Angela Predhomme’s 2011 album, Don’t Wonder, and is available through iTunes and other digital retailers. CDs are available from Angela’s website.

Here’s my performance and brief interview from May 9th on Detroit’s WJBK-TV, Fox 2. It was a lot of fun!

Angela Predhomme Performs ‘This Might Be Good’: MyFoxDETROIT.com

On Wednesday, May 11th, I’ll be doing another live show and interview. It’ll be streaming on UDetroit.com just after 11am. I’ll be bringing my guitar and singing a few songs. Check it out if you can! It’s from Harmonie Park studio and “media cafe” where restaurant patrons can check out live music and interviews while they eat lunch, and it’s hosted by veteran Detroit DJ Pam Rossi. Looking forward to it! If you’re in the Detroit area, the address is 1427 Randolph, and they have live music every day at lunchtime.

This week, I’m going to talk about a song that has been very important to me, “This Might Be Good.” It’s been so significant not because of the lyrics about the excitement of new love, but because of my personal triumph that came about because I wrote this song. Let me explain.

I didn’t get serious about music in any sense until I was fairly established in my personal life and career. My first gig was in 2005 at Ypsilanti’s Wooden Nickel, accompanied by my brother Jim on bongos (Jim is an accomplished percussionist), and his bandmate Todd Steinberg on lead guitar. We played all cover songs, as I hadn’t written my first song yet. My friends and family, including my 2 young daughters, came out to see the gig, and everybody was like “I didn’t know you did this!” It was May of 2005, and I had just finished my master’s degree at Eastern Michigan University in TESOL, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Since then, I’ve been enjoying my work as a university instructor, helping to prepare international students for their academic careers in the U.S.

A year or two after my debut gig, I wrote my first few songs, which were received quite well after being recorded with the help of my guitar teacher. I even sold the copyright for one of these songs to a big TV company in Burbank. Selling the second song I ever wrote encouraged me to write and record more. After all, composing music is something I love even more than singing and playing and performing.

But I’m a realist. I thought, OK, I’m not 19 years old. I’m a grown-up. I have a family, and a life. I have no interest in living in a van down by the river in Nashville or LA. The only reasonable thing for me to do is to write songs for other artists. After all, many of those famous singers do not write their own music, and they need songs, right? So I started looking into the Nashville song market. Long story short, Nashville didn’t like anything I wrote. It wasn’t country enough –it was too pop — and it just didn’t sound like something Faith Hill or Rascall Flatts would record.

After rejection after rejection, I decided, “You know what? ‘Forget’ them” (as Cee Lo Green would say:). “I’m going to write what I really want to write. I’m going to write what comes naturally to me,” and that is a singer/songwriter style that is better suited for film/TV music. So, I studied what music industry guru and author Robin Frederick offered about writing for the film/TV market, and I sat down with a notebook and a thesaurus and I ended up with “This Might Be Good.” The musical style is what instinctively comes out of me. It’s very Beatles’ influenced, melodic pop. The Beatles were a huge influence of mine. Since the music sounded happy and optimistic, I drew on my own past experience of the invigorating feeling of a new relationship that just might be “the one.” After all, I’m married, and I’ve definitely been there, and have been lucky enough to see a great beginning come to fruition.

After I finished writing this song, I knew it had a lot of potential, so I promptly called on a pro musician friend to see if he’d bring a band into the studio to record this song. We recorded just this one song back in May of 2009, and I’m glad we did it. Since then, this song won finalist placement in a major song contest that featured Sir Paul McCartney himself as a judge (Paul heard my song and liked it!!), AND this song has been placed in an independent British film, out this year, called A Wedding Most Strange. In addition, “This Might Be Good,” has been licensed for several web video uses, too.

So, all in all, this song is very important to me. It is the ultimate victory: when I started being true to who I really am, I flourished. There is nothing more important than that. So, as I continue with music, I’ll be staying true to who I really am: a northern girl who grew up on blues-influenced pop and old R & B, and loves every blue note of it with all of her soul.

I will be performing “This Might Be Good” on WJBK Fox 2 Detroit’s morning show on Monday, May 9th, in the 9am hour. I’ll also be performing this song and more on Wednesday, May 11th in the 11am hour on UDetroit.com’s streaming web show hosted by established Detroit DJ Pam Rossi.

The song “This Might Be Good” is part of singer-songwriter Angela Predhomme’s 2011 album, Don’t Wonder, and is available through iTunes and other digital retailers. CDs are available from Angela’s website.