You may or may not remember this song from 50/90 during last summer. The one where we moved our whole household from Las Vegas to Florida only to discover our new house was not finished as promised. But nobody thought to tell us. What we thought was going to be 2 weeks in an AirBnb ended up being 2 months. Anyway, 50/90 was going on during that time and I just threw myself into it.
“Gin in the Afternoon” was one of those songs I wrote during that time, so after our recent trip to Disney World, visiting Oga’s at Disney World (I just had to compare it to Oga’s at Disneyland – lol), and the Enchanted Rose Lounge at the Grand Floridian, well, I just had to put them all together for this video.
I was reading one of those end of year posts somewhere online and it was stating how dance music is important and how difficult it has been during this time with the clubs closed. And perhaps there were other ways we could dance.
That got me to thinking about why I love to create dance music when so many articles and documentaries talk about the importance of storytelling in song and that’s what stirs people’s emotions and that’s the number one goal in creating music.
Ouch! I started wondering why I love dance music. Am I that vapid? I had never thought of myself that way and I don’t think anyone else would either. Am I avoiding emotion? Hmmm… and then I thought about my history with dance music taking me back to my pre-teen/teen years. Like whenever I got to be in the house alone, I would crank up the family stereo and dance to my favorite music. As I got older, that meant staying home when the family went off on camping trips.
I couldn’t always have the stereo and the house to myself, so when I reached driving age, my car became my dance floor.
And by the time I was in my twenties, Disco was big and I pretty much lived at Earthquake Ethel’s. So why was that?
My dance partners thought I wanted something other than dancing. “I can tell you want me by the way you dance.” That was the furthest thing from my mind and became the inspiration for the “Don’t Touch Me” song I wrote for 50/90 this past year.
So why did I love to dance back then? No doubt music and drums run through my veins, having discovered I come from a big musical family. But it’s more than that natural love for moving to music. Off the dance floor I was the bookworm, shy, quiet, introverted, awkward in conversation, don’t look at me kind of person. On the dance floor I felt powerful, larger than life, in my element, somebody to pay attention to, comfortable in the spotlight, confident. Sexy.
So is dance music important? You bet it is. So no matter your plans for tonight, you can always find a dance floor, whether in a crowd (stay safe), home alone, or in your car.
Major influences on today’s music. House Music Godfather Marshall Jefferson said (in Electronic Musician) his early influences were Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. But he moved on to club music because he thought only big, sweaty men went to Zeppelin and Deep Purple and he wanted to meet some women. Ha! Not entirely true, though – lol!
Those were also my influences and my friends and I went to plenty of concerts. And if you read the comments on YouTube, you’ll see that other women were/are fans, too.
I finally did it – ordered Push 2! It’s on its way. In the meantime, I’m finishing up some tutorials highlighting the new features on Ableton Live 11.
To experiment, I started playing around with some Disco sounds and came up with this track – it may be the last track I create in Ableton 11 before getting Push 2. Curious what I will do with Push 2, but the part that I find the most intriguing is the drum sequencer. We’ll see how it goes…
And then there’s that Dub/Techno riff I mentioned earlier… perhaps that will be the first track using Push 2.
Missing cruise ship night life? Okay, so maybe you’re missing night life of any kind. But cruise ship nightlife is pretty much all the night life I do. Or did. So I created a dance track using a few of the new tracks I created during FAWM, and upload it to YouTube. It was so much fun making – both the DJ track and the YouTube video. Hope you enjoy!
You can find it on YouTube by searching for Screamie Birds Studios or by clicking the link below:
To cruise virtually, check out my two novels set on cruise ships:
We had such a fun Halloween, just the two of us, sipping a little something, dancing, and one of the songs on our playlist was “I’m Your Bogeyman” by KC and the Sunshine Band. Now that I think about it, it seems a bit appropriate for these times. I mean, who can sleep this week? Might as well dance.
Screamie Birds Studios 