Search the balloon, grab!

 

Yes it's (free) in there....

For the buyers: Brouhaha at eMusic

The Ballooning Brouhaha: Songguide (secret messages?)

Every year I've got a brand new batch of songs that reflect my state of affairs, my moodswings, frustrations, tribulations and the lot of everyday life. Here's the story, the inspiration behind them.
I don't want to explain what the lyrics are about though,
I'll leave that open for interpretation.

"Is there a important message, theme in there then?" I hear you ask.
Maybe. Look at the cover, you can say that the balloon with the printed world stands for the bloated, forced way people treat the earth and eachother (I'm no exeption). Blowing it up. Well, what´s the brouhaha of it all?


And you see me just letting it go. Letting the world pass me by or trying to catch it with irony in 13 songs.


Well, here we go!


                                                                            1.Brouhaha!

I didn't intend to leave it as an instrumental, as I found this funky chord progression easy to work with vocalwise. I just found some melodies on the keyboard. "Brouhaha", a word you hear me shout, I used to hear it in my youth, whenever someone in my neighbourhood did his hoopla (dutch=heisa) trick: "well, what´s the hoopla/ brouhaha all about boy?"



2.Stupid Song(s)                  

The irony. The (s) gives the songs a double meaning. I always like to play the joker. I work at night, where they always turn up the wrong station on the radio. With stupid songs creeping into my ears. Couldn´t resist to write something...stupid.
This is one of the 2 songs Wijnand Brant got his sologuitar on. At the end you hear him duel with himself. Fire!

3.A Trip Together

Wrote this one very quick on guitar, sang the melody spontanuously on top of it. One of those that wrote itself. I think it works well, because there´s a intensity and balance between the groove and the melody, a tension I often go for. You can dance to it too.

4.Talkwalk (Looking For The Boz)
                                                             

Boz, we all know of Scaggs, don´t we? Wel he´s an old hero of mine. Sophisticated, cool shades. This is a musical wink, tribute  to his work of the seventies. Notable is the obvious similarity in arrangement feel between his "Lowdown" and this song, but I did it all in the name of inspiration. Yeah, really.

5.Here She Goes Again (Yo Mama)  

 
The old rock´n roll feel in this song has to do with my mother. She used to drive us kids nuts with that volume knob, when she turned up a new album she´d just bought. Loud! I mean loud. She angrily turned it off when she found out that the song she was after (but didn´t know the title of),wasn´t on it. A very intense woman with a deep rooted bluesattitude, that´s why....
Meanwhile, I played drums in the loft and my older brother played his Hendrix licks for hours in his room underneath. I mean loud!

6.Sunday train

Wrote this on piano and although I'm not classically trained, I've got just enough fingers to handle a few keys to come up with a few tunes. Couldn't do it in one take, so I rehearsed the hell out of it. Challenging stuff for me to sing it with the right power and dynamics.


7.The Route Through The Quiet Jungle 

Melody, breaks combined with a steady groove and city noises, that's it.



8.Don´t Mind The Blues

Guess I don't mind that much, but blues singing especially comes from my gut. It's always a challenge to find a fresh topline to keep that blues alive. This song brought that to me.

 9.Big Bad Boy

Variation in style. Never dipped in this one, but a little country keeps me upbeat. Yie-haa!

10.familiar Lines

Yes, the thin line between love and hate. I hear The Metropole Orchestra (if they ever hear this...call me) behind this, just like they did with Todd Rundgren. I play most of the orchestral stuff, except for a few sampled violins that suited and complemented the basic arrangements. Majestic.

11.Disco Scream From The Sinking Loveboat

Instrumental disco. Whatever happened to the (seventies TV) loveboat.....? As a variation of the excisting instrumental melody Wijnand Brant goes in overdrive with his guitarsolo. I had to edit and alter his stuff in order to make it a totally. To round it off I put a titanic and desperate scream for dramatic effect.
Nope, it's not the wife..




12.Social Spy

The obsession for social media transmitted to an intense funky groove.

13.I Am Older Now

Ballad of the old kid. Sounds a bit desperate, but it expresses my lack of self confidence that sometimes bothers me. Guess it happens to most of us.

So listen carefully...

Ballooning on Jamendo

Brouhaha here!

JoosTVD's 2013 release party of The Ballooning Brouhaha (afspeellijst)

Distribution in progress

The green light is on. That´s quick. Just got the message from Routenote. In a couple of weeks, you can expect the new album on Spotify, iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, Rdio. I hope so. In the meantime I´ll be working on two little, funny Youtubes to support the album. Furthermore, I will put the album on several platforms like Jamendo, Noisetrade and Bandcamp. Spread the word...bla, bla, blah.

I´m happy now or am I?

 Whaaat?

Here´s a link to the distribution label btw,
Routenote digital distribution

Keep it up
JoosTVD

A new baby

Hai there music lovers! Here's another update. Just finished the mastering & the mixing of the new baby, The Ballooning Brouhaha, my 17th album (9th digital). The most difficult thing to do for me is mastering, but after a lot of working out the last details of the sounds, I'm ready now to deliver. I'm really glad that the working process didn't took that long as the previous album. I guess I got used to the fixed idea of making those big double albums (just like Zappa did), with as much songs as I could fit on them. I always write more, so there's always a melody floating around somewhere on my harddrive. Maybe I'm just obsessed with writing.
This time I've chosen to take just 13 songs that- I think- represent me in the most convincing way thusfar. A really gratifying experience for me. So this afternoon I took the distribution road again, on the digital highway. Routenote will hopefully release this one (my fourth one for them) in a couple of weeks so you can stream it on Spotify. I hope you'll dance, cry, laugh and sing along with it!
If they give it the green light, I'll show you a little promo video. And next, you can expect the covers, the songlist, the process, the guestlist (only one), what can be more on your wishlist? I know something, a balloon!

The Ballooning Brouhaha!

Yes, that's the title of the new album for 2013. Since the last album, Art Decoy, I've been learning a lot more about Pro Tools, smoother recording and especially the finesses of mixing. If everything goes as planned, this album will arrive a lot sooner than the previous one. I've chosen for a shorter album with about 13 songs. Still a lot is happening, that I can assure you. No, it will not be an "Orson Nietes, The Next Day", I don't want to wait that long! Though I think Bowie is still cool.
BTW, thanks for you listeners out there, always grateful for the feedback. You can buy my music of course, but the main thing is the accessibility of my songs. Luckily for me, that's the here and the now, I've got visitors from all over the world who are in for a listen. But who are they? Who are you?
ME....
Well, this baloon will show up in my Grabbelton very soon. The links of the albums are still working, I can see that in the statistics, so I guess it will work out fine.
Ok, it's all about ballooning, so are you ready for the next trip? Soon, soon,.....

 BROUHAHA!