Category Archives: Music

Finding Neverland – When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground

Posted in Music, Songs by

IMG_0359I may have a small obsession, and by small I mean the size of the world.  When I first heard about the show Finding Neverland last year in April I was beyond excited and knew I had to see the show as soon as it was in previews at the American Repertoire Theatre (ART) in Boston.  So, being the obsessive person I am, I called a friend that worked there and asked where the best seat was in the house, bought a ticket for a show in August 2014, and fell in love.

I am only assuming that now that it is on Broadway it has only improved in story, song composition, and acting, but the storyline of two unlikely people helping each other is a classic.  Plus Eliot Kennedy and Gary Barlow are geniuses.  I had been waiting for the casting soundtrack to come out because I was addicted to the song ‘When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground.’  Well my prayers have been answered because as of July 17, 2015 they are releasing the Broadway soundtrack (of the cast) and the first song that was released was (drumroll please) ‘When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground.’

So why is this particular song an audience favorite?  It has an adult coming to the realization that make believe is needed in your life at every age.  While a child is trying to deal with the pain of losing his father, his mother being sick, and the possibility of becoming an orphan.  The thoughts of a young Peter understanding that make believe doesn’t fix everything he is feeling.  The hate and anger he has towards his mother for wanting to keep her illness hidden from him and his brothers and make life normal when life isn’t normal.  This song takes you above the clouds and out of the dark that life can hold when bad things happen and when fear takes control.

The song opens with:

“When did life become so complicated?
Years of too much thought and time I wasted,
And in each line upon my face,
Is proof I fought and lived another day.

Most people have regrets in their lives.  They didn’t take the risk to ask that girl out on the train, didn’t take their dream job out of fear of failure, or didn’t make that big move for fear of being alone.  We allow fear to control our thoughts and our actions in life instead of just doing.  In the second verse it says, ‘I make believe I’m in control.’  I think this line sums it up that we allow fear to control.  Everyone thinks I am nuts for moving across the country with no job lined up, moving in with my family, and leaving everything I have built career wise on the east coast, but I am telling you that I don’t allow fear to control what I do.  Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and that is what this song is about.  Allowing yourself to open up and connect without the thought of fear.  J.M. Barrie’s story with the Llewelyn Davies was two families learning to make believe again, not allowing fear to control them, and a story that everyone wants to believe in.

Watch the video below of Matthew Morrison (J.M. Barrie) and Aiden Gemma (Peter) recording ‘When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground’. Click here to buy the album!

Like Sunday, Like Rain – Forever Connected by A Haunted Melody

Posted in Film, Music, Songs by

“No one cares about me…This is my life.  Welcome to the weirdness.  I’m just trying to navigate a course towards safety and sanity the best way I know how.”  This quote sets the stage for all the strangeness, hardships, and love that you encounter in the film Like Sunday, Like Rain.  It is a story of an unlikely relationship between Reggie, a lonely twelve year old, music prodigy, and genius, and Eleanor, a damaged twenty-three year old who has a broken relationship with her family and a hurtful love life.  The pair meets in an unlikely circumstance when Eleanor becomes the au pair to Reggie.

Eleanor introduces Reggie to connecting with someone that you can’t connect with through analysis or judgement.  She opens his eyes to the reality that someone cares about him even if he feels rejected by everyone else.  The story looks at two stages of life of the wealthy elite and the working class.  It analyses that two people from different worlds have more in common than what meets the eye.  The rejection and betrayal they feel by their families and others, they find comfort in one another.

The music by Ed Harcourt carries the plot and story as each composition adds a new layer to the thoughts and feelings of these two characters.  The piece “Like Sunday, Like Rain” is used  throughout the film to increase the emotions that the characters are feeling of hurt and sadness.  Eleanor’s first interaction with Reggie is listening to his piece being practiced at school.  She is almost in tears as it ends and is sitting in the dark theatre.  The composition spoke to her in a way that words could never achieve, made her miss something that she didn’t realized she missed.  As she spoke to Reggie, she connected with someone with just a handshake.  Reggie makes the comment “Life is a series of colossal mistakes.”  What I think he meant was that we are constantly learning, evolving, becoming the people that we hope to be.  We, as humans make rash decisions, allow the emotional to get in the way of the analysis, but is analysis better than taking a risk hoping we land our feet?  Life is about finding someone that can understand you.  Can sit with you in a room full of silence and not say a word.  Hold your hand without needing to say ‘I’m sorry,’ and be there whenever you need them to be.

This film is an innocent and beautiful story about two people being there for each other in a time of need, and continuing to be there for each other in the future even if they are not with each other physically.  Being two souls connected by music and living with each other in the haunted melody that is “Like Sunday, Like Rain.”  We could all use a reminder that we have been given a gift and it is our obligation to take care of it.  To take care of each other.  To constantly be reflecting on life and who we are.  And to always let the music speak when we are lost for words.

The video below is the piece “Like Sunday, Like Rain” by Ed Harcourt.  Watch the trailer here.

Now & Then – The Soundtrack to Generations Growing Up

Posted in Bands & Music Artists, Film, Music, Songs by

Growing up during the 90s, me and three of my friends were obsessed with the movie Now and Then.  We would watch it at my friend’s birthday sleepover ever year and think that we were those girls, and we were going to be them when we got older.  We thought that we would be friends forever, but time changed and we grew apart.  Now, I sit watching this movie in Boston alone and all I can think about are my parents.  We all wonder what our parents were like when they were kids.  Did they like the same hobbies we did?  What were their friends like?  What mistakes did they make?  What was it like for them in their first relationship?  Did they have people they didn’t get along with in school?  What was their favorite song when they were thirteen years old?  Watching this film these are thoughts that run through my head, and I realized that I don’t know the answers to most of these questions.

Now and Then is a coming of age story about four thirteen year old girls who made a pack to be there for each other no matter what, now and forever.  The film has flashbacks between present day and the 1970s, which in my parent’s case they would have been around thirteen too.   The girls grow up in that year – one them has feelings for a boy for the first time, they deal with death, understanding divorce, the loss of just having faith, and realizing that your parents are not always right.  We put our parents on these pedestals as kids; that they are untouchable, perfect, but in reality they are human too.  They make mistakes, can’t handle situations, and do things the best way they know how.  These four girls meet people throughout the film that teaches them these lessons, and the soundtrack is intertwined in those lessons if you listen closely.

The film soundtrack uses popular songs from the 1970s to set the stage. The movie flashes to the beginning of the summer of 1970 as ‘Daydream Believer’ by The Monkees plays in the background.  This shows the innocence that we all have when we are young.  The belief that anything is possible, full of hope, happiness, and faith.  The girls are riding their bikes on their next adventure singing along to ‘No Matter What’ by Badfinger.  Right after hearing this song, they run into the boys of the neighborhood who are constantly taunting them, which we all know is the universal sign of I have a crush on you.  The girls converse, where they decide it is payback time for all that has been done to them by the boys.  ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies plays as they paint the garage, dancing around and having fun with another; thinking that nothing will ever change, that nothing will ever separate them, but as an adult, people that you always thought would be there, sometimes leave – they get married, create families, and drift apart from their childhood.

As a kid you think that nothing will ever separate you with the people that you care about, but as we get older we lose what’s important.  We get caught up in our own lives and the mundane routine that controls it.  We lose touch with people (family and friends), get caught up in the failures that happen, and forget that sometimes you just have to have faith.  So, I leave you with this, “Things will happen in your life that you can’t stop.  But that is no reason to shut out the world.”   Call that person that you haven’t spoken to in years, break your routine everyday, and dance like a crazy person in the aisle of a grocery store with your best friend to your favorite song.  Continue the soundtrack of your life living with the good, the bad, and the ugly, not everything everyone says (including your parents) is right, ask your parents those burning questions before you can’t, and know that the people of your past are the people that made you who you are today.

Click here for a playlist of the Now and Then Soundtrack, and then go watch the movie!

Entertainment Down at the Beaches of Los Angeles

Posted in Music, Songs by

VeniceSo I have a big announcement readers…I am moving to Los Angeles in less than ten weeks and much of my immediate family has decided to move with me, including my parents and younger brother. During some time out there in April, my brother and I spent time down at the beaches (of course!). Unlike normal people on vacation who feel the need to cram every tourist like activity into a few days we were way more low key. We spent a lot of time walking around and checking out the beach communities including Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, Venice, and Santa Monica. The beaches are covered with people playing instruments and trying to pass samples of their music to people passing by in hopes that they have given their CD to a record executive.

So, here is what you got – Playa del Rey and Marina del Rey are the local crowds. Friends hanging out, passing around their guitar, and just relaxing. Venice is where people are passing around music with headphones and then once they give you the music they want a donation for giving you something, which to me is kind of shady.  If you are going to give out your music maybe you should do some promotion with the people that your talking to instead of giving them a CD and asking for a donation.  Your best way would be to get personal and give them a flyer to your next show.  Maybe they are a record executive and you just missed your shot by being lazy.  Anyway, if you are looking to avoid this “let me give you a CD and then ask for a donation thing” – during the day it is less frequent, but in the late afternoon/ evening it becomes a heavy crowd of ‘artists’ doing this.

The third area is Santa Monica. This is the best area to really hear people play music. We hung around the Third Street Promenade where there were many art acts from ‘Dancing Dave’ who didn’t really have much rhythm to musicians. There were two types of musicians – really hot guys who decided it was best to play with an open shirt.  I mean seriously dude have some respect for yourself.  If people like your music they will come and listen, and if not then keep practicing and playing eventually it will happen.  Is it really necessary to have your shirt open and make yourself a piece of meat?

Then there was this violinist.  He played all current radio hits like Shake It Off (Taylor Swift), Jealous (Nick Jonas), and Love Me Like You Do (Ellie Goulding).  Now mind you I am not a huge fan of Ellie Goulding’s new song and I made that known every time we were in the car and it came on the radio and I changed the station.  Do you know when you hear a cover of a song and you don’t recognize it at all?  Well, when this violinist started playing this song I made my brother sit and listen.  I was totally mesmerized by this young man’s playing and I am pretty sure I was going on and on about how beautiful the song was that the violinist was playing.  Of course, having complained about this song all week my brother started laughing and thought I was kidding. Needless to say I didn’t hear the end of it for a few days, but it was totally worth listening to him play.  He slowed down the tempo and had a smoothness to his playing.  Plus in my opinion everything sounds amazing with a string instrument.  He had business cards to promote himself saying that he played at parties, weddings, and studio contract work.  He also had CDs to sell as well as stayed in the area to talk to people after he was done playing. He was extremely personable and connected with his audience.  Street musicians study this man!  He knows what he is doing.  We came back for two or three days in a row and he always had a crowd around him.  I wouldn’t doubt if we see him playing Walt Disney Concert Hall someday.