I have featured on a song together with my good friend and songwriter extraordinaire, Murányi Tóni. I have been talking about this collaboration since last year (we’ve recorded this tune in November, 2011 actually) and I couldn’t be happier to finally show you what we’ve made.

The song is called “110km” and it is about driving.

Anyway, here it is:

We haven’t really discussed any details regarding the language or actual content of the song as far as the lyrics are concerned, instead we just recorded our parts and worked on it from there. Tóni’s parts are in Hungarian, in case you didn’t get that – and mine are in English, as you’ve surely noticed.

We are still talking about maybe shooting a video for this, but we’ve decided to make the song public in the meantime.

Tóni and I have known each other for a few years, there aren’t too many young singer-songwriters here in Transylvania, so it was just a matter of time before we made something together, I guess. I really like his take on contemporary folk rock so I’m really glad we did this.

If you want to take a listen to some of Tóni’s past works, you can download most of his stuff from his website. Just click here to go straight to the Murányi Tóni music download page.

The video is a re-arrangement of some old rural civil defense TV spots from 1965. We’ve tried mixing all that footage in a way that tells a different story than the one it was originally meant to.

It is the one below…

In the meantime, you can still download the entire “The Crack (Musical)” album for free. AND you can even grab a handy widget to stream on your very own website, blog or social profile space. The widget is the one below, and you can customize it if you just click on “share”.

There will be more videos coming for songs from this album so I urge you to subscribe to the Indie Folker Youtube channel if you want to be informed of when this is happening – this is the subscribe link: http://bit.ly/tSgBsF

The album contains music that I wrote for the “Fisura” play (written by Flavius Lucăcel and directed by Victor Olăhuţ). I feel truly privileged to have had the chance to do this.

The musical itself is being presented on stage today here in Transylvania, and I am really excited to be a part of it! I loved working on it but I am glad it’s over now. You can only work on one project for so long, I guess.

We’ve first talked about doing this more than a year ago. Maybe even longer than that. But it’s happening now at the change of a season.

There was music written that didn’t make the play – and there’s music that didn’t make the album. It might seem unusual, but it’s natural. Some songs were just not made to be sung by me while some songs weren’t quite right for the stage.

You don’t need to worry about this too much. I might just re-record the songs that didn’t make the album at a later date and publish them… but that’s not really a promise!

The idea for this album came from Victor Olăhuţ who in 2011 had proposed making the play “Fisura” by Flavius Lucăcel into a full fledged musical.

I really thought it would be easy to make that play into a musical. We both did. And we worked really hard to prove that.

The play was written in Romanian, and all songs have an original Romanian text, but I have translated them for this record.

The story is about Mickey and Annie, an old couple with an exceptional love for pickles, whose lives get disrupted by the appearance of a sudden crack on the wall of their beloved pantry. When the crack threatens to destroy their very livelihood, they must take every measure to stop it. But what unseen enemy can cause such great damage? Is it the trains, the dreaded car traffic or the tram? Whichever foe they might face, they are ready to take action!

Gogu is the officer in charge of investigating the train and tram derailments who meets Marina at the old couples home while she gets her future read by Annie.

Marina and Gogu learning their songs while mister director is directing.

The actors were really cool about learning all this music at such short notice, I even got to see them rehearse last night at the venue we are going to perform at today -, and it’s all looking very promising. I said WE because I will be performing a few songs of my own after the play. I love the theater atmosphere, I think my music couldn’t be presented in any better location. So yeah, I am really looking forward to play!

Mickey and Annie at the stage rehearsal last night. I don’t have a better photo.

I am so ready to finally put this album out… (and get on to planning my Finland tour)…

But right now… this is… happening!

Cheers, friends!

This work wouldn’t exist hadn’t have been for the following people:

Anca Hanu, who played Annie.
Camelia Curuţiu, who palyed Marina.
Florentina Năstase, who played Mickey.
Flavius Lucăcel, who wrote the play and the original lyrics in Romanian for songs #1, #2 and #3.
Kinga Ötvös, who sang Marina’s parts on song #3.
Leonard Viziteu, who played Gogu.
Victor Olăhuţ, who directed the play.

Listen to one of the songs from the soon to be released Indie Folker record, titled “The Crack (Musical)” below:

Indie Folker – In The Dumpster Light | The Crack Musical | Mickey’s Song

I will be releasing this record containing the music I wrote for the “Fisura” play (to be presented on stage here in Cluj, Transylvania on the 14th of March – written by Flavius Lucăcel and directed by Victor Olăhuţ) and I am feeling rather nervous about how people will react to it. It’s an awkward feeling, because I never get that way before a release.

Songs for the play were written in Romanian, but I translated them for the album – I might just have an extra track in the original Romanian, but I haven’t yet decided.

Working on this project was like an obsession for me. I took serious time off from my work to get things done, and I have had music running in my head all day long – no matter what I did.

It is something I never did before. Wow. A musical. Other people singing my songs on stage… and it’s practically theater… where everything has to have it’s place in the play… It is generally a bigger project than a regular album. You have to approach the entire thing from a totally different perspective. It’s training that I very much enjoyed – and still do.

The good thing about being an indie musician, just a singer-songwriter, is that there is not much pressure when something like this happens. I’m not going to waste anyone’s money if I screw up (I’m not saying I ever do, haha) but there’s no big shot producer to make all the fine adjustments either… so you have to write good songs to get away with it… and I always try to write songs that I don’t have to defend after I release them. It’s good practice.

You can still download the song we did with The Wonder Fools, titled “Why?”. There is more Indie Folker & The Wonder Fools music coming in May and June, so you might want to come back for that.

Regarding the song: there was some confusion. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to explain, but here it is: my backup band had to choose a name before we could make the song public. We’ve already had one nailed down, but we’ve changed our minds in the last minute, so we couldn’t make the song public.

We’ve scheduled an emergency meeting at a local cafe last night to discuss the name issue.

BUT they’ve settled upon a name in the end… and so they decided to call themselves “The Wonder Fools”. From now on, this is how they will be known.

We have two more songs in the making with The Wonder Fools – and also a video for one of our recordings – which we will most likely get done by the end of May or June. I will keep you informed regarding how things progress on The Wonder Fool front.

Just take a look at that list of band names! The Wonder Fools wasn’t on there, btw.

It has been a busy time in the Indie Folker universe with the release of “Why?” and the musical I’m working on. I have already mentioned that we have a show planned on the 14th of March when the play will be presented on stage. This is the same date that I decided to publish the record that contains songs written for the play. My first musical album, dear everyone. Cheers!

A really long time has passed since we’ve started recording the song “Why” together with my band. I’ve spent some nights on it, but recently decided to call it quits and just deem it completed.

My back-up band for this song and some other upcoming new songs (and some shows maybe?) is Zoltan and Gabor – they have played with me in the past in other bands that I’ve been in, and it’s great to have them on board for this project.

These are the guys I’m talking about:

We’ve recorded the drum tracks in Gabor’s apartment in about 3 or 4 hours on a laptop and some outboard recording device. We’ve used only three microphones to make this.

No microphones were harmed in the making of this song.

We’ve done “Why” a few times live last year and it shortly became on of my favorites from all the new songs that I’ve written lately. There have been talks with the band regarding a low-budget video for this, but as it turns out, we might have the chance to do some serious production for this video after all. But I will write more about that later on…

Here’s a photo of Zoltan, the bass player from the recording session at my house:

It feels great to work in a team again. I sometimes forget what that feels like. And that I enjoy it!

I also enjoyed playing producer on a song that has input from other musicians – nut just myself.

After recording the drums, I took the tracks home and started cutting them up and re-arranging them in all kinds of ways. I like doing that. We have tracked the bass about one month later, and they turned out GREAT! I love a good grove, and this song has it.

The rest of the recording and mixing was done at my place, as usual.

I usually have no problem finishing a mix, but this song took a really long time because of all the demo mixes and arrangements that I’ve made. Trying to decide which one is “the best” is absolute nonsense in these cases.

There was also an issue with my laptop being serviced for a few days… but all of that is behind us now and we have a new song that we’ll be making public very very very soon now.

And this is the infamous latpot that almost cost us two months of work… tracking bass:

P.S.:
Let us not forget I still owe you guys that song I’ve featured on last year with a singer-songwriter friend of mine. That song is called 110 km/h, and it’s about driving. I think.

Also, we have a release date and stage premiere date for the musical (titled “The Crack”) that I’ve been involved in. The show was scheduled for March 14 and so I decided to make that the release date for my album too – - – in case you didn’t know, the album contains the music written for this very play. And I will write about that in a different post.

Take care amigos!

There is some historic shit going to go down around here in 2012, so you’d better hang around to be kept up to date! I will make a quick mention of a few of the things I will be involved in:

1. I am releasing a new record in February [EDIT: The release date for the record and the stage premiere for the show have been set to March 14!] containing the songs from that musical that I’ve been talking about. I have been working on it quite a lot, and, hopefully, it will hit the stage soon enough. In the meantime, I will present my record, containing the very songs from that play.

2. We are filming a video with my band for a new song, called “Why”. I am really proud of this one, it might be one of my best so far. Keep watching this space to keep in touch, or subscribe to the Indie Folker channel on YouTube.

3. I’ve also worked on a song with a songwriter friend of mine last year, and we will be making the results of that collaboration public soon enough also.

4. I will be touring Finland in April! Yeeey!

As you see, there is a lot happening in the Indie Folker universe. So keep reading and keep watching!

I need to get back to work!

I would like to thank all those who have supported Indie Folker with donations and by spreading the word about my music. A little help can go a long way.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I am looking forward to all the great things that are going to happen around here in 2012!

Greetings!

MONSTERS IN THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM

You can still download the Indie Folker Christmas release for free
All you need to do is head on over to the Indie Folker music page and get it before January 15, 2012!
You could also boost the viewcount of my featured video for this release if you listen to “The Eyes, The Beard, The Nose, The Stomach, The Lungs” on Youtube.

SUPPORT INDIE FOLKER

I truly appreciate all the help you can give!

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/indiefolkermusic
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/indiefolker

The album has been released for a limited amount of time in 2010 and it generated quite a nice response – that is why it is up again this year, and it is still free, as you’ve surely noticed.

The EP was recorded in exactly one month, in a super-exhausting writing and recording session in my house, here in Transylvania.

I wrote The Eyes, The Beard, The Nose, The Stomach, The Lungs at the police station, in my head, when I was doing some paperwork for my car – - – don’t even ask. I made up all of the first verse and was really struggling not to forget anything by the time I got home. By some odd chance, ideas for other verses started suddenly popping into my head, and I had to struggle not to let them in. Because once that happens, I totally lose the first verse, I thought. Which I wasn’t going to let happen, I thought. Naturally, I had no pen/paper with me at the time, so I had to remember the entire thing for about three hours. And I did let all those other ideas in eventually. By the time I got home, I had all three verses done in my head. I penned the chorus later that evening and recorded the thing the very next day. The video took about 2 hours of shooting and 4 hours of cutting and mashing in Movie Maker.

Is Christmas Time Just A Dream? was originally going to be a slow, mellow kind of tune, but I just couldn’t get it working the way I had imagined. So I just gave it a shot in this manner, and it all came together. It’s one of my favorites on here.

To Get Away From Everything was intended to be this way. Simple, finger-style guitars, easy melody and straight-forward lyrics. Also, a Moldavian kaval and old radio sounds/noises in the background. I love that instrument btw.!

Christmas Is A-lookin’ Good was an attempt to break out of my usual songwriting approach. It worked. I have moments like this every time I record something. At one point I just start doing things I was never supposed to, nor thought about doing. I think it’s important to take these kinds of “risks”. I really like the result here. “Work @ It Together” from my “Monsters In Rome” record was born out of the same kind of approach.

Taste Like Candy had a totally different chorus at the beginning. I had already mixed the entire song and had prepared to call it “done” when my girlfriend suggested I’d spend some more time with it – that’s her way of saying “it’s shit”. So I wrote this chorus in about half an hour after that. The Transylvanian shepherd’s flute stayed after I had decided to have the typical Transylvanian folk-ish intro with the drums and bells.

Christmas Song is actually the first song that I wrote for this album. It took me a week to get it totally finished. I struggled with it every step of the way. Just like “Monsters In Rome”. I always fall in love with songs that give me a hard time.

Have a Merry Christmas, dear everyone!

Here’s the latest issue, titled The Solo Career.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.