Dear Katsy Friends and Fans,
I would like to thank all of you for your ongoing support and friendship in 2010. It was an awesome experience to work on the Beautiful Life CD.
· The new Katsy CD is now played on radio stations across the world (USA, UK, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany).
· ‘Beautiful Life’ is available in over 250 countries.
· Katsy, together with HelpCharity, reached out to over 60.000 connections within social-media communities to increase awareness for the HelpCharity project. If you think about a donation you please consider HelpCharity www.myspace.com/helpcharity
Katsy is going to play a few songs live in January 2011 at ‘Vollversammlung’ (Heidelberg) www.myspace.com/vollversammlung. Feel free to ‘Like’ the Katsy Redstar Facebook page and be up-to date http://www.facebook.com/katsyredstar
With that I like to wish you and your beloved ones an enjoyable holiday season.
Sincerely
Katsy Redstar
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Katsy Redstar is supporting HelpCharity
Katsy Redstar is supporting HelpCharity with 20% donation from each Beautiful Life CD sale. HelpCharity is an organization that pay attention to the needs of handicapped children in America and Germany.
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Recording of Beautiful Life (April 2010 - June 2010)
The recording phase was the biggest fun during the Beautiful Life project. We started in April 2010, a few weeks after the recording of two demo songs. Compared to the demos, we decided to use Logic instead of Garage-Band to be more flexible with cutting and mix afterwards.
Our initial thought was to get the recording & mix done in about 60 hours, split into several working sessions. Alex invited Olli Seuser, a friend who has strong experience in audio-recordings for years, to join the sessions. Actually, this turned out to become highly valuable for the whole project. Because Alex at that time had quite some knowledge about how to work with the software and configure everything properly. But Olli was the one who brought the practical studio-engineering experience to the table, e.g. building a frequency-house and preparing the acoustic foundation the best way. Thus, we became a strong team. Alex the recording expert, Olli for the acoustic arrangement and sound-definition and me - delivering the content.
We started with the recording of the rhythm guitars. We have been amazed about the very good quality of the guitar sound already when we recorded the basic guitar tracks. I had borrowed a Lakewood M-32 guitar from my colleague Carsten. A very fine instrument with a good pickup. We recorded the guitar with one microphone and the pickup, and mixed the two signals together.
It took us 3 sessions to get all rhythm guitars in. And we started immediately to record my basic vocal tracks in another 4 sessions. In parallel to that Alex started to play around with some basic sound parameters to get over time to a sound-template we could use for the mix later.
I wanted to have the songs played all in a very reduced set-up. Like I did with the Katsy Redstar children CD, it should have focus on guitar and especially on the secondary guitars. On the first Katsy CD I have played all guitars by myself. Now, I wanted to have the second guitars played by different people, that the songs get a different touch. One guitar player, to whom I offered playing on four songs, was Marc Dehnke. Marc is an extraordinary guitar player and understands very much the origins of American roots music that I wanted to have for my songs. In two sessions we recorded Devil In My Soul, Beautiful Life, Secrets and Quality of Life with Marc on guitar. We used a Telecaster for Devil and Beautiful Life. Marc played Beautiful Life with a plastic Big-Lighter used as ‘bottleneck’. Awesome!!
The last recording session we did was with Tanja Wingerter to add some female background vocals to the songs. Tanja was amazing. Actually, she never sang before or had any recording experience. I gave her the basic guitar tracks with my vocals and some notes a couple of weeks before her session. She came to the recording session, June 10th, and filled all songs with beautiful background. Three of them more or less as first tracks. What a great feeling to close the recording and went into the mix. Which I am going to describe in more detail in my next blog-post.
Have funKatsy
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Orientation Phase (Jan 2010 - April 2010)
Today I am going to describe an important phase. Imagine that you have composed a few songs, and you are convinced they are quite good. What could you do with them?
In case of the Beautiful Life project, my thought was to do something similar like I did with the Katsy Redstar children CD in 2009: Record the songs, and based on the quality of the recording decide what to do with ‘em
• If the quality is fantastic produce a CD and make it available for everybody
• If the quality is OK, have a fine version to enjoy on my iPod and only give it to some friends
In January 2010 I had about 15 to 20 songs in the pipeline, where I was convinced they have potential to record them properly. Typically you have two options to do so: a) do it in home recording or b) go to a professional studio.
Option b) was in my case not a real option. A professional recording studio simply cost to much if you don’t have a commercial sponsor, e.g. a record company or label. Therefore I didn’t consider option b) at all. I also don’t wanted to be tied to any record-deal and want to spend my rare and valuable time trying to get A+R’s attention. I am believe my music is to individual to go mainstream.
I had some luck in early February, meeting more o less by accident my old pal Alex Goeppert. I was playing with Alex from 2004 to 2007 in an alternative rock band in Mannheim, Germany. We have not been in touch for the last two years and somehow got into email exchange. We scheduled for a joint dinner to chat about the good old times.
At dinner Alex told me that he has started to play around with some recording equipment. Mainly to record his own songs to be independent from paying for a studio (option b). He offered me to have a look at his stuff. This was quite interesting to me, as I was thinking, if I should start getting into more advanced homerecording recording it by myself.
A couple of weeks later we met at Alex apartment and recorded two demo tracks with Garage-Band. The interesting thing: Alex had build a ‘Sound-Box’. A 1,5 x 1,5 square meter wide sound-isolating room inside his apartment. This allowed us to separate the signals - voice & guitar - very much from any other noise and room-acoustic behavior.
The quality we reached in 4 hours with the recording & mix of two demo songs –Small World and Trust- was simply awesome. Alex also liked the songs. And after another week, we had made a small plan to jointly record more songs. This was the starting point for the recording of Beautiful Life.
You will read about it in my upcoming blog post.
Best regards
Katsy Redstar
• If the quality is fantastic produce a CD and make it available for everybody
• If the quality is OK, have a fine version to enjoy on my iPod and only give it to some friends
In January 2010 I had about 15 to 20 songs in the pipeline, where I was convinced they have potential to record them properly. Typically you have two options to do so: a) do it in home recording or b) go to a professional studio.
Option b) was in my case not a real option. A professional recording studio simply cost to much if you don’t have a commercial sponsor, e.g. a record company or label. Therefore I didn’t consider option b) at all. I also don’t wanted to be tied to any record-deal and want to spend my rare and valuable time trying to get A+R’s attention. I am believe my music is to individual to go mainstream.
I had some luck in early February, meeting more o less by accident my old pal Alex Goeppert. I was playing with Alex from 2004 to 2007 in an alternative rock band in Mannheim, Germany. We have not been in touch for the last two years and somehow got into email exchange. We scheduled for a joint dinner to chat about the good old times.
At dinner Alex told me that he has started to play around with some recording equipment. Mainly to record his own songs to be independent from paying for a studio (option b). He offered me to have a look at his stuff. This was quite interesting to me, as I was thinking, if I should start getting into more advanced homerecording recording it by myself.
A couple of weeks later we met at Alex apartment and recorded two demo tracks with Garage-Band. The interesting thing: Alex had build a ‘Sound-Box’. A 1,5 x 1,5 square meter wide sound-isolating room inside his apartment. This allowed us to separate the signals - voice & guitar - very much from any other noise and room-acoustic behavior.
The quality we reached in 4 hours with the recording & mix of two demo songs –Small World and Trust- was simply awesome. Alex also liked the songs. And after another week, we had made a small plan to jointly record more songs. This was the starting point for the recording of Beautiful Life.
You will read about it in my upcoming blog post.
Best regards
Katsy Redstar
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Composition of the Songs for the Katsy Redstar CD Beautiful Life (Oct 2009-Jan 2010)
In today’s post I will guide you through ‘how Beautiful Life project actually started’. I am going to cover:
• The composition process in an international environment
• The transition into the recording phase
As mentioned in the DIY blog post, I have met a lot of people and build an artist network during my first songwriter project in 2009 – the Katsy Redstar children CD. One of those artists was Maja, a painter and writer from Pennsylvania, US. Maja was enthusiastic about the children CD and helped to promote it within her network. She also created handcrafted sleeves for the CD, which fit perfectly to the project. We have been in touch for a while over the Internet, exchanging emails about how to write songs, lyrics, music and other independently creative things.
After the release of the children CD in June 2009 I was a kind of burned out on creativity and did not play a lot guitar. Early October 2009, Maja has sent me a poem that she has written and asked for my feedback. I had some spare time in the evening and took my guitar and gave a few chords to the text. Very simple, but I liked it myself. Thus, I recorded it with my Zoom H2, which is a very easy to use recording tool. Just like in the good old times with tape-recorders in the garage: press play and it runs. Naturally, you can directly plug it to your PC and have the song send as MP3 to the world.
I send it to Maja, and she replied very amazed about the song. Which in turn energized me to start playing again. With this emotional inflection point we started to exchange ideas. Maja send me lyrics and I tried some new tunes out, started to arrange and sing to the lyrics. The process worked by recording on H2, send to Maja, getting feedback and improved the structure of the songs.
By January 2010 we had a couple songs together, where we both had the feeling, that this can become very interesting to have them in real good sound quality, and even as a professional produced CD. Thus, I started to think about how we can potentially realize this with the constraint of a small budget and very limited time besides my daily job and family activities.
Unfortunately, the line-up of people that helped to produce the Katsy Redstar children CD didn’t came together at that time. But as mentioned in my last blog post, it’s an advantage to be flexible within self-contained projects. And if you are in a creative flow, talking to people, thinking about opportunities and what to do, somehow things come together. How that happens, you can read in my next blog post about the orientation phase I had around January to March 2010. • The motivation behind it
• The composition process in an international environment
• The transition into the recording phase
As mentioned in the DIY blog post, I have met a lot of people and build an artist network during my first songwriter project in 2009 – the Katsy Redstar children CD. One of those artists was Maja, a painter and writer from Pennsylvania, US. Maja was enthusiastic about the children CD and helped to promote it within her network. She also created handcrafted sleeves for the CD, which fit perfectly to the project. We have been in touch for a while over the Internet, exchanging emails about how to write songs, lyrics, music and other independently creative things.
After the release of the children CD in June 2009 I was a kind of burned out on creativity and did not play a lot guitar. Early October 2009, Maja has sent me a poem that she has written and asked for my feedback. I had some spare time in the evening and took my guitar and gave a few chords to the text. Very simple, but I liked it myself. Thus, I recorded it with my Zoom H2, which is a very easy to use recording tool. Just like in the good old times with tape-recorders in the garage: press play and it runs. Naturally, you can directly plug it to your PC and have the song send as MP3 to the world.
I send it to Maja, and she replied very amazed about the song. Which in turn energized me to start playing again. With this emotional inflection point we started to exchange ideas. Maja send me lyrics and I tried some new tunes out, started to arrange and sing to the lyrics. The process worked by recording on H2, send to Maja, getting feedback and improved the structure of the songs.
By January 2010 we had a couple songs together, where we both had the feeling, that this can become very interesting to have them in real good sound quality, and even as a professional produced CD. Thus, I started to think about how we can potentially realize this with the constraint of a small budget and very limited time besides my daily job and family activities.
Unfortunately, the line-up of people that helped to produce the Katsy Redstar children CD didn’t came together at that time. But as mentioned in my last blog post, it’s an advantage to be flexible within self-contained projects. And if you are in a creative flow, talking to people, thinking about opportunities and what to do, somehow things come together. How that happens, you can read in my next blog post about the orientation phase I had around January to March 2010. • The motivation behind it
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Why DIY (do-it-yourself)?
First of all, it's a question about 'what is the final goal that you would like to reach with your music, CD or other type of creative project?' And second, it's a matter of your budget.
Anyway, for the Katsy Redstar project Beautiful Life, I wanted to do this in a DIY fashion for the following reasons.
• Independence. Don't want to have the production and music influenced by somebody who has more the commercial in mind than the creative fun of getting something done.
• Time. As semi-professional musician you have to get your money for living somewhere else. Hence, having a regular job makes it nearly impossible to focus 100% on your music.
• Flexibility. Getting into a creative flow means, you get new ideas and inspirations during the process. This sometimes can change the direction and schedule of your work. Typically, this isn’t so easy possible if you are in a contract and forced to deliver.
So, what to do if the above criteria are valid for you? Do it by yourself and be your own artist, producer and marketer in one person. Might not be suitable for everyone, but for me it's fun to do a bit of everything.
I have made my first experience with the DIY concept very early, by seeing enthusiastically how Ian MyKaye has grown up Dischord Records in the 80ties. It's not only the price and that type of political correctness behind it. It's very much about the spirit and energy that comes out of it.
However, I could make first experience with producing my own record in 2009. More or less by accident, I have recorded a bunch of songs that I have played from my kids as lullaby. Purely done in home recording, the sound was really amazing and I thought it would make sense to press this on a professional CD. After cost estimation I thought, ‘mhh that would be somehow possible to do, if I can sell in my personal network enough CDs to cover at least the cost for the physical production. (To be very clear: You hardly ever get back what it takes from a time perspective. Thus, never try to calculate what you do in terms of hours per $. You would get frustrated.)
With the Katsy Redstar children CD in 2009 I was in the lucky situation, that a lot of friends and colleagues bought some CDs. I could offer them at a good price, much cheaper than mainstream CDs in stores. And, because of the loveliness of the project, I found support from press and some local dealers. Thus, I could get payoff for what I have invested, not only from a money perspective, but also from an artist-network perspective. Which actually, became the foundation point for the Beautiful Life project that you can read on in my upcoming blog posts.
Stay tuned!
Anyway, for the Katsy Redstar project Beautiful Life, I wanted to do this in a DIY fashion for the following reasons.
• Independence. Don't want to have the production and music influenced by somebody who has more the commercial in mind than the creative fun of getting something done.
• Time. As semi-professional musician you have to get your money for living somewhere else. Hence, having a regular job makes it nearly impossible to focus 100% on your music.
• Flexibility. Getting into a creative flow means, you get new ideas and inspirations during the process. This sometimes can change the direction and schedule of your work. Typically, this isn’t so easy possible if you are in a contract and forced to deliver.
So, what to do if the above criteria are valid for you? Do it by yourself and be your own artist, producer and marketer in one person. Might not be suitable for everyone, but for me it's fun to do a bit of everything.
I have made my first experience with the DIY concept very early, by seeing enthusiastically how Ian MyKaye has grown up Dischord Records in the 80ties. It's not only the price and that type of political correctness behind it. It's very much about the spirit and energy that comes out of it.
However, I could make first experience with producing my own record in 2009. More or less by accident, I have recorded a bunch of songs that I have played from my kids as lullaby. Purely done in home recording, the sound was really amazing and I thought it would make sense to press this on a professional CD. After cost estimation I thought, ‘mhh that would be somehow possible to do, if I can sell in my personal network enough CDs to cover at least the cost for the physical production. (To be very clear: You hardly ever get back what it takes from a time perspective. Thus, never try to calculate what you do in terms of hours per $. You would get frustrated.)
With the Katsy Redstar children CD in 2009 I was in the lucky situation, that a lot of friends and colleagues bought some CDs. I could offer them at a good price, much cheaper than mainstream CDs in stores. And, because of the loveliness of the project, I found support from press and some local dealers. Thus, I could get payoff for what I have invested, not only from a money perspective, but also from an artist-network perspective. Which actually, became the foundation point for the Beautiful Life project that you can read on in my upcoming blog posts.
Stay tuned!
Friday, July 9, 2010
What is the Katsy Redstar Blog about?
This Katsy Redstar Blog is documenting the creation of the second Katsy Redstar CD 'Beautiful Life'.
Why is this interesting?
It's all done in DIY methodology (do-it-yourself), without any commercial sponsor or company in the background. Hence, to follow this Blog form time to time is interesting for you, if you want to produce and promote your music or other kind of creative project by yourself. Yes, you can learn from Katsy's experience by simply reading the Blog or collaborating through Katsy-blog-comments, Katsy-Facebook, Katsy-myspace or direct Katsy-email.
The whole CD creation process started in October 2009 and is still ongoing. I expect to have the CD ready to roll-out in late August/ early September 2010. You find all relevant and irrelevant information in this Blog and on http://www.katsyredstar.com/.
Please feel free to ask questions and make comments at all time. Your help is always welcome. Katsy Redstar exists because you are supporting it!
Why is this interesting?
It's all done in DIY methodology (do-it-yourself), without any commercial sponsor or company in the background. Hence, to follow this Blog form time to time is interesting for you, if you want to produce and promote your music or other kind of creative project by yourself. Yes, you can learn from Katsy's experience by simply reading the Blog or collaborating through Katsy-blog-comments, Katsy-Facebook, Katsy-myspace or direct Katsy-email.
The whole CD creation process started in October 2009 and is still ongoing. I expect to have the CD ready to roll-out in late August/ early September 2010. You find all relevant and irrelevant information in this Blog and on http://www.katsyredstar.com/.
Please feel free to ask questions and make comments at all time. Your help is always welcome. Katsy Redstar exists because you are supporting it!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
New Katsy Redstar CD available summer 2010
The new Katsy Redstar CD - Beautiful Life - will be available in Summer 2010.
Please contact me for any questions
contact@katsyredstar.com
Please contact me for any questions
contact@katsyredstar.com
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