Dec 10, 2011

The songs are finished

The songs are finished! Finally!!
I am so happy to hear them all, they've all become something I think I can be proud of.
I especially like the song "A little love" it is so cool! ^^ But of course I love the other songs as well!
You should definitely check them out at soundcloud! (Click the Titel line of this post and it will open a new window).

I hope that everyone will share with their friends and family, and spread my music around the internet like a virus xD
It's my dream to become a singer, and now I can finally say that I am one step closer!

Love and kisses
Liuwina

Sep 17, 2011

Reaching for the stars

Hello again everyone!

I am now back at the dorm in Hiratsuka, and I had time to sit down and make a preview video of my 3rd song.
The name of the song is "reaching for the stars" and it is dedicated to my friend Mao Tezuka, who unfortunately took her own life, in April this year.
She meant so much to me, and I am still blaming myself for not being able to stop her.
But I know I have to live on, and become stronger, and show her that dreams can come true.

This preview is of the first melody idea for the song, it is not yet finished, and some changes will occur to the final version. Also I was sick when we recorded this, so my voice is really awful! I am sorry for the bad quality.
Please remember, that this is still just a raw version, and far from a finished song!

I hope you will enjoy this small tribute video for my dear friend Mao, may she be happy where she is now.

Don't forget to subscribe, and share. please rate  and comment!
Thank you!

Sep 12, 2011

More travelling!?!

Hello again everyone.

I feel I have to blog more about what is going on in my life, and not just about the song project.
I bet there's someone out there who'd find it interesting, but of course, there might not be either. Oh well, I will just give it a shot, and try to invite you in to my world.
At the moment, I am at a Japanese Ryokan (guesthouse) in Kamakura, or rather, in the suburbian area of Kamakura. What am I doing at a ryokan you might ask, and why? Well, two of my childhood friends are currently visiting me in Japan, and we have been travelling a bit around Japan. First we went to Kyoto, and then we took a trip to Inari and Nara. It has been so great to see all these places!
I especially loved the calm of the forrest at Inari shrine, it was really amazing, except for the mosquitos!

From Kyoto we went to Yokohama by the nightbus, and went to Kamakura, to leave our luggage at the Ryokan. It's a really nice place, it looks very traditional, and has tatami flooring and futon beds.
I can recommend it, for the traveller, who would like to see a traditional side of Japan.

Tomorrow I have to go to Tokyo early to vote. There is an election comming up in Denmark, and I find it very important to give my vote to this election, but I have to send my vote from the Danish embassy, and it has to reach Denmark by mail before the 15th, in order to count on the voting.
Which is why it HAS to be tomorrow, first thing.
I have to get up at 6, in order to be able to arrive at Shibuya around 9 am, when the embassy opens.
Mornings, are not something I am very fond of, especially not when I have to get up early! I am sooo very good at getting up LATE and going to bed very late!

On the 14th I will be at the studio again, to work on my songs. The last two of them!
I really hope that I can get some writing going, since I am having a bit of problem with the last song. I want to write a beautiful song for my friend who killed herself, but I don't know how to describe my feelings. I really want to sing a beautiful song to her. but the words won't come out right! ;_;
When here in Kamakura, I can't stop thinking about her. This is where she lived. This is where we had so much fun, just a couple of weeks before she died. And also, the last time I saw her, she was lying in a casket, body looking like an empty shell, I could feel that "she" was not there anymore. "she" was gone, and what was left, was but an empty shell, that once contained a beautiful soul.
I miss her..

Sep 6, 2011

Without you, in production

After a very loooooong night, with not a wink of sleep, I got up at 9 am and got ready to go to Harajuku.
The studio is not very far from Harajuku station and Takeshita street. Ah, you gotta love Takeshita street with all those lovely shops! I especially love Bodyline, which is CHEAP yet has awesome clothes.
I arrived at the studie almost an hour before the designated meeting time, but I wanted to take some time warming up my body and voice.
The recording went fairly smooth, I had a few off's here and there, but we had a very good and productive session. Toshihiro, the producer, told me, that he thought I was really good, and that my pitch was hardly off. He wasn't used to having such a productive first take with a singer, and seemed to be rather impressed.
He told me, that not many singers, can sing excactly the same way twice, but I have that ability. I guess in that sense, I am kinda like a taperecorder...I am very very good at repeating something I have learned by heart. I just didn't know how well I actually did said thing. But today I got to hear it, he took two recordings and played them at the same time, they sounded excactly the same.
Honestly I didn't know that that kind of ability was something to be proud of. But he told me to be very proud. So I will be.
He sent me a raw mix version of the song, which is far from finished in any way, but it gives you a sense of the song. So I decided to put it on youtube, so that everyone has a chance to follow my progress!
I hope everyone will enjoy my song!
Please don't forget to subscribe, like and share the video! I will be forever grateful!

Sep 5, 2011

Tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow is the day where I will finally record my FIRST SONG! "Without you"!
I have the studio booked from 1pm to 4pm! Hopefully that will be enough recording time! Cuz i am really short on cash!
The biggest hurdle for me to get over now is the money problem. It costs me 30000 yen pr. song, and I am trying to make a DEMO which usually contains 3 songs. That means it will be 90000 yen in total for 3 songs. If I spend more than 3 hours recording each song, I will have to pay 7500 yen pr. extra hour that I spend.
It really is rather expensive to be a musician, don't you think?
I have managed to get 60000 yen in funding from my family and boyfriend. But I need to collect the last 30000 yen for the last song. And I have no idea, how to collect that money. Because I have almost no money left from my scholarship by now, and I don't earn enough or have enough shifts at my job to cover it either.

I really hope, that I somehow will be able to find the money somewhere.
I could try one thing, everyone who donates money to me, will get a signed copy of the demo CD.  Any donation is accepted with sincere gratitude. Donations can be send by my paypal account: liuwina@gmail.com!
If you leave a donation, please write your name and address, so I know where to send the CD to!

The CD will be sent sometime in November I expect! I want you to have a really nice product, so I will be designing a nice looking cover and the CD will be printed professionally.
I will personally sign every single copy for those who donate to this project!

I hope that people will support me and this project, only with your help, can I get closer to my reach the goal of my dreams.
With gratitude
Liuwina

Aug 26, 2011

In sickness and in health...

In all reality, I should have had my first song recorded by now, but fate seemed to have it's own plans for me and I went and catched a nasty cold, that turned out to be sinusitis and an ear infection. So I have been out for the count, not being able to sing one bit.
I feel cribled, my voice isn't working as it should, I can't sing without getting chest pains and my throat hurts.
This is truly most unfortunate, for a singer, not being able to sing.
Why must such fate befall me right now? I went to the doctor, and I never should have done that, since the medical system in Japan is awful, and way too expensive. They might have good doctors, but they make way too many tests, just to determine a cold or ear infection.
My doctor back in Denmark would never have to take an XRAY to see if I have sinusitis.
Anyways, it ended up costing me around 2 weeks worth of food.
We do not like that one bit!

But I do have one good thing to say, and that is, I have been working on song no. 2 aswell,...it's definitely not finished yet, and it might change a lot, but I will give you guys a special sneak preview of the first raw work. Bear in mind, that is is far from done, or produced in any way, it's just me and Toshihiro on his guitar. We are going to work on this song much more, but for now, this is what we got.

I uploaded it to youtube, but it seems it takes a long time for it to process...So I can't insert the video yet.
But please go to my youtube and check it out later when it's done processing.
My channels direct link is http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFriendOfLife

Enjoy!




Aug 16, 2011

Recording

Hello everyone!

Time for another blog update from me.
As you know, I've been on vacation, but I have now returned to my humble abode.
Today I went to Harajuku, for another music session with my producer Toshihiro.
We had a productive day, and got a good outline of my second song, titled "All I need is a little love". It's a cute little song that I wrote a long time ago, and rewrote just recently.
We will be working more on this song next week, but on saturday, I will go to the studio to record my first song "Without you". I can't wait!! :)
As soon as the song is finished, I will be posting it on youtube, so look out for the video on my youtube account! http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFriendOfLife
Remember to subscribe, in order to get all the news first ;)

I am very excited about recording the song, I am sure it will be awesome!!
Can't wait to hear the final result!

Cheers!!

Aug 3, 2011

On vacation

Hey everyone!

I am so sorry that I haven't been updating much lately! I've been very busy with exams and when they ended, I went on vacation a week later.
I am now in Okinawa, and I've been on a small island called Zamami too. It has been great! Tomorrow we will be going on a bustour around Okinawa, and we will be seeing the okinawa Aquarium too! It will be great I am sure!! :) Can't wait to go around and get to see more of this island! Tomorrow is our last day here, we're going to Nagoya on the 4th!
There will be World Cosplay summit in Nagoya on the weekend of 6th and 7th of August, I will be going to cheer for the Danish team. :)
Of course I made myself a costume, Kagami Kuro from Kodomo no Jikan! Once a cosplayer, always a cosplayer right? :)

When I get back from my vacation, I will be working full time on my music! :) Hopefully I will be able to put up some more previews soon! :)

Sincerely
Liuwina

Jul 18, 2011

Youtube preview

So I decided to put a little preview of my song up on youtube for you all to hear!
The song is far from finished, so I just too a small part of the beginning, to let you all get a feeling of the song!
The song is called "Without you", I hope you will enjoy this exclusive preview! ;)

Jul 17, 2011

My first song

Today was a very productive day in terms of making my first song.

It is titled "without you" and it is a song I originally wrote back in 2005. It has been freshened up and new lyrics have been added!
We also got the arrangement of the entire song down, and now it is up to Yamazaki-san to do the instrumental arrangement and recordings.
He will send me the finished result sometime this week, and I will review it, and if it's good, we will be recording it on sunday at the studio in Harajuku.

I was supposed to have studied for my exams after Yamazaki-san went home, but I couldn't stop thinking about my song, we added a new chorus, and thus I had to come up with a great chorus lyric too.
It's a bit of a challenge, but I finally got the lyrics down, and I am now waiting for the "instrumental" version of my song to be finished!

I am very satisfied with the outcome of todays work.
I love making music!

A journey begins...

I have set out on a journey towards the stars, and I want share my quest with you all.
This blog will follow my journey towards the summit of my dreams, becoming a professional singer/songwriter.

It started when I was just a child. I was always singing and set up small plays with my sister, which we would make people watch.
As I grew older, I still loved to sing, but never really did much about it, until the age of 16, where my talents where discovered by my music teacher at the time. He helped me nurture my talent, and made me believe in my ability to sing.
That is when I realised, I would become a singer.
Alas, I was led astray on the path of education, since I was not able to read sheetmusic, I could not enter the school for music, and thus I let my dream of becoming a singer, sink into the background.
I then took an education as a graphics designer, though in the meantime, I had developed a new interest, namely in anime and manga. I began to cosplay in 2003, and I decided to study Japanese after I finished my graphics design education.
Once in a while I went to auditions, but I never really tried hard enough. My dream was always left in the corner of my concience.
I then entered Copenhagen University on Asian studies, with a major in Japanese. I spent a lot of time, trying to follow my interest in Japanese, but it only led to a lot of problems, and in the end, I had to take a break from it all.
I then applied for a scholarship in 2010, from Tokai University, and I got the scholarship.
For almost a year now, I have been living and studying in Japan. It was not until after the big quake, I realised what I had been doing my whole life. I had been avoiding following my heart and my one true dream, because I was simply afraid of failure! Thus I chased interests in several directions, in the hope of finding a stable ground to stand on, without realising that I was just running away from my fears.
March 2011, I woke up, and looked myself in the mirror. "who are you" ? I am Liuwina, and I will follow my dream, I will NOT just sit here and wait for a miracle to happen, it will not happen. I have to fight for my dream, I have to live every moment, for my dream! I will not falter! I will not give up!

So I started looking for oportunities to sing.
I found a band named R.I.O, which needed a female singer for the band, as a stand-in for their original singer, who was on sickleave.
Recently I found a producer named Yamazaki Toshihiro, who will help me write and produce 3 songs, before I return to Denmark. I will have a Demo CD with 3 of my own songs, lyrics written by myself, and music produced by Toshihiro and me.

I can hardly believe that in less than 4 months, I have taken such a huge leap towards my goal.
This is my story, and this is how it begins...
Will you follow me to the end and beyond?

Welcome to the quest in reaching for the stars!