Sunday 28 April 2013

Ten songs that are significant to me



Let's Go Crazy - Prince - Purple Rain (1984):  My favourite track from the first CD I ever owned. I think I was nine. I used to dance around the lounge room singing into my hairbrush and pretending I was Prince. No way I could ever be that funky.



Drain You - Nirvana - Nevermind (1991): It was 1993 and I was 13 when I first heard Nevermind. 'Drain You' was my favourite song. It touched me in ways I can't describe and opened my eyes to a world of music that wasn't pop. I became completely obsessed with music and grunge in particular. I fell in love with Sonic Youth. It was the first time in my life that I realised music was a huge part of who I was and who I would grow up to become.



Wish - Nine Inch Nails - Broken (1992): I felt so strongly about this song when I was 16. I would turn it up loud and scream along to the lyrics in my bedroom. I felt so lonely and misunderstood. I wondered if maybe Trent Reznor did too.



Kiss Off - Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (1982): When I was 16, at school one Friday a few of my friends and I organised to meet in the park that night for an impromptu party. Word spread and I was surprised to find 20 or 30 kids showed up. Some of them were kids that wouldn't even look at me twice at school. But here they were. I decided not to let that bother me in the interest of having a good time. We had no music, so at one point we all joined in for a sing along of Kiss Off by the Violent Femmes. We belted it out with so much enthusiasm and feeling that I was blown away by the experience. I had no idea that most of those kids even knew that song, let alone that they seemed to identify with it as strongly as I did. It was a rare moment of solidarity for a bunch of disaffected teenagers. And one of my only fond memories of high school.



Groove is In the Heart - Deee-Lite - World Clique (1990): This is my ultimate good time song. In my early 20s I would spend every Friday night at a Melbourne Goth club called Abyss. This song would get played every week and no matter where I was or what I was doing, I would meet my friends on the dance floor for a collective boogie within the first 30 seconds. Even now when I hear it, wherever I am, I have no choice but to succumb to the groove. I guess it's true what they say; Groove is in the heart.



My Red Hot Car - Squarepusher - Go Plastic (2001): This is the song that made me realise that electronic music didn't have to be just the soundtrack for a rave or some club. I love this song. Like Nirvana's 'Drain You' it completely changed the way I think about music and was the catalyst for Twinkle Noodle Star.



Ten Storey Love Song - The Stone Roses - Second Coming (1994): My husband and I share a mutual love of this song. And each other.



I Would For You - Jane's Addiction - Jane's Addiction (1987): This song was played at my wedding. Some people might think that it's an odd choice for a wedding song due to the politically charged nature of the lyrics, but I think it's beautiful.



Thank You - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II (1969): The other song played at my wedding. My husband chose this song and it melts my heart whenever I hear it.





Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkle - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970): I used to sing this to my daughter when she was a baby whenever she was upset or I was trying to get her to sleep. It's an incredibly catchy tune and enjoyable to sing. She was crying one day and I started singing it in and effort to settle her. It worked, mainly I think because of the 'Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh' part. After that it became a staple.

Saturday 27 April 2013

Breathing In and Out 2.0

So it's Saturday night and here I am blogging. Yay me.

Breathing In and Out 2.0 is a re-work of one of my earlier tracks. I revisited the original this evening and thought that it had some beautiful sounds and a gorgeous melody. Melody is something I really struggle with most of the time but I was very happy with the melody in this track. I figured that was enough to rehash and polish it for a second spin. I adjusted the levels and gave it a crisper, cleaner sound. I also altered a few of the sounds, added a couple more and slowed down the tempo. I hope you like it!


Friday 26 April 2013

I Slayed the Troll and Saved the Prince

I Slayed the Troll and Saved the Prince is a track I made about a year ago. It was probably one of the most difficult tracks for me to make. That's because I had some very specific goals that I wanted to achieve with this track and I forced myself to do it.

You see, I have a tendency to start with an idea or purpose and lose sight of it very quickly after I get started. I'll be all like 'OK, I'm going to make a reggae track. I'll just put down some steel drums and then slow the BPM right down. Yeah, that's good. What's this do? Hmm... I like that. Maybe if I put some reverb on that and crank up the bass and then...' and before you know it, it's not even close to sounding like reggae. And I do that all the time. ALL THE TIME! Except for this one time.

One of the things I really wanted to do with this track was to make something a little more complex than I had in the past. Something with more depth to it. So I layered with sounds. And I kept on layering until I could stand it no more. The other thing I wanted was to not be so dark for once. I think I achieved that. Anyway, here it is...




Someone commented that it reminded them of Adventure Time. Back when I made it I didn't know what Adventure Time was. Now, it's Adventure Time all the time!



Wednesday 24 April 2013

Twinkle Noodle Star by Twinkle Noodle Star

If you have been to my Soundcloud or Facebook pages you may have already seen some of these images. They are self portraits that I have created specifically for TNS.





You might notice that there is a particular focus on eyes. I love eyes. They are so revealing.
There are plans for an amazing Twinkle Noodle Star photo shoot, which will hopefully come together later this year.  I have been working with some very talented people to come up with some fantastic concepts so stay tuned.


The Glitch Mob

While browsing on Soundcloud yesterday, I came across this awesome remix of The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army by The Glitch Mob. I have a really bad cold at the moment. I played it loud through my headphones and it cleared my sinuses :)
                                

I suppose I should start by introducing myself....

My name is Lia and that's me in the photo below...



I make music under the name Twinkle Noodle Star. At least that's what I call it. Music. It's really just a whole bunch of sounds that I create and lay some effects over and then arrange in a way that sounds good to me. If you're interested here are some links to a few of my favourites...







I tend to use a lot of samples as a way to express my personality and my sense of humour in my work. Also, I really like movies. I love jazz too and that is evident in a lot of my earlier tracks. They are pretty rough and the sound is a bit amateurish, but I feel like this is some of my most emotive stuff. Or maybe it's just the jazz....



Originally this blog was going to be an account of my development as an artist. The idea was to begin blogging when I was just starting out, making music on my laptop and trying to figure out which dial does what and how to make that wub wub sound that's so popular nowadays. But I have to confess, I'm incredibly lazy and that is the reason that my first blog post is about two years late. And I still haven't figured out to how to make that wub wub sound. I guess you could ask me why I'm even bothering with a blog. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I like to write and I guess this is something I could write about that's important to me. I don't know if anybody will read it, but that's OK. Mostly I write for me. Just like I make tracks that I enjoy listening to. If other people dig it, that's cool too.

I've been using FL Studio 9, but I'd like to be able to get my head around Reason or Ableton and so that is the challenge I've set myself this year. That and playing a set in front of people that's not in my lounge room. I guess we'll see how that goes.