So today was a pretty epic day.
We wore ourselves out rehearsing the material into late last night.
Original drummer person couldn't make it to the practice so I called in my drummer Adam - I figured Adam plus Jon = good because that would mean Jon wouldn't be the only one riding up in a SUV filled with girls.

(So, Jon didn't have to wear a tampon just to fit in. HAHAHA)

Aja's parentals (They are the coolest ever, BTW)
drove us up.
It was me, Aja, Lisa, Tracy, Jen, Adam, and Jon.

Jon=Bass
Adam=Drums
Lisa=guitar
Me=guitar & vocal
Aja= Vocal.

To pull this together we had 48 hours or less to practice.
I probably made at least 30 phone calls between calling to get information for what was and was not acceptable for a very vague kind of audition situation.
I hustled til I dropped, and by early monday had secured a spot for Aja to sing and for Lisa to play, even though they weren't 18.

So I CAN'T really tell you everything that happened but given the circumstances I don't think it could have happened any better, or more amazingly. The KIDS were really amazing. They were flawless. I dunno how I did, but it sure FELT amazing. I was having a freakin grannnnd time.

Some people crack under pressure but I was like
WAHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!

The person who set it up, he didn't really introduce himself to anybody else,
but he made a point to come out and introduce himself.
He said, "where is the group from San Diego?" and shook all of our hands
and met Aja's parents.

It kind of dawned on me later that he didn't make a point to introduce himself to anybody else except us. There were like 20 or 30 people lined up outside, but he just shook our hands, and that was it....so....I dunno man, I think its a good sign.

Annnnyyyyhooooo.
That's all I can say!
We have some youtube stuff of us practicing that we might put online for you.

I got a job that's paying really well but the hours are extremely long. Soooo the monies will be going directly to cover expenses that I incurred on my last tour and then will fund another tour, and then hopefully some time in Nashville.

It'll be another 30 day type stint and hopefully I'll play better venues next time :-)

Vanja

If Music Is The Love Of Your Life Below is a link to an "Audio Blog" that talks about How desperate America is for great new music, how it isn't as hard as you think, and that, YES, you can do it. I share it through a story that is very personal to me (no names mentioned), but this applies to many of you bands/artists/songwriters. It's 13 minutes of audio-book style! It's positively PG rated and has nothing but positive vibes: Click here for audio blog

Just wanna keep y'all posted. Another big 'ol tour will hopefully commence in September or early October. Before which time we will be shooting a music video for Sandman.

I'm casting a friend of mine as my stand-in so I will be able to get behind the camera - she and I will be co-directing and producing - it will be a group effort with my friends the Page Brothers. So I'm very VERY excited about that as we are scouting Sand Dune locations online (that's location 1) and then location 2 will most likely be my backyard.

We need a fabulous lighting designer, so if you know of a good one who can "visualize and think in lights" then please send them my way. Our budget is small, but workable.

Vanja@vanjajames.com

I will be in Portland on June 27 and in Seattle on June 28.

Some friends up in Seattle have offered to assist with some new recordings that "highlight my voice more." (yay!)

I have a new video for a new song - I wrote this song while on tour.
I decided I shouldn't play guitar on it, and should just sing.


Also for those of you who don't know, I've started practicing regularly with The Gift Curse

The Gift/Curse

About The Gift/Curse (aside from the fact that they are all seasoned locals who have been in awesome local bands)
-Lead singer Noel Jordan's voice can be heard on "Won't Let Me Love You" on my album. -Ismael Velasquez Jr. is my main bassist (for me and for The Gift/Curse, yeah!) -Drummer Danny King played drums on "On Your Own" on my album.


 Their sound is kind of Foo Fighters meets Queen of the Stoneage meets....other influences...and it's totally a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll be doing their CD release show in August.

Hey all,

Back from tour.
You can read a whole bunch of blogs from my tour on my facebook page (just search my name and I will add you - they are on my personal page.)

This is a writeup I got about being on the road - Special thank you to Mary Leary for such thoughtful words: SDentertainer Article (Click here)

This is live video from tour - day 28!

I sent this note to a young friend of mine who is just getting started playing in other people's music projects. And my philosophy is that singer/songwriters have a different set of "rules" that they go by (that are different from your typical rock band) so I figured I should share these rules with you, as they might be helpful to anybody who is interested in being a backing band member in music projects.

Sorry if my writing style makes me sound like a mom! I gotta take care of my musicians!

______________________________________
Here are some "rules" I go by - some I've gotten out of business
books, and some I've just learned over time, but knowing this stuff
will make it easier I think:

1. Always contact people via at least two methods.
I.e.if I send a text message by phone, I also send a message to their
myspace or facebook page the same day, and also leave a voice mail on
their phone.

2. If you are interested in playing with somebody, send them your schedule and your availability for the next two weeks.
This makes planning practices much easier when I know everybody's
schedules, and I like to have people's schedules in writing because so
many people work night jobs or are in school - everyone's schedule is
different.

3. If you are truly interested in playing with a
band or a project, plan to have at least TWO practices, or more
optimally, about four practices before you try to play your first show
with them.

As a songwriter, I have had a few disaster scenarios from playing shows
with people without practicing enough. So unless I have at least two
weeks to fit in more than 2 practices before a show with a new band
member, I won't even consider playing the show with them, because in my
mind I know we realistically won't be able to get in enough practice
sessions.

Even if I have jammed or played with somebody
before, if its been more than 6 months since I've played with them, Its
basically like starting all over again.


4. If you want to
start playing with a new act - a realistic timeline is to plan practice
sessions about 4-6 weeks before the first show you play together.
It gives you guys time to fit in four practices at the rate of once a
week. If something happens sooner than that, GREAT, but I usually don't
like to rush it because I know how busy peoples lives are with day
jobs, school, husbands and wives, their children/families, and all
those little things.


5. ALWAYS try to be super understanding of people's busy lives and schedules. It can take me 48-72 hours to hear back from everybody about their availability for practicing.  If you haven't heard back within 48-72 hours, follow up with a phone call, and just say you want to touch base with people to check in on practicing. If I have a particularly busy weekend with
shows/bookings/family stuff, sometimes I just forget to get back to
people as soon as I should, but communication always goes both ways.

4. Understand that with Songwriters, their backing bandmembers are CONSTANTLY changing, and its nothing personal.
For me personally, having only ONE backing band has never been my goal. If
that were the case, I would only be able to play shows with a band
when ALL the members were available, which wouldn't be very often so I
would be sad about it!  So many musicians work night jobs and are in so
many projects, that its my responsibility to have MULTIPLE drummers,
bassists, and guitarists to choose from, so in case one of them is
busy, then I can call up the other one and hope that they will be free.


To me, bandmembers don't belong to "me" - bandmembers are for the music community to share with each other. IT'S NEVER anything that is personal, and never anything that you should take personally as a musician. Often it's just a matter of who is the easiest to get ahold of, and who gets back to me first about
being available on that particular day. That's why sending your schedule for the week or month via email is so helpful.

5.Because the lineups are constantly changing, understand that when you
play with songwriters, you always have to allow for more practice time.
Things might be solid say with ONE bassplayer, but once you throw in a new
bassist, or keyboardist, he doesn't know your changes, and its your job
to connect with him and learn to adapt to each others playing styles.
Often its like starting all over again. It sucks, but it's just how it
tends to work.

6. NEVER make any assumptions or say stuff like, "So you picked somebody else for your show, huh?"
The last thing any adult wants to deal with is somebody who gets
upset over the little things. Communicating with multiple musicians
isn't just a two way street - its a SIX way street, a multi-lane
intersection with lots of back and fourth. Usually the best songwriters
are always super gracious about whoever wants to play music with them,
but they will pick the people who have personalities that are the
easiest to mesh with, who don't get their feelings hurt easily.

Even if your mind is thinking, "aww man they probably don't want to play
music with me!" Don't EVER get caught in that kind of thinking! I've
thought that sometimes over the years, and thought that people didn't
really want to play music with me or I wasn't really welcome as a
member of their band...so I get sad, and because I'm sad I usually don't call them.

In fact, this just happened with a band I am supposed to play keys in, and
I thought that they didn't want to play music with me, which I was so
upset about because I really liked playing music with them. But then
when I bugged the lead singer on facebook, I found out that they kicked
out their old guitarist, and they said they needed the next few weeks
to get the new guitarist up to speed on the material, but then after that,
they'd be happy to have me.

But I had to bug the lead singer a few times before he got back to me - he just got married last year and is going to Europe for a few weeks real soon, so his schedule is real hectic. But I'm glad I was persistent cuz it paid off.

Ok...hope this is helpful to you....believe
me I have been through some of the same things you are going through
and I've gotten mad at people before for taking so long to get back to
me...but the older I get the more I realize that "adult life" runs
slower for most people than I would like it to. It bums me out on
occasion but, I never let it get to me for very long.

So the album is done...I was inspired by an article that I read w/an interview of Rick Rubin in it and he said he was encouraging folks to ditch the standard plastic jewel case in favor of more "green" all-cardboard packaging for CDs.

So I figured my own way of going green would be seeing how many album reviewers would be interested in reviewing an album that was sent to them via email, rather than US mail.

I honestly can't imagine how many albums/press kits/bubble mailers that those people throw away.

So at the end of my emails for submission requests I wrote,

P.S. In the interest of "going green" to help reduce the amount of mail/CDs that get thrown away, I am happy to provide you with a link to download my entire album (free of charge.) I just send it to your email, and you get a direct link to a zip file which includes liner notes.

And I was pleased! So far, about 50% of the emails I have gotten back say that the e-download is fine.

One company (wchradio.net) had this to say:
"A download link would really be appreciated.
We're in the midst of doing some housecleaning, and boy all of the
bubble wrap and press releases and photos we just have to throw away
seems to me a terrible waste, and wish we did not have to do it but
things are starting to pile up. We've been advocating for quite a while
about the use of E-distribution."

The other thing I did, since my album covers a lot of different genres, is I put a "genre listing/track description" at the end of the email. This describes the genre it fits into (singer songwriter, jazz, blues, rock, pop, "AC" or adult contemporary) and a sentence or two that mentions the tempo, swirling violins, special guest musicians, or bands that the song might remind you of.

Soooo - even a couple folk wrote back whose publications cover mainly rock and metal.

This is what my track descriptions looked like to give you some idea:

TRACK LISTING (w/genre & descriptions.)

1. "On Your Own" - Upbeat, driven, acoustic pop/rock (all organic.)

2. "Beautiful Mess" - slow love song about tattooed guys. Vintage vibe with sweeping violins. A little singer songwriter, a hint of old R & B.

3. "August" - very quirky pop tune with fun instruments played by Tom Waits' intrumentalist Ralph Carney. Fun and young in nature.

4. "Craptastic" - Country/pop done in a modern/fresh way.Lapsteel, guitars, talking about having a bad day, and a little bit of humor with a message.

5. "Not Leavin' " - Very organic/acoustic singer-songwriter type stuff. Uplifting chorus with pretty harmonies. About being there for somebody.

6. "Deal With The Devil" - Very jazzy/bluesy in nature - piano driven. About selling your soul to the devil. Powerful vocals & trumpet, with a cool finger-snapping vibe.

7. " Won't Let Me Love You" - Singer/songwriter , "hit you where it hurts" type lyrics about unrequited love. a mellower/pretty type track you can sink into late at night.

8. "Mouthful" - Rootsy americana/songwriter with lapsteel and shuffle-vibe. Lyrics-heavy but if you love lyrics, it tells a cool story. Mid-tempo with a nice fadeout.

9. "To The Man" - Singer/songwriter or "AC" genre - acoustic guitars, drums/bass...about a friend who saves somebody from suicide.

10. "Sunshine" - an ode to 50s-style du-wop tunes. Lots of vocal harmonies and bluesy style vocals. Mid tempo with a poppy type feel.

11. "The Bayou" - A fun twangy/quirky pop song with a hint of cajun flair. Mid tempo with super slow choruses. Banjos, flues, horns, guitar...this one 's a bit different and non-traditional.

12. "Sound" - a slow ballad type singer-songwriter/AC song about having to put your dog to sleep. Sweeping violins with some angelic harmonies at the end. Sad but pretty.

13. "Sandman" Raw, pared down acoustic/vocal with a spanish flair. A story song with howling vocals at the end. Vanja James by herself.

14. "War Song" Vanja's hardest-hitting song on the album - indie rockers listen here. An anti-war ballad with a hint of metal at the end. Gritty electric and balls-to-the wall vocals. Yea!

15. "Avalanche" By guest band, Laserwolf & Thunderbolt. Do you like Nirvana or Mudhoney, with a dash of gospel vocals thrown in? Indie rock/Alternative.

In case y'all were wondering...the album is pretty much done being mastered but we're remastering a couple songs (I crave sonic perfection! what can I say.)

And then after that, off to press.
I don't really know what the artwork will look like.
I don't know if it will be artwork or a photo.
But I know the color purple is mandatory.

In other news, while I've been taking a hiatus on the shows waiting for completion of the album, I've been stepping on stage to sing a couple songs with a band called Laserwolf and Thunderbolt. Damon De La Paz, the guy who played many of the drums on my album, plays guitar and sings in this band. They have a "viking song" where we get to scream like banshees, and stuffff. They are at myspace.com/laserwolfandthunderbolt

It's only like two songs for like 5 seconds so no big deal. But they're my buddies so check 'em out.

I am excited. Are you excited?
The violins finally got recorded...and I'm gonna say we have 5 hours tops of more work to do, just getting the final tidbits in place, and then I send stuff off to get mastered.

And then its DONE.
All 13 songs of wonderment.

Hall-le-lu-jah.