Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
April 25th, 2012 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
when I originally signed to Chrysalis, the plan was that I would be a staff writer while my producer Ethan Johns and I developed my follow up to “Restless Night.” Well, as the music biz goes, Ethan’s star began to really rise that year (I think he produced Joe Cocker and Tom Jones that year!) A year later there had been no movement on my project. My A&R sat me down and clarified for me that Chrysalis had signed me as a writer, not an artist, so I needed to let go of expecting support as an artist and stay focused on writing for the country and pop markets.
Initially I was devastated by this news. The game had changed without my knowing it and while I had discovered I really loved staff writing, it was also important to me to balance that with my own artistic endeavors. Then I thought “Fuck it! This is still an opportunity!” I planned a writing trip for myself to London and Nashville. I found that in my home town of LA the co-writes came… slowly… but if I planned a trip to those two cities, Chrysalis would stack me up with meets. I realized that, to keep working as a staff writer, I was going to have to hustle to build a library of material and start getting cuts. They say it takes 5 years to break through as a staff writer in the songwriting market. I knew I probably didn’t have that kind of time.
While in London, I discovered a bunch of my Nashville country music co-writes had fallen through. I was having dinner with the amazingly talented Gary Clark and he said “you have to write with my friend Bill Demain in Nashville, he’s amazing!” That’s all I needed to hear. I contacted Bill and we set up a session.
When I got to Nashville I became really aware of all the incredible music that was going on there, which was not Country. I had been there a few times, but this time it really started to gel for me. Nashville was alive with MUSIC in a way that for me London, NY and LA were not, as much. Journeyman artists were making music for music’s sake and the spirit of the town really rubbed off on me. I decided I would somehow find a way to make my own record as an artist, with or without support.
When I arrived at Bill’s apartment, we had a blank slate… no specific agenda for our writing session. We got to talking and discovered our shared loved of bossa nova music. We decided to write a bossa song for the hell of it, not sure where it would lead but going strictly on the fact that we both loved the style.
Bill brought out some amazing lyrics he had stashed away. “Slowly… I’ve been coming ’round, waking to a soft and distant sound, like music from another room calling to me.” He had written all the lyrics for the verses and was just in need of a bridge idea. I came up with “clouds over the moon” because I could not resist interjecting some doubt and uncertainty in the mix!
The thing that really blew me away about Bill’s lyrics is how he was able to be unabashedly romantic without it sounding in any way saccharine. This was a skill I did not yet possess! The only way I was capable of writing songs about love is if I was writing about what interferes with loving. I hadn’t yet learned how to write from the position of being in love! Bill knew how to do that. So, we were a great match because he kept things genuinely hopeful!
I immediately heard a melody for the song and Bill instantly knew where to take the chords. He’s a wonderfully talented guitarist and his love of bossanova has been absorbed into his fingers! Once we had settled on the bridge lyrics, that came effortlessly as well. I would say, all in all, the Slowly session was one of the most satisfying and easy songwriting sessions I’ve ever had. We both were thrilled with the song and as a result we both ended up including it on our separate projects. Bill’s band Swan Dive cut a version of it that just got placed in NBC’s new sitcom, Best Friends Forever!
So how did we go from writing that first song together, when I thought all was lost for my follow up project, to sitting in the room together in Hollywood’s Sound Factory as we recorded my cd “Dominoes” 8 months later??? Stay tuned for my next installment of the soap opera, “As the Bossa Turns” to find out! Meanwhile, to hear “Slowly” scroll over the music player on the right sidebar.
December 1st, 2011 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Hi All,
I have a new fan page on facebook: www.facebook.com/juliannarayemusic
I’m excited to connect with you all in the deeper virtual web so c’mon and like me!
In other news I’m getting my EP, “How to Fail at Love” ready to share with the world. I’ll keep you posted.
Bye for now,
Julianna xoxo
April 20th, 2011 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Hey all, I’m hosting this at Against the Stream meditation center, 1001A Colorado Blvd. Santa Monica. Sponsored by the Harmony Festival www.harmonyfestival.com this is a donations only event. Pop Go Zen takes live music to a whole new level, training listeners in fun, simple skills to increase enjoyment and decrease stress. Group energy is powerful and listening to live music is one of life’s great pleasures. But, sometimes you’re too distracted to enjoy! Even if you are able to concentrate, you may be interested in skills that deepen and enrich the experience; skills you can carry with you to improve your whole life! Learn some simple techniques and then enjoy a live performance by very special guest, Ben Lee. Pop Go Zen: Change your life, one song at a time and have a blast doing it! www.popgozen.com
October 17th, 2010 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Hi all, I have some happy news to report. Japan’s oldest independent record label, Vivid Sound, will be releasing my cd Dominoes in Japan!!! I’m very excited about this and will keep you informed as things unfold. 
December 22nd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Hi All, My Bossa Nova flavored cd Dominoes, produced by Ethan Johns, was nominated for an Independent Music Award for Best Concept Album! The Popular vote concludes in June so please click Slowly on the widget below. HERE’S A LINK TO BUY THE CD! http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/juliannaraye
It’s an honor to be nominated!
Julianna xoxoxo
December 2nd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Lately I have been hosting dear pals in my humble abode and it has been a sweet and musical feast! My friend Joe Pisapia came to town a couple weeks ago working on a fantastic song he wrote with KD Lang. He and I wrote “Summer On My Mind” together… he really is a brilliant writer, player, producer and all around lovely human being. Right now another friend from Nashville Courtney Jaye is sitting in my living room singing along to a fave of hers, Bryan Cates. Courtney and I have written a few wonderful songs together, a couple of which will likely be on her next release. If you’re not familiar with her music you must check it out!!!
In other news I’m getting ready to head up to Oakland to participate in Judith Owen and Harry Shearer’s Christmas extravaganza! I’ll also be sitting in on a song or two at the Broad in Santa Monica on Dec. 13th.Â
Finally, I’m in the process of finishing up an EP entitled MUSE which will probably be completed by the beginning of the year. It’s a group of piano ballads marking a new but related direction for me and I’m really proud of the songs.
That’s it for now. I wish you all you wish for yourself and more.
Jx
October 5th, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Hello all,
Some nice stuff is happening lately so I thought it best to slap a post up and announce to the world. There was a lovely profile of my cd Dominoes in last month’s issue of Beige magazine in the UK. In October’s Jazzwise the UK’s premiere Jazz magazine there is an amazing 4 star review! I’ll post it when I get a copy Also I did an appearance on a talk show called the M Show, a show for moms which will be airing there sometime this fall. Last but not least, I had an opportunity to perform a few weeks back at the Grammy Museum in honor of the release of the Cy Coleman tribute cd, “the best is yet to come.” I sing a bossa version of his first cut ever “i’m gonna laugh you right out of my life” made popular by none other than nat king cole. The cd is quite an amazing collection of ladies including Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin, Missy Higgins, Madeleine Peyroux, Sam Philips, Ambrosia Parsley, Sarah Watkins, Perla Batalla, Jill Sobule and Sarabeth Tucek. The night at the grammy museum was so rich in musical expression it was inspiring and Chris Morris who moderated the evening referred to me as his favorite torch singer, which doesn’t hurt!
That’s all I got for now. I noticed someone posted a bunch of songs from my first cd on youtube. Pretty cool. Someday i’m gonna do a video for Dominoes.
Keep sending me the good vibes and I will keep sending them back.
Bye for now,
Julianna x
August 3rd, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Ok so for the past couple of months I’ve been using my music blog to talk about meditation… well now I don’t have to because I’ve got a whole sight devoted to that called Meditating Now so check it out when you have a moment.
Meanwhile on the music tip I’ve had a really fun few weeks. At the beginning of July the episode of Wedding Day I did aired on TNT. I sing a couple of John Hiatt songs for a lovely couple who are having the wedding of their dreams. It was a really fun and poignant thing to do… to participate in a day two people will remember for the rest of their lives was a real honor.Â
I then went to the UK to the premiere of friend Rufus Wainwright’s opera, entitled La Prima Donna. It was brilliant! The music was rich, the themes memorable the characters well defined and the libretto was a deceptively simple and moving tale. Kudos!! This was a childhood dream realized for Rufus and if you ever have the opportunity you should check out the opera. While in London I did a show of my own at the Spice of Life a great little club in Soho. We packed the joint and a great and raucus Bossa Nova filled time was had by all!
Upon my return I did a talk show called the M show, hosted by the fabulous and visionary Angelyna Martinez. The M Show addresses the needs and interests of Moms and it was great fun to perform Dominoes for it. The show will air in Europe and the UK sometime in the fall. I’ll keep you updated as to when.
Last but definitely not least I have been writing and demoing of late and coming up with some songs I am damn excited about so stay tuned 
I wish you every happiness!
Bye for now,
Julianna xoxo
July 25th, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
Any kind of longing is separation focused. We are gripped by an impression of distance in time and space and our attention is preoccupied with a particular thing, person, goal or memory, which represents that distance. For example, being at work and wishing you were on vacation, you imagine yourself in Hawaii. You know vacation time is not in the near future and that Hawaii is far away, thus you feel separate from Hawaii in time and space. Sometimes we feel separation acutely, as alienation. In that case, the whole world around us becomes the object from which we feel separate. Everywhere we turn we see signs of our separateness and we may also remember a time in the past and another place where we once had a sense of belonging, heightening our isolation now. Our relationship to separation can cause us untold suffering and when we are suffering we are more likely to inflict suffering on others. The problem is not that we experience separation. Separation is inevitable, it is a function of being alive. The problem is the degree to which we are unconsciously gripped by the experience of separation and the degree to which we consciously feel trapped in it. In school we are trained to analyze, navigate and orient ourselves in our world. We are trained in appropriate social behavior, self expression and how to be a productive member of society. Our schooling revolves around attending to separation. We are not taught to focus our attention on the unseparate, on that which is the foundation of all experience and therefore inherent in but not limited to any one experience. Paradoxically, this nothingness (as in no thing from which we feel separate) can be known by the conscious mind and in that moment of knowing, our sense of separateness completely disappears for an instant into oneness, which means we disappear with it. There is no longer an impression of “I”. There cannot be a witness. The impression of when and where has stopped so there is no thing to witness and no time to measure events in. Meditation trains our attention towards what is uniting us all to erase our impression of separation, momentarily. This is experiential. When our minds experience this absence of separation consciously, for even a split second, the result is a deep sense of relief. In fact, all relief you have ever known is this coming into contact with the absence of separation. For example, the absence of thirst or hunger gives us a sense of satisfaction. The food or drink is just the vehicle our minds ascribe our satisfaction to. We are in the habit of perceiving conditions from only this perspective. We can choose to develop the inverse perspective. We cannot necessarily focus on what is not there, but we can focus on what is passing away, moment by moment. Engaging in that activity leads us to this direct experience of nothingness or oneness. In mindfulness meditation, this is done by exploring each of the ways we receive sensory input and recognizing it’s wave quality. For example, intellectually we know sound to be a wave. Meditation trains us to listen carefully to the comings and goings of sound. We listen with so much care that we become totally engrossed in the sound as it comes and goes and we become participants in that activity. Eventually we no longer feel separate from the sound and when it goes away we can let our awareness go away with it. Consciously cultivating this focus on the passing away of separation enhances these moments, builds a momentum of fulfillment over time and gives our minds a choice so that we can make the most of any experience.
June 1st, 2009 -- Posted in Uncategorized |
First, some music news: Dewberry Wine has been getting spins on KCRW and Dominoes is now available for purchase on my website and on itunes, amazon, cdbaby, indierhythm. If you have the cd and you love it please leave a review on one of these fine sites and if you’ve been wanting to purchase it, go forth and do it, baby! Also, if you live in the Los Angeles area COME TO MY SHOW ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 8PM, MOLLY MALONES. I won’t be playing in town again for a while!
On the meditation front, lately I’ve been working with the emotional ocean in a way that can be very helpful. When I’m meditating and challenging emotions are rising up, I steer away initially and ground my awareness in some other soothing aspect of experience, like relaxation. Once I’ve established clear, strong contact with relaxation I turn my attention back to the swirl of emotions. The emotions will get larger because relaxation leaves them room to breath but they will also become more diffused and they will then dissipate more tangibly into peace, bringing deep relief. You can also label each emotion or group of emotions as they come up to enhance clarity and help the process feel more manageable. This all can take a lot of effort for a couple of reasons. First, painful emotions are scary. In reaction to the fear, the mind kicks in and tries to solve the feelings away. But, that’s just fear talking and the moment you find yourself buying into that fear you know it’s time to reground yourself in relaxation. Second, the qualities of relaxation may be subtle compared to the big storm of emotions, making relaxation challenging to focus on. However, if you can manage to do it, it can be a great way to establish an anchor on stormy seas and to remind yourself you are not your feelings. In my experience, when you are able to live through painful emotions in this way, miraculous things happen… unexpected breakthroughs in personal relationships and unprecedented release from old, bad habits of mind. The way we view our circumstances is just habitual, founded on the way we were trained as children and on the unprocessed emotional build up of our past. We’re just in a habit of reinforcing some particular world view, an aspect of which is emotional overlay and we can train the mind to break that habit. We do this by living through painful emotions in this new way so that we are neither getting trapped by them nor are we shoving them aside or dissociating. We are simply staying anchored in a larger sense of self and allowing the energy in emotions to be released. Then we are much freer to cultivate and share compassion, gratitude, happiness, etc. It takes discipline, clarity of intention and focus to train the mind away from indulging in the ubiquitous emotional junk food we’re surrounded by and caught in. This is a powerful form of recycling. We’re relating to emotional suffering in a new way that releases trapped energy and liberates us. It’s a daily, moment by moment practice. Talking about it reminds me to do it. I know the more often I am able to do it, the more I can really be of service in the world, helping everyone keep our collective emotional ocean clean.
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