They always say, "You are your own worst critic." I think generally that's true, but not for me. Actually, my own worst critic is a 6 year-old Romanian boy named Alexander. He lives next door to my writing and producing partner, Ryan Franks. We've been back at Ryan's place tweaking a few tracks, in this case, Welcome to Happy, (does anyone hear a title of a CD there?) and the writing session ran a bit late into the night.

I was belting out vocal lines at around 1:00 am in the typical paper-walled LA apartment. The next day we ran into the neighbors. For the record, they are about the sweetest people you could want to meet: Camelia, her husband and mother, all live in the apartment next door, with their son Alexander. It was Alexander, the young musician, who had complaints.

While his mother was telling us how she doesn't mind the sound and that they love music, Alexander steps forward with his hands over his ears and yells, "Stop singing! It hurts my earrruhsss!!!"

 At first his mother says,,, "Oh my G-D!" And she skooches him back inside.   "He doesn't know what he's saying because we are teaching him 4 languages... but even from inside the house, we hear, "Stop singing! It hurts my earrruhsss!"

This makes me laugh more because hey,
1. you can't please everybody, and
2. at least he's honest
 
Funny, they must have had a talk with him because the next day in the courtyard Alexander comes running up hollering, "Nina, Nina, I love MUSIC.  I LOVE MUSIC!"

I feel that either his parents bribed him or suddenly exposed him to a lot more music besides Thomas The Engine.  Either way, we're still invited to his 6th birthday party.

So if I can get Alexander in my camp, I'll have made great strides in increasing my fan base.

I have been busy with other side projects as well, including completing the my first film score to the short film, The Company Man.  Thank you Ryan Franks for bringing me in to this rad new world of music!  We co-wrote it and while most of the instruments were played by him, I have a mean tambourine, glockenschpiel and violin pizzicato solo.   

We will post it here soon, so you can watch it too!

Also, I've been doing more original music for NBC's "Days Of Our Lives".  The next song that I co-wrote and sang will be airing the week of April 13th!  So get your Tivos set to go.  Please someone, record it!  I've yet to see it!  :)

Listen for the song, "All I Want" in a big- event scene.  I honestly don't know if I'm allowed to say what the scene is, in case it ruins the plot for anyone.  So yeah, just think, big and emotional. and excessive use of taffeta. wink wink.

We are trucking on the CD recording!!!  We are recording with two great engineers Scott Nickoly and Joshua Minyard and I am very excited to see it take shape!

We just tracked some wicked cool drums and French Horn on the song "Black" thank you Preston Sheppard, and Russell Peppers!

We are working on a new look for the website too, which we aim to have up in just a couple of weeks.  

But, let me ask you this...? Have you watched the first 2 "The Making of Sorry" videos? We started posting them but then got delayed on the 3rd one. Show of hands... does anyone want to see the 3rd and final? We are thinking about doing a new video for the making of the song, Holiday as well. We had a videographer for that one so it's not just Ryan and I pointing the camera at each other. ;)   Check out me describing the fireworks I want to appear in the song.  

Todd Jones, editor and owner of 303 Post helped us out by following us around with a video camera for a few days. We'll get that edited and posted before too long too.

And lastly, this weekend I'm recording with one of my favorite artists, Tess Dunn.  She is recording a song I wrote with Jannie Storey, Ryan Franks and Rob Giles "One In A Million".  Miley Cyrus, watch your back girl.  Tess is on fire!

That's it for now.  Actually I have A BIG RAD SURPRISE for this new album that I will be announcing in the weeks to come too.  I'm giddy.  So stay tuned for more information!

More tour dates in the Spring and Summer TBA soon too!

Have a great day lovelies and thank you so so so much always for your support!
 
Love,
 
Nina