A song of love and loss...

It has been a long time, since my last blog.
For a long time, I have been busy with this and that, I thought about blogging, but somehow I was always too tired to get it done.
I wanted to blog more often, at least once a week, it's just harder to get it done, than you'd think.
I apologize once again, for not updating more often.

From December 2012, I have lived in Japan, I spent the first 3 months in Nagano, at a skiing resort, working at a restaurant for very little money. It was OK and I got to ski a lot, which I enjoyed very much. I also loved being in the beautiful nature in the mountains of Hakuba.
After that job ended, I went to Tokyo area, and settled down just outside of Tokyo in a shared house.
Then I started working as an English teacher, doing all sorts of teaching jobs, at one point I had like 5 different jobs. I also traveled a lot around Japan, and went to many interesting places.

I did my best to send out my demo to all the music companies that I could find online, and I was contacted by one Shibuki, from Zelfstanding, an independant record company.
He offered med a possibility to sing and build up an audience, by entering the monthly amateur live show "That's Dream Collection". I had some fun with performing live a couple of times at this little live house in Ikebukuro. It was a good experience for me, but I could never gather enough people to come and see me.
You see, everyone I know here in Japan is either a student or really busy working, and nobody seems to have the time or the money to go to Tokyo and pay 2500 yen for the entrance, to see me sing approximately 15 minutes. So naturally, I never really had an audience, and nobody would vote for me as crowd favorite, seeing that everyone had come to see someone else in the show, and would naturally vote for them.
It really didn't get me anywhere closer to my dream.

Then I was offered to do the theme song of a new anime, but the production was delayed because of problems with the artist, and thus is now on hold. I guess I won't be singing the theme song anytime soon.

In August I participated in World Karaoke Grand Prix (Anisong version) and I won 2nd place. I was really happy, and life seemed to be going great. The show was broadcast live in on Japans biggest site for videos, "Nikonikodouga". It was even broadcast on TV, the TV Aichi channel.
The next day, my grandfather's younger sister, Lone, whom we've always had a close relationship to, but over the past years it grew stronger, died from lung cancer.
I went home to attend the funeral. It was a really sad time for all of us. I stayed in Denmark for two weeks, and went to see most of my friends and family.
Then I returned to Japan, and my friends started visiting me from Denmark. Things started to lighten up a bit, and I felt that I might be able to return to a regular life...

In October, I had to leave everything behind for a while and go home to Denmark, as my grandmother had gotten terminally ill, it was very sudden, a dissected aorta, and the doctors were unable to do anything, but keeping her blood pressure down.
I went home on the 19th of October, 3 days after she was hospitalized and stayed by her side, until she passed away on the 27th of October. I just couldn't believe that she died, it was just wrong and unfair.
She could have had at least another 10 years of happy life with us, she was so sad, and full of regret on her deathbed, she told me, how she would have loved, to have had just a few more years with my grandfather, how she regretted, that they never got around to going on their hotel stay (they had gotten a gift card for their 80th birthday in the summer). She told me never to postpone what you want to do...and never to wait for something to happen. But to make it happen.
May her soul rest en peace.. How I miss her, how we all miss her.
Since then I have been questioning what I am doing. I want to live for my dream, and follow it wherever it leads me, but at the same time, I am leaving my loved ones behind.
She told me to live now, and with no regrets.
I am trying to do just that.

I wrote a song for her, which I will be recording soon. It's called "The guiding Star"

I will post the lyrics in another post.

"never live life with regret"

In Memory of two great ladies! You are sorely missed!

A new project

I know it's been forever since my last blog entry and for that I truly apologise. I've been busy with my every day life since i got back from Japan, working, exercising, practicing and planning my working holiday to Japan.

But today I have exiting news for everyone, I am currently involved in a project to make a song for the Danish preliminaries to the eurovision song contest 2013!
I have the pleasure of working with a Norwegian singer/songwriter called Henrik Hoem, who has written a great song for me to sing. We have been co-writing the lyrics for this song and we will be recording the demo version on July 26th in Oslo, Norway.
I wish I could share the song with you all immediately, but it has to be kept as an absolute secret, until after they reveal who is chosen for the competition, should I be chosen, you will not be hearing the song until around the preliminaries, because leaking it online, is against the rules and the song will be disqualified.
So I am afraid you will just have to sit back and wait patiently.

I am just really exited about the project, and rest assured that I will be spending every drop of my sparetime on making this song a real hit song.

Meanwhile, I have set up an account on reverbnation.com/Liuwina
Please check it out! There you can become my fan, and help me by sharing my songs around the internet with your friends!
You can also buy my songs in the store digitally, only $0,99 a song!
Please support me by purchasing my songs! Anything I earn on my music goes into paying for more studiotime, making new songs, and all other expenses I may have when it comes to making music!
I really need your support!

Soon my song "a little love" will be available for digital purchase through itunes, amazon, etc. And even free online music streaming services such as spotify. ^^ help me by purchasing or listening to my song on online streaming. The more listeners the better!

As you can see, I have a lot going on, I am also going to make a music video for each of my songs! And I will be looking forward to sharing it with all of you, on YouTube! So make sure you've signed up to following my YouTube account, thefriendoflife =^3^=

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or if you're a musician looking to make a collaboration!

Keep smiling
Love
Liuwina

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

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!

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..

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!

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