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“When You’re Gone Away” – First Song and Video of the Melodium Sessions in Montreuil, Paris and a Mysterious Elsewhere

March 26, 2014
bradspurgeon

When You're Gone Away

When You’re Gone Away

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – This post has nothing to do with my location of sitting in a hotel room high above hot and humid Kuala Lumpur, where I will be working and playing music for the next week…except perhaps that high in the air (although not high in the head) is also where I was when I edited this music video of the first of my songs from the Melodium recording sessions last month in Montreuil.

In fact, yes, this post is all about a chain of events that started at the Melodium Studio in Montreuil outside Paris last month, that continued in the streets of Paris’s Latin Quarter over the weekend and that I finalized on my flight to Kuala Lumpur from Paris last night. I’m talking about the video that I put together for my song “When You’re Gone Away,” the music of which I recorded in Montreuil last month, and that I filmed in Paris over the weekend and that I edited on the flight and uploaded in my hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.

That actually seems a fitting chain of events for my song called, “When You’re Gone Away,” that I recorded along with my favorite lead player, Félix Beguin and drummer, Jeremy Norris – both of whom are in two excellent Paris bands, The Burnin’ Jacks and the Velvet Veins – and also with Scott Bricklin – a Paris expat musician originally from Philadelphia – on bass. Together, as I mentioned in a blog item about my session at Melodium Studios, we recorded five songs, of which “When You’re Gone Away,” is one.

In the coming weeks I plan to continue making videos of these songs and releasing them, and then I plan to put out a CD of the whole, as well as others of my songs (and a wicked cover song). The videos will all be quite different; this one was fun, as I did it walking around Paris and being filmed by Raphaëlle, and adding two bits of “mystery footage” from the past and from elsewhere in the world that I took – see if you can spot it!

The beauty of doing these recording sessions was the incredible cohesion and talent I was surrounded with in Félix, Jeremy and Scott and their wonderful arrangements and Félix’s mixing. All three have worked together extensively, and often at the incredible Melodium Studios, and of course, I have gigged with Félix regularly in the last five years. So it was all just so together.

A New Raphaël’la Video: “Mississippi” (filmed by me)

February 6, 2014
bradspurgeon

Raphaël'la

Raphaël’la

PARIS – I have not posted on this blog for a few days for the simple, excellent reason that I have been working on a music video since the last post. The song is called “Mississippi,” and it is a fabulous melody written and performed by my friend Raphaëlle Bouskela, who goes under the stage name of Raphaël’la. I had been filming Raphaël’la in open mics and at her gigs for a few months, and last week she asked if I could put together a video for her song, using those films. When I heard the song, I said, “WOWWWW! YES!!!” So I decided to go all out on the video, also adding historic footage and photos to illustrate the theme, in addition to using the videos I shot of her.

Raphaëlle, for her part, recorded the song in her living room, performing all vocal harmonies and playing all instruments, and doing the arrangements, everything…. She had written the song a while back, but had never performed it in public, since it required those harmonies and multiple guitars (one of which is my own Gibson J-200). The lyrics were written by David Azencot, who was inspired by a line and melody that kept going through Raphaëlle’s mind: “I was born in Mississippi…”

I was pleased to take a short break from editing my own open mic documentary that I’ve been working on for a couple of years in order to have a nice little finished project, and go back to my feature film with an even fresher eye . Anyway, this is way too much blah blah blah. Just watch and listen to the video!!!!

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