Sometimes new beginnings hide themselves in endings and vice versa.
I am going through something big, and I can feel it in my heart, my stomach, my toes, as well as my fingertips.
It's true that wherever you go, there you are. But sometimes you can leap and leave yourself behind for a split second.
I am not even sure what I mean here.
But I will be performing a concert in a couple of weeks. And I will sing the new me. After that I'll be going to Japan.
Trap
If you could only see
I couldn’t love you more
If you belong to me
I’ll hold you
I’ll keep you
But I get so hypnotized
I’m lost
I’m paralyzed
I want to hear your lies
You choke me
You bleed me
I want to die
When I feel you inside my mind
Hearts weren’t meant to last
Breathing the broken glass
Tell me it’s going to pass
You’ll need me
You’ll heal me
I want to die
When I feel you inside my mind
If I loved you more than life
Wouldn’t matter if you died
I’ll follow you
I’ll carry you
I’ll try to make it beautiful again
Without the lies, without the pain
Cause in my heart, I know we’ll reunite
I want to die
When I feel you inside my mind
I want to cry
Cause I know I’ve run out of time
These moments in time I knew you were mine
Take me, forgive me
Love me, believe me
It drives me insane
I know - it's only a game
Take me, forgive me
Love me, believe me
This is a trap and I know it will kill me.
I've had a busy few weeks. The album is almost ready, it's being mixed, actually. Mixing is always so emotional and drives me crazy. All the weaknesses of the tracks become obvious, and sometimes you know exactly what needs to be done, while other times you are lost and are searching for the words in the dark, which must seriously frustrate my mixing engineer.
As I may have mentioned earlier, I sang a bunch of songs for Dragon Age Inqusition, which is a pretty cool role-playing video game. The songs were not part of the official soundtrack, but the fans of the game loved them so much, they kept asking the developers to release them separately. Lo and behold, Bioware, the game's developer gave in after a few months of the enthusiasm and is now releasing an official album:) There are ten songs. By the way, they just announced today that they are giving them away for free together with sheet music for two weeks, and also holding a fan contest. Get them HERE.
In the meantime, I filmed and recorded a couple of the songs I sang in-game, for your pleasure. The music and lyrics are by a good friend of mine, a very talented composer Raney Schockne:
Enchanter
And here is a song about a cheeky girl-warrior:
I had a fantastic show a week ago, here are a couple of pics:
I am writing this, while I am laying in bed. Southern California has been finally blessed by the weather gods and we got another storm, courtesy of Hawaii. The Pineapple Express is drenching the city and the L.A. river, for once, looks like a river. I am happy for the plants and the hills.
This was a long and pretty intense week, as I was also fighting off a cold. We shot and recorded a bunch more live videos, some of which will go up shortly. Christmas songs, yea. And others.
I recorded some songs on Dragon Age Inquisition (video game) and recently it's been fun getting all the positive feedback from the fans.
We also laid down some foundation for the official "Hero" video this weekend. Without revealing too much yet, this is going to be epic and so much fun. Hint: swords, storyboards, epic adventure and cloaks to be involved.
Here is one of the songs I sang for Dragon Age, by the way. It's quite fun and mischivious:
In any case, as I am writing this, the sun is coming out. I am feeling contented, although tired. There's a lot of work ahead before my birthday and the year's end. But I am feeling hopeful and accomplished. Hard work, passion and faith will get me there.
Last night's show in Moscow was very special. First and foremost, this was a great show for both myself and the guys. Secondly, this is my home turf - I grew up here. To perform in front of a few thousand people and win them over is something every artist dreams about, I suppose.
This was a proper way to finish off this year, so to speak. Now it's back to recording and focusing on music and planning for next year. My birthday is coming up, too.
Here I am in my old city again.
What is happening in my life, you may ask?
Well, lots and lots. First and foremost, I am working on an acoustic EP, called Fairytales and Satellites, to be out by summer's end. It's all just piano and voice... ok voices, and some beautiful strings here and there. The titles are:
Icarus
Familiar
Satellite
Fairy Tale for Girls
Bella Anima
I am very excited about it because unlike HERO, this EP very will be very pure and acoustic. I get so ambitious when I record or arrange these days. Fairy Tales and Satellites is a good counterpart to Hero because it is so stripped down and breathes differently. As a matter of fact, the original takes that are being used were not even recorded to click - they are performances, and it also gives the songs/tracks a different kind of vibe, which is not as polished and very organic.
Plus, the full Hero album promises to be pretty ambitious and full sounding, just like the Hero EP, so Fairy Tales and Satellites provides a welcome harbor for those of my fans who miss Beatrix Runs. Also - Bella Anima is a hybrid pop/opera kind of song, just like Odi et Amo, so since the Hero EP didn't have any opera on it, this should soothe the pain;)
This past weekend I was a guest of B2 at Russia's largest open air rock music festival, aka NASHESTVIE. It means Invasion, more or less. I guested on one of my favorite songs of theirs - Молитва, or Prayer. Actually, I am going to post a cover of it shortly.
By the way, do you see a pattern here: I release an EP called HERO, which then gets used for an epic viral Superman video, and following that I perform at a festival called Invasion? Coincidence? I think not!;)
Performing in front of 120,000 people is quite a high, let me tell you. There was a symphony orchestra and fireworks. I wore a new headpiece, designed by my lovely i102fly:
Ignore the sweater with dots. This photo was taken in the green room/tent and I was trying to keep warm. By evening's end it was FREEZING cold. I thought I would die. But I still wore the dress. Ah, the pressures of performing life;)
Unfortunately that morning I woke up absolutely sick - apparently I had had some sort of food poisoning. Warning: do not eat little cakes in Moscow's cafes you are not familiar with - which I had.
Shura B2, one of the band's two leads, suggested I take some super Soviet remedy which had been developed in the USSR in the 70's for cosmonauts, in case they got poisoned by something in space. Ok. Well, it worked - it tasted like chalk, but by the afternoon I was alive and well and keeping food down, as opposed to lying down flat with my eyes closed.
Note to self: driving for three hours on Russian country roads while sick from food poisoning is not something that can or should be done on regular basis.
All in all, I'd love to do it again. And again. And again. I mean, the performance part, not the food poisoning part. It was unreal, it was beautiful - it was a high of all highs.
Speaking of performing in front of large crowds. Here is a video we just posted of my performance of Dreamer with symphony orchestra in Minsk, Belarus (Minsk Arena), when I was touring in support of B-2. Maybe not 120,000 people, but definitely around 12,000. I was terrified out of my mind, but had such fun. My personal favorite part of the video is when the camera pans across the keyboard player who is having a blast. What else could I ask for, really?:)
Other updates and things coming up or in the works:
- A cute and much delayed fan-sourced HERO video, where I am talking about the song. It features footage from fans and kids.
- Japanese language EP (two songs, Dreamer and Hero)
- Odi et Amo in Chinese
- Two new covers
- Full Hero album this winter
- Full Russian language album this spring
However, there are other big things in progress I am not quite at liberty to talk about just yet... so stay tuned, my darlings;)
The PegBoard Nerds version of HERO was used by their label Monstercat for a remix contest. So now, if you go to YouTube, and type in Elizaveta, what you get is literally hundreds of Hero remixes of all kinds.
A final note to my fans who read this: I know it takes me time to deliver things I promise to you, like the Hero video. However, since I am an indie artist at the moment, a lot rests on my shoulders and sometimes things just take - a lot - longer. This will change soon enough as I am putting together a new team and a framework for myself which will make everything easier. But I am not quite there yet. So I am the CEO, the builder, the artist, and the everything.
Well, except for you, who read this, listen to my music and come to my concerts. Without you, there would not be much at all, so thank you for your patience:)
I performed at 16 Tons and it was amazing. First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people came. Secondly, there was a real synergy between myself and the two new musicians on stage with me.
The drummer is an incredibly talented and sweet guy who is the official drummer for B-2, the band I have been touring with - Boris Lifshits.
As I booked the show, I realized I had no bass player because the bass player who was supposed to play with me completely flaked on me last minute. So Boris asked his brother, Sasha. It was a pretty special occasion, also because prior to this show, they had never played together.
We rehearsed together for the first time the day before. Needless to say, I was terrified. See, I am pretty used to doing impromptu acoustic events/concerts. I have charts, all that. No problemo. But involve a drummer with a full kit and an electric bass player - and now it's a real band - and that requires special handling.
And yet, when we rehearsed, I walked away feeling like I was floating. Sure, it wasn't perfect. But there was something. And that something felt pretty amazing.
We had another run through next day, the morning of the concert. Shura B-2 joined me on two songs and there were a lot of fans of the B2 band who came out to support me.
I had such a good time at the show, I just wanted to turn around and do it all over again.
And it looks like I will have more than one chance to do it again, and pretty soon:) More on that later.
In one week's time my EP Hero will be released to the world, as will the EP "Как Дети".
I am in Minsk, and this is where we performed last night. I really love it here. And this is a photo of the arena from the other night where the concert was:
I really don't see how it gets any better than this, really, except that if this was MY concert 100%... but I guess that is just something to work towards starting now. Performing in an arena is so addictive. I loved every minute of it.
I have had so much fun performing with Shura & Lyova of B-2! And doing this with an orchestra on-stage has been such a treat.
One week to go until my release of the Hero EP, the official music video for "Sorry", the "Как Дети" ЕР, which features three new songs in Russian.
А если вы читаете это по русски, приходите ко мне на концерт в это воскресенье:
What an unreal couple of days.
I am on tour in Russia, supporting a veteran Russian band, B-2. I get to do the opening set, but then also sing seven duets with them throughout their own set, PLUS sing one of my own songs with orchestra.
Yes, I forgot to mention that there's a symphony orchestra, too, in addition to the band.
I am loving every minute of it. So far we have done two cities - Kursk and Oryol. The audiences in both were so warm and welcoming, it was like a dream. Maybe it is a dream. But it's also a homecoming of sorts. After all, I am Russian. I grew up here. I may not have spent the recent years here, but the roots run deep. For my opening set, I sing songs both in English and Russian.
The political situation leaves a lot to be desired... and here's to hoping it will improve, and very soon:( But as for this moment, I am here to sing for these people - and hopefully remind them that sometimes you do get through, that life is not JUST struggle - sometimes after years of struggle you do get to live the dream.
On top of that, the PegBoard Nerds version of my single Hero is so, so good - and the Superman video it's attached to has gone viral - over 5 million views in the last two days. Here's the thing: I am already in heaven thinking about the fact that in the last 48 hours 5.5 million people have heard my voice.
That's enough for me.
But the response is mostly so positive - and today my site crashed because, apparently, the traffic to the site was too heavy for it to handle. This had never happened to me before: a definite first.
Hero is a very special song for me. I'll tell you why in the next post, though, because it's midnight here and I am absolutely knackered. Tomorrow's another show. See you then, goodnight.
Спокойной ночи!
..such as a crowdfunding campaign!
And a video or two.
I am finally over my cold and I have a month until my tour in Russia.
The Russian EP is finished and getting mixed.
I have started my own RECORD LABEL! It is called....wait for it.....wait for it.....
FLower Army Records
I can't wait to start releasing music.
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