A newish song for ya...

Hey guys! So, I finally finished a demo of this song, called "All In" this week. I also finally got around setting up a bandcamp account, so if you like it, you can listen, buy it, share it, etc. I'm kind of in love with the idea of making my living by writing songs and delivering them straight to fans, which bandcamp is great for. (I also do plan to still make a fully produced CD or EP every few years. So don't worry.)



Here's the story behind the song:


The idea for it had been bouncing around my head for ages -- the idea that love is a bargain. You'll give me this, and I'll give you that. I'd wanted to use really concrete examples, but the idea never fully formed.

That is, it never fully formed until one day this summer when I needed a ride to the airport at 7am. I was picking up a rental car for a brief Texas tour. A good friend agreed to drive me, and on the way there I told her, "I can't believe you agreed to do this. Truly, it's awesome. But this is a boyfriend job." Because, in truth, we all want someone to come home to and spend our lives with. But we also want someone to drive us to the airport, reach tall cabinets and call during traffic jams.

So, the song was born. Most of it was written in a hotel room in Arkansas, and some of it was finished in the car on the way to the first gig of the tour. I actually sang it at that first show without ever having sung it out loud in its complete form. It's got a special little place in my heart :) -Kate

I’ll give you all of my freckles for the scar on your chin,
I’ll make a strong cup of coffee for a swig of that gin,
And if you’ll drive me to the airport, I’ll water your plants,
I’ll give you a few good years if you give me a chance,

What do ya say now, ‘cause I am all in,
Do we call it a deal now, or do we just call it?
‘cause I spent my whole life, hiding my heart away
I’ll show you mine, if you’ll show me yours,
What do ya say?

Give you a spot for your toothbrush, and the wall side of the bed,
If you can make me feel pretty, on the days I forget
I’ll tell you most of my secrets and all of my jokes
If you hold my hand on the cab ride home,

(Chorus)

I just want someone to look for, and someone to miss,
And something familiar, when nothing else is
And someone to dance with, or sit this one out with
Who tells me he loves me, and I never doubt it,

What do ya say now, cause I am all in,
Do we call it a deal now, or do we just call it?
‘cause I spent my whole life, hiding my heart away
I’ll show you mine, if you’ll show me yours,
What do ya say?
I’ll show you mine, if you’ll show me yours,
What do ya say?

On the Road, in Pictures

So I drove from Nashville to Corpus Christi and back in just under 4 days. I looked back at the pictures in my phone yesterday, and while I didn't take many, I feel like they offer an interesting glimpse into life on the road. Here they are (all of them, the pretty ones and the boring ones). I've decided I will allow myself only one word captions.

Arkansas.

Soundcheck.

View.

Showtime.

Farewell.

Vegetarians.

Sleep.

Detour.

Anyway, I was in Corpus Christi to attend the APCA Conference, and in hopes that my ten-minute showcase would earn me a handful of college gigs in the spring. It was, in short, fantastic. We're up to ten college gigs (so far) in TX, LA and AR. I look forward to it, and plan to stop at DeGray Lake (above) anytime I pass it.

New Musiks

Well, while I may not be blogging up a storm, I've been writing up a storm. I still need to demo the love song (that's right! of the non-tragic--albeit hypothetical--variety!) I wrote a few months back that I'm pretty psyched about. So that one's coming. But here's a new (still working the kinks out, rough 2am demo) song called "I Tried to Warn You":




Part of the energy behind all this writing (aside from my ever-complicated personal life) is a great new "Song Salon" I've been attending here in Nashville. Hosted by the incomparable Amy Speace, the salon is a group of great, dedicated songwriters who gather weekly to eat, drink and share their newest songs for suggestions, critique and some cheerleading. It's kind of amazing. And it has me bringing out old songs I'd abandoned, pushing myself to write more, and finding inspiration in my talented friends.

So yay for that :) Happy November.

Cover songs?

So, I just went to this really inspiring meeting at NSAI about being a DIY musician and using the internet to grow a fan base. One really good item that I learned was that Youtube is the #1 search engine (it is one, after all) for music. And the best way to get people to your Youtube channel is by doing a cover song... (yes, Laura, you have been telling me this for years...)

Anyway, looks like I'll be making a video of a cover song. Suggestions, folks?

A New Recipe/Tradition is Born!

A little background:

I leave on Wednesday morning for a brief Texas tour. (It's gonna be awesome. I even planned a stopover at Degray Lake on my way there for a little self-reflection.) If you're remotely near Texas, you should come!

August 18, 2011 (Thursday)
Johnny Cace's Restaurant, Longview, TX, 7:00pm

August 19, 2011 (Friday)
Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse, Dallas, TX
8pm, www.unclecalvins.org

August 20, 2011 (Saturday)
Hummingbird House Concerts, Austin, TX. 8pm, www.hummingbirdconcerts.org 

Anyway, I showed some restraint and decided to NOT go out to dinner tonight, but rather use up some of the food in my fridge. Specifically, anything that would go bad while I'm on the road. And with that, I give you this recipe. And by recipe, I mean a series of questions that leads to food. (Confession: I did consult a couple recipes for some guidance. But then threw most of that out the window)

Kate's Pre-tour Everything in the Fridge Black Bean Burgers

• One can of black beans? Definitely
• Leftover brown rice? Yup.
• Strawberries? No. Gross. Eat those on the side.
• Most of a bag of clementines? Also, no. Eat those with the strawberries.
• Shredded carrots? Hmmm. Yeah. Why not. But just a handful because a carrot burger sounds gross.
• Some of your roommates onion? Yes. Sauté it. Fancy girl.
• Bag of pre-peeled garlic cloves that says "Best used by August 11th"? Also, yes. Two cloves. Sauté that too.
• Sweet and Spicy Korean Sauce? Live dangerously! Shit just got interesting!
• Now squeeze/mix it all together with your right hand (which is going to be covered in this stuff) while randomly throwing spices in with your left hand. BONUS: This has no meat so you can taste as you go to make sure this doesn't taste like poison. I used cumin, chili pepper, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

...AND IT WAS AWESOME. I made the patty and pan fried it in the leftover oil from the onions and garlic. (Healthy fats, right?) I also managed to use 2 of my last 3 slices of bread and top it with the remnants of a bagged salad, as well as some more of that Korean Sauce which turned out to be a brilliant decision.  

A tradition is born, my friends. Who knows what the next tour will bring? Kate's Pre-Tour Everything Perishable Pasta salad? A girl can dream. See you in Texas. :)

P.S. - Yes, I should have taken a picture but I was very hungry.

That song's done(ish)

It'll still have some lyrical tweaks. And this is kind of a sloppy bedroom demo. But I kind of love sloppy bedroom demos.

It's been a while...

Is anyone ever prolific when life is easy? Well, it's good to be creating again...

Here's a sample of the newest. Just the first part, so prepare for it to end abruptly:

At the Same Time

At the Same Time.

I am at the symphony.

I am listening, absorbing… and soon find I am instructing myself to let the music wash over me. Just let it come.

My mind wanders to just a week before, when I was standing in the ocean and pondering big things, as one can’t help but do when standing in the ocean, and telling myself the same thing. Let it wash over you. Just enjoy it.

I think about how similar the experiences are. I also think about how long ago that seems. One week.

I think, these two points in time seem distant because I am standing on the timeline.

If I took a step back, the two points would seem closer together.

If I stepped back even further, and then further than that, the two points in time would be indistinguishable. Just one small, single dot in a very long string that started long, long ago.

So, I am at the symphony

And at the same time, I am in the ocean

At the same time I am trying out for the school play and

There’s a bang of the timpani.

There’s a big wave and I jump.

At the same time I am meeting him.

At the same time, I am 5 years old and afraid to jump off the swing.

At the same time, he is breaking my heart.

From far enough away, it appears that I am taking the SATs while simultaneously making the world’s best margarita and having my diaper changed.

At the same time, I am 7 and jump off the swing only to land face first in the gravel.

At the same time, I am turning 80 years old and have obviously survived the swing incident of 1988.

At the same time, I still love him.

At the same time, I am in my bedroom, writing this down

But the entire orchestra is playing hand cymbals and it sounds like snow, or confetti and I will always be here.

And the water is unseasonably warm.

Science!

Oh creativity, you always strike in the wee hours. Like 1am.

I feel like I've been writing a bunch of science songs lately. I just finished a song about love and the apocalypse (literally mentioning birds falling from the sky, massive amounts of dead fish, and Iran enriching Uranium). Hopefully I'll record that one soon. And while it's not a new song, "Nothing To Do With You" mentions Occam's razor. Ooh, and the bridge to "Why It's Blue" loosely explains how certain colors of the light spectrum get absorbed by the atmosphere. Maybe my next album will have science theme...

I started this song, and made this rough recording last night. This is just the start of a song about stars and space. Or really, it's about my desire for big and distant things, and how the difficulty or distance doesn't make them shine any less brightly, nor appeal to me any less.

These aren't going to be the final lyrics. I wanted to re-record "where we're going" as "where I'm going," but at that exact moment, science failed me and my recording equipment decided it did not want to play nice with Snow Leopard. Technology thwarts my science song!

So, a glimpse into my creative process...

It’s all about the circumstances…

When I’m at home, weak coffee in a Styrofoam cup tastes like… weak coffee. And I don’t even have any Styrofoam cups at my house. In short, it’s not good.

When I’m at the YMCA, weak coffee in a Styrofoam cup tastes like accomplishment. It tastes like “hey, way to actually GO to the gym this time” mixed with muscle fatigue. It doesn’t taste so bad, really.

When I’m traveling from gig to gig, as I am right now, weak coffee in a Styrofoam cup (most likely pumped or poured from a carafe in the lobby of a two star hotel) tastes like adventure. It tastes like renewed independence and the thrill of actually making a living as a musician. Occasionally, if left on the burner for too long, it has a hint of homesickness. Sometimes when the lid doesn’t fit quite right I miss my pillow (you know, the good one) or having dinner with friends at a place I know well. It can't all be good.

But then, I take another sip. And another. By now the coffee has found a home in the cupholder beside the driver’s seat, and I am on my way. That’s when, homesickness aside, I remember how much I do love weak, crappy hotel coffee in a Styrofoam* cup, with that unmistakable flavor of “where next?” that Starbucks has never quite mastered.

*Of course, I’d prefer a paper cup. Styrofoam is the devil. Somebody tell the hotels and the folks at the Y.

Why It's Blue

Okay. I'm really excited about the upcoming album. I know it's taking forever. And I've been posting some sneak peeks to the secret blog (pre-order the album from kateklim.com for access) but don't want this blog to feel neglected.

So here's an unedited, incomplete version of Why It's Blue. Even though it's incomplete, I think you can tell where it's going... Sigh. I'm so happy :)

Kamikaze Love

Oh, how I do love this new album.

It's coming along great! Ridiculously behind schedule? Yes. But worth every extra moment, and every crazy trip to Boston during my rare free weekends.

I've been posting a lot to the making-of-the-CD blog (which you can have access to if you pre-order the CD! Just use the handy-dandy paypal button at kateklim.com) but didn't mean to deny this blog the occasional sneak peak. So here you go:

How To Video: Sweet Potato Horse Head (And What I'm Thankful for This Year)

Well, it's Thanksgiving, and I have much to be thankful for (including, but not limited to: the great folks who support my art, my family, amazing friends, health, happiness and Local Taco). I'm super thankful, but I won't bore you with it. Just know that I am.

For this post, I'll just write about one thing in particular that I'm thankful for: family traditions. Specifically, my favorite tradition of all time, the Thanksgiving Sweet Potato war.

Friends, let me tell you a story.

The Story of the Sweet Potato War

Twenty years ago, when I was 8 years old, and long before I thought they were delicious, I was offered my first taste of sweet potatoes. As most second graders would, I instantly thought they were revolting. Impressed by my incredible bravery, my older brother asked how they were.

"Delicious," I responded without thinking. I don't know why I lied. Wait–yes I do. I lied so I could trick Matt into eating them. He fell for it, and after he'd taken one mushy, disgusting bite, I burst out laughing. The seed was planted. He would have revenge.

The next year, Matt snuck sweet potatoes into my food. One sneaky little spoonful was tucked underneath my regular (safe, delicious, non-orange) mashed potatoes. Oh the horror! Later that meal (or perhaps the following Thanksgiving... it gets blurry) I snuck sweet potatoes into his milk. Simple enough.

It grew from there. In 5th grade, I made a blow dart out of a drinking straw, and in a move that would become Klim family history, blew sweet potato into his mouth from across the table as he raised his fork to eat.

In college, I worked in a hardware store and (partially out of boredom) started plotting months in advance. I came home armed with invisible wire, eye hooks, and a CD that included Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. This was now the post-divorce era, and our Thanksgivings were no longer the big productions of my childhood. Assigned seating was a thing of the past, but one person had an assigned seat that year.

Matt humored me by sitting at the seat in front of the place card bearing his name.

I waited until dinner was well underway, and then turned around and pressed play on a portable stereo I had stashed beneath a side table. The chorus began to play. At that moment, I untaped the end of the invisible wire, which had been strung through a series of eyehooks in a makeshift pulley system, and as I slowly fed the wire more slack, a sweet potato lowered from the ceiling onto Matt's plate. My cousins applauded. Once again, history was made.

Since then, the tradition has faded as life continues to offer more and more distractions and holidays become rushed. I missed the past two Thanksgivings to play gigs. Matt has a family of his own. There have been attempts (such as giving Matt's daughter a Mr. Potato Head as a Thanksgiving gift, and having her unwrap it in front of him only to find a sweet potato adorned with plastic facial accessories), but I've never matched the Hallelujiah-descending-potato.

Until now, perhaps:

Gigs and Album Stuff (In other words, a copy of my October newsletter, posted to my blog.)

Greetings friends!

I'm writing to you from the futon in my producer's studio, just outside Boston, MA. We just finished editing and listening to "Why It's Blue," and I won't lie–I'm giddy. The angel-voiced Kristin Cifelli comes over tomorrow do sing background vocals, and I couldn't be more excited. If you've been meaning to pre-order, please do, and if you want to make the liner notes (by donating $50 or more to the project) there's a deadline of October 22nd to make it into the graphic design. Be immortalized. (Just imagine... It's the year 2159, and someone's discovered a time capsule from the early 22nd century. Enclosed is a copy of my album, Kamikaze Love, and your name is listed under the thank you section. The people of the future can only assume that you were extremely important and altruistic. They name a holiday after you. And at least one bridge.) You can pre-order or donate here:

www.kateklim.com

Philly area gig - Saturday, October 30th at Burlap and Bean

My first Philly area gig in FOR-EV-ER. Not only will this be co-bill with fellow pianist John Conahan, but it will be cheap (ten bucks) and wicked fun. If we sell out in advance, I will wear a child's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Costume (you can view it here). Find out more about the venue, and buy tickets in advance (recommended) by visiting burlapandbean.com.

Cheesecake recipe...

Ok, truth–I'm pretty much a vegan these days, and I just thought by including the words "cheesecake recipe" in this email's subject line [which I TOTALLY DID when I sent this out as an email], you'd be compelled to read it. But once upon a time a made this cheesecake. It weighed approximately ten pounds and the gentleman friend I made it for took one bite and exclaimed "You made this from ingredients?!" It was that good. We got extremely possessive about the cheesecake, and when his roommate cut what we viewed as an excessively large piece, we stared at him until he finished every last bite. (Wasting any would have been an unforgivable offense.)

The recipe can be found here at allrecipes.com. I also read all the user comments and tweaked accordingly. If you make it, let me know how it turns out. Preferably in person, at one of my upcoming shows.

Speaking of Upcoming Shows...

Aside from the Philly show, I have a number of other shows coming up, including some in Memphis, Texas and more. Find all my tourdates at kateklim.com. 

That's it for now. Thanks for listening (and reading)!

xoxo

Kate

Twitter: @kateklim

Blog: kateklim.blogspot.com