Verity's Blog

Future Owners helping me to Shine...

This whole album journey has been about the people who have made it possible – ie the 1600 Future Owners from around the world who have prebought it and helped me raise the recording budget and money for POWA and my LYD Foundation.

So, it made perfect sense to me, that not only should their names be on my site & most likely in the sleeve design, but why shouldn't I actually get some of their voices on one of the songs as well? As with all my ideas I just went with it and sent out a message to some of my Joburg Future Owners to come along and sing a chorus of Shine with me. Amazingly I have ended up with my first producer Bruce Muzik (here from London running a course), Greer (from Cape Town), Jamie (from Canada) and Leurant (from Holland) all arriving to sing their hearts out! It was an ecclectic and very international mix of Future Owners who just happened to be in Jozi so we had a blast recording them.

Here's a clip of some of us shining together!

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Going beyond the call of duty...

It is three months since I first met Paul McIver for coffee in Joburg to discuss recording my album and looking back it is mindblowing to see how much has happened since then! With me being in Cape Town and him up in Jozi, a lot of the preproduction happened over the phone, via email and with the odd trip up to the studio. He has put in so much time and energy into this project and I knew he was completely behind it when he went online and became a Future Owner and sent me a mail saying how important it was for us to make sure that everyone's faith in me resulted in an amazing album.

Since we started recording in September, Paul has truly gone beyond the call of duty. We have had 7am starts and crawlled home at 11pm at night, only to start all over again the next day. Because the budget has been tight I haven't been able to hire a car while I am up here, and Paul has picked me up and dropped me off everyday – way beyond a producer's responsibility. As if that isn't enough he has taken me to auditions, meetings and even to pick out a dress to wear to to a show!

We have gotten into a comfortable rhythm and I have taken on being in charge of sustinance which means Paul has been inducted into a world of fruit salad breakfasts, huge nut & avo salad lunchs, rye cracker snacks and woolies dinners! We really are a team in the studio and I am becoming increasingly confident with trusting my ideas and have ended up playing piano on various tracks as well as finding new directions for some of the songs. All in all I couldn't have asked for a better way to record my first album – there has been lots of laughter, some tears when I get overwhelmed, amazing musical magic, long nights of talking in crazy accents to keep going and at the end of some pretty special songs that I cant wait to share with the world.

Lucky Packet Education

A few months back the band and I performed at an Aids Awareness Concert and I decided to give a bursary away on the night. Audience members filled in forms motivating why they should win and it was heartbreaking to decide who to award it to. Seems like going the lucky draw route was our ownly choice...

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Thought for the week...

Times are not always easy, sometimes the road never ends
We trudge on feet that are weary, push on and try try again.
In those darkest hours, when we feel farthest from the sun,
We crave so much to share heartache, feel the sympathy of a loved one.
And in a life so uncertain, with fate that turns like the wind
We need someone to hold to, whenever our trials begin.

If my life was a painting, and friends the colours so bright
Then you help make up the rainbow, paint the wings as they take to flight.
With each day as we grow older, and time wraps around our lives,
I wake grateful each morning, for friends like you by our side
As the years pass into history, and memories tell the story of life
It is those helping hands, that guide and guard us from strife.
For some there are many, for others but just a few,
But all that love is measured, by what their good friends do.

Marimba Magic...

Check out this amazing Marimba Band from St Michaels Church in Khayelitsha! After playing us some thumping traditional African songs they surprised us with their awesome rendition of Sean Kingston's “Beautiful Girl”. They are definitley a band I would book for a party or wedding – their energy is incredible!  mail them for info

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