Hello all! I just got back from a fabulous bachelorette party weekend in Santa Barbara with some Northwestern girls to celebrate our friend Samara getting married this New Year's Eve in Nashville!
Here are a few phone photos snapped during the weekend and I'll be sure to share more in a post soon. The weather was perfect, the company was perfect, and we stayed in Solvang which is an adorable Danish village in the heart of Santa Barbara's wine country near the Santa Ynez mountains. So beautiful and idyllic. I can't wait to go back! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Enjoy a couple photos from the weekend and a new look shot a couple weeks ago that I'm just getting to post now.
EF xo
Traduction:
Bonjour à tous! Je reviens d'un week-end merveilleux en Santa Barbara avec quelques amis de mon université, Northwestern pour fêter notre ami Samara qui va se marier à la fin de l’année à Nashville. Voici quelques photos que j'ai pris ce week-end et je serai sûr d'en partager plus dans un blog bientôt :) Il fait beau avec plein de soleil, la compagnie des amis était parfait, et on a restée dans une ville s'appelle Solvang, un petit village Danois au cœur du pays de vin. C’était vraiment belle et idyllique. Je peux pas attendre pour revenir! J’espère que vous aimez les photos de Santa Barbara et un nouveau look que j'ai pris il y a deux semaines mais finalement je partage avec vous maintenant!
Happy Saturday! How was everyone's week? Mine was busy and exciting. The other night was especially good. I went to The Record Plant, which is an amazing recording studio here in LA and it was a jam-packed night. Lots of big artists were in doing sessions that night and I got to meet TI, Cee-lo Green, Mike Posner, and Akon. More than just meet Akon, the manager I was there with had me sing for him. So I got to serenade Akon :) Not a bad night at all! (I gotta admit while I was standing there next to him I was having to hold myself back from singing "I just had sex!" from that hilarious Saturday Night Live skit Akon did with Andy Samburg hahah) Below is a picture of me, a couple other artist friends, Polow da Dan (huge producer) Akon, and artist/writer Tish.
Also, the look for the day featuring some new kicks! Hope you like it and have an amazing weekend all!
EF xo
Traduction:
Bon samedi à tous! Comment s'est passé ta semaine? La mienne était vraiment occupée et plein de surprise. L'autre soir, j'allais à The Record Plant, un studio d'enregistrement très célèbre voici à Los Angeles et il y a beaucoup d'artistes célèbres. J'ai eu l’opportunité de rencontrer T.I, Cee-lo Green, Mike Posner, et Akon. Plus de rencontrer Akon, le directeur que j’étais avec au studio me demandait à chanter pour Akon! Alors, j'ai donnée une sérénade à Akon :) Pas mal pour la nuit! Ci-dessous une photo de nous avec Akon, Polow da Don (grand producteur) et l'artiste/compositeur Tish. Aussi, le look du jour présentant mes nouvelles bottes. J’espère que t'aimes et bon week-end à tous!
I moved to Los Angeles from my hometown of Chicago about a year and a half ago now and I have to admit that some aspects of LA start to take it's toll on you. The drivers here are horrendous! I've never seen so much craziness behind the wheel. It's insane! You have to become such a defensive driver and be ready for anything because you'll probably see it here :) Coming from Chicago where I see most people as hardworking, professional, make their own way, while staying warm and decent people, LA took some adjusting. (To be fair it's most likely NOT LA, but rather just the music business!) People will lie, try and rip you apart, never follow through, the list goes on but you get my point :) So luckily the weather in LA is amazing almost year round and I've discovered hiking since living here (There's no hiking in Chicago that's for sure! haha) and Runyon has become my staple. It's where I come to sweat out the madness of the day-to-day craziness of being in the music business, rejuvenate, and come back stronger than ever to get the job done! (Although every time I'm at Runyon, which is always filled with owners hiking with their dogs, it makes me really want to get a dog asap!)
What do you do to clear your head/rejuvenate? I'd love to hear!
I have been sooo MIA on the blog recently. I'm sorry! Things have been super busy and a bit transitional as I've been working the past couple weeks with a new manager who may co-manage me. I have been working with and getting to know him and his team of super talented artists. They are incredible and you should all follow them on Twitter!! (@tayjasper, @emilyharder, @cjamd, @djsmashthedisco). I also always want to switch it up and play around with my look so today's shows a different side. What do you think? I hope your week is as warm and sunny as it's been in LA. Feels like it's still summer, which I'd like to hold onto for as long as possible!
EF xo
Traduction:
Je suis désolée j'ai été si MIA sur le blog récemment. J’étais tellement occupée et il a été un moment de transition. Je travaille avec un nouveau directeur de musique qui va peut-être travailler àcôté de mon directeur actuel. Ce nouveau directeur a plusieurs artistes qui sont vraiment talentueux. Je travaille avec eux et j'ai l’opportunité de les connaître mieux. Vous devriez tous les suivre sur Twitter!! (@tayjasper, @emilyharder, @cjamd, @djsmashthedisco). J'ai toujours envie de jouer avec mon look et je l'ai fait beaucoup récemment. Le look d'aujourd'hui montre un côté different et plus badin :) Que pensez-vous?
EF xo
I can't believe it's been over a week since I did my last blog posting. I'm sorry I've been so behind, but at least I left you with a nice long one last Sunday :) This past week was INSANELY busy! I wrote 5 songs that are being pitched to artists like Madonna, Rihanna, Adam Lambert, Jay-Sean and/or Taio Cruz, did all the reference demo vocals and engineering. It was a very busy week but definitely worth it! Also, my new song "Should I Follow My Heart?" is NOW up on my Facebook page! All you have to do is "like" the Erika Fatale page to unlock the song so you can listen: http://listn.to/ErikaFatale
For this song, I wanted to blend my soul, blues, and gospel influences and put a unique, sort of avant-garde twist to it. I drew inspiration from Adele's "Rolling In the Deep," Emeli Sande's "Heaven," and Florence + The Machine's "Dog Days Are Over." Let me know what you think :) Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Erika xo
Traduction:
Je peux pas croire qu'il a été plus d'une semaine depuis mon dernier poste. Je suis désolée que je suis tellement en retard. Au moins, j'en vous a laissé un très long le dimanche dernier! Cette semaine dernière était incroyablement occupée. J'ai ecrit 5 chansons qui seront proposés aux Madonna, Rihanna, Adam Lambert, Jay-Sean, Taio Cruz, etc. Aussi, ma nouvelle chanson "Should I Follow My Heart?" est sur mon Facebook maintenant. Si vous "aimez" ma page musician Erika Fatale, il s'ouvrir: http://listn.to/ErikaFatale
Pour cette chanson, j'ai voulu mélanger mes influences de soul, blues, et gospel avec des éléments avant-garde. J’étais inspirée par Adele "Rolling In the Deep," Emeli Sande "Heaven," et Florence + The Machine "Dog Days Are Over." J'aimerais savoir ce que vous en pensez :) J’espère que vous avez passée un bon week-end!
Happy Sunday everyone! I know this blog is called The Boudoir Memoirs and I haven't gotten as deep into the MEMOIRS aspect of the purpose of this blog as I would like. Today's post is called Black & Blue as those are the colors for the look of the day, but I wanted to take that idea a little further. The purpose of this blog is also to take you behind-the-scenes of the music business, what I have done and what I'm working on now. Navigating the music business will certainly leave you a little black & blue! For me, one of my favorite quotes comes from one of my icons, Coco Chanel.
Here was a woman who stayed true to herself, her passion, and was unafraid to break boundaries, and henceforth, revolutionized women's fashion in the twentieth century. The same can be said about the music business as it will do all it can to mold you into SOMETHING rather than let you be SOMEONE. For those of you that don't know, my big break came when I was handpicked by David Foster to perform with him in concert during his David Foster & Friends Tour in Chicago. He was someone I always dreamt of getting the chance to sing for one day and what an incredible opportunity to perform with him at the start of my career?! It was an incredible experience and helped catapult me to Los Angeles and resulted in people in the music industry luckily starting to take notice of me.
All of these reality shows such as American Idol, The Voice, and now X-Factor have taken over and people always say to me, "Why don't you audition for some of these shows? You would make it for sure!" People assume (as I did in the beginning too!) that if you can sing then it's a no brainer and you will make it on the show. (All the ads for these shows feed that thought to you as well by saying "This is the BEST talent in America!") I remember I auditioned for American Idol in Omaha, Nebraska years ago and sang Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." The audition was in a huge stadium and when I finished singing, the crowd actually gave me a standing ovation! I was completely taken aback but also so excited because I thought, "That's amazing! Now the producer of the show will see that I have people rooting me on and I'll go through to the next round!" (The first few days of auditions for these television shows take place in front of the show producers and casting directors. NOT the judges!) But guess what? I didn't. I stayed after to ask the producer why she didn't let me through. Her response: "Oh well you have an amazing voice! We're just looking for something different this year..." So there you have it!
I also auditioned for The Voice this year. I thought to myself "Finally here's a show where from what I heard and read, you're supposed to be judged SOLELY on your voice. Perfect! So I went in and sang guess what? The same song that made David Foster handpick me out of hundreds of others to perform with him in concert: "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls. Judging from their reactions when I started singing I took it as a good sign. Then I also sang a Stevie Wonder song "Lately." Again, a good personal reaction. In my group of 10 people, there were some very talented singers and musicians. I took note of who I thought would go through in the group and none of them did! (And neither did I) Believe it or not, the girl with the weakest voice in the whole group got through to the next round for the show called THE VOICE!!! Unfortunately that's just the nature of the music business and so many other businesses or situations. At the end of the day, they're casting a reality show and regardless of your voice, if you do not fit whatever other specific criteria they're going for that year (specific stories, specific look, you don't resemble Justin Bieber, I should have worn cow udders like the guy next to me that got through to the next round, etc haha) then it may not be your lucky day.
When Coco Chanel first came out with her designs doing away with what was popular and feminine at the time: complicated corsets and lace in favor of simplicity and menswear-inspired fashions, people thought she was crazy and that her designs would never take off. I get the same. "Oh you're a singer. But what's your back-up?" People have a very hard time supporting that which is different (Some of my own family even!). So I leave you with one last quote that I love:
So wear your black & blue proudly even though typically wearing those colors together in the fashion world is a faux-pas! Wear it proudly, live bravely, and the world will eventually catch on to what you already know :)
Sorry I have been so behind on posting! My schedule is always so up in-the-air and in the music business things can change in an instant. For example, I was supposed to have a writing session early today, confirmed up until last night, and now this morning all of a sudden he has to go out of town. Frustrating, but at least it freed me up a bit to do a new post! I finished up writing a new song yesterday (that I wrote to a producer's track he sent me) and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it could be a great song for Leona Lewis or Christina Aguilera (or maybe me :) Also finished up another round of revisions/additions to my latest song with Rob Kleiner on Monday so it's getting closer and closer! So far, it's my manager's favorite song that I've done yet (I think ever?) so I'm hoping you all will like it just as much. Just have to tweak it to make it as great as possible! Today will be another full day of songwriting starting on a new song. Wishing you all a very productive day!
PS My song Femme Fatale was apparently on the Paris Hilton show, "The World According to Paris." Did any of you catch it? More news on upcoming placements coming soon!
Bisous,
EF xo
Traduction:
Je suis désolée que je n'ai pas écrit un quelques jours. Mon emploi du temps est toujours si éclaté et ça change dans un instant. Par exemple, je devais avoir une séance composition de chanson au début de cette après-midi, confirmée jusqu’à hier soir, et ce matin, l’écrivain ne peut pas le faire parce qu'il doit voler hors de ville. C'est frustrant mais au moins il m'a libéré d’écrire un nouveau poste. Hier, j'ai fini un nouveau chanson que j'aime beaucoup. Je pense il serait parfait pour Leona Lewis ou Christina Aguilera (ou moi peut-être ;) Aussi, j'ai fini un deuxième série des révisions/ajouts à mon deuxième chanson avec Rob Kleiner ce lundi dernier. Ce chanson est le favori de mon manager pour l'instant et j’espère que vous tous l'aimeront aussi! Aujourd'hui est un jour plein d’écriture sur un nouveau chanson. Je vous souhaite une journée productive!
