New album “Quarterlife Blues” available

Nadine — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 11:00:00 +0000

My new album “Quarterlife Blues” is now available on Bandcamp. It contains all the blues, jazz and soul songs of the last two years that were recorded in international collaborations. The album deals with quarterlife crisis and typical challenges of young people, especially millennials. Of course, rock is also a part of it. About the album “Quarterlife Blues” During the last months, plenty of songs were written in collaborations with musicians all over the world. I decided to compile them into stylistically consistent albums, so “Quarterlife Blues” will be the first one containing blues, rock’n’roll and jazz music. This album is about a crisis most young people in their 20s and 30s go through. In this age, you have to take important decisions and feel a bit insecure if things don’t turned out the way you imagined. You can easily find yourself in the quarter life crisis, when others may have a better job, a stable relationship or successful hobbies. Thus, most of the lyrics are about decisions, regrets and new beginning. Sometimes with a bit of dark humour. My focus on this album is composition and production, but I also played piano and guitar on a couple of songs. Please forgive me if not everything sounds perfect. I started to learn the guitar in 2021, and it raised my interest for blues and jazz music. Something I would have never tried if I stayed on my piano. This album could not exist with nearly 30 international musicians. Thanks a lot for your help, ideas and stems. You rock! The tracklist Compiling the tracklist of my album “Quarterlife Blues” has been the hardest part of the whole project. Though being more stylistically consistent than my previous album “Going My Way”, I had a hard time telling a convincing story over many different genres. We touched rock’n’roll, blues rock, blues, ballad, swing and acoustic jazz. The story starts with a long list of complaints and pushes the narrator into a severe crisis. In the end, they realize, that it’s better to take life not so serious and enjoy some aspects like a new relationship or watching the rain. It’s been important for me that the last song has a positive message. Quarterlife Blues by Nadine de Macedo What I learned There are many possibilities to collaborate with musicians, and you always have to think about the setting in that particular song. Working on “No Time For Blues”, “High Noon” and “Disco Blues” reminded of a jam session, where every musician had lots of freedom for improvisation. Even “Blackout” consists of plenty of licks, I would never play the same way as on the recording. In contrast, “How are you?” and “I’m not angry” are well-structured and arranged songs, that follow a pop music approach. Last but not least, “Fit Right In”, “Overjoyed”, “Love Lasts Forever” and “Rainy Sunny Afternoon” were a technical deep dive into sparse arrangements. Getting the maximum out of a handful of tracks has been very new to me, as I came from full band recordings with 30–50 tracks. Actually, only “Hero” and “Quarterlife Blues” have this huge amount of tracks. Same as I never worked with brass, harmonica and double bass recordings before. Where can I find the album? You can download the full album “Quarterlife Blues” with hidden tracks and booklet on Bandcamp. You can listen to some songs on YouTube and SoundCloud. As usual, we are happy for your donation, radio plays and comments. We haven’t planned to publish this album on commercial streaming platforms.

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Hero – Be somebody special

Nadine — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 10:03:00 +0000

Today, our new song “Hero” is available on SoundCloud and YouTube. This time, I teamed up with Dirk Diamond to co-write a jazz song about leaving a legacy to those who mean something to us. “Hero” is both a love song and a song about wanting to leave a mark somewhere, perhaps a legacy, however indiscernible it might be. It’s about wanting to be something like a heroic presence for someone dear, at least in some way, at least for one person, to leave a special mark on them. Be a part of whatever world comes after us, even if unseen. There’s a lot more purpose to our story than what’s here for us in the here and now. In some way it reflects on that, towards not so readily undervaluing our presence in this world, however limited it might seem at the time. This song has been written in a ping-pong collaboration. Dirk started with a rough draft of lyrics, vocals and the chord progression of the verse. Right after listening, I wanted to try something jazzy with a shuffle beat, and it worked well. I didn’t expect to write some vintage swing with one of the most complex chord progressions I ever wrote. Following my heart, I didn’t notice how often we change the keys, modes or borrowed chords. The arrangement grew from a vocal e-piano draft into a big band with a ukulele. Dirk said, this song gave him an unexpected nostalgia, and I think his words capture it quite well. You can listen to our song on YouTube and SoundCloud. I hope you enjoy our collab the same way that we did.

This post Hero – Be somebody special was published at Nadine de Macedo.

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New album “Quarterlife Blues” available

Hero – Be somebody special