A couple of weeks ago, my friend and Nouveau Music partner Corinne Stevie had an EP release party for her collaboration project with Ka’ra Kersey named Land of the Free. They officially performed tracks off of the album including their hit single “Amazing” at Art Nouveau Magazine’s Art Stars show at Wonder Root and have been receiving great feedback. The project features Ka’ra on singing vocals and Corinne adding her Hip-Hop spin as she also produced most of the tracks on the album.
What I love most about the music and art lovers in Atlanta is the readiness to help and/or share their own version of it with everyone else. Case in point, Corinne got in contact with Moya Bailey, creator of online site Quirky Black Girls.com who advertised space in her apartment for anyone who wanted to have any sort of event, mainly album release parties. She even took the liberty to set up some snacks for people to enjoy (I killed the apples and caramel dip). Corinne followed through, and we were at Moya’s house setting up the jam space for us to listen and play at her apartment. Since Ka’ra couldn’t make it, we decided to use this opportunity to not only showcase the Land of the Free project, but to also showcase the little project that Corinne and our two friends Jessica and Taryn and myself were working on.
All of us are musicians in our own right so it was natural for us to one day get together and jam. Upon jamming for the first time, we noticed that we should do it more often which led to the decision to let Moya be one of the first outsiders to hear and see what we could do. It was an interesting event as we played unrehearsed music with Corinne on her drum machine, me on guitar and bass, Taryn on flute and bass, Jessica on guitar and us rotating on the African drum. Taryn is also featured on the single “Amazing” playing the flute. As we were jamming, Moya also took the liberty to take some cool pics.
After jamming for a while, we finally played the Land of the Free EP for all to listen and we just chilled out as we vibed to the sounds of freedom. When the single track “Amazing” began to play, we couldn’t help but sing along and dance to the song. Corinne eventually picked up the mic and performed her verse on the song as Taryn came behind her and played the along her part in the song with her flute. It was truly a stellar moment! As the EP continued to play, we all eased into conversations and got a little wine in our systems as I kept going back for more of the cheese and crackers that Moya had set up for the event.
After we all listened to the EP, we had a Q&A with Corinne, asking her questions about the project and about the process and how some songs came to be. It was interesting to hear her speak on how tedious the process was from recording the songs to actually mixing the songs to give them a better quality of sound. It was also interesting to hear the point of view from Jessica who was Corinne’s roommate and how everyone loves the song “Amazing” but when it was being made she hated it because she would always hear the music from the track being played over and over again and how it sounded really simple at first, but it turned out to be an amazing song. We also got inside info on the song “Amber’s Chrome” and how the song was made for Ka’ra’s friend. Ka’ra even made the music for the tracks she sung about her friend and her experiences. The song was a birthday present for her friend.
All in all, it was definitely an interesting evening. We totally invaded Moya’s apartment with guitars, amplifiers and computer equipment and jammed out in her apartment. It was definitely cool of Moya to allow us to jam at her spot and also have the EP release in her domain. It truly showed me how there are people even who aren’t too involved in the scene who will lend out open arms to help those who are. For us to play in front of her, especially not really knowing her too well was a special treat because it allowed us to let someone who has never heard us or seen us to be a spectator for something new even for us. The night ended after a long time of playing, eating, laughing, drinking and other things and it was really cool when Moya told us that we were truly talented. For me, that is a compliment because although I think I’m pretty talented for what I do, it is always good to have that reassurance from someone else because it just means that you are on the right track.
Later Days…
