I’ve got some exciting stuff to share!
My song “Blues Alone”, which was a winner of Honorable Mention at the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and pre-finalist at the Billboard Song Contest is used and featured for a beautiful Group dance routine called “Return to Grace” on the popular show “Dance Moms” in season 3 episode 14 (“Watch your back, Mack”) on LifeTime TV Networks! Another romantic, moving and inspiring piece done by the choreographer. They won second place with it at the Energy National Dance Competition. I am so grateful to be a part of such creative Art, this is the third song they use on the show.
The song was released on my first Solo EP in the end of 2008 and it is available on iTunes and Amazon and others!
LILI ROQUELIN: The EP
(includes “Blues Alone”, placed in several documentaries and on LifeTime, and multi-award-winning music video “I Saw You”) iTunes | Buy CD | Google Play| Amazon| Other retailers
ALSO!!!
My song “Come and hear my story” was used on MTV News Canada!!!
BEFORE I FORGET!!!
Lots of events coming up, go to the Tour section
I started practicing with the new drummer and adding a new bassist this week-end, very exciting!
“THANK YOU” from my new album BEAUTIFUL SUN has been shared on Facebook a lot, I am so grateful TO YOU my listeners for that!
The Aquarian Weekly (distributes North, Central, South Jersey and NYC) published a whole Page review of my album “Beautiful Sun”, written by Award winning journalist John Pfeiffer: READ IT HERE on their website – when you go to the article, to the right of it there is a “facebook like” button, please click it!
John Pfeiffer is one of he best writers in the area, he won many times “Best Journalist” at the Asbury Music Awards. His style is almost poetic. His own website is here . He is also a Rock guitarist and plays on records of the likes of Willie Nile.
Here’s the scanned newspaper page image:
It feels good to read/see when someone “GOT IT”, especially when it’s about the result of a year and a half of work, personal growth and entire life of artistic progression.
This week’s The Aquarian issue is a special with a 4 pages article written by award-winning writer John Pfeiffer – illustrated with photos: “Hurricane Sandy Shoreworld Special: Frankenstorm Shakes The Shoreworld – Recollections From The Perfect Storm”. Click here to read it
A whole paragraph actually quoted me with my impressions, I hope they inspire.
Enjoy the sun when it’s out!
As soon as the Power came back I was able to go back to JLM Mastering Studios to work with Mastering Engineer Roman Vail and we finished my new album entitled “Beautiful Sun”. I knew the title for a long time but wanted to keep it secret…
Like I had explained in one of my previous Blog Posts, with this record I feel I really learned about what mastering is, what it does to a sound.
I really enjoyed working with Roman Vail (visit his website here, Roman also has graphic arts talents).
He has worked with Joe Lambert at legendary Trutone Mastering Studios for many years and has been a senior mastering engineer at Joe’s own studio (JLM) for a few years now. Joe Lambert has an impressive worldwide catalog such as Moby (including the last one “Destroyed”), The Black Crowes and Sinnead O’Connor and it is such a great thing to have someone like this sponsoring his career.
The studio has top-notch Analog equipment but by now you should know that it’s not about the equipment, it’s about what you can do with it.
Roman has great ears and knows how to translate into technical tools what an artist wants or doesn’t want in their sound. He’s very respectful of an artist’s “relationship” with their music and he’s very patient. He listens to a broad variety of music and knows different ways of taking finalization of a Sound into different possible directions.
He mentioned my music is a mix of “Sade, Massive Attack and Sarah McLachlan”, which I find quite interesting. I find doing the mastering with his abilities brought this record to the next “level”, and took the amazing mixing Marc Urselli had done of the recordings to the most fabulous audio experience.
I am now working with Oasis Disc Manufacturing. I’ve been working with them for each of my projects since my album with Hate Dies Hard. We had such a complicated artwork back then and they had managed it so well that I never went with another company… Waiting for the Print Proofs of the Artwork they start it this week!!! And then it will be my favorite Distributing Company to do their awesome work!!!
The Music Video should be released shortly after the record…
Stay tuned!
Hiya!
The music video for “Thank You” has been filmed and it’s almost done being edited.
Like I said in my video blog:
Here’s some photos of the shoot:
The album is done being mixed, reviewed and adjusted….
And Now! here’s something interesting…
Audio Mastering.
If you’re not a musician you probably heard of “remastered” versions of some old records that’s often done for new media or to adapt the old stuff to the new ears a little bit…
Although I’m all for keeping it authentic and how it was done at the time, sometimes it is good to do that for old vinyl records so they sound good on CDs or mp3s too.
Well I’m now in the process of getting this record mastered, last step before duplication, and well if you want to do it right it’s not something where you pick anyone- it’s done-that’s it. Plus you can’t really pick the place in advance cos it all depends on how your songs mixes came out, and how it comes to your ears once it’s at that step.
For my past records I must say it all went smoothly and I had never really paid attention to it, for “a taste of departure” with Phizzy Lager Troy had taken it to a studio in Canton and all I remembered was that when we heard it it sounded 10 times bigger and shinier than the mixes. For Hate Dies Hard, Bill Korecky had mastered it directly after the mixes and I had noticed the compression on the songs but it sounded great. For the EP, Mr. Urselli had done the same thing and I hadn’t really noticed much difference with the pre-masters. And for “Will you hate the rest of the world or will you renew your life?”, Sean B. did it all digitally out of his A New Deal Studio and it sounded good.
From what I’m learning now about audio mastering from reading and hanging out in mastering studios with engineers, it’s not just about adding brightness, and volume or clarity, you can really give a shape to your songs and there’s quite an amount of additional depth you can give to it, especially when the album has different tones in it. There’s also the risk of “taking away from the mixes” and you don’t want that. I surprised myself when I realized I could hear “that stuff”, seriously! It would be easier if I didn’t hear these things and just forget about it and sleep well at night and release this record in 3 days, but hey no it needs that special treat, my crazy ears got it so here I am. The funny thing is that I explained and showed what I was hearing to other musicians and non musicians and they sorta “Feel it”, so there, if I hear it anyone can and that’s always the most important thing. And by the way big thanks to co-writer Sam Scozzari for lending his ears and reading my crazy text messages at 1 in the morning. (We got another song together on this album)… and Big big hugs to Steve Blankenship for his support and sharing his experience, advice and wisdom with me. I missed having a band during this time and it was nice to hear “I’m not completely crazy”.
How I review masters?
I listen to it on Bose stereo speakers from my laptop, then in the living-room stereo, then simple Altec computer speakers, burn a CD and walk to my car take a listen there (that’s the BEST!), make neighbors think I’m crazy cos I’m in the car for half an hour but not leaving (lol), then import the song into iTunes, throw it onto my iPod Nano, listen to it at home…. and now the best stuff: listen to it on the train, walking on the street in Manhattan with the crazy city hum, and of course compare it to other artists on the iPod. When I say “compare it”, I mean I look for volume differences and whether treble mids and lows are balanced.
Now I could get REALLY crazy and compare it on different Apple devices since they have different sound chips but hey I’m not THAT nuts…
Anyways a great master should sound good EVERYWHERE. End of the story.
Fun stuff! My song “Dare” was placed on a DVD for the best-selling author Michael Sandler, for his RunBare company. Here’s a photo showing our partnership:
The funny thing is that I’m not really a sports person and recently my music was placed for a major Dance show, then an extreme-skiing movie and now barefoot running! I guess my music inspire the challenging minds! .
I will also have a bigger TV placement coming up but *I’m not allowed to say anything until it airs*.
*** Show! On Monday May 14th I am very pleased to perform in Oyster Bay Long Island at a showcase!
Monday May 14th, The Homestead in Oyster Bay, Long Island NY www.thehomesteadny.com, 8pm, 107 South St., Oyster Bay, NY 11771
This is a fancy restaurant. There will be 3 other artists and we’ll be playing 5 songs each in a circle, with all of us on stage.
*** The Record: What an experience to live… I had a crisis last week lol, but I’m doing good. If I get a song or parts of a song too much in my head, the best way for me is to listen to a lot of Blues music… I listened to “Ain’t no sunshine” and ended up doing a quick cover on Youtube:
I received “Honorable Mention” for my song “Blues Alone” at the 2009 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for the electronic category! This is a very prestigious international songwriting contest that began in 1997, with judges like the Veronicas, Natasha Bedingfield, Jesse Harris (songwriter for Norah Jones), Ken Komisar (J-Lo)…
January 1st, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENT: MUSIC RELEASE AND VIDEO PREMIERE NYC SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20TH, ADDITIONAL RELEASE EVENT FEBRUARY 13TH IN CLEVELAND OH.
October 7th, 2009
Release of my side-project song “N’attends pas”. Listen and download at iTunes, CdBaby and other retailers of your choice!
September 24th, 2009:
This week-end I am doing the photo-shoot for my album… Also, my music has been added to several Music Supervisors libraries for TV, film!
June 30th, 2009
I GOT A PHONE CALL TODAY AND “I SAW YOU” JUST WON A SECOND MUSIC VIDEO AWARD!!! This time at The Indie Gathering.
June 3rd, 2009
WOOOOHOO!!!! I am officially selected for the Semi-Finals at the MUSIKFEST (=one of the biggest music festivals in the country) “Stars of Bethlehem” contest!!! 20 singers were selected to perform in front of a panel of judges at a live, semi-final event on Sunday June 28, at the Banana Factory: Banana factory lobby, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, PA 18015 at 12:30pm THEY SAID IT WOULD HELP IF I BRING FRIENDS SOOOO are you up to a road-trip and wearing some cheer-leaders outfit (lol)??? KISSES!!!
March 22nd, 2009
The video of “I Saw You” is featured on Music Dish TV! See the bio page with the reviews section to read it!
January 27th, 2009
LiLi Roquelin’s song “Blues Alone” was pre-selected for the Billboard Song Contest. Here’s what they said: “This song has a good consistent melodic theme throughout. Has soundtrack appeal.”
December 3rd 2008
Live show review! Read it here
November 9th 2008
LiLi is the recipient for BEST MUSIC VIDEO AWARD! See a short documentary on here
October 31st 2008
LiLi has been selected for the category “MUSIC VIDEO” for the Queens International Film Festival… She has been invited to perform at the Award Ceremony.
NEW PHOTOS in the GALLERY! Noble Images Inc. did it again.
October 26th 2008
Catch LiLi performing and being interviewed on TV on “CheckerBoard” music show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network Channel 34 Tuesday night October 28th at midnight (= the 29th) or go to www.mnn.org and click on ch34 at the same day and time
October 4th 2008
THE EP is released. Distributors information on the music page! (CdBaby, iTunes, Amazon, ect…).
LiLi will play at your house for FREE!!!
September 24th 2008
Getting ready for the release of the EP for Oct. 4th. Pre-order your limited package if you haven’t done so! Other fans already got theirs.
July 3rd 2008
The Music Video of “I Saw You” is viewable on youtube High Quality coming up on the CD
April 2008
“How to be a part of LiLi’s new EP” is launched!!!
Make sure you check out the shows section for live performances, ect…!
March 15th 2008
LiLi is in the studio to record a song project with producer Taylor Christoffel.
February 1st 2008
Check out Art from LiLi’s fans/friends on her myspace page in the “Pics/Art from others” Section: Painting, Poem, Artwork, ect…
January 23rd 2008
LiLi just finished the video shoot for “I Saw You”. With talented and experienced Music Video Director: Matthew Murphy, Assistant Director Dan Anderson. It is in post-production, more info coming soon…
November 17th 2007
LiLi is settling in New York City, finishing up her album and warming up her songs in open-mics. Updates on tour dates soon.
August 1st 2007
LiLi Roquelin just relocated to NYC and will continue her piano training with the best teacher in town… While composing, producing her upcoming album and performing open-mics.
June 25 2007
Yay liliroquelin.com is now LiLi’s again!!!
June 22 2007
LiLi is doing unannounced open-mics to practice her performance of her upcoming new songs.
June 10 2007
LiLiRoquelinOfficial.com is Now the New site of LiLi Roquelin!
Letter: “The Battle with the Germans”:
And we – the French and the Americans – thought that we were done with them since world war II.
After their invasion of the original .com website, they entered into a conflict and refused to give back the property. Although I sent them messages of peace, they decided to keep occupying the site.
In the end, since I owned everything they didn’t, which is Myself, I re-opened it with a different name.
To illustrate the History, we will have in the contact page an online game featuring “champignons” mushrooms and a figurine of me shooting cheese at them…
Be careful, this might not be a joke.
I would like to thank Erin Michael for her support which led to Armistice and her design of the site.
LiLy Rocklin, Lilly Rocklin, Lillie Rocklin IS LiLi Roquelin.
.
