Sleep. Underestimated?

2011-12-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

It's busy season for musicians..soooo maybe its good to actually WRITE a blog as opposed to say..
erm, I'll write that there thingy tomorrow...when Im not running around like an eejit.
..Clue - I am an eejit anyway, and tomorrow is also a bit of a mad one. lol!

Been an amazing year - launching my first independant album; Jellymould, and my first E.P., its a learning curve thats...rather curvy. It's taken two years really to get this all off the mark, and of course there's always, always more to do - especially when you're basically doing it independantly - (have a feeling my bank manager must detest me, ha!) so Im looking forward to the next step, the big one being launching the album in Dublin, and abroad: and a European Tour. Yes, I must be mad.

So I took three professional musician pals; Johnny Taylor (piano), Dominic Mullan (drums) and Dan Bodwell (double bass) - effectively my jazz quartet really - over to record for ten days in Germany last summer (2010) in the magnificent studios of the very generous audio designer Holger Stenschke. I knew the guys already as incredibly flexible musicians - who also gig and enjoy other musical styles. After trying for many years - with other albeit fabulous musicians, I felt with these particular guys that I'd finally found my band, my sound.
They respect my music - but crucially - they get it.

So after ten solid recording days in Karlsruhe, things started to feel like a Samuel Beckett play (Studio, Grub, Irish Bar, Bed, Studio, Grub, Irish Bar, Bed......repeat) we got 21 of my songs down, and live video recordings ( thanks Kai!) - in the last two hours of studio time - of four jazz standards. Which felt like a bit of a nice homecoming at the end.

Once the guys left - it was time for me to do lots of guitar, violin and vocal overdubs. Cello was also recorded with the rather incredibly gifted Hugo Smit. My last recordings were as late as September 2011, with ukelele and vocal overdubs (backing vocals). We also had Icelandic guitar genius Gummi to play a few of my songs too.
The whole epic process of chosing eleven songs, mixing and mastering began as early as April, with myself and Tonmeisters (yes - how cool does the word for audio designer sound in German? pronounced TONE MYSTER) Holger Stenchke and Sebastian Schottke. We finished up the album about four days before the launch on Oct 16th; the four track E.P. Dizzy was finished up ten days before the June 6th launch night in Dublin.

I tried to calculate the amount of hours taken to make this album. I failed.

The Dizzy E.P. launch night June 6th in The Workman's Club taught us a lot about well, everything. Even though Ive done a few of my own gigs with the band, this was the biggest venue so far, and required the most promotion to date. Scary. Venues arent cheap and its an incredible amount of work to put on any event. This was probably the first outing of the Savage Team - my pal Emma O' Reilly - who is an absolute genius about all things PR-y and internet-ty (I'm still coming to terms with the Bronze Age), agreed to pull up my socks for singing lessons and peanuts; and with my wunderbar housemates Jo and Aoife, she kept me sane and kept me from frying internally, head-first. They window-dressed the stage, dealt with the Door, and were unbelieveably generous with their time. Im still in awe of them.
My New Dublin Voices pals Laura Hardaker did incredible backing vocals, with Feilimidh Nunan who played viola too. Legends.

Following this, I received a grant from the Northern Ireland Arts Council to work with Moving On Music to help promote my music. The Career Enhancement Scheme: An absolute godsend for a working musician like me. After many very productive meetings and discussions in Belfast, Brian ( Moving On Music) and I came to plan the launch of Jellymould at the Belfast Festival October this year, deciding on the Black Box as the venue.
After more months working on the music itself, especially the mixing, the launch date arrived in the blink of an eye.

The Belfast Launch on 16th Oct... was a great success. Phew.

My favourite people on stage and a lot offstage too. Nice to come home. Gotta love the N.Ireland Arts Council, and Moving On Music - and The Belfast Festival had a ginormous poster with me in it, plastered all over the city - theres me beside Dame Kiri te Kanewa and Elvis Costello. So, no pressure like....ah but it was a real fun gig. The band played a storm, even Hugo came over from Austria to perform cello, and I had amazing backing vocals of my New Dublin Voices pals Johnathan Wilson and Laura Hardaker. Johnathan also played a ukelele substitute, the name of which I cannot pronounce and have therefore named 'the Cinque Cento' (a cavaqinho...?? spelling..hmmmm)
I felt so well looked after by everyone involved. From the promotion side of things to the handmade covers of the limited edition of Jellymould (made by Dublin based artist Jo Kavanagh..with silk and wax seals, gorgeous! Talented lady). The Black Box in Belfast was jammers (full) and you could hear a pin drop, during the performance and thankfully not after ha ha. Signing the albums at the end made me feel a bit starry and not a little daft looking for pens (cos I can't bring biro's on stage in fairness..)
So, that was the launch night of my special edition album Jellymould.

In between, Ive been busy gigging with New Dublin Voices - in fact we were in Belgium (first time for me ever, the food is YUM and we stayed with the most amazing host families..! Im not sure about the cheese cubes & beer tho?) :) for the Flanders-Maasmachelen International Choral Festival
in September and won all the awards available for our mixed voice chamber choir. Which is kinda ridiculous. We were almost in danger of a choral lynch mob but thankfully at the end we got up and sang some of our fun repertoire including Phil The Fluter's Ball in which we make fools of ourselves whilst ahem, singing sublimely...

With the Christmas gig onslaught theres not one carol untouched by me or mine. I even popped a few into my gig on Sat at the Grand Social, at which the rather magnificent Emma O'Reilly did support, with Reuben Teskey - who kindly lent me his guitar after mine kinda well, exploded. (Sorry about that Reuben). Have to say how brilliant the audience were - I must give out more mince pies at gigs from now on. I am extremely lucky/jammy that the wonderful Sébastien Petiet of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra agreed to play my music with me for this gig - violin, viola, mandolin and a teeny tiny trumpet. Pretty damn special. After a pretty stressful week it was just a great sense of release to just make music with such great players - the lads were on fire.

Tomorrow its the National Concert Hall singing a few jazzy xmas solos with fab pianist Stephen Kenny for the lovely Culwick Choral Society's annual Christmas Extravaganza. I won't bore you with my mild trauma over what to wear, but I hope it'll be a fun night in which I wont forget the words. Lol.

And so having updated the gigs and possibly given myself typing-induced Repetitive Strain Injury, I shall now sign off, so - have yourself a Merry Little Holiday Season and big thanks for popping in!

Keep her lit!

Suz ;)

December 2011!

2011-12-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Hey there everyone!

Suzanne is delighted to be performing this Saturday at The Grand Social in Dublin City Centre - her last solo performance of the year. It's set to be a fantastic event with music from Suzanne's new album Jellymould, Jazz, and even some christmassy stuff on the setlist. We'll also have some very special guests in on the night, so put it in your diaries! Show kicks off at 8pm and admission is €10.

Also, the Savage team are delighted to be reporting from this lovely new webpage - feel free to pass the link onto your music loving friends. Don't forget to check back here regularly for news of upcoming gigs, journal entries and a lot more from the lovely Suzanne.

Also, we've thrown up a few videos on Suzanne's youtube page - some footage of her singing songs from Jellymould in the stunning setting of Madrid. Check them out, and as always, feel free to share!

And finally, as Jellymould waits for its Irish release, we'd like to remind you that you can get your copy of Suzanne's E.P., Dizzy, from itunes. At a modest €4, We think it's the perfect pre-christmas gift to yourself. ;)

Thanks for visiting and taking the time to support Suzanne!

Love,

The Savage Team

Belfast Festival

2011-10-15T13:33:00.001-07:00

Suzanne's playing The Black Box tomorrow night, 8pm
Admission is 5£

Suzanne in the Belfast Telegraph

2011-10-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Date: Friday, October 7th.
Subject:

Hey everyone,
There's a lovely write up of Suzanne in the Belfast Telegraph today – a big thank you to everyone over there for helping us spread the word about the album launch!
Check out the article here:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/why-theres-plenty-for-suzanne-savage-to-smile-about-16060668.html

Love,
- The Savage Team

New Dublin Voices Sweep the board!

2011-09-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Date: September 26th, 2011
Subject:

Hi everybody,
As you know, Suzanne is a key member of the wonderful, internationally acclaimed New Dublin Voices (dir. Bernie Sherlock) (www.newdublinvoices.com). As you might also know, in between recording, airports, organising final mixes, CD printing, venues and band rehearsals, Suzanne has been rehearsing with the choir for their latest competition in Belgium.
Well folks, we've had some amazing news from over there today. For the first time in 22 years of Flanders-Massmachelen International Choral Competition, one choir have taken home all six prizes – yup, you guessed it, our very own New Dublin Voices. We couldn't be prouder!
To see what all the musical fuss is about, head to Suzanne's youtube page and check out her “favourites” playlist, where you'll see some of NDV's prize-winning performances.
Well done to everyone in New Dublin Voices. It's always great to hear your hard work is being recognised on an international level!

Love,
- The Savage Team

suzannesavagemusic

Sleep. Underestimated?

December 2011!

Belfast Festival

Suzanne in the Belfast Telegraph

New Dublin Voices Sweep the board!