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May 2010: Wow, I didn't realize how busy this spring and summer looked until I actually wrote it down. I love being a musician, because you get to have a new adventure every time you play and sing. I had a blast with Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI) this May when we took a minitour through the Midwest, playing in Madison, Chicago, and near Battle Creek in Michigan. We made some new friends and connections and had a chance to really bond as a group (it's hard not to when you're stuck in a van together for a week). We've recently recorded a new studio album (in the final mixing stages now!) with none other than my dear friend and favorite engineer, Reid Kruger. "Mahala Drive" is slated to be released in July, and it will include a lot of new songs as well as a couple of rearranged favorites. Being in album mode with OBI is making me itch to head into the studio myself for some other projects. But more on that when there's something tangible to tell.
With my OBI pals, we have a couple more Wisconsin-based events waiting for us yet this summer, first in Beloit in June, then July in Door County—probably one of the prettiest areas I've seen in the States. In addition to us playing the dance parties a couple of nights, I'll be conducting a total of four vocal workshops at the Door County Folk Festival, which I'm really looking forward to. So, if you'll be there and you want to learn some fun Eastern European singing techniques, come! I'll be doing two sessions each day Friday and Saturday (see events page for more info), one called "Singing for Dance," and one called "Finding Your Village Voice" (the sessions repeat both days). I always love conducting vocal workshops, because the energy in the room and the transformation in sound is so amazing to experience, whether the attendees are new to singing or are seasoned singers. Or maybe it's just that I love getting a room full of adults making Xena Warrior Princess sounds at one another. In any case, no one walks out of these things without having had the time of their lives.
For the past year or so, I've been working with my buddy Joe Chvala on a piece he co-wrote nearly ten years ago that is finally coming up from the ashes and slated to be staged at the Guthrie Theater in spring of 2011. It's a musical dance theatre piece set in wartime Bosnia in 1994. We recently started rehearsals for it, as it is probably the largest piece he has staged and is quite complicated. Besides working with a phenomenal cast of actors, dancers and musicians (including Chan Poling, Peter O'Gorman, and my own OBI bandmates Colleen Bertsch and Dee Langley), I'm excited to be so involved in the entire process, between planning, working with our Bosnian consultants, and even composing a piece for a particularly dramatic moment of dance in the show. Working with Joe is always inspiring, between his ability to balance drama and humor, his trademark-worthy dance moves, and his collaborative nature. Stay tuned for show dates as we get closer to it!
Finally, my music duo life is picking up again, not only in that AM Supper Club is rehearsing and recording some new material (yay!), but also in that...well, I've done it again: I've found a new project to add to my arsenal. Most people know David Burk for his work in The Rose Ensemble, among other groups around town. He is a phenomenal musician and a really neat person. We had a chance to work together this past spring for Ethnic Dance Theatre's spring show, "Ports of Call," which ended up setting a slew of new ideas in motion, one of which is an "ethnic-referenced" rock project, among many others. With his background in Persian and Arabic music as well as early music, plus mine in Eastern European folk music, and our mutual interest in rocking out and writing new material, we've decided it would be ridiculous not to work together on SOMETHING. So we've set up a few play dates to just jam and see what we come up with (the first jam had him playing electric saz...how cool is THAT?). In the meantime, we'll also be working up some traditional material from our respective areas of expertise. It's too early to know where it's going yet, but if the first jam session is any indication, this could be a walloping good time!
November 2009: For those of you who have been following the Natalie and Reid saga, as pertaining to our name, we finally selected a winner with the help of friends and family who know us and have heard us. Call us AM Supper Club! You can find us all over the place: Facebook, iLike, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube (videos coming soon), and HearItLocal.com. And soon (but not yet) on our own home-base of a site. This fall, we started rehearsing with drummer Reid Kennedy to experiment with our live sound experience. You can hear the three of us rock out at Club Underground December 7th. Stay tuned for an early 2010 live date as well.
I'm amazed the new singers in Mila don't have whiplash yet! It's been a whirlwind half-year for the new line-up, and they've been meeting the challenge head-on with energy and grace by hunkering down in the rehearsal room and learning to sing in unusual and cool ways while analyzing how cultures differ in their pronunciation of the letter A. On Mila's invitation, we put our heads together for a couple of guest lectures on Eastern European folk singing this fall, one for a course Jen is teaching at Macalester, one for the Thursdays at Four series at the University of Minnesota, arranged by former EDT (pre-Mila) singer, Susannah Smith. You can catch the U of M lecture online, which was part-performance and part-discussion. (Check out the spiffy map Jen whipped up!) The ladies did a lot of fast-forward work to make this a success, and they did great! I'm really proud of how far the new ensemble has come in such a short amount of time. Rumor has it that Jen and I will be working on a related post-lecture Q and A for Bat of Minerva. I'll let you know more as we get there.
June 2009: OK, so the headline doesn't quite feel as good to say as the Wizard of Oz line, but hey, it sums up my musical life beautifully.
January 2008: Happy new year! After nearly three years of jamming, writing and recording, Reid Kruger and I are finally performing as a duo. Our motto since our first meeting in '05 has been "walk in with nothing, walk out with something." What's resulted has been an amazing and eclectic mix of indie pop, acoustic rock, electronica, and unclassifiable soundscapes (with nods to the world of opera and world music)—all improvized from the get-go. We've kept much of our work true to the original off-the-cuff versions, with a few thoughtful revisions. We'll be debuting some of our original material on February 1 in Linden Hills. I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE FINALLY DOING IT! It seems so strange that, even though I've been a performer all my life, this is that pivotal point I've been looking forward to since I was 12. It's not only a chance for me to perform something I created (and debut on guitar...eek!), but it's a chance to do something I don't know that I've ever done: sing in my own voice. I'm so used to refining a style to its most minute detail, preserving that authenticity of timbre, ornamentation, pronunciation, you name it. But being myself? Nope. Haven't really tried it. This project has been so good for me on so many levels. It's challenged me to become a better instrumentalist, a more disciplined writer, a proactive collaborator. It's also taught me how to sing like me, not like somebody else. That's pretty freaky. The whole experience has been really humbling, and I'm giddy just knowing that this is only the beginning. (Check out numbers 10 and 12 on the samples page or listen to "Coming Home" on MySpace for a preview.)
December 2007: I always love the end of December because, at least for the last five years, I've had the delightful and peaceful experience of sharing the stage with one of my favorite people—Peter Ostroushko. We just did his annual Heartland Holiday concert on the 22nd at the Fitzgerald Theater, and as always, it put me in such a great mood...even with the addition of Teddy Bear's Picnic. (Insert emoticon of choice here.) Every year, the previous year's show gets broadcast on National Public Radio. This year I had the extra treat of being interviewed with Peter by Julie Amacher for the 2007 broadcast. If you're listening in Minnesota, tune into The Current on Christmas Eve. One thing you'll hear is the world premier of a carol I wrote. Shcho to za predyvo, sung by my sister, Olenka, and me, appears on our debut album, Zyma (Winter). It's a melody I wrote to existing$#151;very archaic—lyrics. I'm thrilled it made it onto the broadcast this year! And I'm thankful to close out another year with some of the neatest, most talented musicians I've ever had the pleasure to work with.
Fall 2007: I think "variety" is a keyword this season. After a busy summer that included a foray into the Circus (Juventas, to be exact), what had initially looked like a fairly straightforward fall became a mass of exciting and demanding music projects. I had the good fortune to work with my pal, Ruth MacKenzie, and an all-star cast of musicians on the 10-year anniversary of her epic work, "Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden." This enormous undertaking had me kulning, buzzing and making all sorts of noises to kick off the annual Nordic Roots Festival here in Minneapolis. But being done with that only meant diving head-first into the completion of Orkestar Bez Ime's endcap of the popular "Nice Driveway" trilogy. We'll be celebrating the release of our third volume, "Rogarian Baba-que" on October 13 at the Cedar (check out the events page for info. That place is starting to feel like home! Although the fun with OBI never stops, once the Big Day is behind us, I'll be heading straight into prepping for the first-ever "art day" show. My duet buddy, Reid Kruger, and I nearly have our live arrangements figured out for our most recent tunes, and yes, there WILL be looping involved! No word yet on a final name for the band, however. Why does it have to be so easy for some and so hard for others?
Ever since "The Dreaded Nowytski Sisters" were little, we knew we had to record together. Thanks to some prodding from friends and family (and perhaps good planetary alignment), Olenka and I have just released our first-ever duet album. Winter (Zyma), which was released December 8, features a cappella Christmas and New Years carols from Ukraine...and even one composed carol by me! Check out www.sisters.natalien.com to order online and learn more about this first installment in our larger music preservation project. Needless to say, our parents are very proud...and our supporters are wondering what took us so long.
I've spent the last several months with my friend and engineer, Reid Kruger, cranking out some of the most creative, crazy and fun material either of us have done in a long time, if ever. Every art day begs a new approach to improvising, writing, making, recording and editing music. We've been picking up whatever instruments are around that day and throwing down vocal tracks with lyrics fitting the day's mood. Considering I haven't solidly written in years, this project is as challenging as it is rewarding. The end goal will be a new CD and and eventual tour. Until that time, you can hear snippets from two of our latest off-the-cuff tunes on the sound samples page. Stay tuned for more good, clean fun.