I’ve been working with Justin Lassen a bit lately and he got the gig to remix a song for the Underworld: Awakening soundtrack and a song for the score. When he asked if I could come up with some harmonies and background vocals I jumped at the chance.
The soundtrack came out today on iTunes and the score will be released on January 24th. I’ll be credited in the liner notes of both. Evanescence, Linkin Park and The Cure are among the other artists with tracks on there and I’m stoked that I got to be involved!
Justin Lassen asked if I could add some vocals to the video game sound track he’s working on, Grimm: Quest for the Gatherer’s Key. The music has both a Persian and Gothic influence and there were already plenty of choir vocals over the Gothic portions. My job was to add some sort of worldly sounding vocals in the Persian parts. An assignment I was stoked to take on=)
I dug up some old influences I had while I studied the Eastern scale – Sima Bina’s singing in Songs of the Ney and Abida Parveen – and listened to them a few times to put myself in the mindset.
Then I recorded a bunch of takes, edited them and then cleaned them up for Justin to work his magic on. I think it turned out pretty good!
These parties are usually open bar but the line is crazy and the drinks are never good. And I’m pretty sure the original idea was for networking but they crank the music so loud you can’t hear yourself talk, let alone someone you’re talking to. The worst part is when there is no where to sit down.
The Game Developer’s Party was the best party I’ve ever been to during any kind of conference. It was this year’s Fairmount Hotel. People were actually comfortable and having a good time. After years of going to dog meat GDC parties, Dave Taylor thought about who goes to them and what they would want to do at a party, and designed his own around that.
The drinks were UNBELIEVABLE. Seriously, I’ve worked in my share of bars. Nice ones. These drinks, sponsored by Bacardi rocked. They were fruity and tasty but somehow sophisticated at the same time. Now I’m no light-weight that has to have Appletinis. I can drink whiskey with the best of them but these drinks tasted sooo much better! The kumquats, fresh mint and essence of jalepeno weren’t there to mask the rum, they were there enhance it. There was even a drink with lightly whipped egg white on top! That might sound crazy but, trust me, it was good. The Mojitos were simple and perfect and the rest of the drinks on the menu were so unique and truly delicious. Not sure who’s idea that all was but it was genius. They were tasty, fun to try and a great ice-breaker for conversation. People were clearly impressed.
And then there was the food. Small fresh baguettes with carmelized onions and goat cheese. Yummy quiches, arugula and beet salad. Creme Brulee, fresh fruit and wicked good chocolate chip cookies. I think the company that did that was Crepe de Chocolate and I think they have a restaurant in the Bay Area somewhere. Or at least they really really should.
The last element for the perfect party was this, sort of, photo booth set up. Hal Bergman had a photography area with his strobes, camera and a back drop and people went nuts over it! If Hal ever thought the momentum was slowing down, he’d grab me and tell me to wrangle people. By then I’d tossed back so many cocktails, this was quite a fun assignment=)
I did manage to get a little bit of video from the night. It was at the Academy of Art which was right next to Moscone. I had this brilliant drunken idea to take some footage by the front door for some reason. This was followed by another great idea to video tape my cab ride home. Enjoy!
I’m at the airport getting ready to fly up to the GDC in San Francisco. I’ve gone in the past to work with or for Dave Taylor but this is only my second time going to market myself as a voice over actor. I don’t know of anyone else who does this but I feel like it’s such a no-brainer. I mean, that’s where the people that make games go. And my agent gets me a lot of video game auditions but I figure it would be even better for them to connect a face to the voice.
I’m especially excited to go this time for a few reasons:
1. I’m staying with Hal Bergman at his new place which is so much better than a hotel
2. The last time I went people asked me if I’d been in anything they’d recognize lately, if I was SAG, and if I had a demo. I answered no to all three yet, this year I was the Barroness in GI Joe, I’m SAG and I just finished my animation demo last week.
3. Dave’s (succulently juicy story to tell about him later) producing a wicked party tomorrow night that has every indication of being epic and I, being his roommate, am on the guest list.
4. Justin Lassen is going to be there and I haven’t seen him in AGES. I’m going to try to convince him to hang out when we get back cuz my studio is all set up and we can jam. He’s so fun to do that with and we both use ACID Pro for recording and editing which is convenient. I’m sure he knows how to use most editing software. Anyway, jamming with him is like better than crack! Er, I imagine.
Oops, plane is boarding, must post. If you’re up there, DM me on Twitter
Justin Lassen was in town for like a day before he split for Finland. He stayed at my place for about a day before I took him to the airport and it was sooo nice to see him. His short hair looks super good! We got breakfast and caught up at Square One, my favorite breakfast place in Los Angeles. It’s right behind the Scientology building on Fountain so it makes for great people watching. Low level Scientologists all look the same: dark blue Dockers with a belt and a beeper or cell phone on the belt, and a white golf shirt. And no matter where I see them, they are always hustling. Like a walk/jog pace. I can’t help but giggle because if you let your eyes settle to a soft focus they look like ants scurrying around an ant hill.
Anyways, back to Justin!! I took him to the airport at the butt ass crack of dawn yesterday before I taught a spinning class and then slept all day. Dude, he’s gonna stay with Apocalyptica!! God, three months in Finland. Lucky Duck.
