It seems that every month I’m later and later with posting the winner of the monthly CD contest. Sorry guys! I’ll get November’s winner up real soon and post the contest for December. I’ve been in some real extreme pain lately so doing things on the computer have been pretty low on my priority list. Thank you for being so patient with me.
L:)
Happy November everyone! I hope you are all well and happy.
This post finds me in a better place than I have been in a couple of months, and for that I’m very grateful. As us Americans are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, this year I am thankful for my health! Many of you know that I have been struggling since September and I thank you for all of your kind words and prayers. They were much needed. I would also like to thank everyone who is local who helped with dinners, watching my children, driving me places, cleaning, and being a shoulder to cry on. I could not have survived without all of you.
I am going to totally spill the beans with what has been happening: My husband and I found out that we are very unexpectedly expecting baby #4! It was pretty emotional at the beginning because we had decided we were done having more children because my pregnancies are extremely hard and painful with lower back and hip problems, an irritable uterus due to a large amount of varicose veins surrounding my uterus, a terrible amount of false labor because of the irritable uterus, a previous c-section, and big babies (our youngest was almost 10 pounds! And no, that was NOT the c-section baby!). With much prayer and faith, we view this as blessing and are very excited to have another child to love. Unfortunately, I have had many complications and came very close to losing the baby. I had an infection in my uterus and they also discovered a tennis ball cyst on one of my ovaries. I have not been that sick in a very long time. Because I’m pregnant, all of my body’s energy was going to the baby, not to me. I could barely keep food down because of morning sickness and the pain medication I was on. I’m sorry to all of the those who wanted to know what was going on and I wouldn’t say. It was too emotional and I just couldn’t talk about it. I hope you can understand. I had a 95% chance of losing the baby. I really feel we were meant to have this baby because regardless of all the obstacles, it is thriving and doing extremely well. And it’s already measuring big. Help me now. The Cunningham’s just make big babies! 
The cyst is already very painful and my doctor’s are monitoring it very carefully. I have had 5 ultrasounds and I’m just out of my first trimester. They do not want to remove the cyst while I’m pregnant unless it’s an emergency because it would not be good for me or the baby, and the possibility of losing the baby would be pretty high. They’re worried about the cyst getting any bigger and the possibility of it turning on itself as the baby grows because it’s so big . I have been warned that it will most likely be extremely painful as it gets pushed up out of my pelvis, and where my pregnancies are already painful… yeah. Your thoughts and prayers and still needed and much appreciated. I have greatly decreased my activities, including musically much to my dismay, though Emeria is still very much in the works. It pains me to do so, as music and singing is such a great love and a huge part of my life, but I must take care of my health.
The latest ultrasound picture:
On to the CD Giveaway for the month of November! As promised, it is very easy and there is something for everyone, even if you don’t win. All you need to do is sign up for my new mailing list on ReverbNation and you will be entered. Just for signing up, you will receive the ability to download the unreleased remix of “Silver Threads” by Adam Amos! That remix is in high demand from radio stations and listeners alike, wondering how they can get a copy of it. Right now, signing up for my newsletter is the ONLY WAY to get that track! I promise not to spam your mailboxes with emails. This will be a quarterly newsletter. The only time I’ll send out one besides 4 times a year, is if there is something absolutely exciting or newsworthy.
So go to my ReverbNation page, scroll down to the middle of the page, and sign up! Super easy!
Or click on this picture:
Or should I say.. Winners!!! I was feeling generous and picked two winners for last month’s contest instead of one. Just to recap, last month the only thing that you needed to do to be entered was follow Emeria, my music project with Adam Amos, on Twitter – @emeriamusic. That’s it. I wrote everyone’s name on little pieces of paper, put them in a hat, and had my friend pick them. And a great big Thank You to everyone who participated and helped spread the word!
The lucky winner’s are…
@mickydodds and @KatieRWiser
I’ll get the CD’s to you guys asap!
November’s contest should be posted by the end of the week. I’m in the middle of setting something up for it and trying to get it to work and it’s taking longer than I thought. So please be patient with me. My #1 goal is to make every monthly contest extremely easy to enter. So until then… Happy November!
Last week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by LDS artist Cherie Call for the podcast she hosts called “The New Music Show,” to be aired starting today until next Monday night at midnight. That’s October 20th-26th.
I knew Cherie from when we used to live in the same neighborhood together. I knew she had several cd’s out, some through Deseret Book. While she was well known and loved throughout the neighborhood and church, I can honestly say that she kind of intimidated me. I wanted to learn more about her and about what she was doing, but always felt to shy too ask. I don’t know why I felt this way; Cherie is incredibly nice and so down to earth. She made me feel right at ease every time I talked to her.
That feeling of ease when talking to Cherie moved effortlessly into the interview I did with her. I admit, I was nervous when pulling up in her driveway. She welcomed me into her beautiful new home, quickly showed me the setup where the interview would take place, and we chatted for a few minutes. Then the interview started. I was impressed with how much preparation, thought, and research she had done for it. She even stumped me just a little with a few of her questions! We had a lot of fun and I’m very pleased with how the interview turned out, which includes clips from my album.
Want to hear it? Okay! I’ve teased you enough. Please click here:
It has been brought to my attention that my earlier posts regarding my musical journey and story, may have shed someone in a bad light. I want to publicly apologize and say that was never my intention. If anyone thought that, please know it was not done on purpose or with malicious intent. I am making this public because everything that was said regarding this matter was also public, written in plain site for anyone and everyone to see who cared to find it. I have not taken to back biting, gossiping, or hiding in corners talking bad about anyone about anything with this matter. From the beginning, I was trying my hardest to treat others with the courtesy I would hope would be extended to me. When writing my story, I was stating what happened. The story as it happened; nothing more, nothing less. If anything, it shed me in a bad light because I was very honest and upfront about mistakes I have made. I never once tried to call anyone a jerk or indicate such. If there were any negative conclusions drawn, it was because of other people’s thoughts and opinions of the story, not how I portrayed it.
The only thing I do not apologize for was a small and insignificant critique and opinion I posted on my Facebook fan page about someone’s newest album. It is my opinion and I stand by it. Whenever artists create something and put it out for the whole world to see, there will be good and bad said about that art. It is life. People have opinions. Not everyone will like it – that’s just a part of the territory. And you know what? It’s okay! If everyone liked the same thing, then there would only be one style of clothing, one style of home built, one style of car, one style of music. I have had good and bad critiques of my art as well. Sometimes it stings, the bad does, but you just have to shrug it off and continue to do what makes you happy! Otherwise you will get so weighed down by what other people think, you will never ever be happy. People are public about their opinions. If my opinion means that much, well then I’m flattered! Because out of the little 200+ plus fans on my Facebook page, probably half of them aren’t very active with their accounts. And then another forth probably didn’t even see my comment made during the day because it got buried. And then the other part probably didn’t even care. There were only a few comments both bad and good from friends in response to my original comment.
My Facebook page is also linked to my twitter account, which most times I totally forget about. Nothing was said about my original critiquing tweet. There were some tweets in regard from some of the posts about my story from this blog, but they were again, other people stating their opinions. There was more on Twitter than anywhere, actually. I immediately started defending this person that I mentioned, basically stating in a very nice way for people to back off. No, you will not be able to find those tweets. Everything is deleted now because it was more of a headache than it was worth. I’m not out to hurt other people’s feelings. But again, my twitter following isn’t that huge either. I think about 150 people are following me – a good third of them are spammers, another third are people who are following thousands and thousands of people so my little tweet was buried within seconds, and then the other third are friends of mine, which none actually commented on that original critique. So I guess I fail to see what the huge deal is on this part.
Lastly, I feel the need to clarify something I previously said. In regards to “refined singers,” my definition of a refined singer is thus:
That is my definition of a refined singer. Do I look down on singers who have not had that training? No! Do I view myself as better as them? No! I do have a tendancy of liking singers who are more ‘refined’ as others, especially with the breaks and tone of their voice. If the voice is gravely, nasally, or has a yodeling quality, it is my personal preference not to listen to them. That is my opinion and preference. I do not hold bad feelings towards anyone who uses singers who are more ‘refined’ than others or visa versa. There is no negative connotation either way. I was making a statement.
I do not want to get into any discussions on this or into any arguments. I felt a public apology was in order and I did that. So please, if you have nothing nice to say, please don’t comment. Thank you! I have a feeling that most of the people who read this will have no clue what I’m talking about, and that’s okay. The people who it affected will know.
Welcome back to Part 3 of the 3 part series of how I started composing and recording my own music! Thanks for sticking it out with me and if you missed the other posts, you’ll want to go back and read them. Here’s part 1 and part 2. In this post I will be finishing the story and also posting pictures of my studio. I’ve never posted pictures of my humble studio before, so it’s kind of exciting!(This turned out kind of long, please stick with it!)
I left off talking about the song “Sublunar” and how much it moved me. I mentioned that Sleepthief, Justin Elswick, lives in the same area as me and Donna. Somehow Donna arranged to meet him and then arranged for me to meet him. I went to his office (he’s a lawyer) and we talked for about an hour. Donna had been raving about my singing and so he wanted to hear me sing and asked if I had a demo or something on cd. Of course I didn’t. But by this point I was really considering writing my own music, I just didn’t know where to start. Justin said that he would like to hear me so if I could get him a cd, he would love to hear it. So, much to my embarassement now, I went home and got out my trusty tape cassette recorder I used to record things for my students when I taught voice lessons, and over the next 3 weeks prodeeced to write my very first song for the piano and voice. I taped it, packaged it up, drove myself and my 3 kids to Justin’s office, and handed him the package. I didn’t hear from him. HAHA.. I know. It was totally stupid of me! A few months later Justin gave an instore performance at the local Barnes and Nobles and Donna and I went with a group. There he said that he listened to it and I have a very “pristine and clear voice.” That’s it. You know, it’s totally okay. I’m fine with it.
But because of Justin and his initial interest, I decided that I really wanted to get set up and start recording music. It was not an option to use other people’s studios as we didn’t have the capital and I am the main care provider for our children. I needed to do something that I could work around them and still be at home. So over the next couple of months, my husband and I did some research and talked a lot to a friend I met on MySpace. Looking back, I wish we had set up my studio differently, but at the time we were totally clueless and only had the guidance of the one friend. I basically ended up getting the same equipment that friend of mine had, only cheaper versions. From that initial setup, the only thing we have upgraded is my microphone. The first one really was terrible and since my voice is my main instrument, I needed a much better one. Oh, and I had to buy a new mic cord because our cat chewed through our first one.
I very quickly found out that making music, the kind of music that was ME, was what my life had been missing. I have been extremely happy for the past 3 years, happier than I can remember. I found the part of me that had always been missing, though I hadn’t known what it was. THIS is what my life needed to be complete. There’s a kind of satisfaction with creating something from nothing and sharing it with the world. I have learned so much and it’s always a challenge. I also learned that multi-track recording truly inspired me, so that’s why writing music on the piano never totally worked for me. I just didn’t have the right equipment to my disposal.
Without further adieu, this is my studio!
I have the full sized Alesis Fusion 8HD synthizer keyboard. This great keyboard has unfortunately been discontinued, but there are so many users that are still continually releasing new patches or sounds, there are literally thousands and thousands of patches to choose from. The neat thing about this keyboard is that it’s not as popular as some of the other synth’s, so the sounds are pretty unique. I realized this morning that I have not completed a track on the Fusion in over a year, not since the track “Silver Threads” on my album. I have worked on some, but have not finished any.
Those are monitor speakers as well, but I rarely use them. My kids pushed in the cones and they no longer give an accurate representation of the sound. Any ideas how to fix them?
I am asked often how I find the time to work on music while being a mother of 3 young children. I’ll tell you two things – Multi Tasking and School. One thing that I have always been good at is managing my time. I’m a very scheduled person. So when I say I’m going to do something by a certain time, more times than not, I will do it in a timely manner. 
One of the most important pieces of my studio is … drum roll please… this little Philips mp3 player, headphones, my kitchen stereo, and pen and paper.
I listen to the music I’m working on every single chance I get. My best lyrics and melodies are written while preparing dinner or cleaning the kitchen. Sometimes after we get our children in bed, I’ll go and lay down on my bed and delve deelply in writing lyrics, but I cannot work late in the night like so many other musicians.
To actually record, I have been lucky to be able to work during naps and school. I don’t have hours and hours to work on things, but the time I do have, I use every single minute!
Next I have the Roland VS-2000CD 18 track recorder. I record all of my vocals into this machine and do all the editing. If it is a track I do all by myself, meaning not a collaboration, I record the instrumentation from the Fusion to the Roland in real time, in 2-4 tracks, depending. Most of the time I keep the drums and percussion seperate and mix them better in the final mix. But again, I haven’t completed a track on my own for over a year, so for now the Roland is to import demo instrumentations in and then to record the vocals.
My wonderful, too good for me husband, recognized how hard it was for me to record in our little front room closet, so he planned and carried out building an isolation booth in our garage. The outside isn’t much to look at, but it has truly helped me more than anything!
(It doesn’t actually say “Lori’s Padded Room” on the door, I added that after the fact! It’s an on going joke in our family.)
Inside is a glorious yellow padded room. Yes, yellow. We could not afford the real sound proofing padding, so we used the padding you can buy for beds. Hey, it works!
The music stand where I have all of my lyrics. The papers on the left are songs I have already recorded, the paper on the right is the current project. Yes, I’m always that structured.
Even the ceiling is padded!
This is the stand my husband made for the Roland, but it’s not done yet. It needs to have carpet or something on the top to help muffle the recorder’s fan. My mic picks it up too much. Otherwise I have to have the recorder on the floor and I get dizzy bending over and standing up all the time!
And here I am in “action,” with my mic, pop filter, and studio monitor headphones.
The last part of my “studio” is the only software I currently use, though I’m in the process of changing over to more software. It is a pitch editing software called Melodyne and I LOVE this program! We have the smallest program called Melodyne Uno, but it works, and it works BETTER than Auto-Tune, in my opinion. Now, I don’t have to use this program. I want to clarify that right now. I spent years and years performing live with no mic’s or any help to project or fix pitch. BUT this program saves me time. Since I don’t have a lot of time to record, anything that saves me time is most welcome. If there is one pitch that is slightly flat in an otherwise great take, or if the timing of a note needs to be fixed, or one note too loud, this program can fix it. I highly recommend it. Melodyne is incredibly user friendly and I learned how to use it in less than an hour.
An actual picture of my vocals in Melodyne.
With the help of so many people, especially in the early months, I learned how to use the equipment and made a lot of headway. A very special thanks to Ken Hill (listen to his music project Soulwire HERE) and Jennifer Thomas (listen to her music HERE). They both helped me immensely during that time!
The neat thing about doing so many collaborations, is that I am not limited to only what I have in my studio. Everyone I have worked with has much more to their disposal and so it makes the music better. Because of the collaborations and great people I have met over the internet, my first dream on this journey came true; my first published album!
(You can pick up your copy at my website – www.loricmusic.com.)
What does the future hold? I am not sure, to be honest. I want to release a sophmore solo album, but it is not looking like it’s going to be any time soon. I’m hard at work on a couple of music projects, Emeria, and a new one that is a secret until later. I am the solo featured vocalist for both projects, so there really isn’t time to work on my own music right now. I’m excited for both projects though! 2010 is going to be a big, big year, both career wise and personally.
I appreciate you joining me through these posts of my musical beginnings. I have made so many good friends and discovered some very talented musicians over the past three years. It’s my hope that you will help write the rest of the story with me!
Where did I leave off with my story of how I started recording my own music? Oh yes, with a very unhappy Lori. 
In 2005, I met a beautiful lady named Donna. I went over to her house and almost immediately noticed the music she was playing. I stopped in my tracks and asked, “Who is this?” It was Hungry Lucy, the album “To Kill a King.” We then started talking about other musicians and groups and were getting really excited. She asked me, “Do you know Bel Canto?” “Bel Canto? I LOVE Bel Canto?” To Donna this was huge because not very many local people even know who this great band is! (Great band, check out their website HERE.) There are so many good songs by them. Here are a couple of my favorites.
So Donna and I over the next few weeks talked music, a lot. I found many, many great music projects that I had no idea existed and was totally eating them up. Donna was enjoying having someone that was as thrilled about this non-mainstream music as she was. It started an absolutely wonderful friendship, one that I will cherish for the rest of my life. We are extremely close and I’m proud to call her one of my best friends. She has been a listening ear, both when I needed to vent and to listen to all of my works in progress. My children ask if we are sisters and know she is a part of our family even though she’s not blood related. I love her entire family and would do anything for any of them.
I digress! I could go on and on about Donna and our friendship. My point is that it all started because of similar tastes in music and she has a huge hand in why I started recording.
About 7 months later, Donna discovered some really beautiful music by the project named Sleepthief. She very quickly found out that the main person behind that project, Justin Elswick, lived very close to us. I listened to some of his music and it was nice, but that was about it. His album was going to be released in a few months so we had to wait. One day Donna called me and said, “Go to Auralgasms (an online radio station), put on your headphones, and turn up the volume. Call me when the song is done.” See, on Auralgasms you can see what song is cued next, and she wanted me to hear Sleepthief’s “Sublunar” featuring Kristy Thirsk. I had heard it before, but by that time I had 3 little boys and to find some quiet time was extremely difficult. It ended up being background noise. Luckily the baby was asleep and the other two kids were at school, so it was quiet. While I was listening, it was like a sleeping giant awoke and I just started to bawl. It touched me so intensely and I knew, right then and there, that I had found the music that I needed to start doing. I called Donna still crying and we talked about it for a while.
Listen to this spectacular track.
Every time I listen to something Kristy has done, I get that stirring and sit there in total awe at what she does. She is a vocal genius and comes up with spectacular melodies and harmonies. And boy can she SING! I love how she uses her upper range to her advantage.
I still had not had totally had the idea to start composing and recording my own music. Remember, I had it in my mind that I did not have the knowledge or the talent to do that. I also had no clue where to start. I think if a producer had found me at that point, I would have just been a puppet, singing what they gave me (already written) and doing it exactly how they told me to sing.
But the seed had been planted.
Come back and read the ending of “The Beginnings” series to see how my music came to life and also to see never before pictures of my home studio!
I am asked on occasion how I began recording my own music. I thought it would make for a few interesting posts to go into the story.
It goes way back. Ever since I can remember, the only two things I wanted to be was a singer and a mother. My mom says I was singing before I could even talk. I was in all the choirs throughout school, all the musicals in high school, and I practically lived in that choir room. I took private voice lessons for more years than I can count.
I went to a local college and earned a BA in Vocal Performance, where I was in Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, and Women’s Choir. I was even the president of the choirs my senior year. I was awarded several music scholarships and was given the award of Outstanding Female Vocalist both my junior and senior year. I had a few leads in the musicals in college as well. To say I was busy is an understatement! I was always in the practice rooms singing my little heart out or practicing for the piano proficiency exam. Singing techniques did not come easily to me, and while there were some jealousy within the music department, little did my fellow colleagues know how much time I put in practicing, both physically and in my head, or mentally. They did not see the many tears cried because I couldn’t get my voice to stop cracking and trying to maneuver around the terrible breaks of my voice. I would watch them go off and go to parties and have a social life while I stayed at school and did homework, worked on papers, translated songs in a foreign language, and of course, PRACTICE. I learned what it means to be disciplined and how to work through disappointments. I learned how to move past when the music wasn’t fun anymore and became work. I did not even consider writing my own music at this point. One person in my class was arranging and writing and I would see the hours of tutoring and help he was getting from the professors, and I would think that I didn’t have a knack for that or the knowledge.
But… something was missing. I wasn’t one of those people who listened to opera for fun like some of my friends. I didn’t have a huge collection of original cast recordings of musicals and knew them like the back of my hand like some of my theatre friends. I only listened to the arias and shows I was in and working on. And when I didn’t listen to those, I would put in Delerium, Bel Canto, Sarah Mclachlan, Tori Amos, and Madanna’s album “Ray of Light.” I was frustrated because I hadn’t really found what spoke to my heart.
Fast forward a few years. I had graduated from college and married a wonderful man. I taught voice lessons out of our small apartment to help my husband through college. It was a huge blessing at the time because there were many months that I brought in more money than he did. I found a wonderful woman to take voice lessons from so I could continue working on my voice. I had recitals for my students and sang in every one that I could. I sang in my own teacher’s recitals. I participated in several competitions and had my students do the same. But… I began to wonder, is that all there was? That was the same song and dance that I had been doing for so many years and I was ready for something different. I had to stop taking lessons when I was pregnant with our second son and was put on bed rest; I never went back. I continued to teach after he was born, but it became to be too much and when all of my students stopped taking lessons for one reason or another over a couple of months, I never searched for new ones. That started a very dry portion of my life. I did not listen to music. I did not sing. I didn’t do anything. I had a very hard time adjusting to taking care of two small children and had a husband who was never home.
My husband encouraged me to try different things and to get out and make friends, but he would make comments that I just was not happy. I didn’t know what was missing.
Over the next few years, my mom was finding new music and introduced me to the likes of Balligomingo, Amethystium, and many Delerium albums we somehow overlooked. That helped to a degree. At least I had some music that I enjoyed listening to and was no longer living in a music-less world.
Then someone special and still very dear to my heart found a way into my life and helped me to find happiness again. Come back and read what happened next!
An old friend, Julie Donaldson, posted a sweet review of my album. I loved the things she had to say! (Julie is working really hard to finish up a novel. I have always loved her writing style. I know she can do it!)
“When my friend Lori Cunningham started producing CDs, I was not surprised.
We met as wives of college students hoping to earn an extra dime. She taught voice lessons and I accompanied for her students. I would sit at the piano and feel frequent stabs of jealousy as she sang, her clear soprano voice effortless and beautiful. A few years later we ended up as neighbors, where our kids shared a kiddie pool and more germs than we could count. Over the years of knowing her, I always felt there was something great within her, waiting to emerge like spring flowers from melting snow.
And emerge it did. Lori’s CD, “Unseen”, is both familiar and surprisingly unique at the same time. The clear, ringing tone of her voice takes me back to those days of voice lessons when she would sing a line from a musical and her student and I would listen in awe. How she uses her musical creativity, though, surprises me with every song. She has created a unique sound of ethereal singing mixed with upbeat tempos that makes me want to pull out my running shoes or vacuum the whole house or go for a drive up a canyon. It is energetic and beautiful–just like Lori herself.
Thank you, Lori, for sharing your talents with me, and with everyone else lucky enough to own one of your CDs. I know you will go far.
You can check out Lori’s website here.”
Yeah, so I’m going post crazy today! But I have to mention this super fast.
Because of the success of my album sale, my label has decided to extend the sale! That means you can STILL get a terrific deal on my album! So what are you waiting for? Go to my website and pick up your copy today at www.loricmusic.com. ($8.99 per cd and $4.99 per digital album.)
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