So here I’m back with a song I have struggled with a couple of times. Two years ago I recorded a version based on somebody else’s arrangement but that didn’t work for my voice. A while ago I made my own very simple arrangement but that was in a time when I generally struggled with vocal recording – I just couldn’t find the perfect settings on my recording machine – and you always sing differently depending on how you hear yourself during recording – So that version had its problems too.
But this new recording turned out to be quite nice, I think. It’s not the original classical melody line – it’s simplified, because I realized that I don’t like my more forced, semi-classical singing that much.

I wanted to sing it like I would sing a simple folksong, a lullaby.
Because that’s what this song is for me really.

Verschwiegene Liebe by Hugo Wolf, words by Joseph von Eichendorff

There’ll be a few songs coming up on a weekly basis (I hope). I have found some of my old instrumental tracks again and I’ll record new vocals for them -then I’ll add them here. Other people’s songs for the final period of this year. I’ll return with my own compositions in 2010.
Enjoy, – A

Oh, and you can find the free download of the song at my website
www.andreseifert.com
where it sounds better than in this video clip. I don’t know why but YouTube converting always messes up the sound of my music.

An older version of this  song ruined my previous effort “Demotape”. I’m very embarrassed about the version that was on that EP, but the new version is good.

Maybe there are still a few minor sound issues, but all in all it’s a great improvement and I don’t have to be ashamed of the vocals anymore.

I would also say that this new version is true to the  musical style I have developed over the years, the previous version still had an arrangement from 2007.

There will be a new collection featuring this song coming soon.

Originally I posted this video on YouTube, but – YouTube erased the sound, thanks to the newest trick of the copyright police it’s no longer possible to present little clips like this one anymore because they scan the audiotrack and probably every song in the world ( that has ever been released commercially) is recognized and removed.

And this song is from 1964 – it amazes me that something as old as this still bothers the recording industry. They don’t want to lose a single penny. But they don’t understand the value of the jukebox that YouTube had been until now: People could get a first impression of an artist and a song – I’m sure many, many people bought CDs and legal downloads after they had heard a song on YouTube. Now the recording industry has  taken down this huge  potential.

It’s the day the music died – on youtube.

Anyway, I found an alternative – and here’s Part I of the Jukebox Diaries. I wonder how long it will remain online – maybe they will do the same at other video services soon.

Judy Collins has always been one of my favourite singers – There’s a series of about 10 albums she recorded between 1961 and 1972 that is like the Holy Grail to me. Her singing has inspired me and often soothed my confusion and pain. This song is called “In The Heat Of The Summer” – one of many personal favourites I have. It’s from “Judy Collins’ fifth album” – an unspectacular title for a truly stunning collection of songs. I hope you will enjoy it.

Today I introduce my new EP to you. You can download it for free at my website www.andreseifert.com

There’s also a free digital booklet available: Download Booklet

There are four songs on it from which I think that they represent my work and my artistic identity well. In the coming weeks I’ll introduce each song on its own. Here’s the video to the song “The Key” – unfortunately the video quality at youtube keeps getting worse, at least that’s my impression. But you can see a better version at my website.

Well, what can I tell you? I’m really exhausted right now. I can only hope that this time this is really a beginning and not another failure. I’m in need of a bit of success – emotionally, spiritually – and I’m not even thinking about money now. It would be nice if every artist could live from the fruits of his labour, but on the other hand – the monetary system has never been fair on our kind – most artists never earn money for their art or their art is being sold after they are dead.

It’s always been a matter of good PR and marketing whether someone succeeds as an artist or not – and not all artists are  very gifted marketing people. In that sense I have lost quite a few illusions.

When I released my first album to the world in 2007 I really had the naive worldview that you will succeed in your field when you have something good to offer. But of course that’s not the case at all. So now I expect very little.

But you can help me in some non-financial ways if you do enjoy my work. It’s just important to spread the word. I guess it’s a bit like having a godchild in Africa. Many people do that. You can also support an unknown artist – it doesn’t take much effort and it’s an act of kindness with a positive effect.

I made a

Support

page with a few suggestions – and yes, that campaign picture is somewhat risky. But who wants to look at a boring picture?

I just hope it is a small beginning. I hope I won’t lose the faith again and that setbacks won’t make me feel so bad anymore. Now I’ll have to get a bit of rest.

Take care, everyone – A

Here’s a quick note to everyone who’s interested – I’m obviously in the process to figure out some things – one new thing I’m trying is to blog about things that are not directly related to my music, but there are musical news! Very soon there will be a new free EP available at my website for everyone to download (to be precise: it will be on Jamendo again, just like the last one).

In fact the EP is already finished, but there are so many other things to do in order to make it a real relaunch of my website – a new design, new videos etc.

I also want to make a digital booklet for the EP and I have realized that I do have to get back into the ring of social networking on the internet.

I dropped out of it last year – with the devastating result that almost nobody seems to be interested in my music anymore. So I’ll have to get back into it, but this time I hope I can manage to be smarter, more professional and less naive about it. There was some personal hurt involved the last time around – that’s why I dropped out in the first place.

Anyway, I feel quite energetic as I finally have a new goal and  a new approach. i don’t want to die as an unknown singer and I don’t want to die very soon – so I’ll just have to fight. And I will need some non-financial help from everyone who cares a bit  about my music. You can’t make it on your own these days.

Stay tuned, please – I’m sure the EP will be ready for download in one or two weeks. I hope that my computer will not dissapoint me – the power supply seems to have a defective contact or something like that. Today it took several failed attempts before I could finally turn on my PC – and that worries me quite a bit, given the amount of work that lies ahead (What makes it even more dissapointing is the fact that the PC is only 3 months old).

Regarding the blog:

In the not so distant future I will try to introduce the Venus Project to you – that’s a thing I believe in right now. And I’m currently reading the “Watchmen” comic book. Unfortunately the movie’s not playing anywhere near me. Taking the train to the next big city where it plays would cost a fortune.  But I hope it will come here in a while, the comic book is truly as great as everybody says. That’s all for now. Go see the movie if you have a chance to.  Greetings, – A

Usually I’m not too interested in films about historic persons like politicians and other leader figures as I think they often tend to glorify their subjects and therefore fail to show them as real people.

Luckily, Gus van Sant’s “Milk” does not fall into this category and that is largely due to Sean Penn, who delivers one of the finest performances of his entire career. Most people know that Mister Penn is a very fine actor who often chooses to portray broken, torn-apart characters to great effect. With his strong features and his energetic body language, hinting at a violence and uncontrollable anger that is buried just a little bit underneath the skin, he has a profound ability to evoke fear in an audience. In “Milk” he finally gets the chance to prove that his talent as an actor is not that limited. He can slip into a totally different role – he’s never been that far away from his usual type-casting that shows him in roles that are somehow always related to his off-screen image as an angry, hot-blooded man ( – an image that is probably one of those myths created by Madonna).
In the past he has already proven that he can play more subdued roles – an example being “I am Sam”, though that was generally not well-received. One of his best performances so far had been his role in “The Assassination of Richard Nixon”, a film that was largely ignored or panned by the critics and the audience – but it must have been one of the performances that lead to his casting as Harvey Milk. In “The Assasination…” he played a mild-mannered but increasingly desperate man who faces constant humiliation from his former wife and his boss. Penn was very moving in this film and now in “Milk” there’s no more despair, no more terror driving his character and it’s refreshing to finally see this actor in the role of someone who is not hunted by inner demons.
It is also a revelation. Sean Penn is a real actor, not one from the Brangelina-school of acting on the basis of three different facial expressions and so-called “star power”.

Penn’s Harvey Milk is a likeable man in his forties who speaks in a soft manner which is a reflection of his attitude towards life. He appears to be exceptionally calm and peaceful, even though his life had not been free of conflict as he had stayed in the closet about his sexuality until he was 40 years old. A man who lost three of his partners to suicide, as he notes in one scene of the film. His life opens up when he meets the young Scott Smith (played by James Franco) who encourages him to come out and to fight for a better life. Scott Smith was indeed the driving force that made the phenomenon of the first openly gay elected man in a position of political power possible. Ironically or just sadly, their relationship suffered badly from Harvey’s political ambitions that had been fuelled by Harvey’s love for Scott, his wish to be able to live with Scott in a better world. Along the path of becoming more and more successful in his political endeavours Harvey begins to neglect his personal life and Scott leaves – a fact that does not even seem to bother Harvey very much.

James Franco is another particularly strong actor in this film. He portraits Scott Smith with great warmth, still slightly boyish in the beginning, mature and at peace with the loss of the love of his life towards the ending of the film. The character of Scott Smith remains important throughout the film, as he tries to protect a member of Harvey’s team from the leader’s increasingly demanding attitude. Harvey Milk wants every gay man and woman in the country to come out – that’s his vision and goal as he thinks that might convince the heterosexual majority that the gay people are everywhere and therefore can’t be that dangerous. But Harvey no longer cares about the personal consequences when he demands from his young supporter Dick Pabich (played by Joseph Cross) that he shall make a phone call to his dad instantly, announcing to his family that he is gay. His point of view is that “When they don’t support you the way you are, then you’re better off without them.” But that’s not a rule that can be applied to everybody. Some people need their families more than others and not everyone is as strong and independent as the leader of the movement himself. That is something that leaders of political movements tend to forget: Not everyone fighting for the same cause is exactly like them.

In that little scene with Dick Pabich Van Sant’s film shows one of the dangers and traps of political activism: the cause remains good, but at some point everything has to be secondary to that cause and that’s the point when activism can turn into fanatism – individuals are no longer important, every member of the movement is expected to be willing to devote every aspect of his being to the cause. No one here falls into that trap, but the danger is noticeable and Harvey Milk himself is very close to crossing the line. And that’s another point at which a certain Character trait of Harvey Milk, as seen by the director; is displayed: He shows a certain insensitivity towards other people – he uses them, he remains warm and giving, but you can’t help thinking that underneath the surface he does not care that much about individual people anymore. And he is also a little careless, – a fact that plays a certain part in the circumstances that lead to his killing.

He lets two people into his life that are very obviously ticking time bombs:
The first of them being his new lover Jack Lira ( played by Diego Luna), a troubled soul so obviously in need of professional help that it seems foolish that Milk tries to establish a normal family life. Every act of kindness towards Jack makes Jack’s decline more inevitable. Harvey simply can not see that and perhaps he does not really care that much. From the moment Harvey opens the door for Jack it is clear that there is going to be trouble. For Harvey it’s just a one night stand at first while Jack instantly ties himself to Harvey, exclaiming that he loves him, without even knowing his name yet – from that moment on the disaster is inevitable. Jack with his excessive behaviour and his inability to behave according to a protocol becomes a danger to Harvey’s political career. In the end Jack commits suicide in an attempt to punish Harvey for being late.

Even more dangerous is Harvey’s interaction with Dan White (played by Josh Brolin), his political rival. In fact White is not even Harvey’s rival from the beginning. Harvey himself turns White into a rival with his insensitive and careless behaviour towards the man who will later kill Harvey with extreme brutality. In this case Harvey even notices that White is a troubled soul. Milk suspects that White is secretly a homosexual not accepting his true orientation. Whether that’s true or not, the obvious fact is that White is so full of suppressed anger, fear and despair that sometimes he can hardly speak without losing his temper completely. When they first meet it even looks like there could be a friendship between these two men, White even invites Milk to the Christening of his baby son and clearly seeks personal contact with him, even though his wife is obviously not amused.

By this time Harvey Milk is a professional politician who acts like a professional politician, which means he makes promises to colleagues that he does not keep. Carelessly he promises that he will support White’s initiative to prevent the opening of a mental institution in White’ district. Of course this is inhumane, which Milk realises and therefore he breaks his promise – an act that turns Dan White into his worst enemy. White’s motivations for turning against Harvey Milk are deeply personal. Secretly he may have regarded Milk as a hero and his disappointment about Milk not supporting him in political issues turns into a form of hatred that otherwise could only be associated with disappointed affection.

It is both fascinating and heart-breaking to watch Josh Brolin in the role of Dan White. We know that he will kill Harvey in the end, but Brolin manages to portray White as a character we can feel deeply sorry for. His inner struggle is so overwhelming- he’s the type of person to whom you would like to say something like “ Run away and start a new life somewhere” not without sympathy.
Josh Brolin is a wonderful actor – that has been evident in his performances in “No Country for Old Men” and “W”, but here he is deeply touching.

Regarding the film’s message I would say that it is very timely, considering the fact that nowadays in some states of the USA the situation for gay people is worse than it was back then when Milk and his followers fought for more rights. There’s been a general backlash against civil liberties,as we all know. So, the film is certainly encouraging and it is not only of interest for people who want to support the gay community– but in that sense it is not unique. There have been many motivating films in the past, movies that tell of workers fighting for better working conditions (Norma Rae), of veterans fighting for a bit of respect (Born on the 4th of July), of strong individuals successfully fighting for a better world (Erin Brokovich) – all of these films were motivating and “Milk” is certainly a part of this tradition of movie-making. But of course these films did not truly change anything. They give us false hope perhaps, but on the other hand false hope is probably better than no hope at all.

What makes the film “Milk” truly memorable, in my opinion, is the wonderful acting by some of the finest actor we have in the global money machine called Hollywood. Therefore I highly recommend it. -AS, March 2009

“Let Your Mind” by Andre Seifert

(right-click and choose  “save target as…” to download the song)

Suddenly a song that had been wrapped up in a certain arrangement and a certain mix unfolds – as if it found its own heartbeat. There was a previous version of the song “Let Your Mind” – there were some musical ideas I wanted to use and I wanted to demonstrate some vocal tricks on that earlier version. At first I liked it, but the longer I worked on finding a better mix the more I hated that first version.

Originally I wanted to display a certain innocence, but then I realized that the song is not about innocence at all. I also changed the last few lines – now it ends with a very fundamental question: “Do you think it might be worth it…to stay another year?”

And that’s the way I feel about the  spirit of the song now and the way I sing it now is very different from the previous version – more natural and more relaxed, I think. It feels like my own song to me now instead of a musical and lyrical exercise.

I have recorded some material for a new video as well and I’m working on another new song that should arrive within the next days and weeks.

So, I’ll be back in a while, – A

In the last few days I worked on my very first recoding of a Holiday song – a traditional Christmas carol. “In The Bleak Midwinter” has always been one of my favorite melodies – the music for this well known version of the song was written by Gustav Holst, the lyrics are by Christina Rossetti.

To me it’s one of the very few songs associated with the Christmas season than can also be listened to at other times of the year without having an awkward feel to it. The story of course is related to the birth of Jesus, but unlike in most other Christmas carols and newer Holiday songs there are no references to the usual setting of these songs – no jingle bells, no gathering around the Christmas tree etc.

There are some very powerful, rather dark images in this song – “The earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone”. There’s something archaic to it, I think. And I like the idea of angels.

____________________________________________________________

This is the very first recording I ever made without the aid of at least one or two synthesizer tracks. It’s just my voice and my guitar (two guitar tracks – one with the simple chord accompaniment and one that consists of free improvisation, which was done in order to add some texture and flow to the recording).

I got some new equipment recently and I’m still in the process of getting used to it. I bought a really nice microphone a while ago and I tried out some new amplifiers and headphones -most of this stuff is much better than the equipment that I had been working with for almost a decade or so.

The advantage of the old stuff was that I had gotten used to it – I knew how my voice sounded on its way through the old mic, amplifier and headphones. With the new equipment it’s a totally different sound and as a singer you inevitably feel a bit lost and insecure when your listening experience during recording changes so drastically. You have to be familiar with the sound that comes out of your mouth.

So, I think on this recording my voice sounds a little more insecure and shaky due to the still new experience of hearing myself so differently during recording, but after all I guess the vocal track I came up with in the end is quite okay – I actually like the fact that there are some rather fragile and some louder passages – I think it makes sense as a whole. My favorite thing about this recording is the dreamy structure of the interwoven guitar parts – I always like that.

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Apart from that I’m working on my album “Whispers” – I just spent an entire month on the mixing of one single song and I’m still not happy with it. So it might take even longer now until I’ll come up with an album that I can live with. I just don’t want to release another horrible sounding bunch of songs.

Well, there’s a lot of work for me to do – but I’m quite relaxed about that now. It feels like I’m only working these days in a certain inner struggle, trying to overcome my own limitations. I’m not thinking of the world right now. I don’t even know if I’ll ever really try to expose my music to the world anymore. The world is so far away.

I wish you all a calm and happy Christmas and a new year without loss and without pain.

-A

Hello – well, I’m working on the sound again. I wonder why I’m not capable of getting the sound of my music right the first time I release it. I almost always have to make revisions afterwards. But then again – if I waited for the perfect result before I put anything out there I would not have released a single song yet. As embarrassed as I am about having released music of inferior sound quality I have come to regard my music as a work in progress. So when you download a song or just listen online, when it somehow doesn’t sound like the music you can hear on the radio you can be pretty sure that I’m already working on a better mix – I just had to get it out there first, while the excitement of having a new song was still fresh.

In fact I think that my insecurities regarding the proper mixing and mastering of my music are partly to blame for my lack of success. When I feel that a song doesn’t sound really fantastic I’m hesitant about promoting it. I haven’t really begun yet to properly promote my music to people who have power in the world of music, because of my insecurity regarding the sound quality of my work.

From a songwriter’s and singer’s perspective I believe in my work, but I’m aware of the fact that nobody will take your music seriously when it doesn’t sound good – that’s why I have been quite ambivalent about promoting it. Sometimes I tried, but then I stopped my attempts again when I realized something like “Oh no, there’s still too much booming bass in the mix”, which is a general problem of my mixing. I’m so afraid of having a thin and weak sound that I always go for the other extreme – with too much low frequenzy energy, which makes the result often sound muddy and distorted.

You know, music sounds different on every stereo system. My main system is a very nice Yamaha set which produces a very generous sound that has a nice forgiving attitude towards badly mixed music – so my own music basically always sounds good on it. But recently I had the rare chance to test my latest EP on the stereo system in my parents’ livingroom – and the result was shocking. The boom was so heavy that the whole cupboard was vibrating, particularly during “Matter”. And after I heard the flaws there I could also hear them on my own system and in my recording setup – before that my ears just didn’t notice it.

That’s a very tricky, complex thing – this interaction between the brain and the ears. Perhaps when your brain doesn’t want to hear a problem then your ears just can’t notice it. That’s why it would be so good to have an unbiased assistant in the process of mixing and mastering.

Right now I’m working on remastering the whole “Keys To The World”-EP and I’ll put it somewhere on the net for everyone to download when it’s finished. So you’ll be able to replace the bad sounding first mixes with the new ones.

Hello, – my name is Andre Seifert and, just as the title of this Blog suggests, I am an unknown singer – or shall I say “still” unknown. Though right now it doesn’t look as if that is ever going to change. You know, I’m trying – but so far I didn’t find an effective way to make myself known.

Not that I’m dying for publicity, but when you’re an artist you have to have an audience and therefore you’ll have to be known to some extend. Otherwise you’ll just starve and die in poverty, which looks like my future at the moment. I’m not as bitter as these words might sound, right now I’m just more or less clueless regarding a welcome improvement of my life situation.

In this blog I will write about the ups and downs I have experienced so far on this path – I’ll revisit some of the advice I got along the way on some things that everybody says you should be doing in order to make it and I’ll tell you how these tools and strategies have worked for me or have not worked for me.

I’ll write about my experience on MySpace, Youtube and other sites and platforms. I will talk about my recent and upcoming musical projects and also about other people’s music – some reviews of albums I like maybe.

That’s it for today – I’ll have to structure my thoughts a little before I begin with my first real post. Maybe tomorrow. See you soon and Have a beautiful day and night, – A