[Morella]

Yes, it's all about me...I mature at my own pace.

I am a middle-aged married woman. I was a violinist and child prodigy at age 5, gave up the violin at 15. I have dabbled in guitar, drums, bass, clarinet, trumpet, and slide trombone, but the instrument I most enjoy playing is voice! I do karaoke, and some people say that I take it a bit too seriously, but you can be the judge of that. To me, it's all music. Profesionally, I have been everything from UNIX systems engineer to truck driver, and I have learned that the best way to screw up something that I love to do is to try to make a living at it. So, unless I lose my mind again, I will probably always be an amateur musician.

I speak French, and I'm trying (not too hard) to learn German. My favorite band is Les Rita Mitsouko, a French group which has always been popular, at least outside of France. I have done some of their songs in karaoke, but there are not too many of them available. When I heard the song Les Consonnes, which is kind of a rap, I just had to do it. I paid Tency Music (which most people know as "Karaoke Version") 500 euros to make a track for it, and I synch'd and cut the CDG with a special slide show, a tribute to my KJ. It was fantastic, but there were a few things that I would have done differently with the soundtrack, and so I went down to Guitar Center and picked up Pro Tools, a keyboard, and some other equipment, and got down to creating a track of my own.

Last month, I produced a karaoke version of La Taille Du Bambou, done entirely in Pro Tools, and I had the pleasure of going to a bar and doing the demo. There is no greater feeling in this world. The guitar part is a little weak...I think I have talked my husband into letting me add a guitar to my music lab for future tracks. Overall, though, it sounded pretty good!

Right now I am working on a backing track for Un Zéro, another song by LRM. I'm up to 16 instruments, still haven't been able to duplicate all of the virtual instruments they used, but I'm coming up with something that kind of makes the sound my own.

I look forward to talking to other musicians, hopefully in a light-hearted and casual way. After all, when I'm chatting on the computer, I'm taking a break from the studio.