Nerissa Campbell: blog

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. I didn't mean for that to be the case! But, as usually happens when life happens, things got in the way. And here we are at the beginning of 2010 and my head is not quite here with us in the New Year. But it will get there, it always does.
2009-year-of-singing was a tough year. Musically & personally, it was a year of great ups-and-downs. Not just for me, but for the people around me too. It was full of challenges in places I didn't expect to have challenges!
I didn't sing as much as I had wanted. I put a lot of effort into trying to find gigs, writing to so many venues (over and over and over and yes, over) often-times with no response. But, I set up gigs in Perth, Melbourne, Esperance, New York, London, Iowa City & Chicago. There's some big cities in there! I should be proud of myself, and yet instead I think of places like San Francisco, LA, St Louis, Portland & Sydney that I never heard back from. Places that didn't even write [...]

I love the way the auctioneer sounds so musical - it definitely doesn't sound like this in Australia. It sounds really Americana-esque to me. Almost like you can hear where the music would have come from.
Click blog title to view video!

I have been having a lovely summer in Iowa. For starters, I got to see the tassling cornfields by way of an old-school barnstormer bi-plane (an open cock-pit airplane). It was so awesome! Of course, in the excitement I forgot my camera, but I'll include a pic of me, and the plane, post flight. I think you can just about see the exhilaration on my face (and relief that I made it back down!). If you ever want to take a bi-plane flight, check out these guys, American Barnstomers
They were following around the RAGBRAI crew. "RAGBRAI?" I hear you call! Yes! It is a bike ride ACROSS Iowa. Not just ANY bike ride, but The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Not a race or anything, just a bike ride. It takes 7 days, 400-somethin' miles from the Missouri River in the West, to the Mississippi in the East. Every night the cyclists stop in a different town, and party, I believe. It's a different route every year and THOUSANDS of people do it! I think I might do it next year. I [...]

Well, I can't really complain too much. I have seen some amazing concerts at Celebrate Brooklyn over the past 8 years. I shouldn't really whinge. But I will. I have been. I will continue to do so, probably. This year's lineup is mint, and I will be especially sad to miss this Friday's with Blonde Redhead. Just like I was sad to miss Goran Bregovic, and will be sad to miss the rest. I am not even going to look.... In the meantime, we went fishing on the Des Moines river and I 'pole fished' for the first time ever. Let me tell you - river fishing is VERY different from sea fishing. Yes, that means I caught nada... but it was so nice. Maybe I'll go on Friday..... (but if you're in Brooklyn you should go to this....) FRIDAY JUNE 26th blonde redhead olof arnalds The vaunted NYC underground sensualists Blonde Redhead have shape-shifted from dissonant noise explorations to ethereal, dreamy pop over the course of their career, always inspiring intense devotion from their fans. PopMatters [...]

I am *finally* going into the studio to record my next album, Telescopic Tree. It has been so long in the coming that I have even started 'nicknaming' the title!! For ages I have had the title "Musings of a Telescopic Tree", but in the many months of preparation (procrastination?), it has been shortened to simply, Telescopic Tree. I like it! I don't know quite what it means, but I like what it conjures up. So, July 2nd is the big recording date, and I have some really fabulous people onboard to help me out with it. I am so happy to have enthusiastic and encouraging people to work with and share my music with! I will keep you posted on the release date (and the party that goes along with it!) - I am thinking it will be a little later in the year - maybe September. But I promise I will post some 'sneak peaks' before then! And if you are in NY and want to hear the band first-hand, we will be performing at 55 Bar on July 1st as our last gig before the big day... (details on the gig page).