Music
I
scene
n the last few months, I’ve covered different aspects of the music business, including how social media helps artists, house concerts and a behind-the-stage look at a working Maine musician building his career (Connor Garvey). This month, I thought I’d take the column to an even earlier stage of an artistic career. Alice Limoges is 16 years old and a junior in high school in Camden. Last October, she released her first singer-songwriter album “Not Gonna Fall Asleep Tonight”. You can find it along side every major act in the music business on iTunes and Amazon. com. How did this come to be? Alice says she starting playing guitar at age 11 in the sixth grade because of a great music teacher, who inspired kids to pick up instruments. Unlike many other beginners, she wasn’t interested in learning other people’s songs; yet, she loved singing, so as she practiced her guitar chords from school she starting singing over them, started adding lyrics – a natural progression – and discovered she was writing songs. Music is a big part of her life but it wasn’t only the guitar playing and songwriting. Alice had been involved in music before that very important sixth grade music class. She was an orphan in the musical “Oliver” in third grade with the Camden Civic Theatre. Going to rehearsals that summer was amazing. She loved the music and the people and discovered that it was not so much the acting but the music that attracted her. So she started doing musicals every summer, then came the guitar lessons and then school chorus. In sixth grade, she entered the school talent show and performed a “cheesy” – her words – song she wrote and sang it with two other friends. She says it was not a winners / losers kind of contest just an exhibition of talents and Alice was the only person that performed an original song. She realized that she loved the creation of the music and the audience response – she was hooked. She continued doing talent shows in middle school and joined a teacher-led rock band that performed classic rock songs. One of her highlights from that period of time was singing The Beatle’s “Oh Darling” at the eighth grade graduation when she was in seventh grade. In high school, Alice and a group of like-minded student musicians got together under the name “The Cause” to play benefits for charities. This got her interested in real performances. After her freshman year at high school Alice started calling local restaurants, coffeehouses, local festivals, any place she could think of, to ask if she could play and more often than not she was invited to perform. (If you remember the column about Connor Garvey a few months ago, this is the pattern that repeats over and over with serious professional musicians. If the dedication is there there’s no waiting for someone else to help. They’re motivated to do it themselves) That inspired her to think about recording her songs and actually putting out an album.
8
Music from the beginning!
By Marc Ratner
So in the summer of 2010 she started driving (well, her mother did the driving at that point) to a recording studio in Hallowell (run by Bob Colwell) to start recording songs. She worked with musicians that worked at the studio (Steve Jones on guitar, Dickie Hollis on drums, Scott Elliot on bass, and Bob on piano). They worked on and off for a year on the songs as Alice rewrote songs, wrote more songs, improved her guitar playing and singing and learned recording techniques. She says it was a huge learning experience playing with a band in the studio as opposed to onstage. When asked about the difference and what she learned Alice had a lot to say: “I thought I was so much better than I actually was. After you hear yourself in the studio over and over again you really learn about the difference between an amateur musician and being professional. Performing live allows you to learn to ‘fake it.’ You can make a mistake and just work through it but an album is eternal. Recording teaches you how to come closer to perfection but it’s not about being perfect. It’s a snapshot of who you are as a musician at that moment. Songs are dynamic and change with performance and time. That came as a surprise to me. Creating music is such an organic process. I’s like exercise for your soul. Being a musician allows you to understand more closely other people’s music and makes you more accepting of other types of music that you might not have cared for before and even scoffed at. There’s a common ground between musicians that you understand even though each person’s music is uniquely original to them. It’s interesting that music grows with you – I started as a little girl and now as I get older – everything about it changes and grows but the entire process is wonderful.” Alice felt that she had finished an album’s worth of material in the summer of 2010. Once the recording was finished she had to learn more studio techniques, mixing and mastering and then think about artwork. She released her album “Not Gonna Fall Asleep Tonight” in October 2011. The title is the first line of the opening song of the album. Alice says it just seemed right for the title. The Portland Press Herald ran a great review of “Not Gonna Fall Asleep Tonight” on Dec. 7th. Writer Mike Olcott had some great things to say about Alice and the album: “It helps that young Limoges comes across as studied (a mark of humility) rather than Bieber-precocious (the worst). “Afraid of the Dark” casts
a murky dread across a warm country arrangement befitting Fleetwood Mac. “Catch Me” features loving lead fills, courtesy of Steve Jones, who accompanies Limoges’ rich voice all over the album. The voice is really the meal ticket, with Limoges wielding a low register that reminds one of Regina Spektor..... It’ll be a blast to watch this young singer, awash in talent, hone her craft until her inevitable breakthrough.”
Music picks this month: Sara Willis’ Album Picks from “In Tune By Ten” on MBPN It’s sisters and brothers this month... love the new Wood Brothers.... Smoke Ring Halo. Chris and Oliver Wood deliver another great soulful CD. They have the funk and the depth to make it real.
Since the release of the album she’s been playing a lot more gigs. Rock City Cafe in Rockland is one of her favorite places to play. Erica Sanchez books the music. Erica says that Alice is in the core of about 20 artists that she rotates at Rock City. They feature music Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it’s all free. Rock City first started booking musicians in 2009. It was a slow winter and they were wondering what to do to bring more people in. First they tried “Game Night”. That didn’t work. So they asked their customers.
Also sisters from Sweden, Klara and Johanna Soderberg’s (aka First Aid Kit) new CD The Lion’s Roar is gorgeous; harmonies and great songwriting abound. They have completely mastered the American idiom. Those Swedes have a way!
Everyone wanted music. They started having musicians in first on Friday nights and now they’re up to three nights a week. Erica listens to all the music that’s submitted and is looking for music that’s appropriate for a family setting. Every once in a while she’ll take a chance on someone that doesn’t even have a CD. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Most nights are usually packed and they have seating for 50 or more. The acts play for free. Tips are appreciated and it’s a great place to sell their CDs / T-shirts - whatever they have. Of course, now that Rock City Cafe is in their new larger location and serves dinner, the acts get fed for free. They used to just get coffee and cookies. Erica is delighted that Rock City is becoming a music hot spot for Rockland and especially for all ages. It’s almost all local artists with an occasional musician from Boston that knows the shop and wants to play there. Erica’s advice for artists that want to play at Rock City: Call. Regarding Alice, Erica says that Alice came in one day asking if she could play. Unbeknownst to Alice, Erica had already seen her perform and was a fan, so it was a great match.
Denis Howard’s Album Picks from WERU The first big breakout of the new year at WERU – is Charlie Faye – a female originally from NYC who now lives in Austin. The album is “Travels With Charlie”. Charlie got frustrated with touring and only seeing airports, venues and hotels so she decided to travel to different cities one month at a time and write a song and record it with local musicians in each location. The album first came into the station at the end of the summer amidst a huge amount of new CDs and over the holidays the staff finally discovered the CD and it’s become a station favorite six months after its release.
Alice had her album release show at Rock City and it was a rousing success. I was there, it was packed and Alice was terrific. Alice’s CD, “Not Gonna Fall Asleep Tonight”, is available on Amazon and iTunes and she’s already at work on a new recording. She feels that even in the time since the first album was recorded the new songs she’s written since show a lot of growth – even for someone still in high school. The new songs have more jazz influences than the more folk influenced songs from the first album. Alice says they’re not better or worse than the old songs they’re just a different snapshot because she’s already a different musician.
You can hear the album at reverbnation. com/alicelimoges and learn more about Alice at: facebook.com/ alicelimogesmusic Next month - how much time does it take to program a one hour music show? You’ll be surprised.
theSCENE • February 2012