This past 2 weeks have been a blur.  All my deadlines seemed to culminate onto one day creating The Perfect Storm.  It was by the grace of God that I accomplished everything in time.  And those of my collegues that had that same push....how did you do it?!  They had way more cues to submit then I did and I just barely squeaked by!

Although it was madness, along with it came the most extreme feeling of accomplishment.  Not only did I get my cues out on time I wrote 3 brand new songs in a period of 24 hours!  That's fast people.  I'm speeding up:)  And the best part about those 3 songs (well the best best part I can't tell you about yet) was that they are not just wash songs.  They're really good!  It used to take me 2 or 3 weeks of tweaking before I saw my songs as good or great.  To do all that in a weekend!  Well, I'm just thrilled.  Please don't take this as vanity.  This isn't something I just stumbled on.  I've worked REALLY hard in order to be able to say that:)

Honestly, those of you that are writers like me that have not yet "gotten there" I'm telling you.  Don't be afraid to take a chance and be huge.  So many of us lie to ourselves and say we're not good enough or we're not ready.  It's a lie people!  Stop lying to yourselves and just be who you know you were created to be!!  The worst thing that could happen would be someone telling you you're not good enough or you're not ready.  But you already thought that about yourself.  So how could that be worse then the situation you have currently put yourself in?  TRY PEOPLE AND FOLLOW THROUGH!  You might surprise yourself.  I know I surprised myself.  I continue to surprise myself!

That being said, although there are some really REALLY cool things I can't talk about yet, there is one thing that I can share.  Michael Laskow called me several weeks ago and asked me to be on the Members Panel this year at TAXI!  I'm so excited that he recognized me in that way and I am so thrilled to be able to sit up on stage with my peers and tell my story.  I found out that last year 8 of the 10 panelists were Studio 51 composers like me.  And a lot of them are making very decent money off of their placements.  So... I know I'm doing this right.  I can't wait to get back to LA and schmooze again.  The rally is so much fun and every year something new comes of it.  The best part of it is just being there and commiserating with like-minded artists.  It's good for the soul.

So I guess that's about it for now.  Hopefully in the next couple of months I'll be able to share the news that I can't share with you yet.  Sorry to be a tease;)

Till soon,

Jeanna

Another new one, which hasn't found a home yet, is called Bizarre...and it is.  It's the 4th track on the flash player and in the quirky folder inside the music tab.  I don't know where this one fits yet but I like it.

In other news,  they announced the Linkin Park remix contest winner.  Here's a link to the winner "NoBrains" http://www.indabamusic.com/featured_programs/show/linkin-park-remix-contest

As you can hear....mine was nothing like this one!  Mike from Linkin Park posted a youtube of him talking to the winner who's from Poland and he was saying that it was like this guy had heard the new album already before it's been released.  That's not the Linkin Park I know but I guess they're trying something new.  In any case, I didn't read their minds on this one.  But congrats to NoBrain the winner!  Good job dude!

That's all for now.  Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Jeanna

So I have finally posted a new song on the site.  I've got a bunch more just hovering in my computer right now and I want to share them with you but because they are actually going to companies I have to wait and see and find out if I'm even aloud to post them.  Crazy right?!  Such a whole new world for me now.  So as usual stay tuned.  I hope to post them within the next several weeks.

The new one that's up is called The Olympian and I am extremely proud of this one.  I worked with instruments that I had very little knowledge of up until now.  So I got out my handy-dandy orchestration book and took a crash course on brass and wind instruments.  Man are they more complicated then strings!  Placement and range and what instruments go or don't go with what instruments were super important.  I learned that for the most part they are more effective when they're not all playing at once.  That was hard to do since I like a lot of stuff going on all the time;)  I actually printed off a picture of an orchestra setup so that I could get a clearer understanding of how it all works.  Huge learning curve for me but I loved it and I'll definitely try another one like this soon!

Haven't heard back about the Linkin Park contest yet.  The results were supposed to be in monday and then that changed to wednesday and now it doesn't say anything.  Not going to hold my breath:)  But if they don't pick me I'm gonna use my string line for something else.  It totally got stuck in my head!

Have a great day,

Jeanna

But it's true (the thoughts part, can't guarantee the Carmel part) I honestly don't know how I'm doing all that I'm doing.  Only by the grace of God....well that's a whole other story;)  But I can say one thing for sure.  I am having a blast being crazy!!

OK, onto my news.

I just uploaded 4 new tracks called Swirling, Other Worldly and Odyssey(with and without the vocal chant).  They should be the top 4 songs on the flash player but you can also find them in the Orchestral and Quirky folders.  I'm encouraging you to look through these folders cause there's a grip load of music on the site now.  And it's free to you!!!  So.... check em out:)

All 4 of those tracks as well as Trip Hop found homes for themselves in 2 libraries in the last several days.... and 3 of them were only born this weekend!  I feel like a proud parent.  I don't have to mess with them too much cause they're just doing it all on their own!

And lastly, totally separate from my music, I've decided to try out a new folder called "The Artist's Mind".  It has been heavily put on my heart lately to share my own frustrations of the lies my mind tells and told me about making music my career.

As artists we lie to ourselves way too much.  We're not good enough, no one really cares, or (my favorite) I don't really want it anyways.  Sound familiar?  I KNOW it does.

I wrote a little blurb so far and I encourage any artists of any kind out there reading this to reply to it.  We need to know that we're not alone in our frustration.  We need to hear from our peers that they've been there and are there too.

So whether you're just starting off or you've been doing this awhile please send a comment or an email my way and I'll post it.  If you have a question on how to deal with something at present send it to me and I'll post it.

Although each of our paths are very different our frustrations and obstacles are very similar.  So let's be one on this k?

Have a great day and I'll talk to you soon,

Jeanna

http://www.jeannamurphy.com

http://www.myspace.com/jeannamurphy

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/murphyjeanna

Just wanted to stop by and show you some stuff that I've been working on.  I uploaded 5 tracks for you to check out but I'm only going to keep them up until June 15th!  Reason being, I'm selling them to "somewhere" so after I do that I'm hazy on whether or not I can post them anymore.  

I have a couple of reasons that I've even posted them at all:  

First off, I am SO proud of them that I just HAD to share them with you.  "Countdown" and "Anxiously Awaiting" came at me at almost the exact same time and were finished within a week.  I just love strings and I think that that is made very clear in these 2 pieces.  "Mystic" incorporates my new favorite instrument, the hang drum, and is a kind of freestyle ambient.  I bet that would work for meditation or something.... hmm.  "Ghost Buster" and "Funky Bigtime" are funky and big-band style which is hilarious because I don't even really like these genres very much.  But I know they're good and I will die of laughter if these 2 were the most circulated of all the stuff I'm selling.  (I bet that's probably what will end up happening too)

The other reason that I'm sharing them with you is that  these songs could potentially get some major exposure and I need your ears to spot them when they "arrive".  As weird as it may seem I don't own a TV (I know, I know).  And weirder still the only TV watching I do is either at work or on hulu.  So please, please, please listen to them and keep me posted as to if and when you hear them on some of your favorite shows!!!  You will make my day if I get an email from you a couple months down the line telling me you heard one of them.  Oh wow, I would love you forever!!! :)

So remember June 15th!  Listen, listen again, tell your friends to listen, tell your family to listen...  

In the next couple of months this music library stuff will really get going and I'll have some really exciting news to share!!  Not just for these 5 tracks either.  As of this morning I'm finally rolling on the long arduous task of stemming and shipping out 24 of my tracks to Studio 51.  We have a distributor and we're starting to upload all our tracks to them.  What I've been told is it's an almost immediate rotation hook-up.  It'll take us a couple months to get them all through but by the end of the summer my music will be in rotation INTERNATIONALLY!!! How crazy is that!!!!

Have a great day/week/month/etc and I'll talk to you soon,

Jeanna

Mysterious just got signed to an East Coast music library, my 3rd library (thank you TAXI for the forward)!

I was a little nervous at first because this library originally wanted Something's Out There (that one's in the Orchestral folder if you want to check it out) but that one already had found it's home in another library.  Worried that I'd upset this new library with this information, I asked them what sound(s) they were looking for.  I took notes and hammered out Mysterious' rough draft in an hour.  Although I had to do several edits within the next several weeks (which in itself worried me seeing as this library had already mentioned that they don't like to go back and forth editing a track, they usually take it or pass) it was finally finished to their liking.  The song was ok'd, uploaded and as of this morning the contract has been signed and sent!  Hopefully you guys will hear it soon on Dateline or some TV show so let me know if you do;)

Those of you that are TAXI members let me just tell you this forward was from nearly 2 years ago!  So yeah...it takes some time sometimes:)  One thing that has become amazingly clear to me over the years is that you can't put all your eggs in one basket.  Write and then write some more and then write some more!  Never stop!

Also, Kel and I submitted Rematrixed (Electronica folder) and Space Pop (Quirky folder) to another library (hopefully library #4) and as of yesterday they are in the reviewing process.  Don't know how long till we hear if we're in or not.  Kel said as soon as a couple weeks or as much as a couple months....so we'll see.

I might be disappearing for awhile soon.  There is a big deal happening in the next couple of months and I have to write 7 cues by June, write parts (stems) for 24 already finished tracks, and then write parts (stems) for those 7 once they're finished.  And somehow pull it together to work my full time gig in the midst of all of it.  Jeanna's a busy girl:)

So enjoy.  I will update you as much as I can but if I can't don't think I'm not writing... I am ALWAYS writing!

Have a happy monday:)

Jeanna

So Kel and I have done it yet again!  Our 3rd co-write Space Pop is now up for your listening enjoyment.  http://www.jeannamurphy.com  .  You can also find it in the music section on my site in the "quirky" folder.  Our fastest colab yet.  I think we only sent this one back and forth 3 times!  That's ubber fast for me at least!

I'd love to hear what you guys think cause I don't know what to make of it...in a good way of course.  It's definitely a new sound for us and it keeps totally getting stuck in my head.  I love that I like my songs:)

Also, and I don't know why I didn't think to say this earlier, if you'd like to check out Kel's solo work you can find him at http://www.kostar8.com/index.html  His stuff is way more rock influenced which is probably why we're such a good mix.  He's been working INSANELY hard lately.  I mean my crazy busy is put to shame by his insanely crazy busy:)  I'm sure he'd love to say hello to all of you as well.

That's all for now but as always there is more to come so stay tuned.

Enjoy and have a great day,

Jeanna

http://www.myspace.com/jeannamurphy

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/murphyjeanna

Just added ReMatrixed to the flash player!  http://www.jeannamurphy.com  

This one was super fun to work on and only had about 5 different tracks!  Very different from Vamp that had like 12 or something.  This one came together a lot faster too.  I think Kel and I are figuring out how to read each others minds.

When the vocal line comes in about 40 seconds in keep in mind that's not me.....that's all Kel!!  Waita diva it up dude:)  

Have fun...more news to come.  Happy friday!!!

Jeanna

So here's my first attempt at trip hop and I think I did pretty good....I like it at least :)  Might change it a bit once I figure out what it'll be used for but until then I call it "done".  It came to me in just several hours worth of work.  I've been listening and re-listening trying to hear what to add but it just feels complete.  Although, any suggestions from those familiar with the genre would be welcome.

Enjoy!

Jeanna

I of course emailed right back and said I was in!!

I work swing shift at my day job so it killed to wait to start this till I got home.  My brain was buzzing with ideas.  I got up super early that next morning and wrote till noon sending him 3 demos.  I got to cue it to a video of the logo graphics, which I don’t get to do very often and so it was super fun.  Then was the wait….anyone who knows me knows I don’t wait well.  I got to my day job and a couple hours in I get a call from my boss.  He said there had been 50 song submissions, the lady who shall remain nameless herself listened to them and narrowed it down to 10 songs from 8 composers and I was one of them!!

Can you believe it!  The lady herself pushed play to listen to my songs?!  Well, she probably had someone else press play for her but she listened none-the-less!!

As you can probably guess it was very hard to concentrate at work after that.  Harpo needed some quick edits by the morning and some variations of the cue that they liked so I ran home during my break and brought my laptop back with me.  Thank the Lord we were slow that night and I got my edits pretty much done in a couple of hours.  I sent them out that next morning, called my Studio 51 boss and asked if there was anything else they needed and he said no. 

Then I waited for a week…

Monday I called him and asked if he had heard anything and he told me that they had passed on mine.  I was bummed but at least finally knowing was better than waiting.  Went to work and, again, a couple hours into my shift he called me back.  He said “you’re not going to believe this but you’re back in the running”.  Apparently after he talked to me earlier he got the call that Harpo had bumped all of the songs and asked those composers to resubmit.  He said that my name was specifically mentioned!  They had said that I was closest on instrumentation and vibe!  They even said my name right!  I was of course elated.

My boss said that this turn around was even faster.  He needed demos for this round no later than 5:30am my time the next morning…it was already 5pm and I would be at work till 11pm!  I pulled my first all-nighter ever that night.

I got home, took a quick power nap, slung back a double shot espresso drink and started writing.  By 5 or so I had sent my boss 6 demos.  Then the wait again.  I tried to sleep but of course that was easier said then done and so I just spaced out to a bunch of Friends episodes till work because that’s all my brain could handle.

That evening I got the email that another Studio 51 composer from England got the gig but that I should be very proud of myself for how far I got.  And I am!!!

Of course I would have rather gotten it then not but wow was this whole experience fun.  That was the best fried brain experience ever and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat!!!

I’m doing it guys!  And I’m getting closer and closer!!